Feminism And Gender Equality Essay Example For Students

Feminism And Gender Equality Essay Overall, the rights and status of women have improved considerably in the lastcentury; however, gender equality has recently been threatened within the last decade. Blatantly sexist laws and practices are slowly being eliminated while social perceptions ofâ€Å"women’s roles† continue to stagnate and even degrade back to traditional ideals. It isthese social perceptions that challenge the evolution of women as equal on all levels. Inthis study, I will argue that subtle and blatant sexism continues to exist throughouteducational, economic, professional and legal arenas. Women who carefully follow their expected roles may never recognize sexism asan oppressive force in their life. I find many parallels between women’s experiences in thenineties with Betty Friedan’s, in her essay: The Way We Were 1949. She dealt with asociety that expected women to fulfill certain roles. Those roles completely disregardedthe needs of educated and motivated business women and scientific women. Actually, thesubtle message that society gave was that the educated woman was actually selfish andevil. I remember in particular the searing effect on me, who once intended to be apsychologist, of a story in McCall’s in December 1949 called â€Å"A Weekend with Daddy.†A little girl who lives a lonely life with her mother, divorced, an intellectual know-it-allpsychologist, goes to the country to spend a weekend with her father and his new wife,who is wholesome, happy, and a good cook and gardener. And there is love andlaughter and growing flowers and hot clams and a gourmet cheese omelet and squaredancing, and she doesn’t want to go home. But, pitying her poor mother typing away allby herself in the lonesome apartment, she keeps her guilty secret that from now on shewill be living for the moments when she can escape to that dream home in the countrywhere they know â€Å"what life is all about.† (See Endnote #1)I have often consulted my grandparents about their experiences, and I find theirhistorical perspective enlightening. My grandmother was pregnant with h er third child in1949. Her work experience included: interior design and modeling women’s clothes forthe Sears catalog. I asked her to read the Friedan essay and let me know if she felt asmoved as I was, and to share with me her experiences of sexism. Her immediate reactionwas to point out that â€Å"Betty Friedan was a college educated woman and she had certaingoals that never interested me.† My grandmother, though growing up during a timewhen women had few social rights, said she didn’t experience oppressive sexism in herlife. However, when she describes her life accomplishments, I feel she has spent most ofher life fulfilling the expected roles of women instead of pursuing goals that were mostlyreserved for men. Unknowingly, her life was controlled by traditional, sexist valuesprevalent in her time and still prevalent in the nineties.Twenty-four years after the above article from McCall’s magazine was written, theSupreme Court decided whether women sho uld have a right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 (1973)). I believe the decision was made in favor of women’s rightsmostly because the court made a progressive decision to consider the woman as a humanwho may be motivated by other things in life than just being a mother. Justice Blackmundelivered the following opinion:Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life andfuture. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxedby child care. There is also a distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwantedchild, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable,psychologically and otherwise, to care for it. In other cases, as in this one, theadditional difficulties and continuing stigma of unwed motherhood may be involved. (See Endnote #2)I feel the court decision of Roe v. Wade would not have been made in 1949. Even in 1973, it was a progressive decision. The problem of abortion has existed for theentire history of this country (and beyond), but had never been addressed becausediscussing these issues was not socially acceptable. A culture of not discussing issues thathave a profound impact on women is a culture that encourages women to be powerless. The right of abortion became a major issue. Before 1970, about a million abortions weredone every year, of which only about ten thousand were legal. Perhaps a third of thewomen having illegal abortions mostly poor people had to be hospitalized forcomplications. How many thousands died as a result of these illegal abortions no onereally knows. But the illegalization of abortion clearly worked against the poor, for therich could manage either to have their baby or to have their abortion under safeconditions. (See Endnote #3)A critic of the women’s movement would quickly remind us that women have aright to decline marriage and sex, and pursue their individual interests. However, I wouldargue that the social pressure women must endure if they do not conform to their expectedrole is unfair. The problem goes beyond social conformity and crosses into governmentintervention (or lack thereof). The 1980’s saw the pendulum swing against the women’smovement. Violent acts a gainst women who sought abortions became common and thegovernment was unsympathetic to the victims. There are parallels between the SouthernBlack’s civil rights movement and the women’s movement: Blacks have long beenaccustomed to the white government being unsympathetic to violent acts against them. Imagery of Oedipus the King EssayTransportation Agency, Santa Clara (480 U.S. 616 (1987)). Mr. Paul E. Johnson filedsuit against the Santa Clara County Transportation Agency when he was denied apromotion, feeling the company’s affirmative action plan denied him of his civil rights. Some interesting facts were presented in this case:Specifically, 9 of the 10 Para-Professionals and 110 of the 145 Office and ClericalWorkers were women. By contrast, women were only 2 of the 28 Officials andAdministrators, 5 of the 58 Professionals, 12 of the 124 Technicians, none of the SkilledCrafts Workers, and 1 who was Joyce of the 110 Road Maintenance Workers. (See Endnote # 7)The above statistics show women have been considerably underrepresented at theSanta Clara County Transportation Agency. These numbers are not uncommon and arefound throughout business. It is interesting to note the current popular perception is thataffirmative action precludes white males from finding employment with companies thatimplement these plans. The truth is in the numbers, however. The fact that Mr. Johnsonfelt he was denied his civil rights because an equally qualified woman was given apromotion, instead of him, is just a small window into the subtle sexism that exists today. Most critics of affirmative action do not consider the grossly unequal numbers of men inmanagement and professional positions. Secondly, it never seems an issue of debate that awoman may have had no other previous life opportunities in these male dominated areas. I do not intend to argue that affirmative action is good or bad, but only wish to point outthat the current backlash against these programs is heavily rooted in sexism and racism. Often blatant violence or unfair acts against a group of people will cause thatgroup to pull together and empower themselves against their oppressors. The women’smovement has made large steps to eliminate many of these blatantly sexist acts in the lastcentury. Now the real difficulty is upon us: subtle acts of sexism and the degrading socialroles of women in today’s conservative culture. Alice Brooks so eloquently described herexperiences with inequality, stating, â€Å"the worse pain came from those little things peoplesaid or did to me.† As these â€Å"little things† accumulate in the experience of a youngwoman, she increasingly finds herself powerless in her relationships, employment,economics, and society in general. The female child has as many goals as the male child,but st atistically she is unable to realize these goals because of the obstacles that societysets in front of her. Society and media attempt to create an illusion that women haveevery right that men enjoy. However, women will never be equal until the day femalescientists, intellectuals, professionals, military leaders, and politicians are just as acceptedand encouraged to participate in all of society’s arenas as males. Endnotes:1. The Ethnic Moment, By P.L. Fetzer. Page 572. Constitutional Law Cases Essays, By S. Goldman. Page 205. 3. A People’s History Of The United States, By Howard Zinn. Page 499. 4. Beyond Black And White, By M. Marable. Page 40-41. 5. Constitutional Law Cases Essays, By S. Goldman. Page 767. 6. The Ethnic Moment, By P. L. Fetzer. Page 234. 7. Constitutional Law Cases Essays, By S. Goldman. Page 784. Bibliography:Fetzer, Philip L. The Ethnic Moment, The Search For Equality In The American Experience. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1997. Goldman, Sheldon. Constitutional Law Cases Essays, Second Edition. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991. Marable, Manning. Beyond Black White. New York: Verso, 1995. Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of The United States. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1980.