Essay #1
Before I married, I worked two jobs for over six years to sustain my independence. My husband’s income gave me the opportunity to go back to college. Eight years, two transfers, one child and a bachelor’s degree later, I am preparing to re-enter the workforce. The thought scares me to death and excites me beyond my wildest dreams. I am the first person in my family to earn a degree and I don’t want to let anyone down. I want to be a role model for my daughter and teach her that she can have the best of both worlds. After reading articles that address the many issues and concerns of working women, I want to address some of the misconceptions that I was blinded by before this course. These five articles taught me that balancing work and family can also mean compromising more than just a 401K program.
Chapter 8 in The “F” Word by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place talks about the recent discovery that being a mother is a feminist issue too. Most people believed feminism was about the politic and the workforce. There was even a time when Ms. Magazine believed that motherhood did not pertain to their popular readers. The second wave of feminism fought for women’s rights to actively participate in the corporate and political arena. What second wavers did not consider is the impact it would have on families. Women want to get a higher education and compete with men in the workforce, but they are also equally committed to raising their children to their best abilities. There have been many misconceptions published that lead women into believing both career and family are attainable without consequence. But what is not so frequently published or talked about are the compromises and sacrifices women must endure in order to succeed in one or both vocations. The reality is that many women feel they must decide one or the other in order to be entirely successful.
For women who decide they want a career, they may chose to never have children. Fortunately, American culture has evolved enough that these women are not scrutinized for their decision. But that does not always mean that these women never wanted children. In many cases, it means that women are aware that they will not share the childrearing responsibilities on an equal level with their husbands. Women also fear what would happen to their marketability if they chose or need to leave the workforce for several years.
What about the women who do have children and work, or who must work after having a baby? Before a woman goes back to work, she must first find good quality and affordable daycare. In a country that pays daycare workers minimum wage, the turn-over rates in daycare facilities deteriorates the quality and leaves children in a very unstable environment. What about health insurance, family/maternity leave, and a woman’s retirement prospects? These are all very hefty concerns that most men have never had to consider.
Chapter six of The “F” Word titled Are We Postfeminist?, addresses another misconception about women and equality not only in the workforce, but in the domestic realm as well. It is easy for people to believe that women have achieved equality considering there are more women balancing work and home than ever before. The U.S still has a long way to go before anyone can say feminism is history. Women still have many of the same challenges that feminism has been fighting for the last 60 years. Although it is true, more men are involved in housework and childrearing, women still manage the majority of it. Equality between couples and sharing domestic responsibilities has not yet been achieved. This leaves women taking on the majority of housework and childrearing and creating the second shift.
Unfortunately, men and women are blaming the feminist movement for the added stress of balancing work and home. The media often talks about how more women are involved in the political and corporate arena, but this is only adding to the false impression of postfeminism. What the media doesn’t talk about is the bias that remains in most corporations that promote men before women. The media is not talking about what it means to leave work and compromise retirement benefits to raise children. The media never talks about the women who are forced off welfare and into the first job they are offered so they could afford to feed their children.
All these issues have become the primary issues of feminism today. It is the feminist movement that has brought these issues into the light. It is the feminist movement that is addressing issues such as the second shift and the wage gap. Feminism is the reason women do not feel they are battling these issues alone. And it is feminism that will liberate women from these inequalities.
In Bell Hooks book, Feminism is for Everybody, chapter nine addresses the misconception that work will liberate women from patriarchy. The second wave of feminism encouraged women all over America to go to work. What most women learned was the drastic difference between work and a career. For women who are not able to attain a college degree the wages are too minimal to support a family on. Eventually, women find themselves in a position where they become economically dependent on their partner. It also means that she must learn to take care of her home and children between shifts.
Hooks clarifies what the second wave was talking about; women need to work in job that makes them self-sufficient. Being self-sufficient is what will liberate women. Yet, women, especially women in poverty, do not have the opportunity to find self-sufficiency before they have children. In addition, consumer capitalism has created an unattainable lifestyle for most single income families. Cost of living has made it necessary for most families to have dual incomes.
In order to obtain this self-sufficient life style, Hooks points out that the American culture will need to alter their lifestyles. What I found to be the most important adjustment was ending the blame shifting between genders. Men and women need to stop blaming each other and learn how to work as a team. Job sharing and closing the gaps between social classes is a start, but the country is in need of social reform as well. Improving daycare and removing the negative stigma of welfare would be a good place to start.
Then there are women who have the education and talent to succeed at self-sufficiency. Many of these women are Opting-Out as Lisa Belkin so fittingly describes this phenomenon. Women who have master degrees and P.H D’s are not pursuing a competitive career when they have a family. They are choosing to stay at home. Some argue that these women were supposed to be the role models of contemporary feminism. They say that these women are disappointing to the cause of equality and creating stereotypes that women are simply not motivated. The ghost of feminist past would turn in their graves if they knew the choices these women made.
In all reality, these women were torn between three life options. One option was to abandon the dream of having a family. The second option was to hire someone to raise their children. The third option was to stay at home and raise their own children. The most popular reason these women are choosing to stay home is the obstructive work environments that make balancing family life unbearable. Lisa Belkin believes the social construction of corporate America has made the balancing act between work and home almost unattainable for women.
Of all the misconceptions about the challenges that feminism is facing today, is the idea that women are choosing to either enter or leave the workforce that frustrates me the most. In The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittenden, chapter thirteen titled “It Was Her Choice.” Addresses the notion that women simply choose to have children and stay at home. The consequences of having children are losing a career. Crittenden points out that the “choice” scapegoat relieves men of all their parental and marital responsibilities. If more men are expected take more time off work so their wives could pursue their career, women would be happier, children would have a stronger relationship with their parents, and corporations and legislation would alter the paid leave system to be more accommodating to all family members.
These five articles have given me a greater understanding for the many challenges I will face as I attempt to balance a family and a career. What I hope to accomplish as a role model is to learn the most efficient ways to accomplish both successfully. My dream is that my daughter and granddaughters will live in a country that has changed its corporate, political, and domestic environment so well that men and women can work and maintain a family without making all the compromises and sacrifices families of today and yesterday have had to make.
Works Cited
Before I married, I worked two jobs for over six years to sustain my independence. My husband’s income gave me the opportunity to go back to college. Eight years, two transfers, one child and a bachelor’s degree later, I am preparing to re-enter the workforce. The thought scares me to death and excites me beyond my wildest dreams. I am the first person in my family to earn a degree and I don’t want to let anyone down. I want to be a role model for my daughter and teach her that she can have the best of both worlds. After reading articles that address the many issues and concerns of working women, I want to address some of the misconceptions that I was blinded by before this course. These five articles taught me that balancing work and family can also mean compromising more than just a 401K program.
Chapter 8 in The “F” Word by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, titled Between a Rock and a Hard Place talks about the recent discovery that being a mother is a feminist issue too. Most people believed feminism was about the politic and the workforce. There was even a time when Ms. Magazine believed that motherhood did not pertain to their popular readers. The second wave of feminism fought for women’s rights to actively participate in the corporate and political arena. What second wavers did not consider is the impact it would have on families. Women want to get a higher education and compete with men in the workforce, but they are also equally committed to raising their children to their best abilities. There have been many misconceptions published that lead women into believing both career and family are attainable without consequence. But what is not so frequently published or talked about are the compromises and sacrifices women must endure in order to succeed in one or both vocations. The reality is that many women feel they must decide one or the other in order to be entirely successful.
For women who decide they want a career, they may chose to never have children. Fortunately, American culture has evolved enough that these women are not scrutinized for their decision. But that does not always mean that these women never wanted children. In many cases, it means that women are aware that they will not share the childrearing responsibilities on an equal level with their husbands. Women also fear what would happen to their marketability if they chose or need to leave the workforce for several years.
What about the women who do have children and work, or who must work after having a baby? Before a woman goes back to work, she must first find good quality and affordable daycare. In a country that pays daycare workers minimum wage, the turn-over rates in daycare facilities deteriorates the quality and leaves children in a very unstable environment. What about health insurance, family/maternity leave, and a woman’s retirement prospects? These are all very hefty concerns that most men have never had to consider.
Chapter six of The “F” Word titled Are We Postfeminist?, addresses another misconception about women and equality not only in the workforce, but in the domestic realm as well. It is easy for people to believe that women have achieved equality considering there are more women balancing work and home than ever before. The U.S still has a long way to go before anyone can say feminism is history. Women still have many of the same challenges that feminism has been fighting for the last 60 years. Although it is true, more men are involved in housework and childrearing, women still manage the majority of it. Equality between couples and sharing domestic responsibilities has not yet been achieved. This leaves women taking on the majority of housework and childrearing and creating the second shift.
Unfortunately, men and women are blaming the feminist movement for the added stress of balancing work and home. The media often talks about how more women are involved in the political and corporate arena, but this is only adding to the false impression of postfeminism. What the media doesn’t talk about is the bias that remains in most corporations that promote men before women. The media is not talking about what it means to leave work and compromise retirement benefits to raise children. The media never talks about the women who are forced off welfare and into the first job they are offered so they could afford to feed their children.
All these issues have become the primary issues of feminism today. It is the feminist movement that has brought these issues into the light. It is the feminist movement that is addressing issues such as the second shift and the wage gap. Feminism is the reason women do not feel they are battling these issues alone. And it is feminism that will liberate women from these inequalities.
In Bell Hooks book, Feminism is for Everybody, chapter nine addresses the misconception that work will liberate women from patriarchy. The second wave of feminism encouraged women all over America to go to work. What most women learned was the drastic difference between work and a career. For women who are not able to attain a college degree the wages are too minimal to support a family on. Eventually, women find themselves in a position where they become economically dependent on their partner. It also means that she must learn to take care of her home and children between shifts.
Hooks clarifies what the second wave was talking about; women need to work in job that makes them self-sufficient. Being self-sufficient is what will liberate women. Yet, women, especially women in poverty, do not have the opportunity to find self-sufficiency before they have children. In addition, consumer capitalism has created an unattainable lifestyle for most single income families. Cost of living has made it necessary for most families to have dual incomes.
In order to obtain this self-sufficient life style, Hooks points out that the American culture will need to alter their lifestyles. What I found to be the most important adjustment was ending the blame shifting between genders. Men and women need to stop blaming each other and learn how to work as a team. Job sharing and closing the gaps between social classes is a start, but the country is in need of social reform as well. Improving daycare and removing the negative stigma of welfare would be a good place to start.
Then there are women who have the education and talent to succeed at self-sufficiency. Many of these women are Opting-Out as Lisa Belkin so fittingly describes this phenomenon. Women who have master degrees and P.H D’s are not pursuing a competitive career when they have a family. They are choosing to stay at home. Some argue that these women were supposed to be the role models of contemporary feminism. They say that these women are disappointing to the cause of equality and creating stereotypes that women are simply not motivated. The ghost of feminist past would turn in their graves if they knew the choices these women made.
In all reality, these women were torn between three life options. One option was to abandon the dream of having a family. The second option was to hire someone to raise their children. The third option was to stay at home and raise their own children. The most popular reason these women are choosing to stay home is the obstructive work environments that make balancing family life unbearable. Lisa Belkin believes the social construction of corporate America has made the balancing act between work and home almost unattainable for women.
Of all the misconceptions about the challenges that feminism is facing today, is the idea that women are choosing to either enter or leave the workforce that frustrates me the most. In The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittenden, chapter thirteen titled “It Was Her Choice.” Addresses the notion that women simply choose to have children and stay at home. The consequences of having children are losing a career. Crittenden points out that the “choice” scapegoat relieves men of all their parental and marital responsibilities. If more men are expected take more time off work so their wives could pursue their career, women would be happier, children would have a stronger relationship with their parents, and corporations and legislation would alter the paid leave system to be more accommodating to all family members.
These five articles have given me a greater understanding for the many challenges I will face as I attempt to balance a family and a career. What I hope to accomplish as a role model is to learn the most efficient ways to accomplish both successfully. My dream is that my daughter and granddaughters will live in a country that has changed its corporate, political, and domestic environment so well that men and women can work and maintain a family without making all the compromises and sacrifices families of today and yesterday have had to make.
Works Cited
Belkin, L. (2003). The Opt-Out Revolution. New York Times .
Crittenden, A. (2001). The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Hooks, B. (2000). Feminism is for Everybody. Cambridge: South End Press.
Rowe-Finkbeiner, K. (2004). The "F" Word: Feminism In Jeopardy. Emeryville, California: Avalon Publishing Group Inc.
Essay #2
Feminism is a gender concept that has been filtering in the minds of human beings since the beginning of time. Gender has never been ignored by human beings and how each generation has responded to gender differences has either helped or hindered the equal treatment between the sexes. Originally, men and women relied on each other as hunters and gatherers. Both knew that each vocation was necessary for survival and reproduction. Work was distributed based on physical needs and limitations. As the wonders of the world evolved into religious ideologies, women’s physical features became their demise in religious power. Without the power to influence religion, women lost the power to influence politics. Eventually the majority of the world supported patriarchal ideologies, and in turn, misogyny was fashioned.
The Greeks may have developed some of the most important political and philosophical ideologies that helped frame the social structure of the current system in the U.S. They encouraged separation of gender and manipulate some of the most misogynistic and influential thinking that women of today are still trying to deconstruct. The Greeks even managed to dehumanize female infants and women. Aristotle believed women’s genitalia was simply a man’s penis turned inside out thus promoting the idea that women were deformed men.
The European witch-hunts is a prime example of how patriarchal ideologies helped encourage misogynistic behavior and beliefs. The Catholic Church supported the idea of separating gender, but the Mother Marry was still incorporated into the trinity, giving women some spiritual power. But as the protestant reformation developed, women’s roles became more constricted to the domestic realm. The Mother Marry was given a mute role in the birth of Christ and women were labeled as weak, physically and mentally. With a patriarchal religion and women’s political and economic power completely striped, women’s status as the community bitch transformed to the community witch.
Over time, after the colonies had been established, slavery offered white middle class women an opportunity to move up in the social order. White middle class women started to read and think for themselves and believed equality among genders was possible. Slavery eventually lead to a more moral thought process by American people who didn’t rely on slaves for a living. War was the only action that could end slavery and women had to postpone equality among gender to first fight for equality among race. Soon women and African Americans joined forces and established some of the most dramatic political changes in American history.
The first wave of feminism was lead by two trailblazing women, Elizabeth C. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These two knew that in order for women to be recognized as human beings they first had to be recognized as full citizens in their own country. The first and best way to establish full citizenship was demanding the government to accept votes from women. Voting also gave women political power. As they worked closely with civil rights leaders, Stanton and Anthony lived only long enough to see African American men granted the right to vote. But their work did not die with them, and another generation followed producing the “Iron Jawed Angels” of the early 20th century. This group lead by Alice Paul, endured pain and suffering before the American government finally allowed women to be publically active in the political voting process.
Unfortunately, giving women full citizenship didn’t send crowds of women to the voting polls as our trailblazing suffragettes had hoped. An economic depression and a couple of world wars hit the country hard. Feminism and civil rights had to take sit on the back burner, but the topics remained hot and became more concentrated. By the 1960’s women were spending more time taking care of the house while their male counterparts were taking care of political issues. Once again, feminist and civil rights leaders joined forces to fight the popular white male patriarchal society that reigned supreme for centuries. In this second wave of feminism, women demanded more political power and economic independence.
Many patriarchal supporters found feminism a threat to the social order and did the best they could to deface and devalue feminist ideologies. What they were most successful at was redefining the word feminism to mean “man haters”. Fortunately, this did not deter some of the brightest minds in America from calling themselves feminist and pushing forward for the cause. More women became politicians, business owners, and activists. Feminism may have lost its name, but it didn’t lose its people or its cause.
By the 1990’s women were an integral part of American capitalism, social construction, and political reform. But a glass ceiling had been identified in the corporate and political realm. Many women believed the ceiling was unbreakable do the demanding responsibilities of taking care of a family. Between advancing in education, work and maintaining a stable home, women had never taken on so much responsibility. This time feminism hit home and demanded equality in the domestic realm including parenting and housework.
The third wave of feminism incorporates so many issues it has the most diverse members and participants than the first and second wave could have ever imagined. The word feminist still carried a negative connotation, yet more men consider themselves to be a feminist or pro-feminism than ever before. With this vast amount of diversity, each feminist has developed their own idea of what it means to be a feminist. Personally, being a feminist is not just an idea to support. It is a political responsibility and a lifestyle. Misogynistic thinking is still part of American culture and if it is supported by political and social limitations, women will find equality pushed further and further from reach.
What makes the third wave of feminism so unique is that women are calling on men to participate and get involved. It has taken almost 100 years, but women are starting to realize that in order to achieve equality, men need to be involved. More women are demanding fathers to be an active participant in parenting rather than just a share holder. Women are teaching their sons how to do laundry, cook and clean knowing how important those roles are to their future daughters in law. Women are standing up and demanding political changes that will help eliminate domestic and child abuse. And women are chipping away at the glass ceiling.
What may be the most effective effort in the third wave of feminism is incorporating gender studies in academic environments. I learned the most about feminism and how to be a feminist in my first women’s studies course at Rose State College, Women’s History. Michelle Yell, the Women’s History professor, taught me that feminism is more than just a frame of mind it is a lifestyle. I left her class with more curiosity about women’s studies than I could have ever imagined. I also believe that I have a social responsibility to look out for the well being of the women in my life, most importantly my daughter.
Being a feminist doesn’t mean that we have to save the world through radical political demonstrations. Being a feminist means that if I have clothes to lend, food to donate or time to give, I will. Being a feminist requires me to be strong and independent. Being a feminist also means that I don’t only believe that I’m equal to men, I treat men as though they are equal to me. This includes the men that I’m close to like, my husband, my brothers, my father, and my dear friends. It also means that I need to listen to idea’s that are different from my own and to be considerate of people’s views that are different from my own. Because being a feminist means I have to set an example for future generations if I’m going to expect future generations to embrace feminism.
Works Cited
Von Garnier, K. (Director). Iron Jawed Angels [Motion Picture].
