I have taken several courses in WS at OU and have found them all to be interesting and motivating. I believe that these courses have given me a passion to want to help people with their daily struggles. Ideally I would like to find a job in mediation after I graduate. Most preferably is family mediation. The WS courses have helped to understand the power struggles that each gender experiences during conflict, which I hopefully would be able to identify during mediation. Eventually, I would like to go to grad school but I'm not sure if I want to go into International Affairs or Family Counseling. It will all depend on the job I receive after I get my BA and well I can juggle working and having a family and going to grad school.
Before I went back to college I worked in the banking industry. There it is common to find a lot of women working in lower management but fewer women climb the corporate ladder. It was very obvious and I had no desire to claw and gnaw my way through corporate politics.
In response to the readings by Hull. I always made this false assumption that in the midst of black men getting citizenship and white women getting the vote that black women were covered. It wasn't until my class in body imagery that I realized that black female culture is too often overlooked during important political arenas. I only wish there was a way to educate the public, (besides college students) about the inequities that black women have had to endure throughout American history and even still today.
In chapter 4 of our readings, I was again concerned that women are fading from important social issues. Before college, I worked in the "real-world" and developed friendships with women from various walks of life. But I was never truly confronted with the issues of feminism until college. Does this mean that the proceeding feminist movements will be dependant on college women who may or may not feel like participating in politics after college? If so, then feminism is truly in trouble.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Blog 3
Iron Jawed Angels is a great movie that explains the women's suffrage movement in less than two hours. After watching the film I thought if there was a political agenda that would make me feel so passionate that I would endure the same circumstances. I couldn't think of any, but felt a great appreciation for the first wave of feminism. The best way to show some sort of appreciation for what these women endured in order for all women to receive citizenship and the vote is to utilize our rights as citizens and voters. To do nothing does a major disservice for the efforts and sacrifices of these women.
FIFE response.
Chapter 1 addresses some interesting points. After addressing important social issues that feminism has had to challenge, Hooks reveals that without "clear definitions" or goals, feminism is losing momentum. Which means that feminist issues need to be clearly defined and published. But some many women want to pursue their personal agenda before they are willing to pursue an agenda that will benefit women nationally.
It seems that for many the concept of involving men in women's issues is some new ideology in feminism. But truly it is an aspect that has been overlooked in previous feminist movements. In order for women to learn how to co-exist with men, they must allow men to realize they are considered a person as well.
As for Chapter three, I couldn't agree more. I had one professor who referred to women that would knock down other women as "bitch biting" and it is a perfect expression for what women do to each other through the process of gossip. Women truly need to learn how to overcome the competitive nature and allow themselves to work side by side with women who are different and possibly more talented then themselves.
Ending violence addresses that women are just as guilty of perpetuating violence as men are. This is commonly seen as only a woman's issue, but what about a mother who abuses her son, then her son grows up to believe that abuse is the most effective way to get what he wants. Is it still only the sons fault for being an abusive person, or should the mother be held accountable as well?
In chapter 13 Hooks addresses the reason why feminism was given a bad name. Men who dominated the media in the 70's felt that feminism was shifting all the blame of a woman's woes on them. They were feeling personally attacked without real resolution or compromise. Although the movement was effective politically, it helped to create the "F" word.
FIFE response.
Chapter 1 addresses some interesting points. After addressing important social issues that feminism has had to challenge, Hooks reveals that without "clear definitions" or goals, feminism is losing momentum. Which means that feminist issues need to be clearly defined and published. But some many women want to pursue their personal agenda before they are willing to pursue an agenda that will benefit women nationally.
It seems that for many the concept of involving men in women's issues is some new ideology in feminism. But truly it is an aspect that has been overlooked in previous feminist movements. In order for women to learn how to co-exist with men, they must allow men to realize they are considered a person as well.
As for Chapter three, I couldn't agree more. I had one professor who referred to women that would knock down other women as "bitch biting" and it is a perfect expression for what women do to each other through the process of gossip. Women truly need to learn how to overcome the competitive nature and allow themselves to work side by side with women who are different and possibly more talented then themselves.
Ending violence addresses that women are just as guilty of perpetuating violence as men are. This is commonly seen as only a woman's issue, but what about a mother who abuses her son, then her son grows up to believe that abuse is the most effective way to get what he wants. Is it still only the sons fault for being an abusive person, or should the mother be held accountable as well?
In chapter 13 Hooks addresses the reason why feminism was given a bad name. Men who dominated the media in the 70's felt that feminism was shifting all the blame of a woman's woes on them. They were feeling personally attacked without real resolution or compromise. Although the movement was effective politically, it helped to create the "F" word.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Blog 2 Interview
I interviewed a dear friend of mine. Her name is Mildred and she is 81 and is living in a nursing home. When I first asked her if I could talk to her to as an assignment for this course she was reluctant. She didn't feel that she would be "smart enough" to interview for a college course. So I took a different approach and just talked to her about being a women. She said she could do that. She said she never heard about feminism until the 80's because she lived on a farm where she took care of about 50 heads of cattle, tended to a garden that fed her family of 5, kept house, made most of the clothes her children wore, and oh yeah, she raised 3 kids as well. Women's issues were never important to her because she had her own life to worry about. Mildred had one daughter who she raised to be independent and not as self-sacrifice. She wanted her daughter to get married and experience love for the purpose of love. Mildred will openly tell everyone that she remained married because that was the only way she could afford to raised her kids. Mildred said she still doesn't like the way women are treated because she see's her granddaughters working full time, taking care of the children, the house, the finances and everything else. She feels like "feminism" has only moved backward in the domestic realm because men don't even take care of the finances and is given kudos if he even mows the lawn. For Mildred, a spirited women of 81, feminism still has a domestic realm that needs to be conquered before the public realm.
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