RUNNING HEAD: Final Project

Vasthy Mendoza
Gender and Society: Final Project
April 29, 2010
Karen Lloyd
Kaplan University

Men are the breadwinners and women are the homemakers
Ever since the 1960’s and 70’s women have been discriminated and it has effected every day life. Is it right to say that male is the superior gender, and should we not question what they do? Should us women only do what we are stereotyped to do and let the men get by with it so easy? Women eventually got tired of being stereotyped and starting fighting back. In the 1960’s women fought for their rights and although it was a struggle they continued forward and succeeded in what they wanted to see change. In the U.S. many women’s groups were formed to reject or change laws that forced discrimination in things such as contract and property rights to employment and pay. One of those groups include the National Organization for Women or also known as NOW. In 1966 this organization was founded by Betty Friedan to support equal rights for women, especially in the workforce. The organization grew tremendously with 500,000 members both women and men. Susan B. Anthony, a feminist, made this motivational quote: “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union.” One of the biggest workplace challenges that women will come across revolve around gender. Why is it that females still to this day earn less than what males do when they do the same job? Will the cycle ever be broken anytime soon? Is balancing a family and a well paying job impossible for women alike. Most women are wondering what it will take to reach a work environment where gender is not an issue.
Among the many remarkable happenings of the 20th century is the huge rise in women’s employment seems to stand out the most. The shift of women to paid labor and not just housework had led to the nation spread transformation of the old fashion rules and practices of

daily life, not just in the workplace but also in the families as well. As things at work change and also things with the family, there were and still are impacts throughout the social order. The roles that women play today would not only be unrecognizable but also forbidden to our ancestors of 100 years ago. Even so, for all the change, the revolution still remains incomplete in some ways of thought. The arithmetic is pretty simple, if a women’s job expect 30, 40, or more hours a week, they are unable to spend those same hours tending for their families. The world today has not focused on the need to have options on alternative types of care, mostly for children and the elderly, during the time that the caregivers are employed. In order to finish this revolution, new institutions and new arrangements are mandatory. Throughout the last century, employers sought women for a hand full of rapidly growing jobs. Jobs that would be “fit” for a women, such as clerical duties, teaching, and nursing. Most men usually declined these types of jobs. One reason is because they tend to be low paying and offered little or no chance for advancement. Second reason is because they were stereotyped as “women’s work.” At the same time, an increasingly number of women completed high school or college degrees necessary to hold these jobs. In the last 25 years, most fields have opened up that have been closed to females and a good number of them were educated in law, medicine, business, and also engineering. Women’s earnings went up due to the fact of how educated they were, making employment even more attractive. When the economy became more and more difficult women became highly interested in paid employment. In order to supply their family with the new products and services that were coming out they realized that they needed higher paying jobs. One example is this, as advances were made in the medical area, women no long thought it was the best decision to provide

nursing care to their severely ill children as their mothers or grandmothers had done in the past. They needed the money to pay for the medication, the doctor’s visits, and also hospital bills as well. In the later years women wanted medical benefits that should come with being employed. Late in the century, the women also found one other reason to find a decent paying job. Relying only on raising your children and homemaking became too dangerous. In a environment where half of the marriages ended up in divorce and one out of three children spent a part of their childhood in a one parent home, wives could no longer, not for one second, trust their husbands would be able and willing to support their families financially. Most women also saw higher paying employment as insurance in case they were the one who wanted to divorce or leave an abusive marriage. An increasingly amount of single mothers found their way into the job market. Women today now hold more than 49 percent of jobs on the whole nation’s payrolls. If we females cross the 50 percent line, it will be because men are losing their jobs even faster than women. Unsure equality plays a large part in an ongoing tale of two economies. The men tend to work in jobs like manufacturing and construction, areas that seem to be the hardest and first hit. Women, on the other hand, tend to work in jobs such as health care or education that haven’t yet been as affected. In the past year or so, it was estimated that eight out of ten pink slips went to men. Unemployment rate for women is bad enough at 6.2 percent which went up 2 percent since 2007. The unemployment rate for men is 7.6 percent, up three points, worse than the women. One thing that also affects this number is the fact that a number of men stopped looking for jobs. Not only do you have a close to equal number of women in the work force now, you

have a lot of women who in the past two-earner families who have become the “breadwinners.” Are women really the breadwinners now? Or should it be referred to the “crust winners.” The other unsure part of this whole “equality” thing for families alike is that even if women were to fill half of the payroll jobs, they don’t even bring home half the paychecks. The fact is, is that they still earn 78 cents for ever male dollar. Husbands earn very close to two-thirds of the income and most likely will hold the job with the health insurance in a two-worker household. Even though women have steady work, but the work is less profitable. Let’s not also forget that we are still facing a recession, it has not gone away. Women now have the responsibility to make up for the men’s job losses. Most women are also more vulnerable to cutbacks in state and local government.
Women today are capable to retain very powerful positions. What does that exactly mean? Not only do women today openly exhibit their power, understanding, skills, getting public recognition and honor. The majority of women work outside the house today. The number of women who decide to be at home to raise the kids is decreasing every year. It also shows no signs of going down any time soon. In the U.S. today is takes more than one salary to uphold even a decent standard of living. Also with divorce rates going higher and reaching their peaks it’s not a surprise today that those women who are divorced often tend to be both the homemaker and the breadwinner. These women don’t have it easy, but they have also showed that it’s not impossible either. Yet, regardless of many successes in empowering women, a lot of issues are still there in all areas of life, from the cultural, political to the economic. One example, women can work more than men, but still they are paid less; gender discrimination

affects young girls and women all throughout their lifetime; and women and girls are often the most likely to suffer from poverty due to these unfair issues. Women’s rights in the United States have a long, constant evolving history. In past recent decades, major steps in order to improve education, health, family life, economic opportunities and political empowerment for women have been taken. United States experience shows that as women climb up the ladder of advances, so does that of their families and how they live. These types of advances can also reflect in a positive way on their communities, their workplaces and also their nation. Not everything is set and stone yet for women; there are still some remaining challenges involved. Women in the United States have made great gains in the search for equal opportunity in the U.S. economic and also political ways of life. One example is this, the United States Census Bureaus reported that in 2005, woman over the age 16 make up 59% of the workforce, yet, on an average, they only earn 77 cents for every $1 their male co-workers earned. Part of the reason for this may be those women remain stuck in lower-paying jobs and opportunities, according to the most up to date data from the U.S. Census Bureau. One other challenge that women today face is how to make time for the demands and responsibilities at home with the family and those that come with the workplace. Most women with kids and jobs deal with the challenge of neglecting one or the other, not meaning to or maybe not even realizing that they do. Some higher end women that see the workplace as a way to climb up the social ladder find themselves not wanting to deal with families. Expert Sylvia Ann Hewlett, economist and author of more than several books about women who are professional, found that 42 percent of women who are employed at the corporate world are childless by the age 40, but only 14 percent of those women actually planned to be. According to catalyst.org, Statistical Overview of Women in the Workplace, there are more and more women rising up to the top. Fortune 500 executive officer positions held by women in 2009 was 13.5 percent or 697 out of 5,161. Fortune 500 corporate board seats held by women in 2009 was 15.2 percent. Financial Post 500 corporate officer positions held by women in 2008 was 16.9 percent. Financial Post 500 corporate boards seats held by women in 2009 was 14 percent. Women were also taking a certain interest in law, most went to college for studies. The academic year, 2007-2008, women made up 46.9 percent of all law school students. In conclusion as you can see women have gone through a lot trying to make it in the world. Sorry to say, the struggle only continues. It may not be as bad as what it was in the past, we may have fought and earned the right that we have now but whether we like it or not, there is always going to be some discrimination. Some of us choose to ignore it, some just deal with it but others do something about it. Those others that decide to do something about it are the ones that make a difference as history tells us. It may not be a constant “battle” anymore but the issue will be something that women constantly “fight” in their life time. Whether it have little effect on life or a big one. It’s not generally what your thoughts are about the situation and what your opinions are but it’s what you do about it in order to get through it and to fight for what you know is right. We have rights, time to show people that we can use them. All in all, for all women to succeed, more and more of us need to stay with it and keep our heads in the game. In order to achieve that, it will help a lot to understand some of the troubles we all may face and to know the very defiant differences, verified by research and science, between us and our male colleagues. That’s when we can take a hard look at not just us

as women but also our business environments, and we can decide the best way to be successful where we are and what we know and also make changes to our approach as necessary. I very strongly think that we together can make some smart we thought out changes that will end in very positive outcomes, without completely sacrificing our identity, or our style. If you women really want to try and get ahead and beyond in a male-dominated business world, keep an open mind and don’t get discouraged, keep your head high. Despite the challenges we women face, us American women can be very proud of our accomplishments. I will leave you with another quote from Susan B. Anthony, “Declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself and there I take my stand." Think about that quote and realize we must and always will fight for our justice and our equality.

References

Wood, J.T. (2009). Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture. Eighth Edition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, Boston, MA.
Catalyst.org
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/ http://www.buzzle.com/articles/gender-roles-in-society.html http://gas.sagepub.com/