Hannah Pelfresne
Christine Garlough
GWS-102 Section 306
17 December 2014 Final Exam
Women face problems while working in terms of harassment, hostile reputations, and unequal pay. According to lecture, harassment is defined as the verbal and physical misconduct because of race, gender, etc. to intimidate and create hostile environments. Harassment in white male dominated work occurs most often with women especially women of minority (Berdahl and Moore). This discourages women from feeling comfortable and taking initiative in the workforce out of fear. It can also have long-lasting emotional and physical effects on women. Also, women who hold high positions often face hostility from their counterparts. For example, if a man holds a high position at a company he is seen as a strong, commanding leader. Women are often seen as bossy or unapproachable. Although women make up 46.7% of the workforce, they still aren’t receiving equal pay compared to their male coworkers (Patten and Parker). According to lecture, the Gender Wage Gap reports women currently earning 78 cents to a man’s dollar. So one can infer that about half of the workforce is earning twenty-two cents less the other half just because of their biological makeup. This leads to thousands of dollars in lost wages, or lost income that would help drive the economy (Garlough).
There are negative effects to women’s role in work because of how society is socially constructed. For example, being a stay at home mom is a twenty-four hour job and has the stigma of being lazy or not hardworking. On the other hand, women who hold positions are often seen as neglectful to their children. However, there are still positive aspects of women participating in work including a need to pay for their expenses and personal self-fulfillment. For example, more women than men say that being successful in a high-paying career is one of the most important things for them to achieve (Patten and Parker). As time goes on, women have also increased their overall independence from men and have wanted to achieve success instead of just having a man support them. Women have made great advances to increase female enrollment at colleges to naturally enter the workforce after college. A difference among women that is attributed most to their choices is race. According to Berdahl and Moore, the two most present types of harassment are sexual and ethnic. Therefore, women of minority are most likely to experience harassment in the workplace.
Another social system where women face sexism is education. According to lecture, boys are more likely to be called on than girls. Also, teachers help them in a more instructive way better for learning. Also, the social construction of school can have a negative impact on girls’ self esteem. For example, teachers are more likely to comment on girls’ clothing opposed to boys (Sadker and Sadker). This increase in appearance commentary can lead to girls feeling self-conscious and uncomfortable at school. Education constricts women’s roles because of the strong focus on males. According to lecture, elementary students are less likely to know about women’s contributions opposed to male because there is a lack of documentation about them. However, women ultimately benefit and participate in education because it’s human nature to have the desire to learn. Also, an education is necessary to receive a well paying job and women have placed work at a high value in their lives.

Prompt 2
According to lecture, ideal feminine beauty is seen as thin, toned, white women or ethic women with as light of skin as possible. For example, in the lecture on “Colorism”, it was suggested that girls who were African American but had light skin were considered more beautiful than girls of darker color. This image is mostly developed from the impact of mass media on society. Exposed to thousands of advertisements daily, we can easily form an image of beauty and internalize it to think that is how everyone should look.
One of the most important issues at stake is eating disorders, especially in adolescent girls. Increased exposure to the ideal weight in media is more likely to lead to extreme dieting to obtain that “ideal weight” (Harrison). According to “Ourselves: Our Bodies”, people felt more self-conscious after looking at images of thin-ideal photos and were more likely to overestimate their own weight by 25%. Eating disorders have horrible psychological and physical effects including depression and long-term health issues.
Another issue at stake for women is depression and mental health issues especially among young girls. Because of physical dispositions, some people no matter how thin, won’t look like the model they see in their Victoria Secret advertisement. However, at a young age it’s difficult to understand why one can’t look like their favorite celebrity or even their best friend. This failure can lead to negative feelings about self worth, which can spill over into other areas of one’s life. Sexualization and objectification can be empowering for women if they contain the right ideology about it. According to lecture, “sexiness” requires women to accept their own objectification as self-chosen and pleasurable. For example, women would desire a fit, healthy body for self-ratification instead of approval from others. Another way of describing it is adopting the state of mind Maya Angelou has in her poem, “Phenomenal Woman”. In the beginning of the poem she addresses how she is neither of small size nor small personality. Then, she proceeds to explain how she believes herself to be a phenomenal women and men are still attracted to her. Angelou’s poem and opinion of herself is extremely inspiring and an example of positive sexualization. She shows her confidence which why the men are attracted to her. It stresses that beauty is on the inside, which is rarely focused on in the media. With this state of mind intact, I think it’s possible for sexuatlization and objectification to be something that enhances women’s self-confidence instead of hindering it.
As an individual, one can combat these negative effects by defining our ideal and ought selves by our own standards instead in the eyes of others. The gap between our ideal/ought selves and actual selves is the biggest obstacle in one abstaining from negative thoughts. We can personally minimize the gap and begin to see actual and ideal/ought selves as close to similar people.
In coalition with others, we can actively combat negative effects of idealized images by changing the “gaze”. The gaze is often described as men viewing women and constructing an image of how women should be when there are infinite images of women’s beauty. It also consists of men watching women and women watching themselves in the eyes of men (Lutz and Collins). As members of society, we can change this by become aware of the negative effects it has and protesting media that is objectifying people especially women. Also, we can abandon the thin ideal look that is present in media in favor of real sized women who aim towards healthy not skinny bodies.