Jenifer Sparke
WOST W210-08
DRAFT WITH OUTLINE
Working Women As children we are brought up to have the future in mind. What we will have as fully functioning, working adults in society, what we will do as those working adults, and who we will have next to us on our journey. Children of both genders say firefighters, policemen, doctors, actors, astronauts, president, jobs that are glorified to be fun, exciting, difficult, and high paying. As children grow they start to realize that there are walls blocking them from their younger dreams. Boys are told they can do anything they set their mind to, girls are too but they are also told they must be married, have a family, and make a home among many other things that are considered womanly. This is where young girls meet the first glass ceiling when fathers, mothers, peers, and schools tell them their place is in the home and not in the workforce. A glass ceiling is defined in Merriam-Webster as “an unfair system or set of attitudes that prevents some people (such as women or people of a certain race) from getting the most powerful jobs.”

The first glass ceiling women break through is the cultural norms ceiling. This ceiling says that a woman’s work is in the home and supporting a family. When women were needed in the workforce in the early 1940s this ceiling was shattered. Women took factory jobs, they were wielding and making supplies for the war, they were truck drivers, served as radio operators, each military branch started to incorporate women help beyond needing nurses. The fact that women gained a foot hole in the work force was great however it was sad to see the gain lost when soldiers returning from war were given their old jobs and careers back and women were forced out (Women in WWII). Women started to move from the traditional norm that they belong in the household. Women are now taking on roles