Women's roles in society were different in the past than they are today.Traditionally, women were to raise their children and take care of the home. Since then, women roles have changed. Today, women are in all fields of the workplace and they have today more power and equality now than they did in the past (Sandberg 50). However, the world is still not completely equal for women are not paid the same, they do not have an equal representation in the workplace, and they are held back by gender boundaries. Hillary Clinton, Beyoncé Knowles, and Sheryl Sandberg all exemplify how women can gain power and equality in the 21st Century by demanding power, respect, equality, breaking gender stereotypes and symbolizing female independence.
Each of these powerful women rose to fame in different ways. A Yale graduate, Hillary Clinton, became First Lady of the United States in 1993 (Stacey 41). Subsequently, she was elected Senator in 2001 (Bernstein 6). Clinton then ran for president in 2008 and became Secretary of State (Traister 3, 293). Beyonce Knowles has been into music from a child, and joined a girl group, Girls Tyme at a young age (Arenofsky vix). This group later became Destiny's Child, which grew to fame and earned several awards (Arenofsky vix). The group broke up in 2004, and Beyoncé started her solo career which has been very successful (Arenofsky vix). Sheryl Sandberg, has been in the business side of the workplace since she graduated from Harvard (Slaughter). She has had several jobs: research assistant to Lawrence Summers at the World Bank, management consultant at McKinsey, chief of staff to Summers at the Treasury Department, at Google, she rose to the post of vice president of global online sales and operations (Slaughter)...
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...oin Prominent Women in #BanBossy Campaign." NY Daily News. NYDailyNews.com, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. New York: Random House Incorporation, 2013. Print.
Slaughter, Anne-marie. "Yes, You Can." The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Stacey, T. J. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Activist First Lady. Hillside: Enslow, 1994. Print.
"'The Melissa Harris-Perry Show' for Saturday, December 14th, 2013." MSNBC on NBC News. NBCNews.com, 16 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 May 2014.
Traister, Rebecca. Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election That Changed Everything for American Women. New York: Free, 2010. Print.
Gray, Emma. "Daily Mail Praises Beyonce's 'Trim Waist' In Her 'Pretty Hurts' Video, Which Critiques Beauty Culture." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
Zeinert, Karen. Those Incredible Women of World War 2: The Millbrook Press, Brookfield, Connecticut 1994
In “Lean In,” Sheryl Sandberg makes a case for being ambitious in any pursuit. Although she pushes for women to take on leadership positions, she acknowledges that that is not what all women want. The message to women is to do what they love and dream big, create a path through the obstacles, and achieve their full potential. Throughout the book, she acknowledges three differences women need to make within themselves. Firstly, women need to “sit at the table,” or increase their self-confidence when surrounded by men. Women also need to make their partner a real partner by getting their oftentimes male partners to do more at home: splitting home responsibilities between spouses helps to make homes and marriages happier. Lastly, women need to not hold themselves to unattainable standards by believing the myth of doing it all. No one can literally do it all: they just have to focus on what really matters. Sandberg has women ask themselves, “What w...
After the success of antislavery movement in the early nineteenth century, activist women in the United States took another step toward claiming themselves a voice in politics. They were known as the suffragists. It took those women a lot of efforts and some decades to seek for the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In her essay “The Next Generation of Suffragists: Harriot Stanton Blatch and Grassroots Politics,” Ellen Carol Dubois notes some hardships American suffragists faced in order to achieve the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Along with that essay, the film Iron-Jawed Angels somehow helps to paint a vivid image of the obstacles in the fight for women’s suffrage. In the essay “Gender at Work: The Sexual Division of Labor during World War II,” Ruth Milkman highlights the segregation between men and women at works during wartime some decades after the success of women suffrage movement. Similarly, women in the Glamour Girls of 1943 were segregated by men that they could only do the jobs temporarily and would not able to go back to work once the war over. In other words, many American women did help to claim themselves a voice by voting and giving hands in World War II but they were not fully great enough to change the public eyes about women.
Whether it is the Ancient Greece, Han China, the Enlightened Europe, or today, women have unceasingly been oppressed and regarded as the second sex. Provided that they have interminably been denied the power that men have had, very few prominent female figures like Cleopatra, the Egyptian Queen, or Jeanne d'Arc, the French heroine, have made it to history books. Veritably, it was not until 1792 when Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women addressed the issues of gender equality, that some started hearkening the seemingly endless mistreatment of women. New Zealand was the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1892. The United States did not endorse this until 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified, which states “The right of citizens of the United States votes shall not be denied or abridged… on account of sex.” This, however, was not the end to women’s plight. For the majority of the 20th century, America’s idea of a good woman was a good mother and a good wife. In the 1960s and 1970s, a movement that would later bring fundamental changes to the American society was spreading rapidly throughout the country: The Women’s Liberation Movement. With the increasing number of educated women, gender inequality received more attention than ever before. Hundreds of women came together to fight domestic violence, lack of political and economic development, and reproductive restrictions. One of these women was an ordinary girl from Ohio named Gloria Steinem who would later become a feminist icon in the United States. Steinem contributed to the Women’s Liberation Movement by writing about feminism and issues concerning women, co-founding Ms. magazine, giving influential speeches— leading he movement along with...
Barbara White, author of Women’s Career Development, gives an opportunity for successful women to give advice to other women wanting to pursue a career in the workforce. First, they explained that women need to be single-minded today. They must make their own choices and know what they want. If a woman hopes to achieve her goal of an ‘American Dream’ and live up to it, then she should be persistent and keep working at achieving her objectives. The best advice given in White’s book is that a woman should not underestimate herself (227-229). A woman today can be whatever she pleases. It takes work, dedication and persistence to achieve goals in general, not just in the career aspect of life. As seen through Joan Crawford and Dawn Steel’s stories, a ‘business woman’ has a bright future now and for years to come. Women’s roles have drastically changed throughout the past century along with the actual number of women now working. It is phenomenal to see such an increase in women’s participation, and hopefully this course will continue even higher into the twenty-first century.
Kim E Nielsen. "Book Review of Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith, and: No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith, and: Barbara Jordan: American Hero." Feminist Formations, Fall 2001, 205.
When people are talking about CEO’s, Presidents or any other person in a high position, who comes to mind? For most people, the person that comes to mind is a white male. Even in one of the most progressive and modern countries in the world males are associated with positions of power. Gender inequality refers to the unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. Although we have made abundant steps in narrowing gender inequality, patriarchy still continues in society and thus women today have yet to gain the same opportunities in the workplace. Even with acts such as the Equal Pay Act that passed 35 years ago, today, half of the workforce is consists of women, but the average workingwoman earns only 80.9% of what the workingman makes. There is also a lack of promotion in high positions for qualified women in the work force. These are just a few of the work place inequalities that females are faced with. Even with the many steps taken to ensure equality in the work field, the gender discrimination continues to exist.
On September 7, 1968, a group of feminists from the Women’s Liberation Movement protested the Miss America Pageant. To quote their press release, the women were protesting, “The degrading Mindless-Boobie-Girl Symbol,” “Racism with Roses,” and the “irrelevant crown on the throne of mediocrity,” among other issues in an attempt to raise consciousness in the American public. This protest scandalized Americans with its theatrics and radicalism. The downfall of the Miss America Protest was hastened by its own radicalism and exclusivity, as was the Women’s Liberation Movement at large.
Ever since the end of World War Two women have become more and more involved in the business world. Especially today with the computerized technological advances many women who are secretaries have becoming well versed in the computer era creating a new path for women to follow. Though the role of a mother can never change to her children most woman spend the bulk of their day working in the business world only to have enough time to be with their children and keep the family peace around the house. In what has a become a dramatic change for women in the Western world women can now be seen as equal to men in most areas if not all. It all started with the age of the Enlightenment, the age of reason, when people began thinking rationally, and it has a become a 300 year process. Rational thought and technological advancements as well as many other issues have changed the role of women in our society today and all across the world.
As women, those of us who identify as feminists have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at what cost do these advances come with?... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/whatisfem.htm Bidgood, J. 2014, April 8 -.
“For most of history, anonymous was a woman –Virginia Wolf.” For women, the path to equality in the home and workforce has been a long hard fought battle that is still taking place as we speak. With every victory that has taken place, there have also been road blocks at every turn, many shed tears, resistance, and an unwavering belief felt by men, that women truly will never amount to anything other than a housewife. If the women from the start of this battle were to see the great strides taken place over the years and the place women are at now, they would stand in utter disbelief. It is with great thanks that we as women are able to flourish as individuals; letting our goals, dreams, aspirations, and intelligence take the forefront of our duties to society.
Warner, Judith. "Women’s Leadership What’s True, What’s False, and Why It Matters." American Progress. Center for American Progress, 7 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
The role women play in today’s society is a drastic change from the previous role. Women used to be confined to the superiority of the man. Physically, mentally, and emotionally abused, belittled, embarrassed, and silenced. These are just a few examples of the emotion from the isolated treatment of the past. A woman’s role in today’s society is more valued than ever before.
A women's role has changed tremendously and is making its greatest impact in our society today. Many years ago, women's contribution to society was limited and controlled by men. Women are standing tall and are playing a major role in many important areas. Women's role has changed at an accelerating rate and have part in areas such as Politics, Professional Training Jobs, Medicine,Business and Law. Formerly they were not part of any political matter, but they have advanced in many aspects. For example, women have attained power and have been growing in political office.