Females are quickly becoming a major factor in the business world. Families are seeing that one salary per household is simply not enough to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Just a few decades ago, women were left at home raising children and left to depend on a spouse's income to satisfy their needs and wants. This summary will review a brief history of women in the workplace, discuss the current World and U.S. status on female workers and their rights, and offer examples of resources that can be used to not only educate women, but to empower them as well. Companies should embrace this growing trend, as it will not disappear, in order to achieve maximum societal welfare.
The Handmaid’s Tale is a masterpiece of dystopian literature written by margaret atwood focusing on the life of a handmaid called Offred, it was published in nineteen eighty-six. The Book is set in a fictionalized future society called gilead where fertile women are essentially used as resources, they are called the handmaids. The question I chose was which social groups are marginalized, excluded, or silenced within the text. I choose the focus on women in this written task two as they are the central focus to the book, and are clearly an oppressed group in the novel. There are different forms of oppression towards women within the books, most obvious, but some much more subtle, but it all ties down to a central theme, the women’s oppression
Moreover, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) outlined the most pervasive threats to global peace and security and set eight goals on how to eradicate them. These goals are referred to as Millennium Development Goals (MDG). 189 member states in 2000 vowed to “Promote gender equality and empower women” when they endorsed the UNDP’S MDG. In 1963, thousands of women find voice and courage after reading Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and the second wave hit. The description of educated housewives imprisoned by the monotony of domestic servitude hit home for many.
Although many people have accepted the idea of equality for women and their rights, they still put pressure and guilt on these mothers who are found in the workfield (). For example, in a MOM vs MOM Survey Report in 2000 it said, “65% of stay at home moms claim that working moms do not understand that raising a child is more important than maintaining a lifestyle” (). This same group of moms who were surveyed also called working moms “selfish and materialistic” and that they feel they put their own welfare before the well-being of their children. Stay at home mother Sherri Stamper of New Whiteland, Indiana said the following statement: “All of the working moms I know freely admit that they do it for material things. They know they 're doing a disservice to their children, but they can 't stand to scale back their lifestyle".
Female inequality during the late 1800s Throughout the late 1800s Americans were workaholics, constantly working in order to make a living for their families at home. Women stayed home and took care of the house as well as the children. The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” takes place in the late 1800s.The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is no stranger to the hysteria that took over women in the 19th century. According to Mary Ellen Snodgrass, after her own postpartum emotional collapse and treatment in 1887, Gilman knew about the situation women were experiencing (“Gilman”). All the pressure of working and raising children affected all Americans, but society blamed the nervous depression mainly on women because they were women.
On July 8th, 1914 the way Women were perceived changed forever. July 8th, 1914 was the start of the Great War. The Great War was not only a vigorous combat fought for fours years, but it was a change in women’s history as well. World War One permitted Women to have the opportunity to labor alongside the men towards the nationwide aim of conquest and triumph. The War allowed the women to get rid of their home life and move into a more prominent role allowing them to change the way society looked at them.
With this being said, this idea and understanding of female dissatisfaction described in Friedan’s piece is made out to be a serious epidemic and a social condition that is more severe than it actually was. In this essay I argue that Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique serves to highlight the crucial part the media, magazine editors, and marketers played in establishing female societal roles post WWII and in ultimately constructing what became known as the feminine mystique, but the lives of housewives during this period could have been much worse. To describe this unequal treatment of women as progressive dehumanization and as a comfortable concentration camp is absurd, dramatic, and offensive. These women were by no means imprisoned in their homes or forced to live as housewives. Yes, it was seen as a social norm to be a housewife and devote one’s life to marrying and starting a family, but it was not absolute law.
This started a media blitz on women. Women were encouraged to return to the home and take care of their families. Women's magazines were overflowing with ideas on how to make a perfect wife and mother. It was obvious that if you weren't happy making your family your job, there was something wrong with you as a woman. The problem was that women were unhappy; President Kennedy commissioned a report on the he status of the American Woman due to the magnitude of this problem (Schneir 38-47).
Each of the pieces of literature agreed that the social equality of women was changing, but each offer a unique aspect of what changed it, and what slowed progression of equality. Linda Kreber's Women In The Republic: Intellect And Ideology In Revolutionary America was written to focus on the role of women after the revolution. Kreber analyzed the various roles of women in the revolution, and the impact these roles had on women in the republic following. ... ... middle of paper ... ...by Skemp, the greatest change in women's rights at the time was education opportunities for young women. McMahon also felt that motherhood was the greatest setback for women's rights.
From this point, working women created the American feminist movement, in which most women with careers began to strive for total equality. The movement gradually caught fire and became one of the most impactful factions of the 1960s which resulted in women being more widely accepted in the workforce as well as the act of women leaving their children at home to go work being socially acceptable. In a nutshell, the Civil Rights act and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were created due to the large demand for Civil Rights. These two acts revolutionized conditions... ... middle of paper ... ...s might be comparable to the fear of terrorism today. In conclusion, much was accomplished in the 1950s and 1960s in regards to the progression of the quality of society.