The Role Of Women In The Film Norma Rae

Gender, race, and class are apparent in every movie, work of art, and book, even if the piece is not directly about those subjects. “Norma Rae” depicts the journey of a young woman from textile worker to union leader. Her gender, class, and wounds she had experienced affected her entire life. Norma successfully overcame issues in her society and became a liberated woman, something most women in her position were not able to do. Norma encountered many obstacles and still managed to triumph and change her place in the world.

The film “Norma Rae” follows Norma Rae, a young woman, who works at the local cotton mill in the southern United States. Norma has two young children from different fathers, but lives with her parents, who also work at the

The four common belief of class in America were disproven. It was obvious there was a class distinction, even between Norma and Reuben. They were not all affluent, no one was getting richer over time or getting raises, and not everyone had a chance to succeed. A huge reason the owners and managers of the textile mill did not want workers to unionize was because they would obviously fight for fair wages. Having well paid workers closes some of the income gap that they had and would take more money away from the owners. Class was apparent and there really were only the rich and the poor. Norma Rae’s mother went deaf and her father had a heart attack and died at work. These people had no access to healthcare and died from things that someone with money would have. Just like gender, class was another obstacle for Norma. Norma never received a raise, and the only way to get a raise at this point was to unionize. As a workingwoman, Norma was constantly busy. In “A World Full of Women”, the authors state, “The work that human beings do falls into four categories: production, reproduction, status enhancement, and morale building: (World Full of Women, Page 19). Lower class women in this society had to work in all four categories. Her husband reminded her that even though she worked in the status enhancement and production jobs, she still had to do the morale building and reproduction aspects as well.

It was clear her family did not have much money. Norma’s older mother worked along side her, as well as her father and they lived in a small house. It was clear by the end of the film that by unionization, most of her economic issues were resolved by the union as well as marriage. Another big lesion throughout her life was her lack of a husband. After the death of her husband she lived with her parents. The only possible way to overcome and heal this wound was to get married. By marrying Sonny in essence, this wound was healed, though I think at first it was just made worse. Her lesion of being unwed turned into a lesion of being wed. Sonny was angry with Norma due to her choices of the union over family time. This wound was not fully healed until she realized her marriage with Sonny was healthy and that Sonny truly did love her and would never leave or cheat on her. Finally, a lesion that affected Norma throughout her life was her sexuality. She had sex with multiple men, had children from two different men, and was even accused of making a sex tape. Though it did not seem like Norma was directly affected by her sexual past, others made her feel like she was immoral or lower than those who did not have a history. The union mentioned a sex tape was floating around and Norma was forced to tell her children about her past due to the gossip in town. This lesion is something