The State of the American Woman
I read an article in Time Magazine today that inspired me to sit down and write out a real, thought filled blog entry. The article, which I have scanned and added to this post after the cut, was all about the State of the American Woman and was mostly about her role in the US economy and work force today.
I must admit that I have never really thought about my place as a woman in the American work place or the struggles and pitfall therein. Perhaps that's the product of my generation, my upbringing and my family's socioeconomic status. I was brought up in a home where, due to disability issues, my father was the stay at home parent and my mother was the "bread winner". We were a lower middle class/higher lower class family which put us in an area where having both parents in the work force was not only accepted but expected. I got my first job the day I turned 16 and until 2 years ago (when I was laid off due to poor business decisions made by the owner of the company I was working for) I haven't been out of work for more than a month (not counting the 8 month hiatus and search when I moved to GA). This was as much by choice as it was necessity.
Perhaps its because I can't say that I've ever experienced them (or at least realized that I was experiencing them). The biggest issue I faced relating to my gender was when I worked in GA at a Law Firm owned an operated by a borderline Misogynist who made it mandatory that his female employees wear skirts and hose. That was never something that I looked on as a product of societal ills, rather a product of that particular individual's issues with his masculinity (a skiing accident many years prior had left him in a wheelchair) as well as his entitlement issues.
In my mind the bigger issues facing the American woman were (and are), in fact, other American women. There has always seemed to me to be this tendency for women, especially those who identify as 'feminist', to invalidate and belittle the choices made by other women that they see as differing from their own feminist ideal and rules of what women should want or want to be. The idea that a woman who chooses to be a stay at home wife and/or mother is somehow inferior to her 'modern day' 'forward thinking' counterpart and that she must certainly be poorly educated in some form or the other has always confounded and irritated me. It's exactly the same type of thinking those same feminist slam in men who claim that a woman who doesn't want marriage and children has something inherently wrong with her wiring.
The woman with "family ambitions" does not hinder or harm those women with ambitions to climb the ladder to corporate or political success. It does not have to be 'all or nothing'. Both life choices are valid. The sooner we, as women, learn to except each other and move forward in the best interests of ALL of us the easier a time we will have in moving past both the perceived and actual barriers placed in our paths by men and tradition.
click the thumbnails for full version
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The Polls
Then & Now
Work Poll Pg. 1
Work Poll Pg. 2
Home Poll Pg. 1
Home Poll Pg. 2
So, now that you've read the article (You did read the article didn't you?) I want to make a couple of comments on some of the things that caught my attention. Some of these comments will take the form of questions to you, in hopes of sparking discussion (and filling my inbox with comments!).
...gone is the notion that woman's rise comes at the expense of men.
This made me think two things; 1) is that notion really gone? From my experience I don't really think it is. What I do think is that it's become politically incorrect and taboo to think it and thus, people have stopped voicing that opinion. 2) I think, to a certain extent, that notion is actually true. The article itself contradicts it's own assertion that it's a falsehood: It's expected that by the end of the year, for the first time in history the majority of the workers in the U.S. will be women--largely because the downturn has hit men so hard.
The fact of the matter is that in nearly all cases, regardless of gender, race or age the success of one person (especially in business, politics and sports) comes at the failure, or expense of another. It's not a gender issue it's a "fact of life".
...they still earn 77¢ on the dollar compared with men...charged higher premiums for health insurance yet still have greater out-of-pocket expenses for things as basic as contraception and maternity care.
For this I want to pose some questions. Do we think this will ever change? Will it even out? Will the balance shift, making women the higher earners on average than men? How long, how many more generations will it take? What do women need to do to bring it about? How important is it that we do bring it about?
More than two-thirds of women still think men resent powerful women, yet women are more likely than men to say that female bosses are harder to work for than male ones. Men are much more likely to say that there are no longer any barriers to female advancement, while the majority of women say men still have it better in life.
Again, I think these things are due to the current politically correct environment we live in and the perceptions we, as a society, have decided are and are not valid to hold. Thus, men claim that women are awesome and women claim that men are jerks despite what the truths in their own minds might otherwise be. Until we are willing to speak to each other in truth and honesty, without rushing to judge the other as "wrong", we will never see a world in which the genders are truly completely equal.
The statement that female bosses are harder to work for is, in my experience, true. Women in positions of authority feel they have more to prove and therefore are, in general, more demanding, more forceful and more domineering, especially when dealing with other women. Whether the feeling that they have more to prove is merely perceived or is actual fact does not matter, what matters is that the perception is there and it does color how the female professional behaves. The discrepancies between men and women admitting that, again, go back to what it is an isn't acceptable to say, and by whom, in today's society.
Among the most confounding changes of all is the evidence,...,that as women have gained more freedom, more education and more economic power, they have become less happy.
No, this is not confusing at all. With freedom and education comes a better understanding of yourself, the world around you and the problems you face therein. Women, and societies, of the past simply mistook "female ignorance" as "female happiness". As the rose colored glass of ignorance shatters and falls we are left with the harsh gray tones of reality.
I must admit that I have never really thought about my place as a woman in the American work place or the struggles and pitfall therein. Perhaps that's the product of my generation, my upbringing and my family's socioeconomic status. I was brought up in a home where, due to disability issues, my father was the stay at home parent and my mother was the "bread winner". We were a lower middle class/higher lower class family which put us in an area where having both parents in the work force was not only accepted but expected. I got my first job the day I turned 16 and until 2 years ago (when I was laid off due to poor business decisions made by the owner of the company I was working for) I haven't been out of work for more than a month (not counting the 8 month hiatus and search when I moved to GA). This was as much by choice as it was necessity.
Perhaps its because I can't say that I've ever experienced them (or at least realized that I was experiencing them). The biggest issue I faced relating to my gender was when I worked in GA at a Law Firm owned an operated by a borderline Misogynist who made it mandatory that his female employees wear skirts and hose. That was never something that I looked on as a product of societal ills, rather a product of that particular individual's issues with his masculinity (a skiing accident many years prior had left him in a wheelchair) as well as his entitlement issues.
In my mind the bigger issues facing the American woman were (and are), in fact, other American women. There has always seemed to me to be this tendency for women, especially those who identify as 'feminist', to invalidate and belittle the choices made by other women that they see as differing from their own feminist ideal and rules of what women should want or want to be. The idea that a woman who chooses to be a stay at home wife and/or mother is somehow inferior to her 'modern day' 'forward thinking' counterpart and that she must certainly be poorly educated in some form or the other has always confounded and irritated me. It's exactly the same type of thinking those same feminist slam in men who claim that a woman who doesn't want marriage and children has something inherently wrong with her wiring.
The woman with "family ambitions" does not hinder or harm those women with ambitions to climb the ladder to corporate or political success. It does not have to be 'all or nothing'. Both life choices are valid. The sooner we, as women, learn to except each other and move forward in the best interests of ALL of us the easier a time we will have in moving past both the perceived and actual barriers placed in our paths by men and tradition.
click the thumbnails for full version
The Polls
Then & Now
Work Poll Pg. 1
Work Poll Pg. 2
Home Poll Pg. 1
Home Poll Pg. 2
So, now that you've read the article (You did read the article didn't you?) I want to make a couple of comments on some of the things that caught my attention. Some of these comments will take the form of questions to you, in hopes of sparking discussion (and filling my inbox with comments!).
...gone is the notion that woman's rise comes at the expense of men.
This made me think two things; 1) is that notion really gone? From my experience I don't really think it is. What I do think is that it's become politically incorrect and taboo to think it and thus, people have stopped voicing that opinion. 2) I think, to a certain extent, that notion is actually true. The article itself contradicts it's own assertion that it's a falsehood: It's expected that by the end of the year, for the first time in history the majority of the workers in the U.S. will be women--largely because the downturn has hit men so hard.
The fact of the matter is that in nearly all cases, regardless of gender, race or age the success of one person (especially in business, politics and sports) comes at the failure, or expense of another. It's not a gender issue it's a "fact of life".
...they still earn 77¢ on the dollar compared with men...charged higher premiums for health insurance yet still have greater out-of-pocket expenses for things as basic as contraception and maternity care.
For this I want to pose some questions. Do we think this will ever change? Will it even out? Will the balance shift, making women the higher earners on average than men? How long, how many more generations will it take? What do women need to do to bring it about? How important is it that we do bring it about?
More than two-thirds of women still think men resent powerful women, yet women are more likely than men to say that female bosses are harder to work for than male ones. Men are much more likely to say that there are no longer any barriers to female advancement, while the majority of women say men still have it better in life.
Again, I think these things are due to the current politically correct environment we live in and the perceptions we, as a society, have decided are and are not valid to hold. Thus, men claim that women are awesome and women claim that men are jerks despite what the truths in their own minds might otherwise be. Until we are willing to speak to each other in truth and honesty, without rushing to judge the other as "wrong", we will never see a world in which the genders are truly completely equal.
The statement that female bosses are harder to work for is, in my experience, true. Women in positions of authority feel they have more to prove and therefore are, in general, more demanding, more forceful and more domineering, especially when dealing with other women. Whether the feeling that they have more to prove is merely perceived or is actual fact does not matter, what matters is that the perception is there and it does color how the female professional behaves. The discrepancies between men and women admitting that, again, go back to what it is an isn't acceptable to say, and by whom, in today's society.
Among the most confounding changes of all is the evidence,...,that as women have gained more freedom, more education and more economic power, they have become less happy.
No, this is not confusing at all. With freedom and education comes a better understanding of yourself, the world around you and the problems you face therein. Women, and societies, of the past simply mistook "female ignorance" as "female happiness". As the rose colored glass of ignorance shatters and falls we are left with the harsh gray tones of reality.