Gender Inequality and Women’s Movement

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Gender Inequality and Womens Movement
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• Womens Role in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
• 1. Victorian Women

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• Women were seen as pure and clean. Because of
  this view, their bodies were seen as temples
  which should not be adorned with jewellery nor
  used for physical exertion or pleasurable sex.

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• The role of women was to have children, please
  their husbands, and tend to the house.
• Victorian femininity purity, piety, submission
  and domesticity

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• Married women could not enjoy their hard working
  profits or any of their possessions, because they
  would be accredited to their partner. They were
  seen as their husbands' "property.

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• Viewed as the dependents of their husbands or
  fathers, women, for the most part, could not
  serve on juries could not hold elective office
  and, could not vote

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• By the turn of the century improved technology,
  an expanding transportation network, and
  burgeoning cities were pulling women out of the
  household into jobs and professions that had
  never existed before or that had long belonged
  exclusively to men.

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• By 1900 about 40 of all unmarried women were
  working for wages. Young women's increasing
  separation from family control and their
  intermingling with men in the world of work
  fostered a growing spirit of independence. 

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• Changing Opportunities
• 1. Domestic Service in 1900 domestic service
  accounted for a third of all women workers. But
  long hours limited freedom.

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• 2. Factory work the typical female factory
  worker tended to be young, single, and an
  immigrant or the daughter of immigrant, and she
  tended to be working in the garment industry. 

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• 3. White Collar Work If a family could afford to
  keep a daughter in school through the eighth
  grade and if she spoke good English, the path
  would be opened to a position as a sales clerk,
  teacher, secretary. 

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• Sexual Segregation and the Wage Gap The gender
  roles that divided work in the family carried
  over into the world of work outside the home.

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• Employers liked to reserve the growing number of
  unskilled jobs for women, who were mostly young,
  temporary workers. They hired men, on the other
  hand for the higher paying, heavier, and more
  highly skilled jobs.

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• Because women were young, temporary, and had
  little training they found it difficult to
  command high wages. They made about half what men
  earned.

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• 2. New women
• An icon of changing gender norms, the "new woman"
  first emerged in the late nineteenth century.

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• the new woman had greater freedom to pursue
  public roles
• They challenged conventional gender roles
• They expressed autonomy and individuality

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• modern new women ventured into jobs, politics,
  and culture outside the domestic realm.
• Conservative forces in society, such as churches
  and the Ku Klux Klan, strongly opposed women's
  new roles.

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• Gender Inequality
• I. Gender Inequality
• The difference in the economic, social and
  political conditions between females and males

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• The male is given the prominent position while
  the female often plays only a supporting role.

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• The male is expected to have superior strength,
  greater stamina, higher intelligence, and better
  organizing ability.

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• The male is trained to play the role of decision
  maker, whereas the female is encouraged to be
  submissive and obedient.

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• II. Education
• Men receive over 60 of professional degrees and
  doctorates.

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• Majors---More females are in the liberal arts and
  humanities, while more men major in science,
  mathematics, and engineering, which are most
  likely to lead directly to high-paying careers.

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• Women's preference for a more general liberal
  education may also reflect the fact that women
  expect to carry more child-rearing
  responsibilities and thus may shy away from
  majors leading to demanding careers that would
  interfere with those responsibilities.

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• III. Employment
• In 1975, women only earned about 60 as much as
  men, but in 1992, that figure was around 75 due
  more to a decline in men's earnings than to an
  increase in women's pay.

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• Many women receive smaller paychecks than men
  because they enter low-paying occupations and
  hold lower-ranking jobs within their field.

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• Even when men and women do the same type of work,
  women earn much less than their male
  counterparts.

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• Many occupations are clearly "sex-typed", that
  is, they are considered either men's job or
  women's job.

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• A glass ceiling is an unofficial barrier to an
  upper management or such prominent position
  within a company or other organization which
  women are perceived to be unable to cross.

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• Some hopeful signs
• a slow but steady decrease in occupational
  segregation since the 1960s, and many women have
  managed to breach the walls that kept them out of
  better-paying "men's jobs".

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• IV. Political Power
• The U.S. has never had a female head of state.
• In 1993, only 7 of the members of the U.S.
  Senate and 11 of the House were women.

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• No woman has ever held a key position of power in
  the U.S. Congress, and women are still largely
  locked out of the inner circles of power in the
  White House.

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• In the judicial branch, only two women in the
  history of the U.S. have ever been on the Supreme
  Court.

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• V. Social Life
• 1. The Devaluation of Women
• Women are considered as second-class citizens.
  They are pictured as emotional, unstable, and
  unable to direct their own lives.

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• Women are expected to repress their desires and
  ambitions in ways that are seldom demanded of
  men. It is usually the wife who must sacrifice
  her career if it interferes with that of her
  spouse.

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• Women are expected to repress their sexuality in
  the same way as they are expected to repress
  their career ambitions. During the Victorian era
  women's sexuality was almost totally denied.

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• 2. Language and Communication
• The inequality of calling the human race
  "mankind" or of always using the masculine
  pronoun to refer to someone whose gender is
  unknown.

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• Words associated with men tend to take on
  connotations of strength and power, while words
  associated with women are more likely to be
  linked with sex or family.

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• male dominance in the conversation women's
  conversation tend to have a more cooperative,
  social character, while men are likely to be more
  competitive and individualistic.

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• In non-verbal communications, a man is more
  likely to invade a woman's personal space by
  touching her and standing close, than the other
  way around.

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• 3. Sexual Harassment
• Sexual harassment includes everything from
  unwanted sexual comments and gestures to direct
  physical assaults.
• Two types of sexual harassment

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• sexual comments and advances aimed directly at a
  particular individual. It involves an implicit
  and explicit threat, such as loss of a job, or a
  reward, such as a better grade, if the victim
  goes along.

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• hostile environment harassment. This offence
  involves unwelcome sexual comments, gestures,
  explicit photographs, and other things that
  create an offensive or intimidating environment
  for female employees.

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• VI. Some Laws to Protect Women against Workplace
  Discrimination
• 1. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

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• In 1964, this Act was passed. This is the
  strongest piece of federal legislation protecting
  women's rights against discrimination in the
  workplace.

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• It is illegal for any employer to fail or refuse
  to hire or to discharge any individual, to
  discriminate against any individual regarding his
  compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of
  employment, because of his race, color, religion,
  sex, or national origin.

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• An employer must not limit, segregate, or
  classify his employees for employment in any way
  which would deprive any individual of employment
  opportunities, or affect his status as an
  employee, because of his race, color, religion,
  sex, or national origin.

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• 2. Affirmative Action
• In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed
  Executive Order 11246 in an effort to increase
  employment and educational opportunities for
  women and minorities.

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• The term "affirmative action" was coined when the
  order mandated that employers of specified size
  who do business with the federal government or
  receive federal funds actively seek to include
  women and minorities when hiring for jobs.

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• It stated that companies and educational
  institutions needed to set up certain recruitment
  and outreach programs, offer grants and
  fellowships to encourage women to enter
  previously restricted fields.

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• 3. Equal Pay Act
• In 1964, EPA was passed.
• The EPA "marked the entrance of the federal
  government into the field of the safeguarding the
  right of women to hold employment on the same
  basis as men".

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• It stipulated that the employers must pay men and
  women equally for comparable work.

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• The Act is intended to overcome the age-old
  belief in women's inferiority and to eliminate
  the depressing effects on living standards of
  reduced wages for female workers and the economic
  and social consequences which flow from it.

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• At the time the EPA legislation was passed, women
  earned on average fifty-nine cents for every
  dollar a man earned. In 1986 sixty-four cents.In
  1997 the ratio had risen to seventy-two cents to
  the dollar.

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• The differential is particularly revealing when
  men enter traditionally female jobs and vice
  versa. 74 of female professors earn less than
  their male colleagues, while male registered
  nurses earn 1.04 to a female's dollar.

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• 4. Equal Rights Amendment
• In 1972, Congress proposed an Equal Rights
  Amendment (ERA) stating that "equality of rights
  under the law shall not be denied or abridged by
  the United States or by any state on account of
  sex."

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• In 1973, both the Senate and the House of
  Representatives passed the Equal Rights
  Amendment, indicating once more the powerful
  influence the women's movement had generated
  among the people across the nation.

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• VII. Changes in American Women's Social Roles
• The suffragists had assumed that women would
  think, act, and vote together as an independent
  "bloc", but women followed the lead of men in
  political or non-domestic affairs due to the
  traditional ideas on women's "place".

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• Ratification of the suffrage amendment also
  failed to produce any significant change in the
  economic opportunities or activities of women. In
  addition, women made few inroads into the
  occupational areas of great interest to
  feminists---business and the professions.

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• The principle reason was the persistence of
  social norms which prescribed separate and
  segregated spheres of activities for men and
  women.

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• Since women were expected to make marriage their
  career, few businessmen would not train them for
  management positions.

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• Although women took jobs in unprecedented
  numbers, there was little evidence of a parallel
  shift in attitudes toward equality between sexes.

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• Women were excluded from top policy-making
  committees, and from higher-level management and
  executive positions.

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• As more and more wives joined the labor force
  after 1940, the sexual segregation of roles and
  responsibilities within the family gradually gave
  way to greater sharing.

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• a substantial impact on the socialization
  patterns of childrenchildren who were raised in
  household where both parents worked grew up with
  the expectation that women---as well as
  men---would play active roles in the outside
  world.

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• Women's Movement
• I. Brief Introduction to Women's
  Movement/Feminist Movement

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• It is a social movement that seeks equal rights
  for women, giving them equal status with men and
  freedom to decide their own careers and life
  patterns.

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• While generally providing a critique of social
  relations, many proponents of feminism also focus
  on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion
  of women's rights, interests, and issues.

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• Reform Demands of the Women's Liberation Movement
• 1. The end of sex segregation that permits
  male-only restaurants, clubs, and social events
  and allows help-wanted ads to specify that the
  job applicant be male or female

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• 2. The end of advertising that uses women as
  "sex symbols" to sell products for manufacturers
  and retailers also the end of "beauty contests"

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• 3. The end of the cultural stereotype of women
  as seeking only the goal of marriage and
  motherhood also the establishing by government
  of child care centers so that mothers, who so
  wish, may be free to pursue business and
  prefessional careers

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• 4. The use of the title Ms.(in place of both
  Miss and Mrs.) for women as comparable to Mr. for
  men---neither title indicating marital status and

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• 5. Full equality for women with men in
  employment, education, and before the law.

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• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other feminist leaders
  traveled the country lecturing and organizing for
  the next forty years. The campaign for woman
  suffrage met such staunch opposition that it took
  72 years for the women and their male supporters
  to be successful.

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• Feminist political activism focuses on issues
  such as reproductive rights, domestic violence,
  maternity leave, equal pay, sexual harassment,
  discrimination and sexual violence.

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• II. First Wave Feminism
• In the 19th century the awareness of women's need
  for equality with men crystallized in America in
  so called first wave feminism.

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• Participants fought for suffrage in the United
  States beginning with the meeting in Seneca Falls
  in New York in 1848 and culminating in the right
  to vote in 1920.

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• III. The Second Wave
• In 1963, Betty Friedan published a landmark book,
  The Feminine Mystique. In it she documented the
  emotional and intellectual oppression that
  middle-class educated women were experiencing
  because of limited life options.

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• By the end of the 1960s, the women's movement had
  succeeded in challenging nearly all of America's
  traditional cultural assumptions about women's
  proper place, and had become one of the media's
  biggest news items.

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• The more moderate wing of the movement, as
  represented by NOW, challenged employment
  discrimination, bias against women in politics,
  and anti-female prejudice so dominant in
  America's major economic and social institutions.

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• The National Organization for Women (NOW), the
  largest womens rights group, was founded in
  1966 by a group of feminists including Betty
  Friedan.

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• Goals
• NOW seeks to end sexual discrimination,
  especially in the workplace, by means of
  legislative lobbying, litigation, and public
  demonstrations.

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• The more radical wing of the movement, typified
  by young college graduates, organized to build
  day-care centers, fight for repeal of abortion
  laws, create women's health collectives, write
  non-sexist children's books, provide support for
  alternative life-styles.

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• Through such a remarkable variety of activities,
  feminists successfully put their message across
  the country and managed to enlist an ever growing
  amount of support from women, and men as well.

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• IV. The Third Wave Feminism
• The third wave feminism consists of many of the
  daughters and sons of the second wave, as well as
  the second wavers themselves.

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• Their issues include parental leave and day care
  for the children of working parents, making
  positions in corporate and governmental high
  offices, worldwide sustainable development, and a
  global awareness of feminist causes.

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• The third wave is a global surge in the US it is
  multi-cultural and inclusive and it supports
  women of all heritages as well as the rights of
  lesbian women and gay men.

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• Nowadays, many American feminists see women as
  fundamentally strong, confident, brave
  individuals, they look for greater integration of
  women into politics, economics, and social
  forums.

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• V. Main Points and Issues of American Feminists
  Program
• Access to education through fair consideration
  for women for scholarships, equal access for
  women to jobs and careers, equal pay, access to
  politics and power structures.

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• Also most of American feminist organizations seek
  control over reproduction through reproductive
  freedom for all women, including maintaining
  legal access to abortion.

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• Also they struggle against violence through
  ending control over women's mobility and personal
  freedom and through censuring domestic violence,
  sexual harassment and rape.

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• VI. Varieties of Feminism
• 1. Liberal, or Equality, Feminism
• Liberal feminists stress the importance of
  freedom to choose. They see more similarities
  between women and men than differences and
  usually come out in favour of equitable
  opportunities for both sexes.

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• These feminists view choice as an absolute right
  and also strive to avoid the obviousness of
  gender codes and the gender socialization of
  children.

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• 2. Cultural, or Difference, Feminism
• Cultural, or Difference, Feminism has become a
  really strong movement by 1980s. It attempts to
  revalue the feminine aspects that have been
  devalued by society.

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• Difference feminists celebrate the differences
  between women and men, seeing feminine qualities
  as a source of personal strength and pride and
  providing affirmation that women occupy the moral
  high position.

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• Cultural feminism focuses on cultural
  transformation, stressing the role of the
  intuitive side of life. First-wave difference
  feminists also argued for protective labor
  legislation for women.

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• 3. Radical Feminism
• Radical Feminism stresses the differences between
  females and males. Whether the difference is
  biological or formed by society it isnt so
  important the results of male difference and
  dominance are at issue.

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• According to the radical feminist ideology, the
  violence of the heterosexual male has led to the
  patriarchal and hierarchical cultures of today.

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• Further, the male has victimized the female
  through pornography, violence, and the
  militarization of the world.

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• 4. Marxist and Socialist Feminism
• Marxist and Socialist Feminists believe that
  women are seen as a sex class, gendered by
  society into a secondary position through a
  systemic sex gender system that dictates social
  roles, purposes, and norms.

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• These feminists believe that women are exploited
  as both a sex and a class, whereas men take the
  roles of goods production and potentially reach
  freedom.

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• 5. Eco-feminism
• Eco-feminism grows from the idea that women's
  values are closer to nature than mens ones. It
  revalues feminine traits. Women are seen as in
  tune with nature, while men have a hierarchical
  relationship to nature.

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• This view poses the idea that men's control of
  nature has created an ecological crisis nowadays
  in much of the world.

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• Eco-feminists look for nonviolent solutions to
  world problems. They consider feminine values
  necessary for surviving in the conditions of the
  world's patriarchy.

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• Eco-feminists may also subscribe to liberal,
  radical, or Marxist/socialist thought, but they
  focus on ecology - both of nature and human
  systems.

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• 6. Black Feminists
• Black feminists have demanded that feminists
  consider the problems of racism and classism (the
  hierarchy created by a caste-like economic and
  social class system) along with sexism.

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• Further, they have explained the interconnections
  from racism to sexism to classism. Sexism cannot
  truly be understood without understanding its
  racist undertones in the similar way, racism
  embodies sexism.

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• Black feminists have disproved the stereotypes of
  black women as matriarchs and superwomen and have
  organized movements to gain economic and
  political rights for women of color.

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• African American women support numerous feminist
  and women's issues organizations, some of them
  chiefly for women of color. They are also part of
  the general feminist movement and leadership.

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• 7. Male Feminism
• Men have been allies and supporters of feminism
  from the beginning of the women's movements. They
  may consider themselves to be Eco-feminists,
  cultural feminists, liberal feminists, and so on.

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• Usually, their goal is to create nonsexist
  relationships, to join in the battle to end
  violence against women, and to develop
  partnerships with women instead of hierarchies.

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• VII. Progress and Achievements
• For instance, during the past two decades,
  feminist organizations have been some of the most
  successful fundraisers in the non-profit world,
  with grants from government, foundations, and
  private corporations.

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• The political sphere is also quite available for
  women for example, to date thirty three women
  have served in the United States Senate, with
  fourteen serving at this time.

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• In American business 10.6 million firms are at
  least 50 owned by a woman or women. The number
  of female senior vice presidents in the business
  world has increased 75 .

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• Women are also actively participating in solving
  most difficult and important social problems such
  as environmental crisis, drug abuse and
  homelessness.

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• VIII. Problems
• In the early 1980s, 70.8 of all non-college
  teachers were women 80.3 of all clerical
  workers were women, and 96.8 of all nurses were
  women. In 1982, women made about 57 cents of
  every dollar men made.

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• As late as the mid-1990s, American women's
  earnings were still only two-thirds of men's, for
  most of them remained largely segregated in the
  semi-skilled service sector.

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• Positions of great importance and high prestige
  still prove to be difficult for women to take.
  The glass ceiling usually prevents women from
  succeeding in social life, especially in getting
  promotion.

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• A glass ceiling is an unofficial barrier to an
  upper management or such prominent position
  within a company or other organization which
  women are perceived to be unable to cross.

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• Women are not only held down economically. They
  also suffer from the specter of gender violence.
  According to the National Victim Center, 683,000
  women are raped annually.

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• Another statistics shows that according to the
  American Medical Association, domestic violence
  in America results annually in 100,000 days of
  hospitalizations.

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• With these statistics, it would be very hard to
  believe that any form of gender equity has been
  reached. It would seem that the world still needs
  feminists.

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• Image Crisis
• One of the greatest problems that faces
  American feminism now is an image crisis. When
  people picture feminists in their heads, the
  first image they get is a homely, middle-aged
  woman who just hates all men.

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• With this image in mind, it is easy to understand
  why many people, who believe in the ideals and
  policies which are essentially feminist, choose
  not to identify as feminists.

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• A woman who does something as simple as vote is a
  feminist. A woman who educates herself about her
  reproductive health is a feminist. A woman who
  holds an office is a feminist. Feminism is about
  women taking their rightful place as equals in
  the society.