Women and the Workforce

In the movie “Sex and the City 2”, Miranda’s character quits her job at the law firm where she’s just become partner, something she’s been trying to accomplish since the series began. She quits because she becomes aware that her boss is treating her with disrespect. After realizing she is the only female partner, she understands that his disrespect stems from her being a woman. What’s more, once she quits, she manages to make it on time to her son’s science fair, something she would have never made it to. This example illustrates not only the sexist regime governing most of corporate America, but it also sheds light on the fact that many women are being forced to choose between being a career woman and being a mother.

The glass ceiling is something successful, career women are being forced to face. It marks the level of not only salary, but also of respect women deserve to reach yet never get the opportunity to. It is glass because it can be seen, but they can’t get through it. It is a physical barrier. Miranda seemed to have broken through the glass ceiling after making partner, yet once there, she didn’t receive the respect she deserved from her sexist boss. He continued to literally put his hand up every time she would offer an opinion and give her cases away to the other male lawyers. Once she opened her eyes and began witnessing this blatant gendered division of labor, she knew something had to be done. She, like many career women in our society, gave up almost everything to achieve success, but it wasn’t enough.

Miranda gave up being an attentive mother to be an attentive lawyer. In our society, motherhood itself isn’t necessarily oppressive; however, it has become constructed in such a way by society that makes it oppressive (Kirk and Rey, p. 307). After quitting, she got to see her son win the science fair, illustrating the many landmark events she had missed while she was working.

Unlike most women, Miranda has extra help at home. She has an attentive husband and hired help. Most women do not and they have to deal with the “second shift” of working all day and coming home to work all night as a mother. These are all sacrifices women in our society are forced to make. In order to avoid these obstacles, many modern women have chosen to pay the “ultimate mommy tax” and remain childless. A steady increase in the percentage of middle-aged, educated, American women who remain childless went from about 9 percent in the 1950's to 10 percent in the late 1970's, and in the 1990's about 17 percent (Kirk and Rey, p. 344). Women choose this route because it has been statistically proven that the longer a woman postpones family responsibilities, and the longer her 'pre-parental' phase lasts, the higher her lifetime earnings will be (Kirk and Rey, p.342). And ultimately, in our society, money equates to power.

Activism Log #5

1. Our last meeting was held Tuesday, Nov. 2. After an exhausting hour, we finalized a name for the 5k (with the help of Mrs. Tweed’s mother). The event will be called the Gingerbread Jog. It will be held the third week of January 2012 during the day. We ate up most of our time deciding a name, so we are bringing in our ideas for “wish list” prize options to our next meeting which will be held Tuesday, Nov. 9. I have begun thinking of possible logo ideas and I will be corresponding with my artist friend by email this week to let him know what the new theme is. He will hopefully then start brainstorming ideas as well and I should have a few options to present at the next meeting.

2. This week in class we are learning about women and the workforce and the many sacrifices and injustices women must face in order to be a part of the workforce. Through our event, we want to spread awareness and education of these injustices, and the countless others women silently endure in this society. In our chapter reading for this week, “Making a Home, Making a Living” (p 301-317), we learned of the gendered division of labor. And it is this permanent gendered division of labor that exists in the workforce that can no longer be tolerated. Through the awareness generated at our event, I want to at least form a crack in the glass ceiling. I want to get us moving in the right direction.

3. I am excited that we finalized our new name, although the task itself took a lot out of us. Personally, I am finding it challenging to be planning something so far in advance. My brain usually can’t see beyond a month or two from now. But I will be discussing logo ideas and designs with my friend this week and I am excited to see what we come up with.

Activism Log #4

1. This past Tuesday, the group met for our biweekly meeting and we were faced with some challenging news. We learned that we can’t have our 5k in October, therefore forcing us to redesign our entire theme. So, my friend and I have since stopped production on the logo and t-shirt designs until I come up with a new name. We have decided to hold the event in January of 2012 and have the theme be either a winter wonderland festival or candy land. I have been brainstorming ideas since the meeting and hopefully by next Tuesday I will have thought of enough name ideas to hold a vote. Our next meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 2, and I would like to have a theme and name finalized then so I can get back to work on logos and designs. We are supposed to come into the next meeting with ideas for big prizes we think we can try and get for the winners of the race. The girls will also be taking a trip to Seminole county Nov. 16, in order to begin looking for potential donations. Our first tabling event will be Saturday, Nov. 12, in front of Walgreens. I will unfortunately be out of town for both of these events, but I am looking forward to participating in the ones to come. I feel like our group is doing an excellent job bouncing back from the discouraging news and I have high hopes for this events being the huge success we all know it can be.

2. Our activism relates to what we are learning in class this week because it will bring out men from the community and raise awareness among them. They all are connected to women’s studies on a personal, micro level without even realizing it. They all have wives and daughters and sisters and mothers and coworkers and friends, and by coming out to our event they can hopefully learn how to support these women and the efforts being made on behalf of them. This is discussed in our last reading, “I’m Not a Rapist”, which shows the efforts of young men in college standing up against sexual violence. They all have realized how personally connected they are to this cause saying, “One in five of their friends have told them they have suffered from sexual violence” (Stolenberg, p. 285). Raising awareness among men about can help fix the system and create a more equal society.

3. I was nervous about having to come up with an entire new concept for the theme of the run, but know that I have started brainstorming I am excited to show the girls some of the ideas I’ve come up with so far. I am hoping they will come to the next meeting with some ideas of their own so we can bounce ideas off each other.

p.s. Congratulations on the baby :) !!!

Activism Log #3

1. Our second meeting was a great success. We chose a name, route and time for our event. The title of the event will read-UCF Women’s Studies presents the first ever Trick Your Feet 5k to benefit the Young Women Leadership Program. The route is a 5k run from Lake Claire and back and it will start at around 2pm and be done and cleaned up by 5pm. This week I found someone who can make the shirts. They also offered to help me design the logo. I will be in touch with them this week to finalize the design and get a quote. Our next meeting will be held next Tuesday, October 26, and I will bring the different design options to be voted on. Also, by then I will have an estimate for the shirt prices based on the approximate 500 count we discussed in our last meeting.

2. Our activism project relates to what we are currently learning in class because it will help empower young girls and women to take charge and have a voice in the community. By building awareness of women’s studies and educating the community about the important issues that they might not even realize they are facing on a day to day basis, we can help women stand up for themselves. This week we focused on the lack of voice women have in the medical decisions made about their bodies. The patriarchal system that governs the medical world doesn’t allow women the space necessary to voice their opinions. This is something that needs to be changed and hopefully our event and the awareness it raises will be a stepping stone in the right direction.

3. I am so excited to get started on the logo. I am going to be in contact with my friend this week to discuss my concepts and he is going to help create them. I have a lot of ideas and I hope I can harness all of them into one great product. I am looking forward to the next meeting because a lot will be finalized.

Activism Log #2

1. Our second meeting was a great success. We chose a name, route and time for our event. The title of the event will read-UCF Women’s Studies presents the first ever Trick Your Feet 5k to benefit the Young Women Leadership Program. The route is a 5k run from Lake Claire and back and it will start at around 2pm and be done and cleaned up by 5pm. This week I found someone who can make the shirts. They also offered to help me design the logo. I will be in touch with them this week to finalize the design and get a quote. Our next meeting will be held next Tuesday, October 26, and I will bring the different design options to be voted on. Also, by then I will have an estimate for the shirt prices based on the approximate 500 count we discussed in our last meeting.

2. Our activism project relates to what we are currently learning in class because it will help empower young girls and women to take charge and have a voice in the community. By building awareness of women’s studies and educating the community about the important issues that they might not even realize they are facing on a day to day basis, we can help women stand up for themselves. This week we focused on the lack of voice women have in the medical decisions made about their bodies. The patriarchal system that governs the medical world doesn’t allow women the space necessary to voice their opinions. This is something that needs to be changed and hopefully our event and the awareness it raises will be a stepping stone in the right direction.

3. I am so excited to get started on the logo. I am going to be in contact with my friend this week to discuss my concepts and he is going to help create them. I have a lot of ideas and I hope I can harness all of them into one great product. I am looking forward to the next meeting because a lot will be finalized.

Choice To Voice

1. There is a lack of education and access to alternative medicine. Women are uneducated about their options and are being forced to endure the bureaucracy of the medical world in order to simply follow a system.

2. There is a lack of education not only among the public, but also among physicians about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). A study was conducted among 751 physicians at the University of Colorado Hospital which discovered that few physicians felt comfortable discussing CAM with their patients, and the overwhelming majority (84%) thought they needed to learn more about CAM to adequately address patient concerns. Physician recommendation of CAM was most strongly associated with physician self-use (Corbin and Shapiro).

Too many mainstream doctors today become so specialized that they treat the body parts and forget they are treating the whole body. This is fine for surgery, emergency or trauma but not for perpetuating good health (altmedangel.com). This truth is ever-present in the shared experiences of women forced to abide by the patriarchal system of the medical world.

On a macro-level, the institution of education is failing our physicians and not providing them with the necessary tools to inform their patients about alternative forms of medicine. This, in turn, leaves each individual uneducated about what their real options for treatment are.

3. Holistic health care isn’t fully covered by most health insurance providers. Therefore, women aren’t being given the opportunity to choose their methods of treatment or birth plans.

In her article, Sara Calabro explains how in many ways, a practitioner of alternative medicine follows the same steps for treatment that a conventional medical doctor uses. But because alternative medicine is still considered outside the scope of traditional health care, many insurance companies do not cover these visits or offer limited coverage.

It has been discovered that alternative medicine is more popular among women than men. This reflects the patriarchal system that seems to govern the medical world. They don’t consider the educated opinions of women and their bodies. They dismiss them and respond with the “doctor knows best” theory. This is denying women the power to govern their own bodies.

What should exist is a system that returns this power to women, grants them the right and choice of how to treat their bodies.

4. We should have insurance providers fully covering alternative medicine practices. We need physicians to be trained in a number of different modalities. Many alternative practitioners use high-tech, scientific diagnostic tools to pinpoint imbalances or underlying problems in major organs. Through a thorough line of questioning, they determine the probable cause and work with you toward a cure (altmedangel.com). We need the world of the American Medical Association (AMA) which is aligned with the multibillion dollar pharmaceutical industry to step back and allow women the choice to voice what medical path they want to take.

Works Cited

Calabro, Sara. "Alternative Medicine: Is It Covered?" Everydayhealth.com. Every Day Health Inc. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. .

"A Comparison of Alternative and Modern Medicine." YOUR GUIDE TO NATURAL HEALING. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. .

Corbin, Winslow L., and H. Shapiro. "Physicians Want Education about Complementary and Alternative Medicine to Enhance Communication with Their Patients." Pubmed.gov. U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 27 May 2002. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. .

Activism Log #1

1. I unfortunately missed our last meeting and am still waiting on the notes. I have emailed Nicole and posted to the Google Group asking for them, but have yet to receive them. Professor Tweed did fill me in on the main points of the meeting. The 5k date has been set to October 30, 2011 and the theme will be Halloween. A final name hasn’t been set yet but I know one of the working names is Run for the Ghouls (instead of girls). I think we can come up with something clearer, maybe The Mummy Run (mummy as in mommy as in women). I also thought of a sort of subtitle for the run being Run for Fun and Fun for All. I need to still run my ideas by the entire group. Our next meeting will be held Tuesday, October 12 at 5:30pm. At this meeting we will be deciding on a final name for the run. Once the name is finalized I will be able to start creating a logo and flyers and t-shirt designs based around the name. I’m thinking the main colors of the design will me orange and black. This will allow everyone, men, women and children, to feel comfortable at the run rather than making everything pink or purple.

2. Our activism project relates to what we are currently learning in class because its main goal is to illicit awareness of women’s studies throughout the community. It will help give a voice to women and give everyone the tools they need to become informed and in turn make informed decisions. Through this event we will not only raise money for important community partners like YWLP, but we will also open up the community’s eyes to the real need for women’s studies. Allan G. Johnson states in his essay “Patriarchy, the System”, it isn’t men that are the problem it is this corrupt system which they are inherently governed by and we must think of creative ways to go against “the path of least resistance” (Kirk and Rey, p.71). By raising awareness, we can help everyone take a step back from this patriarchal system we all blindly perpetuate and get people thinking about what they can do to make a difference.

3. This is the biggest thing I have ever undertaken and it supports something I strongly stand behind, spreading awareness of women’s studies and feminist thought. I am equally anxious and excited about the project. Also, the fact that I am in charge of the media plan adds an entire other level of excitement because this is what I want to do after I graduate, so its providing me with real world experience. This is a huge project and I am so proud to be a part of it, making a difference in the world of women’s studies and giving the program a voice in the community.