Invading the Man Cave: Females Taking over Predominately Male Jobs In the 21st century women are now controlling monumental amounts of the world’s wealth, they care about their careers, and the money they bring in. Yet females are still being deterred from certain professions such as homeland security, finance, politics, affluent businesses, and union jobs that are dominated primarily by males. This is a problem because the female body deserves to be recognized by their talent and hard work not by their gender.Women in the past paved a way for women in their future, to allow them to work next to men with equal rights.
The law has agreed with protestors of the past but society is not convinced. To what extent are women being discriminated against in these male-dominated fields? Are women capable of working and even being in leadership positions at the same standards as men? To what extent do women work harder than their male counterparts to prove themselves in the workplace? Last but not least, can females maintain successful careers in these fields and still be successful mothers?Women in the mid-20th century took two different approaches to demanding equal rights for all genders. Up until this time women were being treated differently than men in the workplace. Moderate feminist sought out “to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society”, as put by NOW. They simply wanted to have the same opportunities as their male counterparts. On the other hand the radical feminists wanted to completely change the way society worked.
They believed women should not only have equal rights but should be held to a higher standard.They believed and spoke freely about all women being slaves to their homes. This turned out to controversial because as public figures they were speaking for all women based on opinion, which turned out to not be true in all cases. The main goal of the video Makers was to allow people to be aware of what women went through and how they fought to pave the path for women today.
If it was not for these women who stood up for their rights and demanded that things be changed women may not have the opportunity to do things they are qualified and equipped for.Although women are fully capable of doing the same things as men at one point in society they were considered expendable and were not looked at as important social icons. These things have changed dramatically in the last 20 years and Naomi Klein discusses these matters in her essay titled Patriarchy gets Funky: The Triumph of Identity Marketing. In today’s culture it is necessary to have varying genders and races represented in advertisement, marketing, and even politics in order to seem relevant to “the people”.
In the eighties and nineties we were just coming out of an era were the country was ruled by patriarchy. It was an issue that had to be addressed, if America wanted to be known as a “melting pot” and be proud of achieving equal rights we had to show it. After much nudging and pushing by activists and protesters the message seemed to be getting across to some companies. Klein says, “If diversity is what we wanted, the brands seemed to be saying, then diversity is exactly what we would get. It may not have been well received at first and some people thought companies were mocking Klein and her peers, eventually the message was well received and minorities were the face of many ads and political circles. Along with media and politics women have taken over high-risk jobs such as homeland security.
Whitney Kassel, a young and determined college graduate, decided to step out from behind her desk at the Pentagon and go on a mission in Pakistan. Although she was ridiculed at first and worried her family daily Kassel decided that she wanted to do something that was different and that women have not chosen to do in the past.When Kassel decided to join an operational command over 7,000 miles away she did not know she would impact peoples lives the way she did; one of the men that gave her the hardest time ended up being her closest friend needing her the most when an IED exploded, Pakistani women began to confide in Kassel because they felt more comfortable coming to her than military men. Though the job came with a fair amount of challenges Kassel decided to focus on the good and to ignore statistics about women being mistreated in the past and revealed that there are many women behind the face of foreign policies.
Though women are taking over high-risk jobs some women are choosing to take jobs being construction workers or mechanics. Pasiana Rodriguez owns a mechanic shop in Queens, NY. Not only does she own the shop but she also works there six days a week performing oil changes, doing brake checks, and replacing fuel filters. Corey Kilgannon, who interviewed Rodriguez for the NY Times, wrote “Ms. Rodriguez is like a big sister to the only other women who can be seen regularly working in this neighborhood: Latinas selling food and ices from pushcarts, and Chinese immigrants selling bootlegged DVDs from shopping bags.
Rodriguez loves her job and is glad she does not have to be another statistic but instead can be a role model in her Willets Point neighborhood. It is important to have women like her working in blue collar jobs so women can know that you can do whatever you want as long as you put your mind to it. The job does not have to be something glamorous or alluring, after all, everyone needs an oil change now then. In American society it seems to be a foreign concept to have women in powerful rolls but in other parts of the world it is the last resort.
In war-torn countries, men have been ruling for generations and things have only gotten worse, the only other logical step toward making things better is putting women in control. Liberia appointed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president eight years ago and she nursed her country back to health, after years of genocide Rwanda mended itself by being one of the first countries to have mostly women in office. These women and others have worked harder than any men in there position were willing to do previously. Women run things differently than men and it has proven to be a good quality.Women have values; they have a need for approval; they are not presumptuous. A recent study has proven that successful companies with more female directors have outperformed those with less or even those with no female leaders.
Best selling author, Faith Popcorn says, “Those (Fortune 500 companies) with at least three women at the boardroom table dramatically outperformed the rest. And the numbers were huge: 84 percent return on sales; 60 greater percent return on invested capitol, and 46 percent return on equity. ” Women are working harder and it is proven successful when they pass men on the ladder of success.Women hold the majority of the world’s wealth and more women graduate college than men.
So how far will women go to succeed? They will work as hard as it takes to get to where they want to be, and to be recognized for it. It is easy to see that women are successful and they can have high paying, powerful jobs but it goes so unnoticed by society, especially men. People put on blinders to what they do not want to know and would rather be ignorant than to be knowledgeable about a subject that may cause them to change their habits or way of thinking.In an essay entitled “Won’t You Be My Neighbor? ” the author, Peter Lovenheim, discusses a story about how a mother and her family were murdered directly down the street from him and he did not even know who she was. Lovenheim decided to embark on a journey that would help him get to now his neighbors by emailing them, calling them, and even spending time at their houses.
At one point in the essay Lovenheim writes “ There is talk about how as a society we’ve become fragmented … But we also divide ourselves with invisible dotted lines. This passage can be directly related to the way people have viewed women in the work place for so many years, there has been an invisible line that is now being crossed. Being a perfect mother in America seems unachievable and oppressing. Judith Warner, who lived in America as a child moved to France the moved back to America, has a wide range of opinions herself but she also interviewed 150 women across the country trying to find the root of problem. Warner interviewed stay at home and working mothers, she concluded that the mothers who were more balanced were less controlling.The interesting part of this essay was how the father was absent in the entire thing, Warner even said “On vacation, the fathers took advantage of ‘their time’ away from work to disappear for whole afternoons of fishing.
” We live in a modern world and fathers should be just as involved as mothers. Mothers should not have to feel so much stress and should be able to share responsibilities; otherwise, what did women in the 50’s work so hard for? Yes, mothers should have equal responsibilities. They should also have the right to be responsible for their children.Up until the late 20th century women in some Asian countries were treated like slaves in their own home and no legal rights to their children. In the 70’s and 80’s South Korea allowed women to start working professionally, women slowly began to rise up in the work force which made the traditions of child custody collapse.
In the 90’s women were allowed full custody of children after a divorce and as early as 2005 women were allowed to register children under their own names. In 1985 about half of Korean women said they “needed” to have boys but by 2003 the percentage had dropped dramatically down to 15%.The era of men ruling the country is over. Women can work, women can have children, women can do both; and they are embracing it to the fullest.
Women around the world should be applauded for their skills and how they have embraced the pressure of balancing motherhood and work, but black women in particular are to be exalted for surpassing their counterparts of different races and continuing to climb the ladder of success. In the essay Work vs. Family, Complicated by Race a group of affluent, successful black women are discussing the hot topic of motherhood vs. ork.
Women’s rights today have come so far not to mention black women’s rights. The women mentioned in this article feel the need to work for their money and to be successful so they can support themselves.The most interesting observation of race and class in this essay was when the author, Lynette Clemetson says, “Census figures in 2005 also show that college-educated black women earn slightly more than their white counterparts, largely because they are more likely to stay in the work force and work longer hours than white women after having children. (Clemetson, 2006) It is important to realize the implications of being African American or Asian or any other minority and being a working mother. This means you have to work harder and longer and believe in yourself even more than that of the average Caucasian mother, opportunities cannot be walked past and small moments with your children cannot be looked over. Working and being a mother and being a minority is something to be proud of but is no easy task.
In feminist circles, these social, political, and economic changes are always cast as a slow, arduous form of catch-up in a continuing struggle for female equality. But in the U. S. , the world’s most advanced economy, something much more remarkable seems to be happening.
American parents are beginning to choose to have girls over boys. As they imagine the pride of watching a child grow and develop and succeed as an adult, it is more often a girl that they see in their mind’s eye.
