Gender Inequality and Women ’ s Movement

Gender Inequality and Women’s Movement

Women’s Role in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries 1. Victorian Women

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.

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

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“.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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".

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gender Inequality and Women ’ s Movement