These readings all focus on the inequalities that women face in the work force. In all of the articles, except for “Maid to Order” there is a great focus on what mothers have to give up to have careers. Both of my parents work, but my mom took time off when she first had children. My parents made the schedule work, but there were a lot of times that one of them (at least) would miss something that they wish they didn’t. This is not to blame my parents; rather it shows how hard the system is. I thought that it was really interesting in “The Mommy Tax” how France is able to provide mothers with so much more support than they receive in America. This seems to be providing system that is more pro-women. I wonder why America has not implemented a system more like this? Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the people who make America’s laws are mostly male. The female population in congress is only 16%, when it should really be 50%. I am not sure if it is different in France’s government, but I think there should be change
In “A General Strike” I thought that a really good point was made. When men go on strike, they go on it for themselves, not for women. Women are always home doing housework, who goes on strike for them? I do think that most marriages are more equal now, but that does not take away from the fact that housework is linked to women. In “Maid to Order”, Ehrenreich makes the point that maids are mostly female. I wonder where this link with housework started? How did our ancestors decide what is feminine and what is masculine? In some ways I feel like it was just luck of the draw.
Molly-
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your comment that said you were unsure of whether the percentage of women in the French government was higher than the American government I became curious and wanted to find out. I found this article that I found very interesting: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123202067
In this article there are various quotes but the one that stuck out most was obviously this one: "Never mind that female politicians make up only 17 percent of this chamber, lawmakers want French companies to open up their boards to women." To be honest, I was a bit shocked to find out this statistic. I wonder why the French is more motivated to pass laws such as these about gender equality? (I do not know the percentage of women in the Norwegian government so I cannot comment on their country.) After learning this I am curious to find out what separates our government and society from France and why our government has not done more to help us truly eliminate the gender gap.
I too enjoyed your connection to who is making the policies. Since both the workplace and politics were historically all male, it is no wonder that policies do not focus on the intersection of a purely female experience - pregnancy - and the workplace. Your final comments made me think that the problem with gender divides in work (housework vs. bread winner) may primarily be that the work associated with females is seen as less productive/honorable. The divide itself can be restricting and then the warped value associated with this divide is even more restricting to both genders.
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