Essay on The Second Shift-Women in Society

Women have been a vital key to the shaping and progression of our society. Throughout time, women’s roles and opportunities in the family, workplace, and society have greatly evolved. They started from being housewives that don’t have many rights, even in the household, to being valued citizens in our

All women above 18 in U.S received the right to vote on August 18, 1920. Today there is almost complete equality for the rights given to men and women. In addition, women are a huge part of previously male dominated careers such as medicine, law, engineering and business whereas in the 1850’s they could only be a nurse, governess or teacher. All education facilities are open to women and for the past 35 years, women have been the majority of American colleges compared to men. According to the U.S Department of Education, 56% of college students are female. In the 19th century and early 20th century, women salaries were less than 50% of men’s salaries especially since employers assumed that working women were single and only had to support themselves whereas men supported the whole family. Today, salaries for women have risen considerably even though the average working woman still receives less than the average

After decades of fighting for women to have the same education as men and for the policy to be reformed. It has clearly payed off since girls and women are striving academically. The issue in this, is that not enough attention and assistance are given to boys and men. For example, Sommers mentions that in 1997 only 45% of college full time enrollment were men.

Women worked tirelessly to challenge misogyny in education. The formation of ‘women's studies’ introduced women to disciplines like language, philosophy, psychology, and history and opened doors for female STEM majors (Encyclopedia). Women campaigned for educational reforms throughout education careers, and demanded changes in curricula and teaching forces to ensure that women were getting the same education as men. Some changes include home economics and survival courses not being gendered courses and the same curriculum for physical education classes. These changes in the education system made sexism in the new generations less common, a significant change from the previous generation.

Compared to contemporary society, the cliché stay at home mother is no longer the societal norm, as both genders are now assuming the maternal-home role.

While men were more likely to graduate from college in the 1960’s and 1970’s, since the 1990’s, the majority of all undergraduate and graduate degrees have gone to women (www.whitehouse.gov). In the 1960’s and 70’s, women had more of an obligation at home than in the workforce. They were to take care of the children, have a clean home, and a hot meal ready for their husbands for when they got home. The popular television sitcom, I Love Lucy, many times portrayed the distinctive roles of man and woman, and how women’s only job was to be a good housewife. Women were considered ignorant when it came to politics and discussions about the workforce. But this is not the case any more. Women are becoming more educated and involved in these

Twenty –first century women are finding it an uphill battle to maintain both gender roles as a result of the feminist movement. They are now taking responsibility for both the provider and the nurturer, struggling more than ever to obtain and keep a better quality of life. Feminism has aided in equal employment opportunity, fighting to get women accepted into the job market, and what originally started as women empowerment turned into women entrapment, directly resulting in the number of females living in poverty disproportionately to the number of men. Women rights activists used to slander social structures that promoted careerism, are now advising women to "lean in". “Women don’t belong in 12-hour-a-day executive positions” (Kay Ebling 170), a woman’s natural biological

These ideas of what women should and should not do are stereotyping and holding women back from what they are capable of completing in life, according to the researcher. The researcher is aware that men also have gender roles that they are expected in life; however, women are criticized more harshly and put under an immense amount of pressure to do the roles they are given. In the article, she states, “in a sexist world meant living as a man, preferably with a wife who assumed the duties of reproducing” (Dahl, 59). This shows that women are expected to not attend school or achieve what they want in life, but to be a stay at home mother. The researcher agrees that the role of a stay at home mother is widely assumed of women in today’s society. She believes the most popular gender role of women is that they need to be a wife to a man and that they stay home with their children and complete responsibilities. These responsibilities include care for their children, clean their houses, and to be nurturing and sensitive. These can also be known as a typical housewife. The article covers gender roles fairly well, but needs to improve by going into further detail about what roles the female sex are expected of. These expectations of what women should do shows the discrimination against the female sex with the ignorant behavior of assuming women are only for being wives and

The female advantage in educational attainment is not a new phenomenon. More women than men have graduated from college since 1950. The percentage of American women who are earning college degrees has steadily increased over the past 50 years, and currently there are more women than men earning every type of college degree. There are many explanations for this trend, however, this analysis will focus on three areas including Feminism, Marriage and Divorce, and Economic Factors.

Under the influence of Title IX, America has seen a large increase in women gaining a college education, and this was also supported in the progression of interviews conducted. Roberta did not gain a college education. At the time she graduated high-school, her main focus was on settling down and starting a family. However, that was natural for the women she was surrounded by in 1950. Additionally, there were not any laws preventing colleges from discriminating against women in regards to acceptance or the programs they allowed women to seek degrees in and no laws preventing employers from discriminating within their hiring processes. However, by the time Amy graduated in 1990, Title IX had long been implemented, and many women began seeking degrees in a wide variety of fields. Amy chose to get a degree in Secondary Education and Mathematics. In today’s world, there is an implication that every person is expected to go to college if they wish to be successful in their career pursuits, regardless of their gender. There is now a large initiative to encourage women to pursue careers in STEM fields. This initiative is so far-reaching it has even made its way into the mass marketing of television ads.

Women were once confined mainly to the role of homemakers, and were expected to take care of the family. With time, women have also taken up responsibilities outside home,

During the second half of the twentieth century, several societies experienced a radical social change with the evident active presence of women in many areas (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992). Women started to enter in the work labor and pursue higher education through enrollment in universities (Allen, 2001). Moreover, there has been an increase of women's participation in the economy (becoming CEOs of big companies) and in the politics (having women Senators and Presidents; Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992). Meanwhile, during this same period, there has been a remarkable growth of single-parent households headed by women who needs to work outside the home, take care of their children,

Before women became economic independence, they have to rely on men to survive. While the proportion of women to education is increasing, self-reliance has already become a new mark of modern women. “The data show more women than men today have college degrees. In 1970, 64% of graduates were men and 36% were women; in 2007, 53.5% were women and 46.5% were men” (Jayson 2010). Obtained a degree means that more women can afford their living expenses, or even allow their families to have a better living standard. “Also, women's earnings grew 44% from 1970 to 2007, compared with 6% for men” (Jayson 2010). Although men still make more on average, women’s incomes are significant

Publisher Heidi Hartmann once said, “As we argue in Part III below, men benefitted from not having to do housework, from having their wives and daughters serve them and from having the better places in the labor market,” (Hartmann 3). I agree that “men benefitted from not having to do housework,” but to include the daughter to take care the husband as well is too far, that what the mother is there for! How I view this quoted by men are just the provider of the household, and woman are the backbone of the family. There are only 24 hours throughout day that still not enough for a woman that have a family. For instance, woman work none stop by making sure the kids are good, making sure the house is clean, make sure that there is a meal is cook, make sure your husband is okay, and if you time for yourself after all that. Additionally, I can relate with this statement, because my mother would have a full-time job, be a full-time student, come

In 1992, women surpassed men in bachelor’s degrees at 54.2% of them women, 51.5% were masters degrees. So in recent years women and men seem to have the same advantage for earning a degree, which also suggests that women and men earn degrees at the same rate (Stromquist, 1990). The only rate at which women are slower than men is earning their PhD (Featherman & Hauser, 1976). These numbers were substantially lower in earlier years, with men having the advantage in nearly all aspects throughout the 1930s through 1980s. Many critical thinking scholars seek to define how the educational system imitates gender inequality within our society despite the provoking resistance to such inequality on behalf of women. Some scholars argue that the essence of romance leads most young women away from the college experience or furthering their education (Featherman & Hauser, 1976).