Feminism does not have a simple fundamental and simple definition. The definition of feminism varies with the beliefs of a person. The best way for me to describe feminism is it refers to the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of women. Before I even entered this class, I had never really heard of feminism or the issues behind it. I did not know if I was considered to be a feminist or not. I remember the first day of class and Dr. Pendley asked what five questions we wanted to get answered out of this class by the end of the semester. I remember my first question being “what is feminism?” I kind of felt retarded for writing that since the whole entire class was mainly about feminism and the history behind it. Another question that I asked on that sheet of paper is “was I a feminist?” There seemed to have been students in the class who knew much about feminism and felt strongly about their feminist beliefs. Since I had no idea of the main topic that was being talked about in the class this is what made it very interesting for me. With the help of all our class discussions, videos, and articles I do have to say at the end of the semester both of my questions were answered over a period of time and I was able to grasp the true concepts of feminism and meaning of being a feminist. Our textbooks for the class also helped me read more about feminism and what it meant.
Feminism went through three different ways to get equality for women. The first wave was for the right to vote. During this time women were not considered part of the legal document that women could vote. Many of women saw this as inequality and believed that they were citizens and should have the option to choose and pick their certain representatives. Many of men did not want women to have to choice to vote because they did not believe that they were smart enough and did not know the right reasons to be choosing a person to represent them. The first women rights convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. It was led by two women Elizabeth Cady and Lucretia Mott’s. The suffragist fought for the right to vote, but the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified in 1970, and did not grant voting rights to women. Despite this downfall, this did not stop other woman who still believed that women should be considered trued citizens and have the right to vote. Another woman Alice Paul rose and was the founder of the National Women’s Party. She was able to organize a party of ten thousand women at the inauguration of President Woodrow. These women protested in allowing women to vote. Finally all their hard work paid off and in 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment was passed and ratified and American women voted for the first time in their presidential election. This voted did not come easy, but it paved the way for women to start speaking out and getting their voices heard. The movie that we watched in class depicted the first wave tremendously. The film was called Iron Jawed Angles that displayed the scenes and events that happened while women were fighting to get the vote passed. The film also help me better understand the first wave and what actually occurred during it. The right to vote was not all that involved in the first wave it also consisted of getting contraceptives available for women. Even allowing them to buy condoms was an issue. A main one that is still a problem today was abortion, was still the talk back in the first wave also. Even though it seemed that a lot was conquered during the first wave, there was still a long ways to go before there would be changes.
The second wave focused a wide range of issues. Mainly like official legal inequalities, sexuality, family, reproductive rights, electoral advocacy, and many other issues that women wanted to address. The second wave started around the 1960’s and it consisted of a new generation of women. Many women wanted to liberate themselves from the traditional roles of being a stay-at-home mother and wife. Women wanted to get back in the workplace and be offered the same opportunities that the males were. While second-wave women fought for fundamental rights, the movement did not go without criticism—and not only from misogynists. Many allege that the second wave represented mainly the concerns of middles-and upper- class white women, and did not focus on the voices, and many of the issues, of women of color and lower-income women. Often the fact that white middle- and upper- class women frequently faced very different daily struggles than women of color and poor women was not even acknowledged (Rowe-Finkbeiner, 26). The second wave crashed with the defeat of the Equal Rights of Amendments in the 1970.
The third wave of feminism consists of the women today. Our generation is what makes up the third wave. It goes to show how this movement do not stop, but is continuous. The third wave brings together the second wave’s fight for women to have professional career opportunities and the idea that “traditional” gender roles and actions do not need to be thrown
out the window. A new culture of open-mindedness is emerging in the third wave: there are many ways to be a woman (Rowe-Finkbeiner, 31). I did not even know we were still considered to be in a movement. The term post- feminism began to rise during this wave, which was to describe a backlash against the second-wave feminism. Women in this wave seemed to be more involved in work now and not in the feminist movement.
We have seen a loft of documentaries of feminism that helped describe and explain feminism to its fullest. With every documentary that we watched online, not one person had the same definition of what a feminist is considered to be. In one film, some people did not see themselves as being feminist, but after being asked questions on certain topics they soon came to realize that maybe he or she is a feminist. Certain things that I did not think would apply you as being a feminist I soon to realize that it could. The class of Women’s Studies intersects with feminism because it looked from different aspects of how feminism could be defined. I did not know anything from the beginning so every word that was said was taken in by me. Not only did the Women Studies class focus just on feminism, but we were able to learn a little anthropology things from Dr. Pendley. Belle Hooks book was also a good reading that helped explain the issues that women have been fighting for. Her book bring up numerous of issues that I do not agree with also, but she still makes good points that I was not aware of before.
AM I A FEMINIST?
In the beginning, I did not know I could classify myself as a feminist. I never looked at things as me being discriminated because I was a female. I always thought maybe that person had problems or just did not know what they were missing. I never like to play the “I am a female” card and because of this I did not get that job, a raise, promotion, or treated a certain way. Now that I have realized that this really does exist its makes me second guess myself. I do believe that I am a feminist because I do want equal rights for men and women. I do not believe in treating people differently because of the gender. Gender should have nothing to really do with anyone’s situation. Just like I have said numerous of times women are just as capable to do any job or do anything if not as good as a man but better. Even though society tries to make it seem like things are getting better for women, there is still much that need to be improved definitely in the United States. They can start by giving mothers more pay maternity leave and more job security after having a child.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Final: Part 1.....My 5 readings
In this years Women Studies Class, I have learned a lot and have also read numerous of articles that I do not think I would have read before. Each article and lectures that we read in class brought up numerous discussion, arguments, and points. Most of them I had never heard about or mainly all of them. Each of the reading where about different topics which was able to broaden my horizon and further understand the concept of feminism. They were different views that many of the readings came across that explain how feminism or inequality existed. None of the readings were the same or touched on the same subjects. I am glad about the selection that the ones that were choose in class. Out of all the reading my favorite five would have to be Opting Out by Belkin, Globetrotting Sneakers by Enloe, The Beauty Myth by Wolf, Eternal Feminine by Castellanos, and Taking Sides by Browne and Hyde. Each of these to me seemed too had bring up the most discussion in the class. Everyone including myself had different arguments about the situations that these reading brought up. All of these articles of course are related because they all are expressing about women and either how they should be treated or how they are not treated equally. These articles have helped me understand Women Studies because I did not know many of these issues even existed or were even considered a problem with society. I knew some of them were issues, but I did not see how they could have been considered feminism. Women seem like that always have to prove themselves, whether it is dealing with they are able to work just as well as men are, if they are smart enough, if they can do the job better than a man. Women have different roles and for that we are judged upon or not treated equally.
The first article that I feel like that impacted me the most was Opt Out written by Lisa Belkin. Even though she only took the views of wealthy, college graduated, stable white women she still made a clear point that caused a lot commotion and discussions about her view on certain areas. Her main thesis and purpose was that once women get up to that high level of social status in work they choose to all of sudden start a family and leave work. Most people argued that this is not always the case not all women have that option. You always hear the part where women always want to succeed over the male or become high in the corporate world as the male does. For some reason when they did get that chance or close to be their some choose to leave and go home to be stay-at-home moms. Belkin also expresses the problem that jobs do not offer flexible hours for women who do want to stay and work and proceed on the ladder of success. For some people, they are not financially stable so opting out for some is not even thought to be a question. The fact that many of the jobs will not offer more flexible hours or pay while these women are out with their children can be looked as being inequality. Just because the woman is the one who carry the baby should not allow businesses to not be fair. On the other hand, there are numerous of women who were able to climb up that social ladder and become the CEO, partner in a law firm, doctor, and many other professionals and still be able to be the mom at home her child or children need her to be. Belkin make some good points in her article, but the fact that she only looks at it from one point of view makes her accusations not fully accurate to me. One thing that I can look at our women are more usual to opt out of course than the men are. Since women are seen to be the ones at home even though there are a few dads who do decide to stay at home and be the kids and let the woman be the bread winner for the family.
The second article I chose that interested me the most in this class was Globetrotting Sneakers by Cynthia Enloe. This reading touched me the most because it talked about the working conditions of women across the countries, which were making sneakers for certain sneaker companies. The working conditions that were given would not have been considered acceptable in the United States. Enloe’s main purpose was to stress the fact inspectors need to straighten up the conditions that these women and children are working in. The fact that many of the sneaker corporations packed up their corporations from the United States and moved to the other countries because they knew these women would do anything to make money for their families. This once again shows how the women are capable to do anything to support their families. The way they were being treated and the working conditions they were working in were unacceptable. Once again this showed how women were being treated unequal. Not only were they working in unfair conditions, but they were not even getting paid enough to support their families. This reading shows how opting out probably never occurred to these women or if they even know what it is. They have to work day to day to support their families no matter what conditions they are put under.
My next article I chose was Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Her reading focuses on the beauty myth of women. I had never even heard of anything called the beauty myth. The beauty myth seems to have many definitions and differ throughout culture. The beauty myth shows how women should be a certain way. Modern women seem to be growing, moving and expressing their individuality. The beauty myth is looked at as being timeless or genetic so it tends to differ between generations or the different feminist movements that we have gone through. The beauty myth try to show that women’s body had boundaries. In her chapter, after the beauty myth I love how she expresses that we should stop blaming ourselves and other women for the beauty myth and start being the women we choose to be.
The Eternal Feminine by Rosario Castellanos was my fourth reading that I chose that I liked reading. The Eternal Feminine took a different approach on how she addressed feminism compared to the other readings that I talked about so far. She brought a more humorous and non- serious side. She showed different approaches of women in her skits. My favorite was Act II, which was the wig scene. With each wig she put on, she would take on a different personality. It was kind of hard for me to understand the whole meaning of her piece. I realized that she was trying to exam the stereotypical roles that were given to Mexican women. She contrasts the excessive attention paid to women’s external appearance with the neglected state of woman’s inner lives. Act II also talks about a group of legendary women, who painted the way for women in Mexican history. This goes to show that women are strong leaders too and are capable in making a difference in our society.
My last and final reading that I chose was Taking Sides by Janet Hyde and Kingsley Browne, who brought up the argument “are women and men more similar or different?” Each author brought up their reasons for either why they believed that they were or were not similar or different. They each brought up important points, but neither of them had sufficient sources of enough background to prove their cases. Of course women and men are different biologically, and that is really all that I could agree with them on. The main purpose was to prove that men and women were either similar or not. It seems to me that they are always trying to prove that men are better than women in some sort of way. Just like in all of the other readings that I have expressed about women are capable of much more than they are given.
These readings have shown me a lot of insight that I was not aware of before. I now know that I have options, and even though as a woman things may not come easily to me I am very capable of overcoming anything. This really will not impact my future schooling, but it will my career. Going into a field that is mainly dominated by women I feel more empowered and encouraged. Will women ever stop being stereotyped? In the years to come will more women rise and take advantage of the opportunities to succeed? Will changes occur so that the choice of opting out will not be so unreasonable for those who do not want to opt out? Do people still live by the beauty myth today?
The first article that I feel like that impacted me the most was Opt Out written by Lisa Belkin. Even though she only took the views of wealthy, college graduated, stable white women she still made a clear point that caused a lot commotion and discussions about her view on certain areas. Her main thesis and purpose was that once women get up to that high level of social status in work they choose to all of sudden start a family and leave work. Most people argued that this is not always the case not all women have that option. You always hear the part where women always want to succeed over the male or become high in the corporate world as the male does. For some reason when they did get that chance or close to be their some choose to leave and go home to be stay-at-home moms. Belkin also expresses the problem that jobs do not offer flexible hours for women who do want to stay and work and proceed on the ladder of success. For some people, they are not financially stable so opting out for some is not even thought to be a question. The fact that many of the jobs will not offer more flexible hours or pay while these women are out with their children can be looked as being inequality. Just because the woman is the one who carry the baby should not allow businesses to not be fair. On the other hand, there are numerous of women who were able to climb up that social ladder and become the CEO, partner in a law firm, doctor, and many other professionals and still be able to be the mom at home her child or children need her to be. Belkin make some good points in her article, but the fact that she only looks at it from one point of view makes her accusations not fully accurate to me. One thing that I can look at our women are more usual to opt out of course than the men are. Since women are seen to be the ones at home even though there are a few dads who do decide to stay at home and be the kids and let the woman be the bread winner for the family.
The second article I chose that interested me the most in this class was Globetrotting Sneakers by Cynthia Enloe. This reading touched me the most because it talked about the working conditions of women across the countries, which were making sneakers for certain sneaker companies. The working conditions that were given would not have been considered acceptable in the United States. Enloe’s main purpose was to stress the fact inspectors need to straighten up the conditions that these women and children are working in. The fact that many of the sneaker corporations packed up their corporations from the United States and moved to the other countries because they knew these women would do anything to make money for their families. This once again shows how the women are capable to do anything to support their families. The way they were being treated and the working conditions they were working in were unacceptable. Once again this showed how women were being treated unequal. Not only were they working in unfair conditions, but they were not even getting paid enough to support their families. This reading shows how opting out probably never occurred to these women or if they even know what it is. They have to work day to day to support their families no matter what conditions they are put under.
My next article I chose was Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. Her reading focuses on the beauty myth of women. I had never even heard of anything called the beauty myth. The beauty myth seems to have many definitions and differ throughout culture. The beauty myth shows how women should be a certain way. Modern women seem to be growing, moving and expressing their individuality. The beauty myth is looked at as being timeless or genetic so it tends to differ between generations or the different feminist movements that we have gone through. The beauty myth try to show that women’s body had boundaries. In her chapter, after the beauty myth I love how she expresses that we should stop blaming ourselves and other women for the beauty myth and start being the women we choose to be.
The Eternal Feminine by Rosario Castellanos was my fourth reading that I chose that I liked reading. The Eternal Feminine took a different approach on how she addressed feminism compared to the other readings that I talked about so far. She brought a more humorous and non- serious side. She showed different approaches of women in her skits. My favorite was Act II, which was the wig scene. With each wig she put on, she would take on a different personality. It was kind of hard for me to understand the whole meaning of her piece. I realized that she was trying to exam the stereotypical roles that were given to Mexican women. She contrasts the excessive attention paid to women’s external appearance with the neglected state of woman’s inner lives. Act II also talks about a group of legendary women, who painted the way for women in Mexican history. This goes to show that women are strong leaders too and are capable in making a difference in our society.
My last and final reading that I chose was Taking Sides by Janet Hyde and Kingsley Browne, who brought up the argument “are women and men more similar or different?” Each author brought up their reasons for either why they believed that they were or were not similar or different. They each brought up important points, but neither of them had sufficient sources of enough background to prove their cases. Of course women and men are different biologically, and that is really all that I could agree with them on. The main purpose was to prove that men and women were either similar or not. It seems to me that they are always trying to prove that men are better than women in some sort of way. Just like in all of the other readings that I have expressed about women are capable of much more than they are given.
These readings have shown me a lot of insight that I was not aware of before. I now know that I have options, and even though as a woman things may not come easily to me I am very capable of overcoming anything. This really will not impact my future schooling, but it will my career. Going into a field that is mainly dominated by women I feel more empowered and encouraged. Will women ever stop being stereotyped? In the years to come will more women rise and take advantage of the opportunities to succeed? Will changes occur so that the choice of opting out will not be so unreasonable for those who do not want to opt out? Do people still live by the beauty myth today?
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