Final: Question 2

Feminism today is very different than early 20th century feminism. Fighting for the right to vote is a much different task than fighting for reproductive rights or for paid maternity leave. The differences are not in the overall cause of the movement, but in how the movement is promoted, what is being fought for, and what feminism means to individuals. The overall cause of the movement is simple: equality of the sexes. The interpretation of what “equality of the sexes” means is left for the three waves of the movement to decide and the individual to decide.

First/Second wave
A woman’s right to vote is taken for granted every day. It makes sense that this generation of women have become largely apathetic towards their rights as women when they have grown up watching their mothers go to the voting poles. This generation does not understand what it means to not vote. Watching Iron Jawed Angles (while it is a dramatization) made the struggle more clear to me. Not only had women been robbed of their right to vote, but when they raised enough awareness over the issue they were abused. The force feeding depicted in Iron Jawed Angles that resulted from hunger strikes in the women’s prison made me see what it took to gain the right to vote. Being force fed raw eggs and milk for the right to vote is what defines the first wave of feminism.
The second wave of feminism introduced a whole new set of feminist issues, primarily reproductive rights, rejection of what society defined as femininity, and other legislation that would protect women. Videos in class, the F-Word, and a few other class materials alluded often to the “bra burning”, “hairy legged”, and “angry” feminist from the second wave. Making progress in this wave of feminism was closely linked to being a “good” feminist that burned their bras, grew their leg hair out, and was angry at society (whether or not those links were intentional they were and still are there). These characteristics are what made feminism well known in a sense other than voting rights. But these characteristics are also what have survived in our society the most out of the second wave and have been projected onto the so-called feminists today.

Third wave
The F-Word makes a great point at the beginning of the novel: no wonder feminism is regarded as such a dirty word today, it ends in –ism along with words like communism. Common conceptions of what a feminist is were best shown in one of the class videos. It was really easy to tell by a person’s short answer to what a feminist was if they had any experience learning about what feminism actually is. For those who had not, they either thought it was a dirty word, or referred to the second wave images. For those who had taken time to learn, an understanding that feminism has something to do with equal rights was shown.
Since there is a great deal of misunderstanding and ambiguity surrounding feminism, it makes sense that people don’t know if we need feminism anymore. Post-feminism is discussed is great detail in The F-Word. All evidence given in the discussion of post-feminism supports the need for feminism and that post-feminism is a great misconception. One of the most weighted arguments shines light on the fact that women have not been strong voters historically and are not equally represented in political and professional realms. The author argues that feminism is needed to motivate women to act together to become entirely equally represented before they can worry about the issues that divide them. Women will not have a strong enough political voice unless the move together. The entire body of The F-Word is devoted to motivating that there is still a very serious need for women and men to act with feminist ideals.
Once I read through The F-Word, I was able to identify many misconceptions that I had previously held. I was finally read to find my own definition for feminism. The best definition that I have thought of this semester was motivated in Feminism is for Everybody: “Imagine living in a world where there is no dominion, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction.” I feel that a large part of feminism now needs to have love and respect towards males, which involves admitting that the sexes are not entirely equal in all senses. How does one gain respect if they don’t respect?
The ability to define feminism is a more prevalent idea in the third wave. The Manifesta deals with this directly, instead of droning on about what feminism is, it discusses what feminist is not. It is sad that the movement has had to redefine itself in terms of what it is not, but it gives me hope. There is a greater chance that individuals will take interest in feminism if it can accommodate a large set of personal beliefs.

Women’s Studies
Women’s Studies form the cornerstone for young women to become involved in this movement. In fact, I can’t acknowledge an easier, more accessible way for a college student to learn about feminism. Women’s Studies intersect feminism is two ways. The first is that the institutionalization of feminist ideals is a huge victory for the movement. The academic environment understands the importance of this field of study and acknowledges it. This provides countless opportunity for the feminist movement in terms of ability to publish literature under a university name, have access to more resources, and reach out to students. The second is an expansion of the feminist movement’s ability to reach out to students. Having courses, clubs, and literature available to students is key in educating the public on the need for feminism.

Am I a feminist?
Yes. I believe in a “vision of mutuality” between the sexes and in the beauty of the difference in the sexes. I understand that many inequalities are still anchored in our society, and will not be knocked out unless I do something, which is the take-home message of The F-Word. I also understand that any movement is dead unless activists take motion in fighting for their cause. In terms of being a feminist, I believe in striving to succeed in realms where women are not equal in order to tactfully encourage others to do the same.
...Thanks for a great class!

Final: Question 1

I chose to discuss The F-Word, Feminism is for Everybody, Opt Out, The Eternal Feminine, and He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut. These pieces of literature were chosen primarily because they affected my views in some way. They actually affected my views in the order presented: The F-Word eradicated the notion in my head that women have won their battle so that I was read to listen to more that feminism had to offer. Feminism is for Everybody gave me my favorite definition of feminism to go off of. Opt Out made feminism more personal. The Eternal Feminine made me realize the need to be active and educate individuals who do not know about the forces that work against them. All of the previous pieces of literature made the classic double standards in He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut seem far more real and personal. The feminist agenda will be effective for different people in different ways, which is why taking care in the delivery of its message is so important. People need a chance to understand that there are problems, that the problems affect them, and that the problems will not go away unless they become active.

The F-Word

I chose to write about the F-Word for a number of reasons, the first being that it is my favorite reading from the semester. The F-Word has the single most important argument I have heard all semester. This argument is wrapped in part of the thesis as a group of questions: The F-Word asks three questions in its thesis. How is feminism changing? Is the new generation on young women taking their rights won by previous generations for granted? And by focusing on cultural politics, instead of electoral politics are young women giving their power away? These are the questions that helped me dramatically understand what much of the feminist movement is all about. These are questions that I hadn’t been able to articulate until I read the arguments that support the thesis. And most importantly to me, evidence in my experiences show that these are valid questions to ask.

The F-Word discussed countless issues to support its thesis, so I will highlight only some. The first part of the book is devoted to defining what the third wave of feminism is. It turns out that most of the women she interviewed had very unique ideas, which is the key point. There is one attitude, however, that is largely portrayed in the third wave discussions. Much of it is comprised of apathy towards certain subjects and a want to define feminism on a more individual basis. The F-Word directly addresses these attitudes by arguing that there is a danger of segmenting the political strength of women –especially on issues which most agree on like poverty, the wage gap, etc.

The F-Word also examines the current state of motherhood. There are two basic parts to the motherhood discussions. The first is that women want to have the choice to be stay at home mothers and the second is that statistics don’t really show that most women have a real choice. The author argues that young women seem to be turned off of the idea of motherhood because of how difficult the balancing act can be.

One of the most important parts of the book discusses women in the political realm. People interviewed in this section express the lack of representation in the political realm for women which is why women need to get to the polls. The chapter titled “Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport” clearly expresses what the author is trying to get at. If the evidence shows that women really have been more apathetic towards government and that they have also reaped many negative side effects from that, then they need to vote!

I talked about The F-Word a considerable amount because it has a considerable overlap with other readings. I also think that this book demonstrated the origins that the other readings expand on.

Feminism is for Everybody

Feminism is for Everybody is basically a hand guide to what Hooks believes is Feminism. This book motivates feminism with the statement: “Imagine living in a world where there is no dominion, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction.” This idea is the cornerstone for the author’s thesis: that is the goal of feminism. I chose to discuss this book because it gave the first simple definition of the feminist movement that I liked. I always disagreed with a movement that blamed an entire sex instead of historical mistakes. Mutuality between males and females will never be achieved unless women stop “hating” and “blaming” men so that men can understand women as being intrinsically equal.

Much like The F-Word, Feminism is for Everybody covers several topics. Within the web of airy sounding idealistic statements, the author does make her point, which is that feminism really is for everybody. She argues that feminism bleeds into the interests of so many groups, for instance minorities and individuals below the poverty line. The author also spends most of her time explaining what feminism has done for society, which is why feminism is so noteworthy. Achievements discussed include civil rights, a voice for sexual abuse, a network of women for a cause, the institutionalization of women’s studies, reproductive rights, challenging sexist thinking, fighting the “beauty myth”, raising awareness for feminism in social classes, raising awareness in the workplace, and the list goes on.

The important point to take home from this book is that feminism can be used to fight on all fronts. Feminism effects everyone in a society and it takes many people to make it work. Feminism is for Everybody was able to contrast the F-Word by giving an almost exact description of what feminism is. The important link between the two lies in the fact that The F-Word is trying to motivate this generation to choose an activist view of what feminism is, which is what Hooks does in her book. I think the author of The F-Word has her own very specific definition and views of feminism, despite the fact that you only read a motivation for people to at least care and be active. I think that The F-Word provides much more sound arguments than Feminism is for Everybody, but Feminism is for Everybody serves its own important role. That is, the book simply states what feminism is in the author’s view. This is important since most people don’t know what feminism is.

Opt Out.

Opt Out was one of the more controversial articles that we read this semester. The thesis of opt out is that women are now choosing to be stay to home mothers instead of being forced to. The article considers the testimonies of several graduates from Princeton, which the author recognizes is hardly a representative snap shot of women in America. Belkin uncovers the reason behind the stay-at-home syndrome: most of the women had husbands who could support them while they raised children. More than shed light on the nice fact the privileged white women who “marry well” can “choose” to stay at home to raise children, this article silently motivates a large problem that active feminists try to raise awareness for (regardless of the author’s intent). That is, not everyone has the ability to “choose” to stay at home. The majority of women and men reading this article will not be able to relate to the Princeton graduates interviewed, which automatically raises awareness that not all women are given the adequate opportunity to make said “choice”.

I think that this article if taken at face-value is entirely a contradiction to what The F-Word argues for. When people react to the stay at home mom argument, the article becomes another piece of clear evidence that feminism has not finished its fight. In the same light, Feminism is for Everybody discounts the discussion of privileged women and their choices, because feminism is for everybody.

The Eternal Feminine

The Eternal Feminine is a much different piece of literature than most read in class, mostly because it is a stage play. And it is not a stage play about feminism. Reading this play, however, does give the opportunity to analyze gender in Mexican literature. For my “reading gender” assignment I focused on one section of the play, which I wish to talk about now: the scene in her dream when she talks with her mother.

Castellanos places us in the perfect situation to learn the true context up Lupita’s fears. Lupita is dreaming of “what the future holds”. Instead of dreaming in fairytales, Lupita dreams in terms of what she doesn’t know, and how she has always learned what she now knows; Lupita doesn’t know how to be a good wife, what her husband will expect of her, what to think of sex in her mariage, how quickly she may get pregnant, and how she should take care of an unborn child... she answers these questions in her dream with the imagined angry reactions from her husband and the scorning reason of her mother. The way that Lupita resorts to answering the questions in her dream shows how innocent she really is. Her innocence is juxtaposed with what she figures real motherhood is at the send of this section: darkness. It isn’t very often that we see women seeking out what other possibilities there are, more correctly, it isn’t very often we encourage women to do so.

Lupita’s lack of control over her own pregnancy parallels the lack of control many women have over their pregnancies today. One parrallel is in education. As discused in the F-Word, sex education in the US is not properly provided everywhere. When Lupita’s mom tells her that she must wear loose clothes, and feed her cravings, it becomes apparent that neither of them know what really contributes to the health of a baby, so the one with more experience is the only one who should be bossing. Lupita is also completely bossed around by her husband and her mother. This may have represented her lack of understanding since she eventually listened to everything that she was told to do. There was also no talk of Lupita wanting to have a child, it just happened. The issue of a contraceptive didn’t enter the picture at all. It seems that the lack of knowledge about being a good wife was the very thing that was making her a good wife; she just had to listen to two people and she was fulfulling her duties. Many times in our society people are considered good when they don’t ask questions about a taboo subject like sex and pregnancy.

He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut

This book is a black and white motivation for feminism in that there really are obvious inequalities that place females at a disadvantage in our society. The book it written in a way that everyone can understand since it directly references the culture that we all live in. There are at least 49 double standards that every woman in the US has been held to in this book.

Many of the double standards discussed in He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut are also discussed in The F-Word. This makes sense since double standards are a good motivation for women to stop being apathetic. The double standard that mixes the most with the F-Word is “He’s a politician, she’s a fashion plate”. This overlaps so well because the F-Word argues that women need to become more involved in politics. The “fashion plate” is a direct reference to women being useless in political matters, which wouldn’t be the case if women become more politically charged and motivated. “He’s gonna be a success, she’s gonna be a stay-at-home mom” is the double standard that meshes with the Belkin article over stay at home mothers. Regardless of the evidence that Belkin was showing, the actual majority of out culture believes this. All people have to do is consider maternity leave, paternity leave, tenure-tack jobs, and statistics that show there are less professional women working in the US than men. In the same fashion, this double standard is depicted in The Eternal Feminine.

The F-Word, Feminism is for Everybody, Opt Out, The Eternal Feminine, and He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut really did build on each other and motivate each other. The F-Word was able to explain to me that there are political issues that have to do with women’s issues that affect me and the US on a large scale. Opt Out motivated me to fight the notion of post-feminism. Feminism is for Everybody gave me my favorite definition of feminism so that I can explain to people why we need feminism. And all of the previous pieces of literature made the classic double standards in He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut seem far more real and personal. These pieces of literature work together in their ability to motivate everyone to come closer to understanding and acting on feminist ideals.

The F-Word has motivated more than anything else read in this class because I have always wanted to become a leader, specifically a leader in the science community. While there really are countless forces that keep women out of this field of study and keep women suppressed in the field, I find comfort in understanding these forces to fight them with a greater fire. The F-Word taught me to stop being pig headed. It taught me that there is opposition to my success in the sciences and that I need to get in there are fight. I now have two specific goals for my future career. The first is to establish a women’s physics group for undergraduates and graduates and be the head coordinator. Every physics department needs this in place for properly encouraging women in their major (the OU physics department only has a group for the PhD women students). The second goal is to be active in changing the way tenure is given so that it is not discriminating towards women.

Blog 10

Reading Gender Essay

I completely shuddered when reading the dialogue between Lupita and her mother. The dream of Lupita and her mother reminded me not necessarily of my experiences with my own mother, but of feelings that I have had towards her. These are feelings that all mother-daughter couples have. On the mother’s side, their daughter must be brought up to some standard (which is different for every mom). On the side of the daughter, feelings of alienation, being controlled, and worry of becoming their mother surface in the slightest conflicts.

Castellanos places us in the perfect situation to learn the true context up Lupita’s fears. Lupita is dreaming of “what the future holds”. Instead of dreaming in fairytales, Lupita dreams in terms of what she doesn’t know, and how she has always learned what she now knows; Lupita doesn’t know how to be a good wife, what her husband will expect of her, what to think of sex in her marriage, how quickly she may get pregnant, and how she should take care of an unborn child... she answers these questions in her dream with the imagined angry reactions from her husband and the scorning reason of her mother. The way that Lupita resorts to answering the questions in her dream shows how innocent she really is. Her innocence is juxtaposed with what she figures real motherhood is at the send of this section: darkness. The flow from innocent newly-wed to the all-knowing grandmother is very prominent in our culture. This is the path that is hard for women to stray from because it is what they are told to do. It isn’t very often that we see women seeking out what other possibilities there are, more correctly, it isn’t very often we encourage women to do so.

Castellanos takes care to define how powerful Mama is in Lupita’s life. Not only does Mama dictate how Lupita is feeling, what she should do, and how she should act, but she controls Lupita’s husband. Lupita experiences her pregnancy with no control over it. Mama is able to manipulate Lupita’s husband because he doesn’t know how to be a proper father. Both Mama and her husband control Lupita’s pregnancy because she has no clue. The most interesting gender relation from this is the womens' ability to blatantly manipulate Lupita’s husband. It is interesting that the only time that Lupita is able to manipulate her husband to such an extent is with the help of her mother.

Lupita’s lack of control over her own pregnancy parallels the lack of control many women have over their pregnancies today. One parrallel is in education. As discussed in the F-Word, sex education in the US is not properly provided everywhere. When Lupita’s mom tells her that she must wear loose clothes, and feed her cravings, it becomes apparent that neither of them know what really contributes to the health of a baby, so the one with more experience is the only one who should be bossing. Lupita is also completely bossed around by her husband and her mother. This may have represented her lack of understanding since she eventually listened to everything that she was told to do. There was also no talk of Lupita wanting to have a child, it just happened. The issue of a contraceptive didn’t enter the picture at all. It seems that the lack of knowledge about being a good wife was the very thing that was making her a good wife; she just had to listen to two people and she was fulfilling her duties. Many times in our society people are considered good when they don’t ask questions about a taboo subject like sex and pregnancy.

Blog 9

The Moondance International Film Festival, which sells itself as “The American Cannes”, is held annually in Boulder, Colorado. The website for the organization, http://www.moondancefilmfestival.com/index.html, is full of information that designates their interest in promoting awareness and causes against social injustices on an international scale.

The welcome letter written by Elizabeth English, the founder and executive director of the Moondance International Film Festival, is full of forward thinking ideas. “Films and scripts can contribute to a healthier society and should encourage the active involvement of audiences to connect and act collectively to address social challenges... We honor those writers and filmmakers who, through their creative work, actively increase awareness, provide multiple viewpoints, address complex social issues, and strengthen ties between international audiences.”

The mission statement explains that the organization wants to promote international screenwriters and independent filmmakers, encourage non-violence in film, support education through film, and reach out toward women film-makers and women writers everywhere in the world, promote the equality of women. “Our mission is to present a vibrant and growing collection of films and writings, which is an ideal means for communication across perceived boundaries of race, culture, age and gender.” The mission statement also includes a large emphasis on women’s rights: “Our work on reaching out toward women film-makers and women writers everywhere in the world is primary and ongoing. Women writers and film-makers from all six continents, and from a wide diversity of ethnic and linguistic groups are an integral part of our mission and goals. We seek to inspire and invigorate this creative potential of women to perceive, conceptualize, and produce their works for the benefit of the world society. We are dedicated to preserving their accumulated accomplishments and visions as expressed through the art of film and writings.”

All articles that I have been able to find give very positive reviews of the film festival. Most articles mention that the focus on positive social changes makes the festival unique and a very worthy cause. I chose to cover an arts-oriented organization because the arts can serve very unique rolls in social issues. Specifically, a film festival such as this one represents a movement of change that is wanted now. Contemporary art have always served as an outlet for the oppressed and this festival is shining light on these issues by seeking out films from all cultures, sexes, races, religions, etc. Art is also something that can be understood without language, making it a more human and binding experience. It is also convenient that the festival takes place in Colorado, the state that isn’t far from any other state!

Readings:

The article over globalization is obviously a very depressing one. I appreciate that the author was trying to display this world issue in light of women’s rights. Enloe realizes that sweatshops are filled with primarily women workers and that is what makes it easier for globalized companies to take advantage of the “opportunity” to put them to work. The author has a very substantial point that can be applied more generally to social issues all over the world. One of the failings of the 3^rd wave may be that we still don’t think of social injustices as being relevant to gender. If we are to understand any social issue/problem/injustice then we really do need to understand the rolls of males and females in the societies affected. The tensions between these rolls can often fuel other problems, like in the case of factory workers.

Ethnographic Exercise: Gender and Work

My mother has often shared certain frustrations about her work environment. “Sherri just has to talk about penis envy”, “The women at the front are always gossiping about students”, and “The women think that the dean likes me so much because I have a pretty face” are examples of what I get to listen to when I fold my laundry at home every other weekend. My mom’s complaints can often be boiled down to a problem over what is and isn’t proper for the workplace. Should Sherri be talking about penis envy after taking off her uncomfortable shoes and walking around the office bare-foot (because stilettos are in fact the reincarnation of penises)? Should there be more control over student gossip? And should the women and men in the office be suggesting why they really think my mom got her job?

You may have noticed that it almost doesn’t matter where my mom works; these problems happen in all offices. I would like to tackle, just for a day, the dramas of the Undergraduate Advising Office in the OU College of Business. I would like to extend the idea of what is or is not proper for the work place to a discussion over gender: What links exist, if any, between gender rolls and the ability for an office to appear professional?

Observation:

Upon strolling into the Michael F. Price School of Business, one can’t help but to notice the carefully chosen décor, professional color schemes, and gold lettering on the walls paying homage to the kind individuals who made the college possible. This building looks like a business college. Students throughout the building proudly type on their lap tops as if they want all people passing by to know that they will make over $100k someday. The clicking and clacking of polished leather shoes echo in the hall. This is a place of prestige, and surely, the undergraduate advisement office is no exception.

My mom holds the unofficial title of “The Hostess with the Mostest” in this office. Basically, my mom is first in line when it comes to dealing with angry parents, failing students, and important visiting guests. My mom spends much of her day being busy with taking calls, greeting people, scheduling appointments, and informing the counselors about their next appointment. In the time between, conversation is always happening behind the front desk, whether it is between my mom, student workers, or counselors that wander out of their offices. My mom works amongst mostly younger females, about in their 30’s or 40’s. This is what makes my mother’s job interesting; her coworkers hold a melting pot of views very different than her own, and most importantly, know how to get a little rise out of her whenever they like.

Like all good conversation, most subjects talked about behind the front desk end up leading towards inappropriate conversation if the wrong person were to hear. It could be anything, too much information about someone’s boyfriend, someone thinks a student is “cute”, someone thinks so and so is an evil witch, and the list goes on. Knowing my mom better than anyone in the office, I can sense a lot more out of her than any of her coworkers can. The feeling that I get from my mom, more than any other feeling, is a little discomfort and disapproval, both are covered up by a shy giggle every time. The most uncomfortable conversations are spurred when the counselors are involved. If Michael (one of the few men in the office) comes out to check his next appointment and goes back to him office, my mom always has to look over at me to ask in a quiet voice, “Leah, do you think he’s gay?” If Sherri walks into the front with no shoes on, she has to explain why her stilettos represent penises, to which of course my mom has nothing to say in response other than “Sherri, what are you talking about? You’re not thinking!” My mom spends a lot of conversation time acting surprised, and not saying too much unless wedding planning, flowers, or something positive is said.

From what I have gathered, there is a constant administrative effort in place to ensure the professional appearance of this office. In fact, it has been described to me as a constant fight. Do certain gender roles have anything to do with this struggle? And what should be considered professional when it comes to expressing certain thoughts at work?

Analysis:

Gender has everything to do with the subjects talked about. Since there were usually only women behind the front desk, there was a lot of “girl talk”. Not only did most of this conversation make my mom feel uncomfortable, but if a student, professor, or an administrator was to overhear the conversation, they would not be comfortable or happy with what they should hear. There was something about this type of conversation that was very unprofessional, but why?

This office is a place where the appropriateness of the business world meets the rest of the world. The workers are expected to act a certain way, but often do not. A stark contrast I saw in the office was the way my mom would handle certain conversation compared to the younger women. My mom represented some sort of “old school” way of thought and doing. There are certain attitudes inherent in my mom because of her upbringing. It turns out, I agree with my mom on some level. There are certain roles that men and women fulfill in a professional environment that make their actions more appropriate. For instance, Career Services advises that it is better for females to wear a dress skirt with hose in a professional atmosphere.

Interview:

I learned the most from just talking to my mom. “It doesn’t matter how stupid I am, the dean just wants a pretty face up at the front and I can learn the rest latter.” My mom can talk for hours about how her coworkers need to learn to act more “professional”. When I asked my mom what this meant, she characterized the word by proper dress and proper conversation. “When someone wears a black thong under white pants and bends over all day long, they are being very inappropriate. Women shouldn’t talk about their boyfriends or penis envy. No one needs to hear about those things. The counselors also need to learn not to gossip about students.” My mom also acknowledged that the way people act at work is a function of social class and/or upbringing, “I think that we have different ‘types’ of ladies at work. For example, I would never drink during lunch with my coworkers.” When I explained to my mom that I see male professors from the physics department enjoying a beer with their lunch, my mom responded with, “well, they are men in the physics department. In the business college, we are supposed to stand out.”

I think that my mom interprets appropriateness almost entirely through how females and males fulfill certain traditional roles. I certainly have a more difficult time doing so, but then again, I’m not a part of the Michael F. Price School of Business. Despite the fact that I barely agree with a lot that my mom says over acting professional, I still think that she acts the most appropriate in her office.

Here is an entire waste of an article:

http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-arms29-2009mar29,0,747463.story

Blog 8

Belkin’s article seems to ring a few chords in me, and they don’t agree with her.
I hear the argument that women now have more of a “choice” to leave their career and be stay-at-home mothers (of course how much of a “choice” this is depends on race, social class, place of residence etc.) To me, it seemed that Belkin was arguing that women nowadays are lazy about their own careers, because who wants to work if they have to? You know what, I think they are lazy and that is has always been culturally acceptable for women not to work. But you know what else; men would do the same thing.
Culture values the man who provides for his family. Culture values women who are mother figures. Mix those together and trends make sense. Things also make sense if we consider America in the 1600’s to the 1800’s, a time where women really did have designated tasks oriented around housework which were far from what your standard stay-at-home mother would complete nowadays. But I don’t think very many of those women would be considered lazy by Belkin. Belkin is trying to tie in the fact that the feminist movement has made it possible for women to move towards other types of jobs, but they simply are not fulfilling those jobs and are instead using children as an “opt out”. So while many men would do the same thing if they had the option, I still have a hard time siding with the stay-at-home mothers. The article makes its most important point right near the end:

This, I would argue, is why the workplace needs women. Not just because they are 50 percent of the talent pool, but for the very fact that they are more willing to leave than men. That, in turn, makes employers work harder to keep them. It is why the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche has more than doubled the number of employees on flexible work schedules over the past decade and more than quintupled the number of female partners and directors (to 567, from 97) in the same period. It is why I.B.M. employees can request up to 156 weeks of ob-protected family time off. It is why Hamot Medical Center in Erie, Pa., hired a husband and wife to fill one neonatology job, with a shared salary and shared health insurance, then let them decide who stays home and who comes to the hospital on any given day. It is why, everywhere you look, workers are doing their work in untraditional ways.

The other side of the argument that I hear most from Belkin has to do with “choice”. She argues that affluent, white women form Princeton had the ability to choose, while others may not have. I agree. That is why it seems such a disgrace when these women choose not to enter the work force in any way, when countless others would love to, but cannot. I’m sure that this would offend many individuals, but if someone does not express any desire to invest in themselves and realize they have an obligation to give back to society, then they are they people who hold us back from a more sensible society. I should clarify that I don’t define a job entirely by wage. There are countless organizations and causes people can assign themselves to that give some of the greatest contributions to our society.

A pretty funny response to this article can be found on the Salon News website, http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/10/27/belkin/. The author, Walsh, attacks one of the weakest points in Belkin’s discussion: the matter of “choice”. Walsh discusses that Belkin really did refuse to discuss matters of discrimination, and she should have. She also discusses that Belkin’s work doesn’t say anything special because of the group of individuals she’s interviewing: “Because, honestly, if you take those disclaimers seriously, you'll think -- correctly -- that Belkin's piece is a real-time snapshot of a small cohort of privileged 30-something white women who are likely to think something entirely different in 10 years.” I agree with Walsh.