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Feminist perspective of work essay
Gender roles and the workplace
Gender roles and the workplace
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Kathi Weeks talks about how critiques of work need to include “the whole work day” and not just waged work. This is related to the gendered nature of work. Summarize her argument. In her book “The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries” Kathi Weeks (2011) argues that today we work too hard and that work is quite important that is a requirement to survive. Work has become a privatized system and ultimately is a way of life (p.3). She also claims that the idea that a subject must work to become a worker it is more related to discipline than it is to economic. Humans become social and political subjects within work. Thus, work has become a key site of becoming classed (p.8). Gender identities are also created and reinforced through work. Weeks (2011) proposes to challenge not only the economic and political organization of work but to confront its normativity and moralization. She examines the dominant idea of the “ethic of work”, which implies work is essential to individual growth, self-fulfillment and keeps status and social recognition within society (p.11). Hence, in a struggle against work issues the central claim should be to refuse to work instead of struggle to get better wages. Weeks takes the concept of the refusal of work from the autonomous Marxist tradition developed in Italy during the 1960s and 1970s. According to her this concept allows to analyze the value and meaning of work (p.13). Work is a problem because it dominates our lives and benefits capitalism. Therefore, in order to undermine the problems related to work, we must stop working. Weeks criticizes second wave feminists of the 1970s. She argues that Marxist feminism “has tended to focus more on the critique... ... middle of paper ... ...oment where we feel the most united and connected to our loved ones but at the same time we are far from them. Nonetheless, I believe this is a new form of organization with its advantages and disadvantages, but we decide if we assume it completely, assume only the best part of it, or if we resisted to it. Moreover, in our very busy lives we can recognize those others that suffer from the same system of oppression by social media and create new ways for resistance. Hence, social media by keeping everyone attentive can become our best instrument to generate critical thinking, discuss political action and start a revolution. Works Cited Hardt, M. & Negri, A. (2012). Declaration. New York, NY: Argo Navis Author Service. Weeks, K. (2011). The Problem with work: Feminism, marxism, antiwork politics and postwork imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Even Though women have revolutionized themselves in relation to the world many other aspects of society have not. This phenomenon, originally coined by Arielle Hochschild in her book The Second Shift, is known as the stalled revolution. In essence while female culture has shifted male culture has not. This has created an unequal, unfair and oppressive atmosphere for women across the nation. The title of Hochschild's book tells it all. The second shift refers to the second shift of work women are and have been burdened with at home. Although they have made enormous leaps within the economy and workforce their gender roles at home and within society remain the same. Male culture and their ideas of female gender roles have not progressed. As a result needs of females have not been met. Working mothers today work more than any other demographic, a rough estimate of this comes out to be a whole extra month of work consisting of twenty four hour work days.
Work is a word that one hears on a daily basis on multiple different levels; work out, work at school, go to work, work at home, work for change. Society today is made of people that work hard every moment of their day from sunrise to twilight, these workers work for food, housing, family, education, and transportation. Essentially in today’s world if one wants something they must work for it, gone are the days where handouts are common and charity is given freely. The question then arises, who speaks for these voiceless workers that are often working so hard they have no time to voice an opposition? The authors Levine and Baca speak very well for these workers and for society in general, their narrators speak of not only work but of the world
The main flaw within Women Who Work, is that it glamorizes the American working woman and fails to recognize the ones working in low-wage service jobs. Sejal Singh agrees when she writes:
The origins and types of second-wave feminism provide a background for women’s experiences at the t...
Jackson, A. (2004). Gender & work: Knowledge production in practice. In A. Jackson (Ed.), (1 ed., Vol. 1). North York: York University. Retrieved from http://www.genderwork.ca/conference/Jackson_edited_final.pdf
There are a lot of reasons motivating people to work, such as their happiness, interests and self-esteem. However, it is important that jobs can influence people to keep their ambitions to achieve their goals, to satisfy their basic needs and to focus on one thing with their passion. Florence Nightingale gave up financial support from her family since she had an ambition to improve England’s medical and healthcare environment in the 19th century. And during my high school, “my job” offered me a suitable chance to reach my aim, too. In “Workers” by Richard Rodriguez, undocumented physical labor who comes from Mexico works in the U.S. to earn money for their basic needs. Furthermore, in Carl Rowan’s short story, “Unforgettable Miss Bessie,” Miss Bessie, a high school teacher with a plenty of knowledge, uses her passion to educate Africa American. According to these three people and me, jobs are so important for everyone because people need some ways to satisfy their ambitions, money for basic needs and passion on doing something.
In the reading; Feminism, Marxism, Method and the state by Catharine McKinnon, she contends that both Marxism and feminism illustrate how social arrangements of inequality can be viewed as internally logical yet they are
In Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the 20th Century (1974), he discusses the controversial theme of labor and labor power. He also analyzes the degradation of work, which is also shown in Charles Bukowski’s proletarian novel Factotum (1975). Along with these concepts, Braverman develops the boss/worker antagonism, which directly relates to Bukowski’s representation of the compilation of such degrading jobs.
Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America- Feminist Void?” Loyno. Department of History, 1988. Web. 11 May. 2014.
Hartmann, H. (1981). The Unhappy marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union. In C. R. McCann & S. Kim (Eds.), Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives (3rd ed.) (pp 182-201).
Karl Marx on Estranged Labor. In Karl Marx's early writing on "estranged labour" there is a clear and prevailing focus on the "necessary" of the plight of the labourer. Marx's writing on estranged labour is an attempt to draw a. stark distinction between property owners and workers. In the writing Marx argues that The worker becomes estranged from his labour because he is not the recipient of the product he creates for us.
In conclusion, Marx states that the worker is alienated from his own life as well as individuality. This level of estrangement from one’s own life can be equated to slavery as he cannot think, make decision or plan for his future life but rather the capitalist is his owner. Labor camps tend to characterize workers as objects which should be act or behave as normal human beings but are required to follow a set routine of activities in the production of products.
“In short, feminism, which one might have supposed as dead as the Polish Question, is again an issue. Proponents call it the Second Feminist Wave, the first having ebbed after the glorious victory of suffrage and disappeared, finally, into the great sandbar of Togetherness.”
In a capitalistic society, the owner exploits his workers by draining them of their self-worth. A worker gets paid only for his sustenance as the product he works on gets sold by the capitalists in the interests of creating a profit. This leads to the worker’s alienation from his surroundings and his work leading to the estrangement from the process of production. The existing social relationship is inherently antagonistic in nature and will give rise to class struggle that will eventually lead to the collapse of capitalism, and the creation of a new
Fraser, Nancy, Nicholson, Linda J. `Social Criticism without Philosophy: An Encounter between Feminism and Postmodernism', Communications, Vol. 10, Nos. 3 and 4, 1998