Argumentative Essay – Lisa Ellefson
The Advancement and Impact of Technology on Women at Home and at the Workplace
“Improving women’s access to technology has the potential to spur their economic advancement and stimulate broader economic growth. Regrettably, technology has been underused in unlocking women’s economic opportunities. The gender divide is evident in both traditional and modern technologies.” (Gill, Brooks, McDougall, Patel, & Kes, 2010, p. 2). More specifically, technological developments including adding machines, typewriters, addressograph machines, office communication systems, and automated telephones, changed the stigma of women working solely at home to finding paid labor outside of their homes. On the domestic front, a rise of technological developments in household appliances and better-quality energy in the 1920s, allowed housework to become less time consuming and gave women more time to find paid labor outside of their homes (Lorance, n.d., para. 1). This essay
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further discusses the barriers women face in the advancement of technology, and the positive impacts women experienced due to technology pushing more women to join the workforce. History of Women’s Roles To illustrate the evolution of women’s roles in society over several centuries, Mary Czarnecki (n.d.), discusses briefly the numerous responsibilities of women which were identified in The Boke of Husbandry (as cited in Goldberg, 1995). During the medieval times, peasant women mostly stayed at home completing housework, yardwork and taking care of livestock and other animals. In addition, peasant women had a duty to work out in the fields to help their husbands while also taking the time to train their children, in order for them to aid the family in completing these tasks (Czarnecki, n.d., p. 1). Later on in the 20th century, “Middle-class housewives, whose budgets could not accommodate the increase in the cost of domestic help, would be more likely to purchase appliances to ease their own workload than wealthy woman who would probably purchase appliances for their servants to use,” (Lorance, n.d., para. 3). Household appliances of course existed far before the 1920s, however, they were operated manually until there was a sudden eruption of electrification of urban areas, therefore increasing the need and use of electric appliances, making housework less strenuous and more manageable (Lorance, n.d., para. 3). Due to household appliances significantly improving, the workload of housewives decreased dramatically, while allowing more time to dedicate themselves to paid labor. Subsequently, within the 20th century, the development of adding machines, typewriters, addressograph machines, automated telephones, and office communication systems all changed the structure of businesses and expanded the job market (20th Century London, n.d., para.
1). A lot of these developments pushed businesses to hire more women to handle clerical and administrative tasks. However, inventions like the typewriter, gave a negative stigma towards women in the working world, “…women became stereotyped as able to carry out only menial clerical work, and had to fight to improve their position.” (20th Century London, n.d., para. 3). Since the beginning of time women’s roles have changed drastically, from mainly taking care of household duties in the medieval era up until the early 20th century to acquiring more skills later on in the 20th century, by working positions in the business, medical, and even accounting industry, on top of completing the majority of household
duties. Negative Impact on Women Although technology helped push women into the paid labor force, it introduced a whole new set of problems. For example, with women joining the workforce a large wage gap resulted between women and men. The National Women’s Law Center (2015) states, “[w]omen in the U.S. who work full time, year round are typically paid only 78 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. This gap in earnings translates into $10,876 less per year in median earnings, leaving women and their families shortchanged.” (How the Wage Gap Hurts Women and Families, 2015, para. 1). As stated previously, certain inventions such as the typewriter gave women a stigma that women were unable to work jobs with a higher skill level and thus, had to fight to improve their positions by receiving promotions. Not only did women have to fight for higher skill level jobs but they earned significantly less than men. Furthermore, women have several barriers to overcome when gaining access to and the use of technologies. Three of these barriers include the exclusion from technology education and design; little free time; and social norms favoring men (Gill et al., 2010, p. 7). When speaking of the exclusion from education and design, men dominate the innovation process as developers, creators, and designers. On the other hand, women are mainly viewed as “users” or “receivers” of technology, not so much as innovators. Specifically, nowadays developing countries lack the means of education and skills from not being able to gain access certain technologies (Gill et al., 2010, p. 7). Secondly, little free time exists in developing countries, where women have greater responsibilities, because they cannot afford or obtain the technology to lessen their workload at home. In many third world countries, women take on the burden of household and family responsibilities which not only involve cleaning, cooking and childcare, but also fetching fuel or water. Such tasks result in “time poverty” which keeps women from committing more time to personal hobbies, paid labor and most importantly, education. Lastly, a social norm which favors men involve innovations which are specifically built for the structure of the male body type, such as, animal-drawn ploughs. These machines were developed to pursue men’s labor in clearing farmland, and are far too heavy for many women to push or even hold with the handles being too far to reach for several women. (Gill et al., 2010, p. 2). Based on certain technologies, their purpose like the animal-drawn plough, were to aid men’s work on the fields. In contrast, women were to continue using traditional labor methods instead such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children. Positive Impact on Women On a more positive note, “[a]s women work more, particularly in professional/managerial occupations, and achieve increasing occupational status and income, their hours spent on housework have declined. Changes in the household division of labor are primarily due to declines in the amount of time that women spend on housework (as cited in Van der Lippe et al., 2004).” For couples this is a positive outcome from women joining the workforce. In “The Impact of Occupational Status on Household Chore Hours among Dual Earner Couples” study from 2009, the classic role specialization theory which was presented by Becker et al. (1977), “assume[d] that a marriage is more stable when a husband and wife are each specialized in their tasks, mostly a husband in labor market skills and a wife in domestic skills.” (Omori, M., & Smith, D. T., 2009, p. 1). On the other hand, as stated prior to this theory, housework majorly declined when both partners achieved increasing occupational status and income. Men and women have been able to adapt to different skills that were not the norm in the medieval era or early on in the 20th century, yet when couples split household duties, the household labor declines and both partners are equally able to acquire an occupation outside of their home. The upside to this is not only lessens household duties, it also gives couples dual income to survive off of. Slowly but surely, gender inequalities will continue to decline significantly in all aspects of life, but most importantly across the workplace (Omori, M., & Smith, D. T., 2009, p. 1). Conclusion Technology is the foundation for economic growth and by improving and increasing women’s access to technology, it will stimulate broader economic growth and increase women’s economic opportunities (Gill et al., 2010, p. 2). The gender divide between technology and women’s economic status has significantly improved from the medieval era to today, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to promote economic growth and development of women through technology. For instance, in order to promote economic growth, policymakers in national governments are, “giving equitable opportunities to women and girls to receive education and training in science and technology,” increasing women’s participation during decision-making positions and providing training in gender issues to government officials (Gill et al., 2010, p. 24-25). The advancement of household appliances considerably lowered women’s workload at home and gave women more time to dedicate to education and paid labor; yet by improving today’s technologies and providing equal training opportunities for women to use these technologies, society can then continue to bridge the gender divide.
Industrialization had a major impact on the lives of every American, including women. Before the era of industrialization, around the 1790's, a typical home scene depicted women carding and spinning while the man in the family weaves (Doc F). One statistic shows that men dominated women in the factory work, while women took over teaching and domestic services (Doc G). This information all relates to the changes in women because they were being discriminated against and given children's work while the men worked in factories all day. Women wanted to be given an equal chance, just as the men had been given.
It is fundamental to define “old” and “new” roles of women to make a comparison between them. The “old” role of women in the workplace involved menial jobs, and before World War II, women were expected to remain at home and raise kids. Roughly thirty states enacted laws to prohibit married women from working
As many women took on a domestic role during this era, by the turn of the century women were certainly not strangers to the work force. As the developing American nation altered the lives of its citizens, both men and women found themselves struggling economically and migrated into cities to find work in the emerging industrialized labor movement . Ho...
Weiner, Lynn Y. From Working Girl to Working Mother: The Female Labor Force in the United States, 1820-1980. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 1985.
A huge part of the economical grow of the United States was the wealth being produced by the factories in New England. Women up until the factories started booming were seen as the child-bearer and were not allowed to have any kind of career. They were valued for factories because of their ability to do intricate work requiring dexterity and nimble fingers. "The Industrial Revolution has on the whole proved beneficial to women. It has resulted in greater leisure for women in the home and has relieved them from the drudgery and monotony that characterized much of the hand labour previously performed in connection with industrial work under the domestic system. For the woman workers outside the home it has resulted in better conditions, a greater variety of openings and an improved status" (Ivy Pinchbeck, Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850, pg.4) The women could now make their own money and they didn’t have to live completely off their husbands. This allowed women to start thinking more freely and become a little bit more independent.
Tilly, Louise A. "Women, Women's History, And The Industrial Revolution." Social Research 61.1 (1994): 115. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 4 May 2014.
In order to understand how the world wars had such a significant change in how women were viewed in the workplace, we must first understand their experience in the workplace before the wars even started. Contrary to popular belief, women did in fact play a role in the workforce before World War I. In the early 1900s, the number of women in the workforce greatly increased. During this time, it is estimated that approximately one in five workers were women. This statistic is mainly due to industrialization, a period of significant economic expansion that took place from the 1870s to 1900 due to the process of mechanization. Mechanization is the use of machines to complete tasks formerly done by hand. As a result of both mec...
The 1940’s were a turning point for women in the workforce. Women were perceived to be the weaker sex by society and faced social prejudices in efforts to become part of the workforce. The common belief was that women were intellectually inferior to men, incapable of making decisions regarding their household, and should not work outside of the home. Their job was to maintain the home, raise the children, and be supportive wives of the working husband.
In the 1920s, women struggled to develop a work identity that would give them professional status and preserve their femininity (Walkowitz, 1051). They wanted to be eligible for an executive position, but at the same time they also wanted to be Women finally began working outside the home, but not yet at the level, status, and rank they deserved. They deserved
Ever since the end of World War Two women have become more and more involved in the business world. Especially today with the computerized technological advances many women who are secretaries have becoming well versed in the computer era creating a new path for women to follow. Though the role of a mother can never change to her children most woman spend the bulk of their day working in the business world only to have enough time to be with their children and keep the family peace around the house. In what has a become a dramatic change for women in the Western world women can now be seen as equal to men in most areas if not all. It all started with the age of the Enlightenment, the age of reason, when people began thinking rationally, and it has a become a 300 year process. Rational thought and technological advancements as well as many other issues have changed the role of women in our society today and all across the world.
In the nineteen twenties, the crusade for women’s rights gained a much greater force than it had in the past. What helped to make this possible was the economic upturn. The wages of workers increased, and women also began to weigh more heavily in the workforce. Beginning in World War One, American women began to take the jobs of their spouses to support their families. They continued to work even after the war was over. The amount of women making up the overall labor forced increased about two percent in the time between 1920 and 1930, totaling to about twenty two percent in 1930 (“Women in the Labor Force”). Although they did not take the same jobs that men did, women were still an important ...
Men have dominated the workforce for most of civilization up until their patriotic duties called away to war. All of a sudden, the women were responsible for providing for their family while the men were away. Women went to work all over America to earn an income to insure their family’s survival. Women took all sorts of jobs including assembly line positions, office jobs, and even playing professional baseball. When the men returned home from war, the women were expected to resume their place as housewives. The women who had gotten a taste of the professional life decided that they wanted to continue working. Thus, the introduction to women in a man’s working environment began. Women were not taken seriously at first, because they were stepping into a “man’s world”.
It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participatory and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market. In conclusion, although the roles of men and women have radically changed over the turn of the century, it is still inevitable to have various gender-related occupational differences because the social and biological roles of women and men do not really change. Society still perceives women as the home makers and men as the earners, and this perception alone defines the differing roles of men and women in the labor market.
Women have fought through torture, blood, sweat, and tears to help women stand strong in our
Women were drawn into the work place in the 1960's when the economy expanded and rising consumer aspirations fueled the desire of many families for a second income. By 1960, 30.5 percent of all wives worked and the number of women graduating from college grew. (Echols, 400) Women soon found they were being treated differently and paid less then their male co-workers.