Bad Feminist By Roxane Gay Summary

Feminism Cannot Keep Up with Modern Times

In “Bad Feminist” Roxane Gay argues that there is little room for multiple or discordant points of view within feminism today, and yet she claims feminism remains a key identity to her. Gay states the feminist movement has been so warped by doctored misperceptions for so long that even the public who should know better have bought into the essential image of feminism. The public only knows the doctored version that showcases feminists as mean and angry, militant about their ideas, and against expressing multiple views. Today women are reluctant to identify as feminist for fear of signing away their complexities of human experience or individuality. Feminism has failed its original mission by

The term "pink-collar" was popularized in the late 1970s by writer and social critic Louise Kapp Howe was a way to denote women working as nurses, secretaries, clerks, and elementary school teachers. Pink-collar careers were not initially intended for women customarily as they did not require a specific set of skills only a woman possess but rather, because they resembled traditional gender roles. Hence, the origins of the term "pink collar," indicated nonetheless an office job, one that is overwhelmingly filled by women traditionally and still is today. One well-known woman dominated occupation is nursing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2003, women comprised 92.1 percent of registered nurses. Feminists represent traditional roles such as nursing where nine out of ten registered nurses are female, this illustrates bias nature certain careers can portray and in doing so exclude women pursuing non-traditional careers. According to Patricia Valoy a civil engineer, “women comprise of 47 percent of workers in all occupations, but are only 2.6 percent of construction workers, and that statistic hasn’t changed in the last 30 years.” Feminists add to stereotypical myths about women’s inferiority by omission of majorities and minorities, therefore preventing the concept strength

A non-traditional career is defined as jobs that have been traditionally filled by one gender, or conversely individuals from one gender comprise less than 25 percent of the individuals employed in each such occupation. As reported in 2010 by BLS data, the following jobs contain 1 percent or less female workers: boilermakers, brick masonry, stonemasonry, septic tank servicing, sewer pipe cleaners and trash collectors. Historically, most labor intensive or dirty jobs have been performed by men. On the other hand, Verilyn Gallo was only the third woman to join the West New York City sanitation department in 1987. She is now one of 200 female trash collectors there. Verilyn’s happiness for her non-traditional career is widely felt as she expresses how she laughs when people express disbelief upon seeing her drive the largest sanitation truck in the fleet. Verilyn is reported saying, “I have people in the truck who say, ‘you don’t drive that big truck,’ and I say, ‘oh yes, I do!'” Non-traditional women like Verilyn face the big challenge in breaking down widely enforced stereotypes that stem from past traditions. Since women have entered these non-traditional careers they have also been faced with sexist discrimination by their opposite sex co-workers. Puerto Rico construction contractor Santiago II Corp. was