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Race and gender inequality
Race and gender inequality
Critical race theory and gender
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On chapter 10 titled Race and Gender discussed the role of race in the feminist movement. Hooks talks about the introduction of race to the feminist movement in the 70s and 80s. Hook explains that when race was first introduced into the realms of feminism many white women felt betrayed because they believed that the focus was being taken away from gender. I like this chapter because it focuses on the true meaning of feminism and sisterhood. That is allowing for all human beings, regardless of race or gender to have rights. To unite and help each other regardless of what we look like or what our gender is.
I enjoyed reading this chapter because it mention of race and gender and briefly of class made it a chapter that united all of the previous
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Uninformed feminist gave the wrong information about sexism and how it affected girls. White racist feminist women gave the idea that white girls were more susceptible to sexism than girls of color. Although this is far from the truth, the fact that white women were in power made it seem like feminism was only for white women. The only way this was stopped was through the change of what a feminist was.
In Global Woman, chapter Just Another Job focuses on domestic labor in Europe. It is mentioned within the chapter that the employer of a paid domestic worker facilitates status, reproduction by maintaining status objects and by allowing the worker to serve as a foil to the lady of the house. This is because it shows that the employer has more lucrative things to do than to clean her own home.
The greatest problem that stay at home domestic workers face is long hours of work and abuse from the employers. Within the chapter it mentions the story of three Filipino maids who were made to kneel down in front of the employer's guest and the employer slapped them. In page 108 it mentions that domestic workers suffer verbal, physical and sexual abuse from their employers. Many are not let out of the house. I find this to be repulsing because they are being treated like slaves because the employers know that they will not say anything because of their legal
In “Scrubbing in Maine”by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich decides to work at the Maids Franchise so she can observe how the system was made for the maids. During her time being a maid she became emotionally impacted by the way her and the women were treated. Ehrenreich experiences in the article”Scrubbing in Maine,’’are the ones I can relate to even though both jobs don’t seem the same, the fact is my time spent working at Jewel is remarkably and depressingly similar to the time spent by Ehrenreich as a maid. In both instances employees are not really human, but are parts of a bigger machine and only Blue collar workers are stereotypes as uneducated unthinking individuals. As Blue collar jobs emphasized the routines, dehumanization of the employee, and loss of control over a person’s time. Workers do not engage in cognitive skills, but physical
The two works of literature nudging at the idea of women and their roles as domestic laborers were the works of Zora Neale Hurston in her short story “Sweat”, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Whatever the setting may be, whether it is the 1920’s with a woman putting her blood, sweat and tears into her job to provide for herself and her husband, or the 1890’s where a new mother is forced to stay at home and not express herself to her full potential, women have been forced into these boxes of what is and is not acceptable to do as a woman working or living at home. “Sweat” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” draw attention to suppressing a woman’s freedom to work along with suppressing a woman’s freedom to act upon her
Bell hooks covers an abundance of issues through different class, race, gender and nation. In her article ‘Feminism A Movement to End Sexist Oppression’ she begins by discussing the oppression of mainly black women who are in a lower class. Hooks discusses if men become associated with the feminist movement it would mainly affect the upper class and middle aged white women while just scratching the surface for working-class and poor women. In the recent article ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ bell hooks discusses the oppression about the racism faced by black people. I find it that this article is more non-intersectional because we are only talking about black people in general. We can only assume that hooks is discussing racism faced by poor black people because they were servants. Further into the article however hooks does focus on African Americans and we read upon what their impression of the white man could be. Hook also looks as students and how racism occurred in one of her class discussions. Finally, we look at the view of two black women and how they faced racism. The first woman was Njeri from ‘Every Good-Bye Ain’t Gone and how her grandfather was run over by 2 white guys. The second woman was Sethe from ‘Beloved’ by Morrision and how she killed her young because she didn’t want them to grow up in a world of terror. I found it that hooks did not say specifically who she is talking about like in her article ‘Feminism A Movement to End Sexist Oppression’ but is targeting the topic of racism all
During the second week of class, we were instructed to read a reading written by Bell Hooks titled “Come closer to Feminism.” This reading is what I consider to be a very important addition to this unit. Unit one is all about Making waves, Confronting Oppression. According to Frye, it is a fundamental claim of feminism that women are oppressed (Frye, 1983). Before taking upon this reading, my understanding of the feminist movement was not nearly as clear as it is now. After reading this short handbook, I too agree that feminism is for everybody.
However, the hardships and misfortunes of other groups of women due to race, religion, sexual orientation, etc are not often mentioned because feminism has a widespread message and definition worldwide. In the United States, black women or any women with darker skin complexions were treated inhumanely and did not, also still today did not benefit from white privilege. As explained, referring back to the era of slavery up until the American Revolution black enslaved women were mistreated due to the color of their skin and they were without a voice because of their lack of power in a society where man had more power over women and blacks were overpowered by those with lighter skin. Overall, it is important to note and realize that all women were subjected to unequal treatment due to many variables, but some women more than others because of certain variables as
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
In her article "Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination" bell hooks argues that the distance between the white and black races created a tense relationship between the two. This tension caused a multitude of problems that are still present today including systems of domination, stereotypes of one another, white naivety of their privilege and fear of white individuals. Similarly, Ruth Frankenberg 's article "White Women, Race Matters" discuss these issues but from the perspective of a white feminist. Many of the same points can be connected to hooks ' arguments because the main aspects with races focus on the idea that whiteness is a perspective in which we see ourselves, others and society and also that whiteness continues to remain
The connection of race and race relations in the United States was an ongoing issue, and while much progress was made, there are still people who revert back to old and ignorant takes on different races as the white man. This clearly relates to my own history based on the fact that various races are still being discriminated and treated unfairly and looked at as unequal. I can only hope that one day the whole population of the world can do the right thing and look at everyone as equals.
Last semester when I signed up for classes, I thought Sociology 260: Social Problems in the US would be a course where a minimal amount of time would be spent on discussing social problems and a maximum amount of time would be used to discuss public policies to combat such social problems. I wanted to jump the gun. I did not see that in order to implement a public policy, which would be of use, I had to fully understand all facets of the problem. Through these various books and articles, The Condemnation of Little B by Elaine Brown, "The Ghosts of 9-1-1: Reflections on History, Justice and Roosting Chickens," in On the Justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill, Perversions of Justice: Indigenous Peoples and Angloamerican Law by Ward Churchill, No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Justice System by David Cole, Welcome to the Machine: Science Surveillance, and the Culture of Control by Derrick Jensen and George Draffan, "Mastering the Female Pelvis: Race and the Tools of Reproduction," in Public Privates: Preforming Gynecology From Both Ends of the Spectrum by Terri Kapsalis and "Race and the New Reproduction" in Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts, a better understanding came to light on social issues currently seen as problematic like poverty, health care, race and discrimination, gender inequality and crime.
The concept of race is an ancient construction through which a single society models all of mankind around the ideal man. This idealism evolved from prejudice and ignorance of another culture and the inability to view another human as equal. The establishment of race and racism can be seen from as early as the Middle Ages through the present. The social construction of racism and the feeling of superiority to people of other ethnicities, have been distinguishably present in European societies as well as America throughout the last several centuries.
Hooks begins by stating that Feminism in the United States did not emerge as a result of victimized, underprivileged women who faced sexist oppression so much so they have internalized it , but in fact by bourgeois upper-class white women whose idea's of equality were far different. She begins this criticism with Betty Friedan, a leading figure in the women's movement and the author of the classic The Feminine Mystique claiming that the book ignored the difficulty and even the existence of non-white, poor women with the assumption that her concerns were harmonious wi...
Reflecting directly on the cultural attitudes and sociocultural messages explained throughout this course, it is clear that race, gender, and sexuality are all socially constructed in one way or another. Contrary to popular belief, race is actually almost completely socially constructed, it is not biological. Further, a human’s DNA does not differentiate at all to create any specific race. However, society has categorized certain things, such as skin color, to determine the race of individuals. In simpler terms, there are not specific genes that parents pass on to their offspring that determine their race; society categorizes people into specific races when they are born based on their
A social inequality that I would say I’m concerned with would be, racial and ethnic inequality. Racial or ethnic inequality is often established based on characteristics such as skin color and other physical characteristics, or a person’s place of origin or culture. Another meaning of racial inequality would be the advantages and disadvantages that affect different races within the Unites States. Race has become a socially constructed category capable of restricting or enabling social status. Racial inequality can lead to diminished opportunities, which can also lead to cycles of poverty and political problems. With this minority members in a society can result in discriminating actions such as; exclusion, oppression, expulsion, and extermination.
...nt has produce change in the modern society, including women's suffrage, more nearly equitable pay with men, the right to initiate divorce proceedings and where there is fairness, better access to education, and the right to own property, in addition to the right of women to make individual decisions regarding pregnancy, and abortion. Today, feminist movements are still in force and continue fighting for the rights of women. Feminists in the past have achieved women more rights and equality, therefore, feminism is a necessary value for today’s women and the fight is still on.
The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then, it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be three waves of feminism, each wave fighting for a different issue concerning women’s rights. Laws protecting sexual assault and alimony would be enacted, and women were now allowed custody of their children in divorce cases.