Sexual Stereotyping: False Preconceptions and False Conclusions in Blaming Technology
In an excerpt titled "The Feminist Face of Antitechnology" from his 1981 book Blaming Technology, Samuel C. Florman explains why he thinks so few educated women in modern society are engineers. The excerpt was written shortly after he had visited an all-female liberal arts school, Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, to convince a few young women to become engineers. His mission failed and his essay makes clear why he had such trouble.
Florman has more than one idea as to why young, educated women shy away from engineering as a career option. First, he notes that America has inherited much of its culture from England, where engineering has not been considered a high-class occupation. This is apparently so because engineering did not fully separate from craftsmanship until the mid-nineteenth century. Florman claims that most young, male engineers come from lower- and lower-middle-class families. He also claims that most young women who are educated in math and science come from middle- and upper-class families. For this reason, Florman explains that educated women generally see engineering as being below their social class, and therefore do not pursue it as an option. He supports his position with a story about how Herbert Hoover, after a long conversation, told a woman that he was an engineer and how she responded, "Why, I thought you were a gentleman!"1 Florman then turns to the feminists and asks why they haven't taken the lead in changing this situation.
Florman's main argument against the feminist movement is that it is fueled by a greed for power. He suggests that women, especially feminists, are attracted to perceivable power, or power which is obvious to the cultural eye. They want to become doctors, lawyers, and politicians. The desire for power is also intimately connected with social class, according to Florman. He sees this as one of the major reasons as to why so few women seek out engineering: they see it as a career without power. Florman sees women as being "a lot more interested in the privileges than in the responsibilities." According to him, the "ultimate feminist dream will never be realized as long as women would rather supervise the world than help build it." Until women strive to understand the technology around them, and help to create it, they will always suffer.
In brief, this article presents a view that women in engineering must enter the field as “conceptual men”. This means that in order to succeed in a male dominated field, women must essentially “become like men”. The article goes on to interview women in the engineering field. In particular, Ranson (2005) interviews women with and without children. This provides differing views of how women in engineering with and without children in engineering have approached their jobs.
Why the British Government Decided to Evacuate Children from Britain's Major Cities in the Early Years of the Second World War
Why the British Government Decided to Evacuate Children in the Early Years of the Second World War
The government evacuated children from major cities in Britain to safer areas of the country in response to a new style of warfare that had emerged from World War One, due to the use of aircraft. Aircraft began to target industrial areas in an attempt to damage a country’s economy, and therefore damage their ability on the front line, and morale. However, accuracy was bad and so bombs often landed off target and injured civilians who worked or lived in the industrial areas. The Government decided that the children needed to be protected as they were the next generation and fewer child deaths meant higher morale for the British people. Bombs were less likely to fall on rural areas of Great Britain and so the government decided to evacuate people who could not help the war effort out to houses, and families, in the countryside.
The once male dominated, corporate, "white collar" America has seen a phenomenal influx of women within the last thirty years. Although a female lawyer, physician, or CEO is no longer considered a rarity in our times, women still face quite a deal of oppression in comparison to their male counterparts. In retrospect, some professions have always been controlled by women, and men have not made a noticeable advance in these fields. In 1970, finding a female lawyer to represent you would be a difficult task, since less than five percent of the profession were women. Today, that number has risen to almost thirty percent. The percentage of female doctors has almost tripled in the course of thirty years. African Americans have not made such a conspicuous progression within the last fifty years, while women have made a tremendous impact on the corporate world. One may wonder, how did women make these extraordinary advances? For the most part, it is due to the education they receive. At the present time young girls are encouraged to enroll in classes dealing with math and science, rather than home economics and typing. As pointed out by Nanette Asimov, in her essay "Fewer Teen Girls Enrolling in Technology Classes", school officials are advocating the necessity of advanced placement, and honor classes for teenage girls, in both the arts and sciences. This support and reassurance than carries over onto college, and finds a permanent fixture in a woman’s life. While women are continuing their success in once exclusively male oriented professions, they are still lacking the respect and equality from their peers, coworkers, and society. The average male lawyer, and doctor make twenty-five percent more money than their female equivalent. Women have always lived with the reputation of being intellectually inferior to, and physically submissive to men. This medieval, ignorant notion is far fetched from the truth. In 1999, high school men and women posted similar SAT scores, being separated by a only a few points. In addition to posting similar scores on the SAT, the average males score was a mere two-tenths of a point higher than an average females score on the ACT. Even though a woman maybe as qualified as a male for a certain occupation , women receive unwanted harassment, and are under strict scrutiny. A good illustration of this would be the women represented in "Two Women Cadets Leave the Citadel.
Donald Spoto described the new apartment building that Williams and his family relocated to in St. Louis, Missouri as having only two small windows, one window in the front of the apartment and another in the rear. A fire escape blocked the smoky light that might have come in from the window facing the back alley (16). In The Glass Menagerie, the apartment was described as facing an alley. Meyer brought to my attention that the entrance to the apartment was actually a fire escape. There was no front door in the apartment of The Glass Menagerie, only a fire escape to enter and exit through (1865). This omission of a front door represents the feeling that Tennessee Williams had that he could not leave his family and strike out on his own in a normal fashion as most children do. Tennessee Williams felt that he had to literally escape in order to follow his own dream of writing as Tom too felt in the play. John Fritscher points out in his dissertation that Tennessee and Tom both were torn between their mother's interpretation of responsibility and their own instinct (5).
play is set in 1912, only 2 years before the outbreak of WW1, and in
Reasons Leading to the Evacuation of Children from Britain's Major Cities Early in World War Two
Women are faced with extreme pressure and alienation in their career fields, and on average earn less than men. Men, on the other hand, face similar pressure, while underachieving compared to women academically, and facing more dangerous occupations. Clearly, this system benefits no one. Michael Kimmel illustrates this point in “A black woman took my job': Michael Kimmel argues that it is in men's interest to work for gender equality.” The title itself emphasizes how the fight for gender equality will benefit both genders. He discusses how sexism is harming men by narrowing their worldview (2). Slaughter, Ullman, Kaplan, Dorment, Knestaut, and Miller all agree with Kimmel to some extent. They all agree gender equality does not exist. When all these perspectives are brought together, it becomes clear that it is in the best interest of both genders that the fight for equality is still pursued. Hopefully, one day women will earn as much as their male counterparts and be equally represented in both careers and intentional unemployment, and men will be attaining higher education goals and employed in less dangerous occupations, and both genders will be relieved of some of the pressure to dedicate 100% of their time to both a career, and a
of the fire escape it is also where Tom tries to have brief moments to
America’s history addresses the inferiority of women in many situations. Women have been denied the right to equal opportunities particularly in the STEM pathway, and are ultimately socialized to avoid these careers altogether. “Born in 1920, Rosalind Franklin used x-rays
He attempts to overcome this distress; he prefers to spend his nights at the movies. His mother, Amanda, constantly rebukes him for being so rude to her and always engaging in alcohol. It gets so bad that he mistreats his little sister, Laura, damaging her glass menagerie. He also dislikes Amanda’s style of waking them up each morning, saying “rise and shine!” (759). While arguing with his mother, he confesses to her how much he hates his job, wishing to go, “as a far as the transportation reaches” (759). Like Laura, Tom fails to win the battle over the reality of the fact that he dislikes his job and resorts to
STEM is best known as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. STEM for many years has been primarily seen as and stereotyped into a masculine work field. But as of recent years, while it expands, more and more women have been rising in these fields. However, there is still a tremendous gender gap between men and women in these fields and areas of work. The gender gap between men and women in STEM is alive and well. There is no denying that the gender gap between men and women in STEM is immense. But there instead are many sufficient reasons as to why there is such a huge gap between men and women within in fields. Some probable causes for the lack of women seen in these areas are biased towards women, unconscious bias girls receive
Carol B. Muller, “The Underrepresentation of Women in Engineering and Related Sciences: Pursuing Two Complementary Paths to Parity.” National Academies Press (US); Web. 2003.
Women majoring in engineering are labeled by society this is where stereotypes and misconceptions come in place, the truth about women are not understood by others. Stereotypes and misconceptions played a huge role in society because humans view groups in a different perspective than who people actually are. Stereotypes are based on truth but, with an exaggeration when describing a group of people, cognitions and or believes. On the other hand, misconception is different from stereotypes because misconception is a view based on untruth descriptions about that group or even an assumption just because human are a part of a certain group. Having stereotypes and misconceptions in society can affect various groups because some of the groups can take it as something offensive. The fact is that groups of people are labels that way because of how people act or dress is different from other people, this follows by commercials and even social media that are impacting the way society see people. Society acts a certain way because people feel comfortable to represent them self that way. As part of society women impact society the same as men do because both are humans.