Writing assignment 2.9
Women for years have had to fight for respect and rights within the workplace, especially in criminal justice professions such as corrections and policing. One contributing factor in policing and corrections is they are male-dominated professions. Males’ conservative and old- fashioned views contribute to the way women are portrayed and treated in the working world. Media and the way women were and are being portrayed plays a huge role in society’s view of women’s worth and capabilities. Due to societies influences and having male dominated ideology, women must overcome barriers such as traditional roles for women, earing respect, and proving their worth in male dominated professions.
History
Males obtain old-fashioned
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Women are constantly shown and told from an early age that they need to spend copious amounts of time, money and energy on looking a certain way (killing us softly). These messages are delivered through, social media, TV shows, TV commercials/ advertisements, magazine ads and billboards. These types of advertisements severely impact a woman’s confidence and self-esteem because the expectations are simply unreachable, leaving women feeling vulnerable, incompetent, ashamed of who they are and guilty (killing us softly). The media and advertisement companies have turned women’s bodies into things to objectify for product consumption and profits, essentially dehumanizing women. Advertisement companies know that sex sells, and by trivializing sex and women’s bodies it is having a major impact on the type of violence that is happening against women (killing us softly). By dehumanizing women and their bodies, it allows for justification by men to commit domestic violence, violence and sexual assault (killing us softly). Even though it is more common for women to be influenced by the media on how to act or look, it also influences men. For example, violent video games and boxing promote power and masculinity. Because boys start to play video games that include, guns, killing and violence from an early age, they are exposed to violence early on in life. As they grow older they still do not escape from …show more content…
Female police and correctional officers not only have the stress of everyday work duties, but also, they have the added stress of “lack of peer support, hostility, harassment by male officers, the need to prove themselves, and having the extra responsibility of their home life as the primary caretakers” (2.4 module). The lack of peer support referring to male peers could be due to their predisposed belief that women are incapable of completing the job successfully due to their “emotional and sentimental nature” (2.4 module). A belief that has been disproved many of times. Joan Ross experienced firsthand the lack of support by her male peers, on her first day on the job as the first female correctional officer in Lethbridge she was left standing outside because her fellow colleagues refused to let her into the building (2.6 module). The reasoning in why this happened could be because of the media and males’ perception of females in the workplace as the author of “Killing Us Softly” suggested or it could be because the males’ sense of masculinity could be tampered with making them feel vulnerable as Jackson Katz suggested. These views and responses from correctional clients and coworkers may have very little relation to women’s competence or job performance but in relation to her physical characteristics (module 2.8). Females in the past and currently face an excessive
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,
In “Still Killing Us Softly,” Jean Kilbourne points out that advertising and media are partly responsible for the behaviors and attitudes expected of women.
Due to lack of recognition, men are treated as a superior to women in the workforce. “Throughout history…women were often subject to male authority ("Women’s Rights.").” Women very rarely get to high ranking positions in their field of work because of their gender, which results in women having a man as their superior. In this article the author points out that this has happened for years and still continues to this day but needs to be put to an end. In Doris Bohrer’s story of being a spy for World War 2
Women police officers face many stressors. Female officers are more likely to encounter disapproval from fellow officers, and also from friends and family for entering police work. On the other hand, the peers, supervisors, and the public questions female officers’ capability to tackle the emotional and physical rigors of the police work, and this is even when research shows women can do so. As such, the need for female officers to prove themselves to the public and the male officers constitutes some major stressor for women officers. In essence, female police officers do suffer quite more from the stress of their jobs than their male colleagues.
The TV and Film Industry’s Portrayal of Women has drastically affected many of their lives, much too often women compare themselves to the female images they see on television, film, and advertisings; at both the conscious and subconscious level, these media images of women lower self-esteem and affect behavior at every age and stage of life. We know they are unrealistic, yet they apply so much pressure on women to conform, and influence how we live, love, work and play. This gender role that society has generally considered appropriate for women is wrong. It makes so many of us women want to buy materials we don’t need, with the money we don’t have only to impress people we don’t know. So many teenage girls are unwarily developing eating disorders and dieting without realizing that they don’t need to live up to the ridiculous standards that society has set for us. It’s difficult to be who you want to be without having someone look at you a certain way when it’s all around us, the constant pressure put on us to be like all women on television, commercials, movies and advertisements, these industries’ powerful influence on society has given everyone around us the wrong idea of what “should” and “should not” be. A woman should be able to express herself and feel free to do what she wants with no judgment.
This is one of the most important questions women face in the criminal justice system, especially female patrol police officers. Male are regarded as strong, dominant, and can stand their ground, while females are considered weak, fragile, and their main problem is the physical disadvantage they faced when attacked by someone superior to them. Also do male police officers trust female officers when it comes to their safety. Research done at the LAPD suggests the male police officers do not trust women when it comes to law enforcement. “ I would never trust my life or safety to a female patrol officer- let alone my partner who is a woman.” The stereotypes female police officers face are usually from their male co-workers who think that the job is a man’s job and requires masculinity. In this case, male police officers feel threatened and demeaned because of the fact that a woman can do the same job as them. Other obstacles female police officers face is that because law enforcement is a male dominant job, many thing that female police officers should not seek employment because they are emotional, physically weak, not aggressive enough, naïve, and they do not have the ability to gain respect from society, especially from the male audience. Female police officers usually face internal obstacles when trying to get a job promotion through the ranks. These obstacles include
Women in Law Enforcement There are many stereotypes that women in the law enforcement field have to face. In order to recruit more women into policing, law enforcement agencies should attempt to overcome the idea that policing is a "male-oriented profession". This paper will cover parts of the history of women police officers, some views and stereotypes of the female officer, job related issues, life outside of the workforce and job satisfaction. It used to be that only nursing, teaching, and clerical positions were open to women. A small number of women worked as correctional officers and their assignments were usually limited to peripheral tasks.
In this age, media is more pervasive than ever, with people constantly processing some form of entertainment, advertisement or information. In each of these outlets there exists an idealized standard of beauty, statistically shown to effect the consumer’s reflection of themselves. The common portrayal of women’s bodies in the media has shown to have a negative impact on women and girls. As the audience sees these images, an expectation is made of what is normal. This norm does not correspond to the realistic average of the audience. Failing to achieve this isolates the individual, and is particularly psychologically harmful to women. Though men are also shown to also be effected negatively by low self-esteem from the media, there remains a gap as the value of appearance is seen of greater significance to women, with a booming cosmetic industry, majority of the fashion world, and the marketing of diet products and programs specifically targeting women.
In this essay, I will investigate and describe a cultural group in my desired field. I will provide details from an interview with a professional person in my field of interest. Gender inequality is still a big issue in law enforcement. Women make up a small percentage in the world of law enforcement. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, there are only thirteen percent of women working in law enforcement in the United States and only five percent are African American (Criminal Justice School Info, 2014). The New York City Police Department hired the first female officers in 1845 and they were called “matrons” (Felperin, 2004). Over twenty years of extensive research has shown that female officers possess a unique style of policing in which they rely more on their interpersonal skills rather than physical strength or force to talk a person down from a violent situation (National Center for Women & Policing, 2013).
Women Empowering Law Enforcement Introduction In modern law enforcement, the role of women police officers has changed significantly, as they bring many qualities that benefit community policing efforts. Women officers have many attributes, including exceptional communication skills, empathetic understanding, and adept de-escalation techniques. These qualities enable them to have stronger bonds and gain trust within the communities they protect and serve. Therefore, the women officers' presence often results in a decrease of violence and an improvement in overall community relations, which sets them apart from their male counterparts in law enforcement. Historical Overview of Women in Policing The United States' history of women in policing
Introduction This paper will delve into certain aspects of women in policing such as, the history of women in policing, correlation between more female officers and safer communities, (for example, more women in policing possibly putting an end to police brutality) the cause for the lack of women in policing, the need and/or demand for women in law enforcement, and the challenges of being a female in police work. This topic is important because in predominately male careers and fields, there are many struggles with misogyny and equality in the workplace. Research Questions The first question proposed is, “Could more female police lead to safer communities?”
From incarceration to working in correctional institutions, women obtain unusual characteristics in corrections. This paper gives information about the history of female correctional officers, females earning the same respect as the male officers, averting violent incidents, and managing their home and work life of a woman working in correctional institutions. The history gives a brief description of how they let female officers work in male’s institutions. Female officers earning the same respect address the struggles and obstacles women face.
Alice Stebbins Wells was the first female police officer hired by the Los Angeles police department in 1910 (Walker & Katz, 2005). In the early years of women police officers women were hired as social workers for juveniles, as matrons, dispatchers, and to help guard female inmates.
With so much exposure to this type of media, it is easy to become desensitised to it. With America becoming numb to the violence in these advertising tactics, domestic violence is an increasing problem as brutality against women has become trivialized. Jean Kilbourne 's “‘Two Ways a Woman can get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence’ argues that violence in advertising profoundly affects people in a skewed physiological manner, leading to violence against women. Kilbourne insists that “...violent images contributes to the state of terror...” felt by women who feel victimized by men who “...objectify and are disconnected...” from the women they mistreat (431). She furthers her argument by dictating that “....turning a human being into…an object, is almost always the first step towards justifying violence against that person” (431). So much of the media that America consumes is centered on dehumanizing women into an object of male enjoyment. It is difficult to have empathy toward a material object. Because of this objectification, men feel less guilty when enacting brutality upon women. Violence becomes downplayed because it is seen everywhere - in advertising and media - and this has contributed significantly to the cases of domestic violence in America. America has become numb to violence against women in advertising, leading to an alarming increasing domestic violence in this