post 11/23

Steinem's article dealt with stereotypes that I am familiar with. Many comedians often joke about serial killers linking them with “crazy white men”. They would tell jokes like When black people have a problem with someone they shoot that person when white people have a problem they shoot the whole school. A couple years ago when the DC sniper was going around shooting people I would have bet my last dollar that he would have been a white male. I was shocked to find out he was black as I’m sure most of the country was. The scary the scary thing is that a vast majority of these crimes are done for no apparent economic or rational gain and are classified as senseless acts of violence. So in theory everyone is susceptible to these violent acts. Steinem talk’s about how society correlates these murders by their age and not by their race or gender because they are considered the norm. If a majority of these crimes were committed by men of color that would be the first thing mentioned by those who talked about it but since these crimes are committed by white non poor males the main thing focused on is their age.

Response 11/22

I found Enloe's chapter, "Who Do You Take Seriously" very interesting. One thing that stuck out to me was when she said that since the start of the industrial revolution, male factory owners have tried to "presuade parents and local notables that a woman--especially a young, unmarried woman, working in a factory--would be able to retain her respectability so that she would neither bring dishonor to her family nor jeopardize her chances for future marriage" (Enloe 77). On reading this statement I immediately thought of the reading we did on the sneaker industry, its foreign sweat shops, and how young, unmarried women were encouraged and essentially brainwashed into viewing themselves as patriots, migrating "from their small towns to cities in order to participate in the industrialization of their nation" (60), as well as to view themselves as "daughters" and "potential fiancees," needing the money to send home to their families and win over men with large dowries. In this way, as Enloe claims, industrialists ultilized "young single women for their own institutional purposes" (Enloe 77).

Response 11/17

I thought that Emilie Morgan’s story, “Don’t Call Me a Survivor” in Listen Up was really powerful and upsetting. The most chilling part, in my opinion, was when she wrote, “maybe the word no wasn’t enough”. To me, every person should have the ability to say no and have their voice heard, especially women. For men, sex is not as big of a deal, if you can say that, because biologically they are incapable of getting impregnated. The consequences for women, therefore, can be life-long.

http://takebackthenight.org/images/logos/tbtn_logo_new_006.jpg

I decided to research the “Take Back the Night” march as a result of this story. As a national foundation, they began holding marches and rallies with the “mission of ending sexual violence” in states across the country in 2001. Their slogan is “shatter the silence, stop the violence” and at the bottom of the site says “welcome to take back the night. A place free from sexual assault and abuse. We invite you to become part of the solution, part of the end of sexual violence. Here is a place to take a stand, a place to break the silence. Here we can Take back the night!” This website has resources, from a number for counseling to paraphernalia to a forum to share stories. Furthermore, they have an area to help plan events and even sponsored tshirts. There is even a link for donations. I feel that this as an amazingly powerful way to bring people together who have been effected and/or know someone who has been sexually assaulted. It seems that Morgan was helped by the march, as it seems like a very supportive and successful charity, in that many women's lives have been bettered (or helped to be on the right path) by their work.

short post 11/18

The chapter from Susan Brownmiller’s book about rape was very eye opening. Rape is a topic that is not really talked about it makes those who are not involved uncomfortable and those are embarrassed. Rape is one of the worst things you can do to someone Brownmiller talks about how rape is more than just sex but it is about power. I know a lot of girls that have been raped or at least claim to have been raped. I would never blatantly accuse a girl of lying but this subject hits close to home for me. I knew a girl in high school who told everyone she was raped but later it came out that she was lying and only wanted attention. I also feel like sometimes-promiscuous girls who may have had a night that they would like to forget may also call rape. Rape is such a masculine thing that I think that some woman take advantage of their position. Having said that I know that a vast majority of these women claiming to be raped are telling the truth but I don’t think people should be naïve to think that sometimes women do lie about this for one reason or another.

News flash 2

It is no secret that there are many differences between men and women. These differences are talked about everywhere from schoolyard playgrounds to Oprah. Even though there are fundamental differences between the two sexes should annual income be one of those differences? Gender inequality refers to the obvious or hidden disparity between individuals due to gender. Gender is constructed both socially through social interactions as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structure, and hormonal differences. While we live in a progressive society we still have a long way to go in terms of equality. We live in a male dominated society; women are still fighting stereotypes about how they should remain in the house. This is a significant social problem to understand because we live in a society that is constantly striving towards equality. Whether that is race, gender, or sexual equality we are constantly striving to create a level playing field. It appears that job opportunities and ones career path comes down to more than just credentials and resumes. The glass ceiling effect is also considered a possible contributor to the gender wage gap. This effect suggests that gender provides significant disadvantages towards the top of job hierarchies, which become worse as a person’s career goes on. The term glass ceiling implies that there is an invisible barrier that exists which prevents women from advancing within their jobs or receiving promotions. This is not right, job opportunities should be based solely on how qualified the applicant is, the applicants sex should not come into play.

The article Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling in the Washington Post HYPERLINK "http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072900827.html" www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/07/29/AR2007072900827.html

Women make only 75.5 cents for every dollar that men earn. Crittenden talks about how the most disadvantaged people in the workplace are women with children. This trend is called the “mommy tax”. Corporations are not sensitive at all to women with children. Crittenden also cites the example of Virigina Daley Daley was fired from her job as an interior designer after she had a baby and attempted to create a more flexible schedule. Women are told that they are supposed to have a successful career and be a homemaker. Yet when they attempt to do both they are penalized. This sends mixed messages to woman and to a certain extent makes them have to choose between the two.

I am a firm believer that ones mindset has a lot to do with determining their end result. A lot of times you can speak things into fruition and in order to speak it you have to believe it. According to "Gender Differences in Anticipated Salary” Women go into jobs with much lower expectations then men do. Women, on average, ask for 30 percent less money than males. Women do not feel like they have as much leverage as their male counterparts so therefore they are less likely to negotiate. 20 percent of women (22 million people) say they never negotiate at all, even though they recognize negotiation as appropriate and even necessary. Why is this? It is because of the social framework that we have in place tells women that they should expect to be subordinate to men. Naturally with men and women being different it is natural to think that they have different values. This article “examined the relationship between endorsement of two work-related values (family and power), anticipated work commitment, and expected peak pay among 229 undergraduates at a southeastern U.S. university.” For both genders, valuing power predicted higher expected peak salary and valuing family predicted lower anticipated work commitment. A majority of the undergraduate students that were interviewed who valued family were women, linking to the social framework that tells women that they should value family over their career.

Women often get the short end of the stick. In Orgasm Inc women are made to think that they have a medical condition if they are not able to have an orgasm during intercourse. When in fact a majority of the women that had trouble-having orgasms had mental issues, body image problems or physical abuse, not physical issues. Instead of educating men on these issues doctors and financial advisors diagnose women with this disease that is neither proven or researched. Many of the times in the corporate world women are jus as qualified if not more qualified than men are but are often over looked when competing for the same position as a man. Recently we read several pieces that dealt with Abortions. As Arcana describes in her article titled "Abortion Is a Motherhood Issue", the decision whether or not to abort a "fetus” is a decision that should be left up to the mother. This goes back to the two conflicting images women strive to attain, CEO and homemaker. This is very difficult but it is proven that not only to women make less money than men but women with kids make less money than women without kids. Women who are considering abortions have to deal with the social stigmas and opinions and judgments of others when making their decision.

What do abortions and orgasms have in common? They both have to do with empowering women. And that is basically what the article is about. There is no doubt that a glass ceiling for women exists. I do not think that complete equality for men and women will ever be reached at least not in my lifetime. There are to many social constraints placed on women and the social framework that we have place in today’s society makes it very difficult for women to be successful in her career and have a family they almost have to choose which is more important to them. It shouldn’t be like that but I do not see this changing in the near future.

Response 11/10

For me, Atul Gawande’s “How Childbirth Went Industrial” was absolutely fascinating and relates to something that I am very passionate about. The summer before last, I worked as a clinical researcher and volunteer assistant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at my local hospital. Through this job, I was allowed to attend morning rounds, watch births and surgeries, sit in on bioethics debates and even attend meetings where difficult cases were discussed. In a nutshell, it was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and it has changed my life goals, to hopefully some day work with premature babies in a NICU.

While I understand and agree that childbirth and pregnancy are both “romanticized” and risky, and even the language that Gawande used describing the process of C-sections and use of tools was extremely methodical/technical and practiced, having been in the operating room, first hand, to watch births of premature and extremely sick babies, I cannot help but think that what doctors do to keep these children alive are nothing short of miracles. I saw many infants who were born at only one pound and 24 weeks (normal babies are 36 to 40 weeks) survive and thrive. The project I specifically worked on was also a way to help ameliorate treatment of very low birth weight babies. I saw the APGAR score used in real life, every time I went to watch a delivery… and it was explained to me then the history of the score. All in all though, I find it truly is amazing what has been developed to help both mothers and their babies, not to mention the fact that it was a woman who created the APGAR score which is used in hospitals everywhere.

http://www.nationalturk.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/premature-babies-sensitive-nationalturk.jpg

Finally, I do have to say that I understand that Elizabeth Rourke did not end up following her childbirth plan, but who really follows their life plans exactly anyway? In the end, I agree with her, however she should have been happy that her child was born as healthy as she was, not reprimanding herself for the choices she made along the way. As long as both mother and child are safe and well, there should be no regrets.

main post

Reading Atul Gawande’s article definitely made my stomach turn. The article started off chronicling the story of a woman named Elizabeth Rourke, a pregnant women nearing her due date. Rourke is a medical intern therefore is very knowledgeable about child birth. She wrestled with the idea of hiring a birth coach to stay in the delivery room with her the entire time so she would have someone in her corner. She wanted to have a natural birth. she is not scared of the pain but since she has witnessed so many child births and has seen the process, she is scared of losing the ability to choose what she has done to her. GWande then goes into the complicated process of childbirth comparing and contrasting human child birth to those of other mammals. This is where my stomach started to turn a little I was given way more details then I cared to read. Gwande talks about how dangerous childbirth could be for both the mother and the child. As time passed medical advancements were made to help prevent some of these potentially fatal situations. Hooks, clamps and other pointed instruments were implemented to help deliver babies. Doctors were often placed in difficult situations, there number one priority was to save the mother but sometimes that meant killing the baby.
The Apgar score was implemented in order for doctors to do their best job when delivering new borns. Gwande even states that even if the doctors did not care about delivcering a healthy baby they would care about their score which was a direct reflection on them. Rourke ended up having to abort her plan of an all natural birth and took epidurals she ended up having a C section her baby was successfully delivered. Gwande then goes into detail explaining the risks of such a procedure. Was the goal to make money or deliver the child safely? Natural births no longer seem like a viable option to women with medicine being the number one option.
In The article how childbirth went industrial Goer criticizes Gwande’s article. Goer’s main argument is that obstetric packages offered in hospitals has not decreased infant mortality rate, but has instead increased fatality. Goer also attacks C sections stating that in most cases there are lower fatality rates associated with vaginal births than with C sections. She also argues that not only are C sections safer for the child but they are also safer for the mother. I thought it was interesting that Goer calls Rourke foolish while her pregnancy did not go as planned I feel like she was placed in a difficult position and did a good job managing her stress and adjusting to what needed to be done. While I do believe that child birth should be somewhat standardized I also believe that it should be handled on a case by case basis. I do not believe unregulated risky procedures should be implemented just because the doctor feels it is in the women’s best interest. All of this just goes back to taking the power of decision from women.