Blog #15

1. Pat Shroeder’s feels very strongly about women in politics and has a lot of ideas regarding the comments that are usually made about Hillary Clinton because of the fact that she is a women that is running for the President of the United States. One example is when Hillary Clinton began crying when she talked about a certain issue. There was a lot of talk about this all over the news. People usually try to put down a presidential candidate because of any reason that they could think of and the prime reason that Hillary Clinton usually gets put down is because she is a women. The media tries to portray her as only a woman who is not able to run a country by herself since she gets too emotional. Pat Shroeder brings up the sexist part of our society that is hardly ever mentioned in times like these. Although, when someone makes a racial comment, such as one involving Barack Obama, we will never hear the end of it. As we have moved through many generations, women have been able to speak their minds regarding issues involving women’s rights. Women will always have their voice in society and it is up to them to keep that voice strong.

2. The issue of class and gender always comes up when we are introduced to the 2008 democratic race. Gloria Steinem, in one of her articles, decided to write about the issue. The media usually tries to separate the two since they are currently competing against one another in the race. Gloria Steinem brings up a good point when she says that people should be looking into the issues that these candidates are able to fight for rather than looking at their race and gender. People should be united because of their similar beliefs and ideas that they have in order to improve a certain society rather than beginning a feud do to race and gender. When people do focus on race and gender, more problems begin to arise in the society. The main point for Steinem is to defeat the Republican candidate in the next Presidential election which could only be done if there is a unification of issues. As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama near the end of their democratic elections, many people should think about how their decision was affected regarding the race and gender of the candidates. These candidates have been judged and scrutinized for many months because of their race and gender. There are many issues about race and gender that are still in affect in our society today and it is time for the people of this nation to put their prejudices and stereotypes aside in order for them to decide who is most capable of becoming the next President of the United States.

Blog #14

Textbook: Chapter 10
1. Their were various reasons why feminism had its revival or its second wave during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The National Organization for Women was first introduced in which they would push for women’s equality and a change in the culture. The belief that people were able to practice safe sex because of birth control pills had allowed more people to be involved in sexual intercourse more freely. A new culture, known as a counterculture, had existed at this time. Another source of the second wave of feminism was the civil rights movement. African Americans began fighting for their own equality rights during the movement where they would go against the white Americans. The war in Vietnam also had an impact because many women had served at Vietnam. Women also had their own protests against the war making sure that their voices and opinions were heard throughout the nation.

2. The protest at the Miss America pageant shows us that women were not only looking for their equality rights politically, but socially and culturally as well. Women felt as if they were only being seen as objects which they felt was extremely degrading. Women had enough strength and confidence to go to a large event in order to get their word out about women’s liberation. They wanted to spread the word on how women should be as equal as men and not controlled by men. These women had made a lot of points regarding the issue and felt strongly about what they believed in.

3. The war of the sexes is one that has lasted for quite a while and it is a war that will exist throughout our history. Every time an issue is brought up regarding the equal opportunity to achieve something, different gender roles are brought up in order to question whether or not a women is capable of carrying out her duties in a certain job. An example of this today is with Hillary Clinton. Even though she has lived a life of politics and has the right credentials to become the President of the United States, many people in our nation question whether she is able to fight certain issues such as the war in Iraq because she is a women. Women have come a long way in order to have their voices heard and now have high positions in our government such as secretary of state Condoleeza Rice and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi who is third in line to the presidency if anything were to happen to the president or vice president. Women have definitely done a lot to get to where they are. They still have a fight ahead of them because some still criticize whether they could handle some issues. Although, they will have to fight against those who criticize, their fight will not be as long as it was in past years.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document
4. During the 1970’s, Mary Tyler Moore had an impact on the changed culture in the United States. She was able to show women throughout the nation that every woman was capable of being her own independent person, taking care of her own independent responsibilities. She showed that she did not need a man to take care of her needs and was able to take on a career in the television industry as a producer, which was mostly a male-dominated career. She was a single women who took care of herself and her own issues that took place. The Mary Tyler Moore Show is compared to Sex and the City in that the women in both television shows had their own careers in the city and would constantly look for men to date. Through this, they showed that they were liberated. These women were capable of making their own choices.

5. I would expect Walker to agree with Orenstein at some points of the article. These points would include the parts in which Orenstein talks about the women’s own independence and how these women are able to make their own choices. The parts in which Walker would disagree with Orenstein is when Orenstein talks about how women should not focus on just sex and also on their families and their careers. Walker’s article mostly talks about sexual liberation and on how women should be able to express and use their bodies in order for them to develop and grow. Orenstein does not see sex as important in developing and argues that a women’s family and her career is what truly makes her develop into the sexy women that she is.

6. There are some cases in women’s lives in which they do live their lives like the women in Sex and the City. These women usually live in more rich areas in which they revolve their lives around materialistic consumerism. These women have their own idea of independence which usually involves having sexual intercourse with any man they are sexually attracted to. Perhaps these women are controlled by these television shows and believe that being promiscuous is normal in our modern day society, since “Carrie” and “Miranda” are doing it. Although, most women in the United States do not live a life as the women in the television show. There are women that hold on to their morals and have enough respect for themselves to know the true meaning of independence, which does not involve sleeping around with a different man every week. Sexual liberty has not gained enough ground for all young women to be involved in sexual intercourse because even though sexual partners use condoms or birth control pills, a promiscuous young women is still not safe from sexually transmitted disease, even if “Carrie” believes she is. Although sexual liberty has not gained its ground, many young women continue to involve themselves in sexual intercourse because of their exposure to television and movies, which causes curiosity to occur in the lives of many young women.

Blog #13

Textbook: Chapter 9
1. As the war in Europe ended, a new type of war had evolved that would change the lives of families in the United States. The Cold War was had begun and the United States was getting ready to go against an enemy that had once been an ally. Some American women who were involved in politics were accused of being communists because of some of their beliefs. These women’s political positions were usually taken away from them because of these accusations. Meanwhile, women had returned to the home in order to take on their domestic work. This time, these families lived a life of fear because they were unsure of what the arms race would do and how far the soviets would go. Many also believed that the working women were actually harming their children by taking on jobs rather than taking care of their children. They argued that parents who did not take on their regular gender roles had a better chance of raising homosexual children and that separate gender roles created heterosexuality in children.

2. Betty Friedan had argued that the United States media and culture created the women’s domestic roles. Historians revision of Friedan’s book stated that Friedan did not talk about the differences of these women regarding class and race because most of the women that Friedan talked about in her book were wealthy white women. Friedan stated that the media had not shown these wealthy business women. Magazines such as Ebony were able to show the African-American women who had been successful in business and politics even though they were discriminated against. Other magazines even encouraged women to work and usually featured women with successful careers.

3. Women began the activist movements in order to live better lives. These activist women had fought for their opportunity to go into the workforce and challenged many different ideas regarding women. These women’s challenges had brought upon many difficulties as well. Women believed that they were being treated unfairly in the workforce. These women had been brought back to the same prewar jobs where they would have low wages and were even forced out of their jobs in order to make more room for the male workers who did not even argue with the employer’s decision. Many of the women workers had also been discriminated against and, therefore, protested not only for racial equality, but for equality in the workforce as well.

4. The “Bridge Leaders” that existed in the time of the civil rights movement had made an impact across the nation because of their large influence. These women had demonstrated their will and showed their strength throughout their communities in order to prove to many others the importance of standing for what they believe in. The concept of the term identifies how these women had fought against racial discrimination. They pursued equality using a method which involved sit-ins or the famous Freedom Rides. These women had used a method that caused a lot of controversy and media attention which was important in getting their word across throughout the nation.

Blog #12

Textbook: Chapter 8
1. Women’s gender stereotypes had been challenged throughout the war. Women had taken on a new identity from the beginning of the war all the way to the end. These women, with their new identity, had shown the United States what they could do in order to help with the war effort. In order to challenge their stereotype, women had been in the workforce with jobs such as welders or mechanics. Others were even recruited into military organizations such as the Women’s Army Corps or the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots. Even though they were not allowed to fight in actual combat, these women had shown that they were capable of taking on a man’s job. Even though these women were in the workforce, their gender stereotypes were also reinforced in some way. Women’s workforce jobs included nurses, clerks, and telephone operators. Women were not allowed to be paid doctors until April of 1943. The nation had tried to show that these women had not been masculine by printing a newspaper articles that told its readers that women were doing jobs that they would normally do in a civilian life. Women were seen as being temporary workers until the men would return to their jobs.

2. There were lasting results that took place because of World War II that shaped the way that many women and families would live their lives. During the war, as many men were fighting in the war, more women were needed in order to fill the men’s jobs. These women had a new idea of independence because they had been expressing their personal freedoms. There was also a large rise in the amount of marriages and the amount of families created after the war. Many women and their families had moved to larger cities where they would try to find higher paying jobs in a new type of area.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document
1. The women’s work opportunities were not limited during the World War II era. Women were needed in the workforce and the United States even put out propaganda posters in order to get women to attend to these jobs. Since the men were fighting in the war , the women had greater opportunities in the workforce. These women even got paid the same amount that a man would but would have to work just as the men did. According to these women in the article, they had to go through difficult labor in their work while they lived in conditions that were not all that comforting for them. These women were also not happy with their work hours and shifts because some had to work the night shift and get their sleep during the day.

2. The audience for this article are the men during World War II who were unsure of what would happen when they would return to home after the war. These women in the article prove that the job is too hard for them and that they would rather go back in the home and do their domestic duties as they had done before because that was the cleanest job of all. The article also tries to show the readers of the United States that a women’s femininity has not been taken away because of their work they have been doing and that their job is just temporary.

3. The women do not enjoy their work as much as some thought they did. They lived in very hard conditions with one another and also had to work hours that were not enjoyable for them. They were given the type of work that men would do in order to get the same pay as men did but many believed that it was not enough since they were working so much. The article points out their job experience as the work they are doing causes their hands to be sore. They do not get to sleep much and when they do, it is usually in the late afternoon hours of the day.

4. These women work while doing and man’s job while receiving the same wages that a man would, but the women are still able to retain their femininity. They wear their nail polish as they are doing the hard labor, they cook in their apartments and wash their dishes right after they finish eating, and they keep conversations past the night. In the article, Ginny states that she wants to return to the home because doing the dishes in the home is the only way that she could get her hands clean. These women did not find the conditions in the workforce too enjoyable because of their work conditions.

5. When the war is over, some women workers will keep their jobs and move to other jobs such as those in aircraft production. Many of these women will get married to the soldiers who are returning home from that war. These soldiers, who return from the war, will most likely take the jobs back from these women and work themselves. The younger girls who were working did not enjoy the workforce much and were hoping that when the soldiers did return from they war, the girls would be able to return to their home and work on their domestic duties such as cleaning the dishes and taking care of the home, since that was the cleanest job of all.

Blog #11

Textbook: Chapter 8
1. It was appropriate to speak about “New Woman” because the women in the 1920’s were different than those in prior decades and these woman played a large role in influencing society. They lived new lifestyles, and as each new decade appeared, a new and more independent type of woman was revealed. The 1920’s had first brought a new change with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment which allowed for woman’s suffrage. Woman had been involved in politics in which they organized their own parties and even influenced the Democratic and Republican parties with some of the women’s issues which these parties recognized. Some woman were elected into politics such as those few elected to Congress. These new changes did not only appear in politics. As woman lived in this new era, a “New Woman” was introduced to the world. She was a “flapper” girl who did not care about what society thought of her. She was a rebellious type of girl strutting her short dress and rolled stockings. She made use of the new culture with her consumerism and her love of materialistic goods. She was the symbol of a “New Woman” in a new era.

2. Even though women were beginning to enter the world of politics in the United States, these women had experienced difficulty during their service. While in politics, women had always been expected to carry out the women’s issues and therefore gave them a limited amount of power in politics. It had become harder for women at the end of the 1920’s because many of these women had different goals and ideas of how they would carry out these goals, which caused a division between these women. An example of this was of the articles that argued for the ERA and the article that argued against the ERA. These women had different beliefs which made the bond between them weaker and made it difficult for them to carry out their agendas.

3. As the Great Depression was occurring in the 1930’s, citizens throughout the nation were fighting for a way to survive. Woman had gone through great difficulties in order to keep their children from starvation. They had lost their crops in droughts and were forced to migrate west in order to find new resources during their fight for survival. The image shows the hardships that these women had endured. The stress deep in her eyes show us the troubles this woman had to overcome. Her hand on her cheek while looking out into the horizon proves to us that she is nervous and unsure of what the future might bring. She sits there and ponders, worrying about her children as they rest themselves on their only source of strength, their mother. Her hair, beautifully brushed to the side, giving herself that feeling of being a young girl again; but still she is woman, a mother of thirty-two with wrinkles streaming away from her sorrowful eyes with each wrinkle telling a story of her hardship. She is a young caring mother colorful at heart, captured in a moment of grey, who has lived a lifetime.

4. The experiences of people during the Great Depression had been different because of the gender roles that existed. Many had believed that the women should work in the home even though many women had already begun to enter the workforce in the twentieth century. They believed that unemployment was and should be a problem for the men and not the women. The women in the home were able to keep the home together with their cooking and housecleaning while the men walked the streets with nothing to do. In a psychological aspect, the unemployment for men would take away their masculinity which would cause a disruption in the relationship of the families. Men had deserted their families and birth rates had declined.

Blog #10

Textbook: Chapter 7
1. During the time of women’s suffrage and reform, Jim Crow laws had been in effect in the Southern states and many blacks felt the impact of racism partly because the white people did not believe that the blacks would adapt to the new industrial society. Even though these prejudices were occurring, many African American women were for the idea of reform and had contributed to it as well. Some of these contributions included their effort to create kindergartens for children with mothers that were unable to take care of their children, since they were always working. Some popular African American women entrepreneurs, such as Sarah Breedlove, showed that they too were able to become successful, despite the disadvantage they had do to their race. The white women suffragist groups refused to help the black women with racism because they believed it would hurt the white women’s chances of rising up in society. Even though the black women did not receive help, they still had their willingness to receive their own political rights and were even more aggressive in their groups than the white women were in theirs.

2. The main differences among the feminist movement and the suffrage movement was that the suffragists focused more on the equality of women’s roles in the public life while the focus on the feminist movement was more on the equality of women’s private life. The suffragist usually looked for their political rights such as their right to vote. Feminisms brought upon a whole new idea of women’s liberty and equality in their own personal and individual life. These, more individual equalities, included ideas of how they would live their own lifestyle such as their own sexual life in which some lived with men even though they were not married, some lived alone in apartments and others were lesbians living together.

Source Interpretation
Textbook document
3. There were many definitions in the article that were for the idea of feminism. In a sense, all the definitions were the same because they were so similar. One of the definitions was that feminism would cause a lot of trouble but this trouble would eventually help the society to readjust to a new way of life that is ultimately better than the old way of life. Other definitions prove that feminism is there in order to give women their equality with men and to show that the two genders are “made of the same soul stuff (460).” The definitions all try to show that women are human beings just as men are and that these women, since they are human beings, deserve their own individuality.

4. As women practice their feminist beliefs in their own individual life, their feminism eventually leads them to receive economic independence. For example, since women are now individuals and do not have to follow the idea of working for their husbands in the home, they are now able to go out into the world and work in order to receive more opportunities economically and even politically. In the past, many women had a different attitude about divorce. The changing of times has influenced many of these women to have a different and more free perspective mainly because of feminism. Since these women are individuals and not property of men, they are able to work for themselves and have their own economic independence.

5. As seen in the first article, there are many different definitions that people could give for feminism even though they are similar in some aspect. Feminism is the individuality that women receive in order to make themselves personally equal to males, not only in public society but in the private life as well. This equality is usually in order to allow for women to have the same humanistic rights that males have had throughout history. These rights include the opportunity for women to make their own choices when dealing with situations that relate to their own private life and the liberty to live a life in which women are free of male dominance.

Blog #9

Textbook: Chapter 6
1. During immigration, women had gone to the United States in order to receive better opportunities and more equality than those of European and Asian countries. Most women had come from countries such as German, Italy and eastern Europe. Many of these women appreciated the idea that they were able to choose their own husbands in the United States and were not forced to marry. They were searching for their independence and The United States was the place where they would receive this independence. Men mainly emigrated to the United States in order to work temporarily and then return home. Some of these immigrant women had to go through harsh times when they were forced into prostitution. Others worked in the factories or as servants where they would receive low wages. Many immigrant men had received these low wages as well. Other similarities between the immigrant men and women were that they both came to the United States for economic or political reasons. The United States was the land of opportunity and the opportunity to become rich was believed to be very easy for these immigrants. The United States had enough jobs for many people in order to help its economy and both men and women saw the opportunity to become wealthy and pursued it.

2. Many of the women during the time of immigration were similar in their fight for what they believed in. Even though they all fought for their beliefs, all these women were involved in different kinds of protests and had their own distinct reasons for their movements. For example, the populists movement was based primarily on the alliance of farmers. These women were usually non-elite southern white women or black women who were in debt. The populist helped with the rise of women’s suffrage. The idea of the settlement house movement was different from that of the populist because it involved helping immigrants with the new values and culture of the United States. They had helped immigrant women that were away from their families as well. The populist and settlement house movement were similar in changing social reform for women. The Industrial protest had involved workers of industries in which they fought for higher wages and better working conditions for all the workers throughout the nation. All these women had their different reasons for their movements but they were all similar in trying to fight for their priorities in order to better themselves and future generations.








Source Interpretation
Textbook document
3. There were many different experiences for people who were involved in the work with immigrants because many different views were expressed in both spectrums. The charity worker usually sees herself as a person of good character who is more important than the poor. Those who are poor have a hard time understanding why the charity giver is there to advice them to work rather than just giving them what they actually want. They also have different views with saving. The rich believe that it is important to save while the poor do not see it as any priority in their lives. The poor usually talk about how the rich are landlords and collect money which is why they do not like them, although they do respect them. These different experiences allowed for Addams to write about the complex ideas and perspectives that these two groups had of one another even when dealing in close relations with one another.

4. As a settlement house volunteer, Addams' views of the poor were different than those of others because she had different opinions of why the poor became poor. Many believe that one of the main reasons for poverty was laziness. In contrast to that theory, Addams who was very well educated, believed that the reason for the poverty was do to the social structure of society. It was do to her knowledge and education that she was able to better understand the differences that occurred between the charity giver and the charity recipient after comparing the relationship to the words of the Hebrew prophet. If it was not for her education from college, she would not have had a different and maybe less accepting perspective of the settlement house volunteer.