She also talks about how categories such as gender, race and class are not “free standing distinct systems” but instead “mutually constructing” intersecting systems, which doesn’t play much to her favor since she is a black female. Being that our society is a patriarchy (male dominated) and has been for so long, (women started to get the right to vote in the US in the year of 1920) it may seem odd or even hard when people have to answer up to a woman in charge; because we are just simply not use to it. In Patricia Hill Collins’s article she makes it seem that poverty and low economic opportunities seem inevitable towards black women: “Black men’s lower income meant that the majority of Black women could not marry wealth nor could their mixed-race children inherit it”. It truly seem like an ongoing process since, even their children have to start from
Women have come a long way in American society. Women have always been discriminated against, in both a sociological and political point of view, and it can still be seen happening today’s society, but to a lesser extent than before. The “glass ceiling effect” is one of the major ways we can see discrimination against women in the American society today; the glass ceiling is a barrier preventing further advancements and promotions in a profession, generally against women and minorities. Women are generally stuck at a low level position in their occupation and must overcome discriminatory barriers when trying to get a promotion. Men have dominated the top level jobs, as most CEO’s and upper management are men, while women are stuck on the lower
Traditionally, and still today, work is what creates such gender bias. Roles have been associated to both genders and jobs. Commonly one’s job gives either a male or a female a specific title or stereotype. The tendency to view men's participation in unremitting
Women have long been considered to be part of the lower status when it comes to jobs similar to men. In Arlie Hochschild’s vies, “The feelings of the lower-status partly may be discounted in two ways: by considering them rational but unimportant or by considering them irrational and hence dismissible” (172). This “doctrine of feelings” has been seen to permeate the workforce in such a way that it becomes impossible for women to be respected when they display any sort of emotion. In this essence, women who are considered the lower class in the working environment are oppressed in two ways. The first such way is to ignore any legitimate concerns women have; the second way is to classify any emotion as unnecessary and “irrational.” Women get taken advantage of solely because society has considered them emotional, which in today’s modern society is often mistaken for being unstable.
For instance, even though many of the Arab American women are required to cover themselves, almost all of them cover their bodies because they choose and not because they are forced to. Being unaware of the choice that these women have, the dominant society judges them and makes them feel like they are oppressed. The images that many people saw in the media, when the Arab-Americans were shifting from model minority, to problem minority were women who were covered and absent from the scene and suddenly without a complete knowledge of what is really going on. On the other hand it is not only the immigrants that control and regulate women’s sexuality. Based on Entry Denied, the U.S regulated Asian American women’s sexuality.
Believing sexism will go away without putting major changes in place, is not a reality. Sexism blatantly exists in the work place. Obvious (and most common) examples of this would be: women are often paid less than their male counterparts for the same position, men often receive rapid job promotions in comparison to women and women are usually the targets of gender based harassment. Women frequently struggle with the lack of pay they receive, in comparison to their male counterparts. A woman working in the same job as a man will usually earn less, despite the fact that she may have the same or better training, education, and skills required for the job ("Study Shows Female Managers in Britain Earn Less than Men, and Equality Could Be 57 Years Away."
McDougald thinks that the low class black women intrude as a hindrance for the entire black race and the few who have proven their dominant are still associated with ignorance and the signification of being a black woman. McDougald highlights the accomplishments of many African American women as if they have gone unnoticed. She wants to gain recognition as a successful black
Discrimination is highly discouraged in the workplace and perpetrators of such inhuman acts are subject to criminal offences. In several occasions, unfairness involving age and sex have led to people quitting their jobs as well as engaging in unlawful acts. Furthermore, diverse cases of discrimination have been observed in several places of work. First and foremost is the prevalence of sex discrimination against women. Since men are the most principal stature in the current society, they are therefore entitled to additional jobs, contrary to their female counterparts.
Employers who engaged in unfair hiring practices attempted to justify making discriminatory hiring decisions for several reasons. Some employers believed women lacked the skills and qualifications necessary to perform nontraditional and higher-paid positions simply because of gender. Other employers who hired or promoted women into supervisory or management positions prevented those women from attaining higher-level roles, which is referred to as the "glass ceiling." The glass ceiling is a metaphor used to describe a barrier where the targeted group--in this case, women--can see the higher rungs on a career ladder but are prevented from attaining more responsible and influential positions due to discrimination based on sex and business decisions that convey the message that men are more suited to leadership roles. This is evidenced by a study in 2003 conducted by University of California-Hayward professor Dr. Richard Drogin who discovered "women make up 72 percent of Wal-Mart's total workforce, but only 33 percent of its managers."
This situation constitutes in someway a handicap in the access of women to job opportunities. On the other hand, gender stereotypes stemming from patriarchy confine them to so-called low-skilled and low-paid feminine sectors. In Côte d'Ivoire, the average income of Ivorian women is 59% lower than that of men, a situation that accentuates the male predominance, mostly at the professional level (Moreau, 2014). Thus, the observation is that the subordination of the Ivorian women to men has become institutionalized due to their lower representation in the political and administrative sphere, the denial of their rights and education as well as the lack of government protection against abuse (Moreau,