My group peers who have already made posts on our blog have both discussed topics that relate to the fact that containment is happening. I would like to discuss a matter in which containment culture is being resisted; young women and education. In the blog Economix, Catherine Rampell shows us with a few graphs and figures that young women are pulling ahead of young men in the desire for higher education and successful careers. I think this is fantastic; Ms. Rampell even compares this statistic to men and women aged 35-64 in 1997, where 41% of those men believed high-paying successful careers were important, but only 26% of women agreed. Today however, 43% of men believe in high-paying successful careers and 42% of women believe in it.
How is this information helpful, or what does it even mean? Well, we’ve seen women being contained when reading Revolutionary Road, or learning about women’s suffrage in high school history classes. It was always instilled into the mind’s of Americans that men were superior to women, and that the job of the woman was to stay at home, make the food, clean the house, and take care of the children. In today’s society, where women are treated with much more respect and equality, it is important for the woman to assert her independence and strive for that higher education. Biological differences are the only dividers between our two sexes, and gender (being the social and cultural implications or expectations assigned to the roles of being a “man” or being a “woman”) should no longer dictate who “deserves” higher education.
In my opinion, indirectly, the US still attempts to contain the women of its nation, and constrain them to this role of “the housewife”. What do you guys think? Am I just being ridiculous? Let’s look at some specific examples. Women, on average, still have a lower salary than men. Why? Because of maternity leave. That is actually why women receive a lower salary on average; it’s the company’s way of compensation for the months lost for maternity leave. Do any of you think that’s fair? If a man and a woman want to start a family, should the woman be condemned for biologically being responsible for the birth of the child? This is why I say that the United States still, even if indirectly, attempts to contain and constrain the woman to the pre-existing role of “the housewife”.
Going back to the blog; by looking at the second graph, we can see that women have higher ambitions to becoming good parents, having a successful marriage, and being successful in a high-paying career or profession. Without attaching any meaning to it, couldn’t this arguably be proof that women are better than men? Answering my own question directly, I’d say not necessarily. Look what happened when it was assumed that men were better. Instead of placing our two sexes in conflict of hierarchical achievement, can we not just be content that both have their positives and negatives? Neither men nor women could survive without the other. Literally. If you’d like to prove that statement wrong, I would like to refer you to an 8th grade sex education class.
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I believe that you are spot on with your observations. It is interesting that even though women have made gains, they still trail men in salary, as you note partly due to maternity leave. This is a double standard that our society now has, in which we expect women to not only be able to hold jobs but be mothers at the same time. I think it is important for men to push for equality with women, in the way that we recognize that we may have different strengths but both sexes contribute equally and should get paid accordingly. Our culture may have used to push for housewives, but we need to understand that it isn't the 1950's anymore, and learn from our history.
ReplyDeleteI like how you went in a different direction to deal with the issue of containment. I also agree with Mark and believe that Men and Women deserve to earn equal pay.
ReplyDeletethat to me was interesting that women receive less money because of the maternity leave thing. I never even thought there was any reason behind it other than unsubstantiated inequality.
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