Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Blog 26
Last Blogs
Obama said, “Sonia Sotomayor has proved you can achieve anything under the equality of the law.” Sotomayor has been publicly attacked by the media and by other politicians. It is the first time we have had a Latina woman appointed to the Supreme Court. Women have achieved high positions in this country and because Sotomayor is not white, she is the enemy. According to one of the videos, the only reason why Obama picked her is because she was Latina . Why would the President of the United States just pick someone because of their race? He is in charge of our entire country and he is not going to put himself on the line by hiring someone he does not think is qualified. Our country has jumped through many hurdles in order for men and women to be treated equal and this is just bringing us back to that time.
Conservatives already started tearing apart Sotomayor’s personal life in order to try and show America that she is not right for the position. Rumors have spread that she is a member of La Raza, a near terrorist organization and that she is trying to take over a bunch of Western states and then turn them over to Mexico . We have had a very hard time with illegal aliens in this country and because Sotomayor is Latina , that is of course going to the first attack against her. There are so many Latina women who are famous leading actresses and they do not receive criticism like Sotomayor. People are so used to every politician being white and if they are a woman, they are white. Obama stated, “There is not a black America , a white America , a Mexican America or Asian America, it is the United States of America .
Blog 23
Fashion is huge in the media. Everyone criticizes women in the media. Women lawyers and politicians are always seen in the public eye. Michelle Obama has been criticized enough but her clothing has been a major talk in the media. Clothing and style was an important political weapon right from Martha Washington. Dolly Madison is the first to put clothing on the map; she had the charismatic figure which had a larger than life figure. She projected emotional and psychological messages by authority. It has even become more important for the first lady and symbolism has been the main idea in the media.
Michelle Obama is a conservative woman and a very intelligent woman. She knows as a woman of color that people will be watching her closely. Her style is very modern and in the context of the white house. She fits into the big mainstream and the way women dress in the workplace. She tends to wear a lot of dresses and not a lot of boxy outfits that many women wear. She is set apart from all other politicians who wear very conservative suit clothing. There have been many strong comments about Michelle Obama’s wardrobe because she is a black woman and she chooses to show off her curves. Other women who have been in the white house have worn suit outfits and do not show off their curves so they are not attacked in the media.
Blog 24
Women are taught and told in law school that they need to appear firm, powerful and sharp. Men already have the tough exterior and so in court a man is going to feel like he already runs the place. Men also have deep voice which can make them sound and appear more intimidating than a female. After talking t a friend of mine who is in law school at USC, she told me that the stereotype women get there is that they are lesbians and unattractive. She told me the first day of class the men stared at her in astonishment because she is an attractive girl. The comment they made is that they didn’t expect to have a smart and gorgeous women in law school.
According to these guys, women can be attractive and smart. It becomes a double standard in the justice system. If a woman wants to be a police officer she is considered manly and a lesbian because it’s supposed to be a man’s job and women aren’t strong enough to handle the job. It’s the same with men and women working against each other on a case in court, men try to make the female lawyer look powerless or too emotional because men try to play off that they are emotionless.
Blog 31
Balancing work/family in the legal profession is extremely difficult. Men and women who work in the legal world need attention just as much from their clients as do their family. For example, lawyers end up forming a family relationship with their clients because they spend so many long hours together planning for the trial. Bringing work home is normal for lawyers and it only puts a strain on their relationship with their family. When does the line need to be drawn? People who work in the legal profession have a lot of work on their plate every day and never know what is going to come their way.
Female lawyers are given the option to work part-time in order to be there for their children/family and balance work as a second priority. People who work in the legal profession do not choose to work part-time because they know they will not be able to climb up the ladder to a promotion. Promotions are only given to the hard working full-time individuals that make work their life and not their family. It is not fair for a smart woman to feel that she can not be promoted because of her obligations to family.
Blog 37
It is extremely difficult for a woman lawyer to balance family life and life as a lawyer. Life as a lawyer is basically a life in itself. There is so much time and dedication put into being a lawyer and families tend to come second. According to Charting Our Progress, data indicates that more and more firms are allowing part-time schedules, but women testifying in the 2003 hearings still reported that choosing the part-time option posed professional risks. Women reported that if they took the part-time position to spend more time with their family they may not be able to move up in the profession. Women expressed that if they wanted a promotion it would not go to a part-time scheduled individual because they are not considered a full-time lawyer. Technology can also help balance career and family responsibilities. Technology has helped attorneys with parent and/or child care responsibilities to telecommute.
The report also identified barriers preventing the full integration and equal protection of women in all aspects of the legal profession. Men still hold the great majority of leadership positions in the profession and overwhelmingly surpass women lawyers in compensation. Some reported that women lawyers are too emotional, insufficiently aggressive and not as serious as men. For example, women attorneys from mid-sized towns in New York in Florida testified that judges and bailiffs called them “baby” or “honey” and referred to them by their first names while addressing males by their titles. English found this same cycle of abuse towards women in her own data. English found that men are still making more money in legal professions than women and are not treated with the same respect and even with less respect.
Blog 38
Florence Ellinwood Allen was an American judge and the first woman to serve on a State Supreme Court. She was also one of the first two women to serve as a federal judge. At first, she was not a success. When she first began, she could not afford to pay for anything in her office except for two chairs and a borrowed typewriter. Allen needed some experience in order to be successful so she did some work for a local Legal Aid Society. She not only got experience but involved with an important case about suffrage.
In March 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Allen to the United States of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Allen’s supporters sought to have her appointed to the United States Supreme Court during Harry S. Truman’s presidency but Truman opposed having a woman sitting in the highest court of the land. She later found that Truman was not the reason for this decision. He did not appoint because it had to do with his belief that having a woman around would make the male judges uncomfortable. Allen was not chosen for any further promotions until 1958. She became the first woman to serve as chief judge of a United States Court of Appeals. She retired in 1959 but still kept her title in case she was available to step in if needed.
Dorothy Frookswas an American author, publisher, military figure and actress. An intriguing figure for most of her long life, Frooks was active in public affairs and in the military throughout her life. Frooks was a suffragist, lawyers and judge advocate in the U.S. army during World War II. She became one of the most versatile of women lawyers. She graduated from Hamilton Law School in Chicago and earned her master’s degree from NYU. As she was practicing law, she won a suspended sentence for a 16 year old girl who had killed the man who raped her at the age of 12.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Officers who build relationships with inmates will only lead to termination or suspension, depending on the issue. Women use officers to get them things from the outside and then turn around and frame the officers. An inmate does not build a relationship with an officer because they like them; they do it for their own personal well-being. Male officers have to be extra careful that they do not make any comments towards a female inmate because it can backfire later.
There are many lesbians in women prisons. It helps them get through their long sentence. Officers do not have a problem with it and actually feel it is very unique and interesting. Many of the inmates are hairdressers and some of the officers allow them to cut and do their hair because they feel like they are at a beauty parlor on the outside. While they are in the beauty shop, they are just two women; the officer does not treat her like an inmate or feel like an inmate is doing her hair.
Officers of color have a more difficult time in prison than white women. African American and Latino officers are constantly name called and hear many racist comments. It can be scary for an officer of color to work in a prison where it is more dominantly white people. They are taught how to react and respond when an inmate threatens them. The best thing for the officers to do is to ignore the inmate and not let them feel like they have won. According to the videos, all inmates want is attention from the officers and they will do whatever they can to get that attention. The officers know that they want attention and ignore them unless they try to hurt themselves.
Blog 16
A woman’s dream job is not to be a correctional officer. Before women became correctional officers, they used to have secretarial and clerical jobs. Nearly all of the women working as correctional officers did so as a last resort and expressed how they were felt scared at first. It is very rare for a woman to grow up wanting to be a correctional officer. However, men grow up wanting to be a police officer and then began to favor corrections.
Men and women were attracted to the work because of the pay and benefits. Also, prisons tend to be located in isolated rural areas where well-paying jobs are scarce. Single mothers were enticed by the job’s pay, security, benefits and retirement. Men are way more likely to want to become a correctional officer by choice and not by the pay. Men seem to not care about the pay but actually have love for the job.
Many people who became correctional officers have never visited a prison before. The media portrays prison to be constantly dangerous for the correctional officers and that they are always on alert for a problem to occur. Some of the officers who were interviewed felt that prison was going to be violent like movies and television portray, but found it was actually not.
Blogs 12-14
Segregation occurs because of the large and persistent wage gap between men and women workers. Even though women have begun to integrate some formerly male-dominated jobs, women still make less than men. According to Britton, “women lawyers are more likely to be found in specialties like family law, public defense, and government law, all of which pay lower wages than those to be in corporate law, a male-dominated specialty.” Sex segregation is not something forced, it occurs naturally. I do believe that women choose jobs that relate more to their personal preference whereas men choose jobs that give them the “real man” title. Men tend to major in business and women tend to major in communications or education. Men and women are in different jobs, and the jobs women hold pay less on average than those that men occupy. Like I said above, the difference is internal stratification. Women tend to occupy the lowest rungs of the occupational ladder.
The theory of gendered organizations can be found in the interaction between three factors. The first is, the structures of work organizations, the cultural and ideological assumptions upon which they draw and which in turn shape them, and the agency of workers themselves. This approach consists in two key assumptions. First, organizations must be viewed from within the context of an unequal society, one in which gender domination exists and is reproduced on an ongoing basis. Gender is a process, the product of a social construction that can be carried out both at the micro level and the macro level.
Men feel that they need to be the bread winners of the family and the woman should be at home with the children. If men and women are both working high corporate jobs then who is going to take care of the children and the home? Men definitely lose by women entering male dominated occupations since they can not go home after work and expect food on the table and the house clean. Men still believe that women should be at home while they are making the money for the family.
Blog 13
People have the idea that prison guards are men in uniform carrying a nightstick or a gun and acting brutal and sadistic. Many believe they look and act this way in order to scare the inmates and intimidate them. However, prison guards look like the everyday “average Joe.” Anyone can be a prison guard, even if you aren’t a big hulking tall person. Don’t get me wrong, prison guards do need to be tough and expect the worst at any time. When I think of prison guard, I do picture a big, scary looking male. I do not picture a female being a prison guard. Women are tough and deserve to work at the same places as men. However, I do not think women should be working at men’s prisons. Men are born stronger than women and if inmates were to go on strike against the guards, the women would not have a chance.
Women who work as prison guards are labeled “manly and lesbians.” People look at prison guards as a “man’s job.” If I asked someone about a prison guard, they would imagine a large male. Men who work at women’s prisons are probably way more laid back and the environment is much calmer. Everyone says that “women are crazy” and you would think women’s prisons are way more out of control than men’s but from watching “Locked Up” and other prison television shows, men are the crazy ones. Also, male prison guards have a tougher time dealing with male inmates since they can be the same size or even bigger. I believe male prison guards are bigger and meaner at male prisons than female prisons, only because of the intimidation factor. Male inmates are not going to be intimidated by a small, skinny prison guard. This is also why I do not think women should put themselves in that kind of danger and work at a male prison.
Blog 14
“Individuals come to see themselves as appropriately gendered through work. Men and women may organize to protect gender-based interests. For example, the military is seen as a man’s duty. Culture has shaped the way we categorize men and women into different organizations. Britton states, “organizations are gendered at the level of structure.” Men and women live their lives very differently from one another. Prison guards are seen more as a man’s job since prison is structured as hostile. Men and women choose jobs that relate more to what they have grown up with and how they were structured.
Again, men feel that a woman’s job should be at home cooking and cleaning. Men are supposed to be in the public sphere whereas women are in the private. Culture has defined women as homemakers and men as the workers. The Rawlinson case shows how organizations still want to keep women away from male gendered occupations. Rawlinson was denied a job at a male prison because of her height and weight and most importantly her sex. No one should be denied a job because of their sex, even though I do not believe women should work at a male prison. If a woman chooses to work at a male prison then so be it. Men and women supposed to be treated equal and in this situation she wasn’t because she is female. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, opened the doors for women to finally have the jobs they always wanted. They were unable to have the same jobs as men and society still categorizes men and women into two different spheres.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Women had to be more flexible, make work fit into child care schedules and utilize money and work subsidies to obtain center based care. Work and care still get in the way of each other and make it difficult for both the mother and the child. Family can be a good outlet for childcare but it does not always work in their schedules either. Several mothers do not even have family nearby to watch their children and so that makes an impossible choice.
Chaudry’s recommendations are interesting especially because I can never see society helping to break the poverty cycle. Unfortunately, we are going to continue to see poverty around the United States because of lack of education and services. It was hard for me to understand why these women could not just get themselves out of poverty and find a decent job with good pay. It is easier said than done. It is easy for me right now to live in a nice condo and pay rent but I do not have children that I need to worry about. If I had children, worked and had to find a cheap childcare service then I would understand what these women are going through. I think it is pretty easy for single women without children to live a normal decent life.
Women mothers do not get enough credit or even any credit in the working world. Chaudry recommends a policy that acknowledges single mothers in today’s working world. I would just love the day when women are acknowledged in today’s working world. People who are not single mothers or who do not have children at all may not sympathize with single working mothers since they do not know how difficult it is.
I do agree that the government should increase funding for children’s programs since it seems to be the biggest problem with working mothers. Childcare services charge mother’s too much and cause them to rearrange their whole schedule in order to please them. Single working mother’s do their best to support their family and they could use a break once in a while.
Blog #11
I watched a lifetime movie about a single working mother and her child living in poor conditions and in poverty. The child ended up being taken away from the mother because of the conditions they are living in. The mother had to meet certain criteria in order to have the child back in the home. I agree that it is unfair and not right for a child to live in a poor living environment but there is no need for the child to be taken away. The mother did all she could in order to provide for the child and worked long nights to make him happy. What was this mother supposed to do? There was not a father around and she could only work certain shifts so the grandmother could baby sit the child. People do not realize or know how hard it is to be a single working mother and a responsible role model. No one can judge or point fingers until they have been in that spot and felt what these single mothers feel when they have their child taken from them.
