Hi everyone! My name is Jamie Apel and I am starting my senior year as a Women Studies major. I could not decide what to name my blog so I went with my nickname, "J" and the name of the class. I know, not very creative but it seems appropriate. As I was scrolling through classes, this class jumped out at me. The title and the description of the course sounded very interesting so I added it to my schedule.
There are many things I would like to get out of this course. In particular, I hope to learn and understand the history of women in the work place. I know at one time in history, women did not have the opportunity to join men in the work field. Women fought so hard to gain the same equality as men and succeeded. However, even today, women are put below men on the job scale. Whatever happened to equality in America? Men and women are still not treated equal.
When the word justice comes to mind, I think of equality and fairness. If something is not "just" it is not fair or right. Everyone wants justice out of a situation, but it does not always turn out that way. I feel many issues relating to women, work and justice are examples of injustice. Injustice is an unjust action of treatment towards others or situations. Women are constantly degraded in the media and portrayed poorly. Society has designed women to be “sexy secretaries” or “sexy teachers.” Women are also considered to be the stay at home caretakers while the men are the bread winners taking care of the family financially. This is a great example of injustice in our society. People have become so consumed with the media and the messages it sends us. Women jump through obstacles every day to show how strong they are. I hope these issues come up in this class and excited for a great semester.
Welcome to the class, Jamie!
ReplyDeleteSorry about the difficulty in getting your blog attached. I am glad to see that Reshawna was able to fix the problem.
I am always glad to get Women Studies major. I hope the material is not redundant from other courses.
Injustice in the labor force is tied to many issues. Women have always worked but not as wage earners. They have engaged in lots of unpaid labor and continue to do so today. More women raise families, cook, do laundry, cleaning, shopping, care for sick family members, and the list goes on. Before women entered the labor force at such high rates, volunteer work also fell on the shoulders of women as unpaid labor. However, as more women are unable to find the time to volunteer, our society is experiencing a shortage.
The labor force is structured around the ideal worker – male. Consequently, few work sites have family-friendly policies and women in charge of childcare risk their jobs to stay home to care for a sick child or parent. The lower the pay, the higher the risk of losing one’s job. It is ironic that higher paying employees have so many more benefits when lower paying employees cannot afford them. Juggling work and family is quite difficult, particularly for workers who are single parents or experience a “double-day”. The lack of assistance we offer working mothers contributes to their avoidance of many careers. Consequently, we suffer as a society.
I look forward to reading your blogs.
Professor Romero