http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-science-gender-roles?lite=
I came across an article (link above) from 2013, which states a statistic that women are now the sole or primary source of family income in 40% of U.S households. There is a video in the article which highlights comments made from men that work at Fox News. Fox News host, Lou Dobb and his all-male panel of guests did not take this news well and completely belittled women as a whole. They made ridiculous comments such as: "we are watching society dissolve around us", "this is something going terribly wrong in society and it's hurting our children," and "this is a catastrophic issue." One of the men even called it a "war on women." Another man said being a women, is a "complementary role." Watching this video I felt like it was 30 years ago. I couldn't believe these comments were made two shorts years ago.
This Fox News excerpt really highlights a lot of key points we have talked about throughout our class this semester. It reminded me of the discussion we had about women in the workplace. How many think women's gender role in society "should" be to stay at home and care for the children. If she is too work-oriented, she doesn't care about her kids and family. If she is too family-oriented, she doesn't have ambition or goals. It's like the double bind issue Marilyn Frye talks about in her article "Oppression." It also reminded me about the wage-gap issue between men and women. It makes me wonder, if they lower the wage for women to encourage them to not to work?
I wonder what it will take for society to see women differently? It is truly a shame that men with such power, like this Fox News panel, who are able to reach millions, belittle women in such a malicious way. I wonder how many young women heard this and believed it, allowing society to hurt their confidence a little more. I wonder if these men have daughters, sisters or wives. I don't think they realize the power they have, and how wrong they are using it.
Katie,
ReplyDeleteInteresting find! I like your respond to this article; I could not agree more.
This article/video clip is absolutely appalling and just another reminder that some people are still too caught up in their own alpha-ness to sit back and realize that women can do just as good a job as men. By focusing on such negative comments on women, this article does a great job at pushing the progress we learned about in class of women in the workforce back a few decades.
In addition, this article speaks volumes to men, advertising to them that women cannot be taking over the ‘man’ jobs. In my opinion, if I were a man viewing that article and living primarily off of my wife, I would personally feel as though it was trying to tell me that the home is no place for me. Not only does this article put down women, but it pokes at a man by hinting that a stay-at-home-father cannot give a child as good of a life as a stay-at-home-mother; which I find completely foolish for someone to actually believe that.
Personally, I feel it is so important for the news to start focusing on the amazing progress women have made. I have attached a video of one of my personal heroes in the workplace, Sylvia Earle. She speaks on being the one of the first women to take charge in science and not let socially constructed gender roles determine the career she would pursue. Imagine how many young girls and women could be inspired and feel just as free to work towards a higher up job if the news would shed some light on this; society would definitely be more productive.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/sylvia-earle-her-words-vin