When my boyfriend called me on Wednesday afternoon, I was in a great mood: I had just finished my last class of the day and was almost all set to depart for my parents' house. The only thing I had left to do was read Newman's Chapter 12, "Sex and Gender." When my boyfriend arrived home two hours later, though, my mood was a bit different. Okay, a lot different. What happened? Where do I even start?The very first page of the chapter helped me realize how little things have changed for women in this country in the last 200 years. The Declaration of Independence, rewritten at a women's rights convention in 1848 reads, in part, "In view of their social degradation and in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of the most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States." This statement could have been written yesterday.
I learned of a study performed by the American Association of University Women that approximately 83% of girls have been the victims of varying levels of sexual harassment in elementary, middle, and high school. In addition, 2 of 3 female college students has experienced sexual harassment during college, but only about 10% report it.
The passage on rape made me sick. I learned that often rape isn't even considered a crime against the woman but rather a crime against her husband or father whose property is violated. Also, the threat of rape is a constant reminder to women that men are more powerful. Women often don't report rape due to the fact that they are subjected to being required to prove their innocence rather than the guilt of the offender. Perhaps the most shocking statement, to me, was that in a study of high school students, "52% agreed that most women fantasize about being raped by a man..."
The "Gender Inequality in Families" segment made me annoyed to realize that I am conforming to gender roles by performing the tasks "essential to the daily functioning of the household" while my boyfriend's chores are "infrequent, irregular, or optional" (Newman 2010). And when my boyfriend does these chores, I'm very likely to show excessive appreciation, as if he went above and beyond; I don't get praised for doing laundry or dishes, though, and for some reason I don't expect to.
The section about gender and the economy made me feel hopeless. Women earn only 78% of what men earn, and the gap increases with age. In addition, occupations like physician, engineer, dentist, and lawyer, which are traditionally male occupations, are still extremely dominated by men.
These points are just a few of the angry-mood-inducers I came across in this chapter. No other chapter in Newman's Sociology has had quite this effect on me. I must admit that venting about the injustices in this blog has been quite therapeutic, and hopefully, after reading this, my boyfriend will understand why I hated him so much on that Wednesday.
Newman, David. Sociology. Ed 8. 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment