Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Social Issues None Provided19 None Provided19 For generations women have been fighting for equality in our country. Although there have been many advances in this movement women are still treated unequally today. One of the most critical problems with women's rights today deals with women in the work place. Human rights violations against women must be documented, publicized, and stopped. Human rights violations against women have for too long been denied the attention and concern of international organizations, national governments, traditional human rights groups, and the press. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of women around the globe continue to endure debilitating and often fatal human rights abuses (equalitynow.org, 1). No one could reasonably argue that women and men live exactly the same kinds of lives or that they have the same experiences in society. In addition, there is an obvious division of labor between men and women. Very few women appear among the ranks of the powerful (Sapiro, 19). All over the world women's rights are violated and too many times they are ignored. In India a ten-year-old girl was sold by her father to a sixty-year-old man for $240. At a boarding school in Kenya 300 boys attack the girls dormitory, raping 71 of the girls. A fourteen-year-old girl in Ireland is raped by her father and becomes pregnant, she is prohibited to travel to get an abortion. Not only do these terrible acts go on in other countries, these very things also occur in the United States. A 51-year-old woman is stabbed nineteen times and killed by her former boyfriend after she had gone to authorities numerous times to get protection form harassment, but all charges were dropped. All of these cases are just a small part of all the injustices women all over the world endure everyday (equalitynow.org, 1). The women's movement began in 1848. On July 19 and 20 several women meet and call the meeting for women's rights at the Seneca Falls Convention. In 1850 Lucy Stone and other feminists met in Massachusetts and draw up a resolution demanding for suffrage and equality. The Second National Women's Rights Convention is held in 1851. In 1852 Susan B. Anthony sets up the Women's New York State Temperance Society, and Stanton acts as the president. In 1860 women fill in for men in the factories and stores during the Civil War. Anthony and Stanton draft a petition demanding for Congress to initiate an amendment to prohibit several states from disenfranchising any citizens on the grounds of sex in 1866. Then in 1869 the National Woman Suffrage Association is formed to push for an amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Four years later Anthony and sixteen other women are arrested for trying to vote. Then in 1878 Stanton and Anthony present the Anthony Amendment to Congress . The amendment gives women the right to vote and is reintroduced each year for the next 41 years until it becomes the 19th Amendment. In 1890 17.2% of the work force are women wage earners, this meant that more than 4 million women were working. Finally in 1919 the 19th Amendment is approved by the House and the Senate. Then in 1920 the amendment is ratified and declared official (Marino, 1). American society is marked by sex differentiation and sex stratification. The liberal approach to explaining women's status is based on the notions of liberty, independence, and the natural rights of the individual. Women, just like men, are born equal and free. Women must be free from artificial constraints on their lives in order to be able to discover what is good for them. When women appear inferior to men it is due to the social forces instituted by individuals who did not know better (Sapiro, 50). Gender roles are organized patterns of behavior we follow that are based on our interpretation of the significance of sex. They structure our choices and guide our behavior in ways that are viewed as gender appropriate (Sapiro, 73). Many times women are taught to grow up and act feminine as well as take on the many roles that are falsely identified with females. In our society it is believed that women's roles or actions are determined by biology and cannot be changed (Sapiro, 74). Sigmund Freud believed that human personalities are not sex differentiated at the time of birth. He said that females and males are born essentially bisexual and undifferentiated. Young children learn to act feminine or masculine from their parents as well as the society that surrounds them. If a young girl were to grow up in a neutral setting, she would in return develop masculine as well as feminine traits (Sapiro, 80). Education has been a central focus of women seeking to improve their condition and raise their status for well over two centuries (Sapiro, 105). It wasn't until 1972 that the U.S. government made a statement that supported education and forbade discrimination. Reviews show that text books from the first grade level to college are biased. Many times women are shown negatively or used as sex objects in illustrations and examples. Research suggests that women do not get the fullest opportunity possible to get the education that men do. Women are still tracked to into areas that are supposed to be compatible with the roles of wife and mother. In addition, schools play a role in tracking women to jobs with lower status than men. Men are continually getting better jobs and more pay for the same amount of education, and therefore they are achieving higher social status for the same education (Sapiro, 118). Children also learn at a very young age that certain subjects are masculine while others are seen as more feminine. One study found that adolescent girls refrain from studying mathematics because they think boys don't like girls who are good in math. Many times girls do poorly in math because they feel that it is a masculine subject, and they lack confidence in their abilities. If different kinds of subjects are labeled masculine or feminine it can only be restricting to education. Young women's confidence in their abilities seems to be linked to how gender appropriate they find a particular subject or activity. Girls learn not to expect much from their own abilities, which leads many to underrate themselves. In addition, many timed girls will reduce their competitiveness so they act more feminine (Sapiro, 120). The work place is one of the biggest places where women experience the most discrimination. However, the right to work is recognized in article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This refers to the right to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment (Sivard, 1). The division of labor in contemporary capitalism involves a differentiation between male and female workers (Barrett, 152). During the Second World War, many women entered the workplace for the first time. These women took the jobs that were vacated by men who were serving in the armed forces. Many of these same women were forced to give up these jobs when the men returned from war. After the war many women were forced to return to the social and economic roles they had played in the past. This time period also significantly held the highest divorce rate prior to the 1970's (Loss, 160). Women are concentrated in particular industries at specific levels, and are many times subjected to poorer pay and working conditions than men (Barett, 153). Since the 1700's women have been seen as a cheap source of labor. Women are more willing to earn less, since they are thought to want to stop working once they get married (thehistorynet.com, 1). Some of the most critical problems in the are of women and work concern the relationship between women's domestic responsibilities, and their employment outside the home. Much of women's work remains unpaid, unrecognized, and undervalued. Women's ability to work is also constrained by social and cultural attitudes that restrict mobility, emphasize familial responsibilities, and ignore women's economic contribution to society. In most countries women work at least twice the number of hours as men at unpaid work. Women do more than three times as much child care as men. Also studies show that women spend 20 to 30 hours more unpaid housework a week than men do (Sivard, 2). Work is one of the most misunderstood facets of women's lives. Too many times it is believed that women are too delicate too as much work as men (Sapiro, 366). By the nineteenth century people began to think about homemaking as a vocation and occupation that should be professionalized. Homemaking was introduced as a subject of study at schools and universities. This lead to the question as to why if women could study in this area why not others (Sapiro, 372). Women are much less likely to leave the labor force when they have children. When they do leave it is for a much shorter time. Women are expected to work during the day to help pay for expenses. Then at night women take on the unpaid role of the homemaker (Sapiro, 382). Women are concentrated into many fewer occupations than men are. Women and men in the same general job classifications are segregated into different types of work with different status and pay. When men and women are found in the same sector, men are more concentrated in the positions of higher status and authority than women are (Sapiro, 384). Gender divisions of labor begin at a very young age. Male and female children at home are given jobs that correspond to adult divisions of labor. Girls tend to work with people while boys work with things. Educational institutions also help sort out workers into gender appropriate jobs (Sapiro, 390). Women may be increasing the amount of time they spend in employment, but they continue to earn considerably less than men do. In the 1980's women earned only three fifths of what men earn, in other words only sixty cents for every dollar a man earned. Many companies make sure that men and women in the company have different job titles so that they can justifiably be paid different salaries. Some employers also make sure that there is something slightly different about the actual work that men and women do so that their work could be proven to be unequal (Sapiro, 398). People have long been worried about conflicts between work and family in the lives of women workers. We have seen, however, that work has not conflicted with families. First, women's family roles constitute much of women's work, and second as women expanded their work to locations outside the home they stretched the meaning of femininity. Many women find it easier to avoid conflict and continue to do domestic work in the home as well as paid work (Sapiro, 406). Many feminists and attorneys have argued that sexual harassment in the work place is a form a sex discrimination. Many women feel that the only way to avoid harassment is to quit, and many have been fired because they did not respond appropriately in the eyes of their employers. A federal government study estimated that the amount of job turnover, medical insurance claims, absenteeism, and reduced productivity due to sexual harassment may cost the economy $189 million over a two-year period (Sapiro, 395). Every day the battle for women's equality continues, and women are gaining more and more recognition. We need to take the discrimination of women seriously and work to make it better. Equality for all women has been a fundamental goal for hundreds of years and continues to be so. Bibliography: Barrett, Michele. Women's Oppression Today. Great Britain: Verso, 1988 Loss, Archie. Pop Dreams. Orlando: Harcourt Brace and Company. 1999. Marino, Henry. "Votes For Women." Timeline of Women's Rights. www.Wommensmov.com Sapiro, Virginia. Women In American Society. California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1986. Sivard, Ruth. "Women's Human Rights Issues." Work And Employment. www.whrissues.com Women's History. "Labor Unions". www.thehistorynet.com Human Rights Violations. "Why Equality Now?" www.equalitynow.org Barrett, Michele. Women's Oppression Today. Great Britain: Verso, 1988 Loss, Archie. Pop Dreams. Orlando: Harcourt Brace and Company. 1999. Marino, Henry. "Votes For Women." Timeline of Women's Rights. www.Wommensmov.com Sapiro, Virginia. Women In American Society. California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1986. Sivard, Ruth. "Women's Human Rights Issues." Work And Employment. www.whrissues.com Women's History. "Labor Unions". www.thehistorynet.com Human Rights Violations. "Why Equality Now?" www.equalitynow.org Word Count: 1944
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