39: Status of Women in Law Part III

Identify the organization initiatives that need to occur before work/life balance can be obtained and equity among men and women is gained in the legal profession. Critique and discuss English’s re-imagining the future.

Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.

38: Status of Women in Law Part II

Select one profile from each of the following galleries “Women in the Judiciary” and “Women in the Practice of Law” that can be found at

http://library.law.columbia.edu/rise_of_women/index.html

Write about this lawyer and the significance of her contribution to the profession.

37: Status of Women in Law Part I

Read the following report, Charting Our Progress, by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession. Write a blog that compares and contrasts English’s findings and recommendation with the report.
http://www.abanet.org/women/ChartingOurProgress.pdf

Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.

35: Balancing Family & Law Career Part III

In the Talk of the Nation story in course materials, the glass ceiling was explored. The question that dominated the discussion was: Can corporate America lure the women back into the workforce? What do you think?
Blog entries need to be between 300-500 words long.

35: Balancing Family & Law Career Part II

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission set out a list of recommendations for employers to consider in order to promote work-family balance. The document acknowledges that it reflects "both the increasing challenges faced by employees with caregiving responsibilities, and the low likelihood of successfully addressing such problems through mere compliance with existing law." To really assist in garnering a healthy work-life balance, businesses must do more than just the bare minimum required by legislation, including "thinking broadly about the ways in which family-friendly workplace policies can improve workers' ability to balance caregiving responsibilities with work."

A caregiver may be embodied as a parent, or one caring for an aging parent or relatives with disabilities, according to the EEOC. The trait shared by all of these caregivers is that "in addition to doing paid work, [they] are also engaged in significant caregiving outside of the workplace." An interesting and important note made in the recommendations is that women are by far the most likely to be the said caregiver in a situation. While men have taken on increased roles in parenting and caregiving, women still dominate. Simultaneously, "women's workforce participation has dramatically increased," meaning that women are taking on more responsibility than even before, and due to the recession, where mainly men's jobs were lost, their wages are more crucial than ever.

34: Balancing Family & Law Career Part I

Joan Williams is a law professor at the University of California Hastings Law School. She is the author of Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It (Oxford University Press, 2000). Williams defines "unbending gender":

"The term "unbending gender" refers to two different trends. The first is that, to date, gender roles in this country have been unbending and unyielding; there has been a lot less change than we had hoped for 20 or 30 years ago. The second is that, to the (significant) extent that things have changed, changes have been achieved not by moving towards androgyny, but by widening out the range of socially acceptable masculinities and femininities-preserving "la difference" between men and women."

Williams, an expert in work-family balance issues, spoke on the "Working Moms" panel, and her main contention was that this work-family conflict is evident at all socioeconomic levels. Williams asserted that women in the lowest income category have the most difficult of times in balancing work and family, since their jobs are the least flexible with non-standard hours, unstable child care and often sick children. Next on the ladder is the group Williams calls the Professional Managerial class. This group has husbands working long hours, which force the mothers to bring up the children and leave their jobs. These women are likely to be working part-time jobs, and be the primary caretakers for their children, and they are generally very conflicted when it comes to their family and work. The Missing Middle are the group that have pink and blue collar jobs, with little flexibility. Generally these people use the childcare tactic of "tag-teaming," where one will work one shift while the other takes the kids, then they switch. This group has a large divorce rate largely because the couples never see each other.

33: Advancinc in the Law Part III

The advancement of women in the legal profession is undeniable. Two women currently sit on the Supreme Court. According to a study done by the National Association of Women Lawyers, women are graduating from law schools and starting careers at about the same rate as men. Additionally, a greater rate of female law school grads are promoted to the role of equity partner.

The issues come in the lack of women in leadership positions at their firms. According to the NAWL, there wer less than 16% of comen who hold the position of equity partner, and "only about 6% of law firms report that they have a woman in the highest leadership position of managing partner." Minority women still lag behind in advancement. NAWL found that there is a "greater difficulty that women of color face in moving up the law firm ranks, compared to white lawyers or male lawyers of color."

Despite the greater rate of being promoted to higher positions, like equity partner, women are promoted to the rank of equity partner at only about half the rate as men, according to the NAWL report. The ultimate kicker is an age-old problem: men still make more money than women do, in every level of law.

32: Advancing in the Law Part II

Parenthood when attached to women is an expected outcome for normal females. Women are intended to end up leaving work, at least for some period of time, and then her choices from then on determine how she's perceived in her community and in the workplace. If she goes back to work, she may want to downplay her work to appear a better mother in the workplace. On this same note, she could also choose to downplay her motherhood in order to appear stable in the workplace. One woman in Holly English's Gender on Trial attempted the latter: "'I sort of didn't tell anyone [at the law firm] until it was obvious that I was pregnant, which gave both the impression that I wasn't that excited and the impression that I was very torn about the consequences" (232). English found that, "This 'in the closet' approach... recognizes a stark fact: A woman's career stock plummets as her maternal stock skyrockets. Society applauds one moment and punishes int eh next, bringing the full force of tenacious stereotypes to bear on mothers in the workplace" (233). If a woman does not return to work, then she fulfills her stereotype as a woman in a law firm: a temporary, somewhat inconsequential occurrence.

Parenthood when attached to men is absolutely different. English explains, "The role of fatherhood has always meshed neatly with the image of the driven career man" (238). While women lose credibility as a worker upon having children, a man becoming a father adds more legitimacy to his career and generally does not affect his work habits. "If men are transformed when they become fathers, it is because they now carry the breadwinner mantle and are assumed to be more serious and committed to their work" (238). Women are expected to rely more on their husbands upon having children, and this makes working fathers stronger.

31: Advancing in the Law Part I

The legal profession is one of the most demanding. In Holly English's Gender on Trial she found that, "Basic attitudes about dedication to the profession stand in teh way of a lawyer of either gender adopting alternative schedules or deviating from accepted work norms for any reason" (221). Women often find themselves in the position of wanting to have it all: both the stellar career and the satisfying home life.

Solutions that have been proposed to assist in achieving such a balance include the following: downplaying one's motherhood or one's career, switching off parenting roles with a partner, taking on a part-time schedule, seeking a firm where women hold high-ranking positions, taking time off and returning when one chooses, even paying for someone to take care of all the day-to-day minutia like dry cleaning. On the extreme ends, women choose to not have families or not to have careers. Downplaying important things in one's life can sometimes come off as deceptive or as if one of the priorities does not matter to an individual. Taking a part-time schedule has the result of seeming unlike a lawyer. However, women who do not have families also encounter issues, and can be perceived as abnormal women. The problem with finding a firm where women hold high-ranking positions is that women in these roles are rare, and just because they are high-ranking does not mean it is something that everyone can achieve. One woman in English's book decided that she would have her child and return one year after he started formal schooling. The problem with this is that so much time out of the loop can make it difficult to rejoin the work force. The option of having a full-time nanny who cares for children when a mother can't and deal with all of the cleaning, shopping and shuffling so that a woman can spend quality time with her family seems the best option. The sole issue here is in its perception: she can be seen as not having time to enjoy anything in her life, although it's quite the opposite.

30: Proving Yourself in a Man's World Part III

Write a 700 - 1,000 word blog about leadership styles. This blog should draw on the information provided in the two videos. Address the following questions:

1) How do conventional views about leadership styles disadvantage women and advantage men?
2)How gender expectations frame leadership behavior for men and women?
3) How do these expectations relate to stereotypes?
4) What are positive and negative outcomes of female and male leadership qualities?
5) Discuss which leadership style you prefer and explain why?

29: Proving Yourself in a Man's World Part II

In an American Bar Association report, it was found that forty-nine percent of the minority woman lawyers sampled said they'd been subjected to demeaning comments or other types of harassment in the workplace. Minority women have even less of a likelihood than white women to find mentors, work as an authority figure, and move upward within a firm. According to an NPR piece, "Why So Few Minority Women Stay at Law Firms," many of the women who took part in the ABA study described stories about blatant discrimination that eventually led them to leaving their firms. The study also revealed that, in the case of minority woman laywers, exclusion, neglect and overt harassment are not uncommon in the workplace. Holly English's "Gender on Trial" barely touches on race, and viewed it as an additional major factor within law firms. "... Although there are quotations from various interviewees from minority and ethnic groups, and some relevant data are included, they are intended merely to add some illustrative examples of issues; this book does not pretend to fully analyze the added difficulties imposed by race in addition to gender" (English 14).

A discrepancy between the ABA's findings and those of English involves the work of minority male and female workers. While the ABA found that minority males had reported less instances of being passed over for a desirable assignment, being excluded from networking opportunities and receiving an unfair performance evaluation than minority females. English found the converse. Describing a "frequent syndrome" of white males who preferred supervising black females, English evidenced that black males got the shorter end of the still short stick. One man explained: "White male partners give black females better work assignments, they will be more willing to take them under their wings, in a protective capacity--to feel that they're doing something good, an honorable chore, like they should get some medal for doing this thing" (148). English does go on to concede, agreeing with part of the ABA report, that "despite this perception, black women and other minority women fare worse than their male counterparts in the workplace" (148).

28: Proving Yourself in a Man's World Part I

Jeff Rosen, of the New Republic, wrote an article about Sonia Sotomayor who, at the time, was in the running to become a Supreme Court Justice. In this piece, Rosen portrayed Sotomayor as unitelligent, negatively aggressive, and put immense focus on her temperament in court. What Rosen failed to point out in his poorly-evidenced argument were any of Sotomayor's major credits. According to The White House's background of the judge, Sotomayor graduated as valedictorian of her high school class, summa cum laude at Princeton, and was a co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate. At Yale Law School, Sotomayor served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and as managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order. To attempt to portray this obviously qualified woman as incompetent or inexperienced seems laughable.

What's disturbing about Rosen's piece, still, is how he characterizes Sotomayor's aggressiveness, tendency to ask probing, tough questions and pension for dedication as bad traits. American University law professor Darren Hutchinson critiqued the article, noting the apparent sexism:

"In Scalia, toughness is positive; in Sotomayor, it is nonjudicial. If Scalia asks irrelevant questions, he is just being a dutiful 'law professor' trying to hold the attention of his class. If Sotomayor does the same thing, she is just interested in hearing herself talk. When Scalia duels harshly with litigants, the 'spectators' watch in amazement. If Sotomayor asks tough questions, she is seen as difficult, temperamental, and excitable. The disparate treatment is too dense to deny."

Men are praised for being tough, while women are seen as domineering.

27: Law as a Gendered Organization Part III

The competency gap that remains between men and women lawyers is largely due to the hierarchical nature of a law firm. At the top of the food chain is a boys' club of sorts that allows its members to be in the know about their firm's innerworkings. Holly English explains how the gap is perpetuated within the workplace: "Not all women are great, just as all men are not great. But each time a woman is incompetent, or gets pregnant and leaves, the episode is overblown, and all women pay for it, because each individual woman still stands as a symbol for all women" (111). English hammers home the point that often the competence gap lives on through the disconnect between women and men officemates when in an informal situation.

As far as the strategies that some male lawyers engage in to maintain this gap, one woman in English's study explained: "It's as simple as the discussion about golf--golf being the metaphor for what men do and women don't do in my generation" (110). In attempts to win cases against female lawyers, some male lawyers attempt to play into the idea of the competence gap by blatantly disrespecting their female opponent.

26: Law as a Gendered Organization Part II

A gendered organization can be defined as an institution in which one's gender is a part of one's role in the institution and the institution works to perpetuate the notions about one's gender through its structure and practices. This means that in, for example, a law firm, men are automatically expected to have more responsibilities, make more money and do tougher jobs, and therefore they receive all of the above. On the flip side, women are expected to vacate positions quickly, be less assertive, have less responsibility and generally answer to and rely on men, and the structure and practices of the firm, generally, assure that these expectations are met repeatedly. It is also reflected in the long hours required of lawyers. Men, who typically are not the primary caretaker for children and a spouse, are simply normal for working excessive hours. While women who face the same time demands are unable to have the home life society dictates that they should maintain.

Male lawyers play the role of backer to women lawyers. This means that, when in a bind or in need of support, a woman turns to a male counterpart to validate her stance or assist in some capacity. In Holly English's "Gender on Trial," she found repeated instances of women needing men in their office to back them up. This shows that obviously a law firm is a gendered organization because women are consistently assigned lesser value than men. A few examples that English expounds upon include one woman's need for assistance in dealing with a blatantly disrespectful man: "I had one of the guys deal with him, to take a deposition, because it was so important to our case" (87). The man who was rude to her, an opposing attorney, made no snide remarks when a man was in her place. "With my male colleague in the deposition, the hostile guy was really mild. If there's male supervision he doesn't do it" (87).

Another example English provides revolves around a woman and her male colleague, who is well known and favored by clients. After both he and she meet with a client to explain that she will take on the case, she references him as a source of power. This female fifteen-year litigator said that once she has an established client "and when I start giving advice to them that I know will not be well-received, instead of waiting for them to say, 'What does John think?' I preface it with 'John and I talked about this.' It's both a gender thing and a superior/inferior thing" (87).

These two examples illustrate the range of male backing in the law world. The male backing can be anything from a verbal reference to a male authority, to a male authority physically stepping into a situation and handling it. From either end of the spectrum, men are the ones in control in this environment, and the environment itself perpetuates the status quo.

25: Law as a Gendered Organization Part I

Distinct pros and cons accompany a woman's choice of whether to use sexualized behavior in the workplace, or not. On the pro side, sexualized behavior, when wielded properly, is an advantage that women have over men and should be deployed to gain whatever positive outcomes that it can. In Holly English's Gender on Trial, English explains that a woman can use her looks or charms, not necessarily in place to do anything but project confidence and professionalism, to flatter a male in order to receive a favorable outcome. One woman with whom English spoke said, "I just think that women have tools that they can use," adding, "We should not be deprived of using those tools, especially if those tools include the ability to develop collaboration" (43).

The con side contends that using one's sexuality as a means of getting ahead demeans any professionalism that one may possess or assert. Stooping to utilize sexuality as a weapon diminishes credibility because being a good flirt is not equitable to being a good lawyer, being intelligent or astute. It runs the risk of coming off as deceptive, conniving, and has the potential to severely alienate a woman from her co-workers.

24: Gender Expectations and Stereotypes Part III

Women law student organizations tend to have similar aims. Some of the chief issues that pop up on the web sites of these organizations is the goal of connecting women with firms for potential job placement, ensuring success in the classroom, mentorship via the organization, as well as generally advocating women's rights and women's causes. Yale Law School's organization Yale Law Women counts is mission as the promotion of "the interests of women within the law school and beyond." That organization intends on carrying out that mission by encouraging

"Debate and discussion of issues pertaining to women and gender broadly defined; promotes speech and action by YLW members on issues of import to women; devotes resources to student support and professional development; recognizes and fosters outstanding achievement; and advocates in service of women's interests in society."

Meanwhile, the University of California: Berkeley's group Boalt Hall Women's Association offers a speaker series that brings women leaders to the organization to hold lunchtime and evening talks on topics ranging from legal career paths to the balance of work and life. Communication seems to be the aim of this organization, which also sets up advice sessions bringing together women at different class levels, and informal mentorships between women at different class levels.

Harvard Law School's Women's Law Association seems vested in the entire career of its members, providing first year guidance through career development. They also appear to be the most open of these three organizations, and note that all law students are encouraged to participate in their activities. This leads one to believe that this organization may be the most forward-thinking of the trio in that they are not segregating themselves from their male counterparts, but attempting to include them in the discussion and increasing movement of women into the world of law.

23: Gender Expectations and Stereotypes Part II

Women in politics or the legal field come under more scrutiny than men when it comes to their wardrobe because there is no set way for women to dress in these professions. The topic of the NPR piece "The Fashion Laws of Politics: Obama-Style," the focus of the piece is on First Lady Michelle Obama. Obama has shaken up the norm of boring black, navy or gray suits with a sort of rejection of femininity, in favor of embracing femininity, color and fun fashion. Using clothes, mostly dresses, that highlight her curves instead of relying on boxy, masculine pieces allows her to be perceived as both serious and someone who is not afraid of herself, and portraying herself with confidence and appropriateness. While she has encountered naysayers who think that her style choices are inappropriate or not serious enough, there are also those who seem more enraptured in her fashion choices than her actual duties.

Particularly in the political world, women come under questioning regarding how much money they spend on their clothing. An interesting case is that of Michelle Obama, seen as a lover of American fashion and economic supporter of the fashion industry, versus former Governor Sarah Palin, who was hung out to dry for her clothing budget. Reportedly, the Republican National Convention spent $150,000 on Palin's wardrobe for her vice presidential campaign. This, compiled with her touted image as a "hot mom," only served to hurt her image, and portray her as increasingly vain and decreasingly of substance.

The NPR piece "What Is She Wearing? Fashion Laws of Politics" discusses the evolution of women's fashion in the political arena, and provide advice to women at work. "Women are viewed in a very different way, with regard to their dress, than men are." former lawmaker Marjorie Margolies said. Men basically get a pass in fashion, and women are faced with more of a burden of looking responsible, but also being current and simultaneously classic. While it is acknowledged that the harsher view on women could be categorized as sexist, it is essentially written off as the way it is because women simply have more fashion options than men do. "Most people remember what you wear and your tone, over what you say," Margolies said, adding that women need to keep their dress and tone more neutral, and flawless so that the focus is on their message as opposed to the accoutrement.

22: Gender, Expectations and Stereotypes Part I

On her path to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor faced the application of gender expectations and stereotypes to her. Both her gender and her race were used to evaluate her qualifications to serve as a justice, and the media played a major role in publicizing that evaluation process. It is made obvious in a video from ColorLines.com that if the same analysis of Sotomayor, and things that she had said, were applied to men who dominate the roles of justices on the Supreme Court, then the analysis would be fair. However, when these tactics are only applied to a woman who also happens to be a Latina, the video's host proclaims that the practice is institutionalized racism. She fails to mention that the act is also institutionalized sexism. Both justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia have made public gaffes that were not used against them in their process of becoming justices, and therefore the Sotomayor's treatment was both racist and sexist.

Sotomayor came under intense scrutiny for referring to herself as a wise Latina, who might be more capable of making better decisions than the average white man sitting on the bench. According to a New York Magazine article titled "Precedents: Sotomayor's Original Intent," she was called "racist" by Glenn Beck, "reverse racist by Rush Limbaugh, and a member of the "Latino KKK" by Tom Tancredo, all, it should be noted, who are white men. Justice Sotomayor was also called a judicial activist who was not part of the mainstream. This is true, when the mainstream refers to a body of balding, rich white men, who were born into privilege. Sotomayor grew up in the projects, with Puerto Rican parents and only her education to propel her forward.

21: Interaction with Co-workers, Supervisors and Job Satisfaction: Part III

The main focus of the National Association for Female Correctional Officers is to enact laws that would assist in the prevention of the rape and sexual assault of female correctional officers. Specific measures that the organization want passed include a zero-tolerance policy for rape and assault of female prison workers, making prevention a top priority in all prison systems, develop national standards for dealing with and preventing these acts of rape and sexual assault, requiring prosecution for these acts (and federal grants to do so), and federal grants to improve safety conditions for female prison workers.

These issues differ from Britton's closing recommendations for the betterment of the prison system as far as female treatment and perception is concerned. Britton recommends that "if our goal is the creation of less oppressively gendered organizational environments" (p. 225), then realistic stories of women's lives in prison need to receive more mainstream portrayal in media. This means that images of intense violence, corrupt guards and animal-like inmates must be tempered in favor of the truth. This will lead to less sensationalizing of prison life, and will assist in promoting equality of women working in prisons. Britton also notes that training specific to either male or female inmates is necessary for preparing officers for their positions because male and female inmates are different, and should be treated as such. Britton agrees with the National Association for Female Correctional Officers in that "sexual harassment remain[s] [an] obstacle(s) and should be more aggressively addressed, but does not recommend legislation or go into specific details.

20: Interaction with Co-workers, Supervisors and Job Satisfaction: Part II

The Phoenix Magazine coverage of the hostage crisis at Lewis Prison in 2004 relates to Britton’s study in that the correctional officers who were in the prison received training that was not uniform in its delivery, and nobody knew how to properly avert or handle a hostage crisis.

According to Britton, a total institution is a place in which people live their entire lives. Specific to prison as a total institution, the inhabitants are there involuntarily, and thereby hostile and uncooperative, inhabitants desire subversion, and corrections officers are put into total control of the inhabitants’ lives.

Britton recommends in closing that prisons give corrections officers uniform and specified training based on what type of inmates they are projected to work with. If the officers in the Lewis Prison hostage situation had received thorough, specified and actual training on how to handle their prison and their inmates, then they would have been equipped to, at the very least, deal with the situation, if not prevent it from occurring altogether.

19: Interaction with Co-workers, Supervisors and Job Satisfaction: Part I

In Geena Davis's speech at the National Conference for Media Reform, she discusses how much influence the media's depictions have on individuals' everyday lives. Her films that have empowered women, like "A League of Their Own" and "Thelma and Louise," are exceptions to the general rules of women being overall passive and not well-rounded, thereby very flat, characters. Davis points out how strong children can be influenced by the media, particularly in programming for young children. Classic and current cartoons, Davis notes, show a major imbalance between male and female characters, with men in dominating, powerful roles, and women as subservient beings whose chief value is their appearance.

These ideas are planted at childhood, and stick with people throughout their adult lives. This means that these stereotypes are fated to be carried into the workplace, and replicate the notion that women are a second-class gender of sorts. Because these female stereotypes are accepted and distributed via the mainstream media, they are ingrained in every person who has been exposed to American media. This means that men will continue to think that women are unable to deal with the same levels of stress, work and high-pressure situations. This is reflected in Britton's findings that male corrections officers are likely to believe that their female counterparts cannot handle violent situations, and thereby should be delegated easier, more clerical assignments.

18: Working with Inmates: Part III

Britton argues that the norm in prisons becomes masculine when institutions attempt to establish gender-neutral policies and practices. The greatest contributor to this occurrence is on-the-job training which reinforces this norm, and construct correctional work as a gendered occupation. Britton only spoke with officers who had been formally trained for the purpose of her study, and found that training does not differ for males and females working toward the same job roles. Training may consist of handgun use, self-defense work, strategies for handling inmates, testing one's knowledge of general rules and one's physical abilities. Much of the training was hands-on and came from officers who were on the job. Inmates also served to assist in new officers learning the proverbial ropes. Women and men likely go into their jobs with the expectation that they will be much more violent than they end up being, due to storytelling from veteran officers during training.

These stories only make the job seem more masculine because they revolve around acts of violence and strength. When training both males and females, because the program is standardized, prison almost always means a reference to a male prison. Things like sexual harassment are not discussed in training because it is targeted towards the learning of the majority, which is to say it is targeted towards men. Men do not necessarily know how to prepare women for working in women's prisons, because they have no experience doing so. An interesting difference between men's and women's prisons is how much more lax women's prisons can be with allowing inmates to have potentially violent objects. However, male inmates were said to be the preferred inmates for correctional officers because they do not have emotional outbursts as women do, and thereby are more sensible for management. This preference is a reflection of how female officers are trained: to cater to male prisoners and not female. Training is for combating violence, not emotionality.

17: Working with Inmates: Part II

A striking difference between Britton's findings and the NBC documentary, Lockup - Inside North Carolina Women's Prison, is that of Britton's assertion that the "Dirty Harriet" prototype is not seen in media portrayals. However, the documentary shows almost exclusively this type of macho, tough female officer. Additionally, Britton definitely downplayed the possible dangers and uncomfortable, unstable environment a prison can be to work within. This is illustrated particularly through the documentary's presentation of female corrections officers interacting with disrespectful male prisoners, who view the women as sexual objects despite their authoritative powers over the prisoners. Britton contended that women in her study felt safer working in male prisons than they did working on the streets of a major city. Another dissimilarity between Britton and the documentary is the portrayal of who is in the prison: the majority of inmates seem to be white women, while the majority of correctional officers appear to be minorities. Britton acknowledges a symbiotic relationship between inmates and officers, that is not evident in the documentary, where the two groups appear very separate.

A similarity between the two works is the evidence of reverse subordination. Reverse subordination, in this setting, is the resentment of male prisoners toward female corrections officers. It is sometimes seen as a reversal of natural order when a woman has authority over a man, and this can lead to male prisoners acting out in various inappropriate fashions. While it can be challenging for female officers to regain control of a situation, they are the authority figures and ultimately have control.

From an officer's standpoint, building relationships with the inmates can present definite dangers for the officer. In the documentary, incarcerated women discussed how they had effectively extorted officers after having some type of likely sexual encounter in order to gain power within the prison hierarchy.

Some essentialized assumptions the correctional officers employed regarding the inmates, in the documentary, include that they are unstable, do not have good intentions, and, at the end of the day, are still violators of the law. Inmates must be viewed as unstable, or, at least, needing to be guided and ruled over, because otherwise the lines between those in charge and those who are being punished are too blurry. There must be an "us versus them" mentality embraced by officers, that allows for distance between the parties. Officers assume that inmates have bad intentions, and that varies from meaning violent to sexual. One man, a convicted murderer, compared the female corrections officers to delicious steaks that he could not eat, in the CBS news story on female corrections officers.

In Britton's study, she found that female correctional officers had two predominant perceptions of inmates. The first was that inmates have obviously made mistakes, but ultimately they are humans. The preconceived notion that inmates are animals is washed away when officers start work, after training. The second perception was that inmates are too pampered and catered to.

An issue unique to African American and Latino officers is having to deal with their notions of racism within the prison system. There is a difficulty in working within a system that imprisons a greater number of the minority group with which one associates herself. Britton discusses what is called a "double consciousness," which means having an understanding of how the system views inmates (as negative beings or antagonists to the protagonist role of the officers), in addition to an understanding of her personal perspective on racism and experiences with it. It seems that minority officers tend to adopt the "language of the overseer," which means that they leave behind their racial background when engaging in their work. It is an assimilation to a presumably white male culture that prevents the officer from appearing to be an "other." This language also serves to separate an officer from inmates, maintain authority and focus on work rather than identifying with inmates due to possible background similarities, whether real or perceived.

Correctional officers often employ a motherly role in working with inmates. This allows women to diffuse situations, while not being particularly threatening, but also maintaining a familiar sense of authority. This role assumption serves as social control because it forces inmates into the role of children who are required to obey, and know that they will receive punishment if they fail to do so. This allows inmates to continue to be human, but unequal.

16: Working with Inmates: Part I

Britton’s study discusses the pathways to becoming a correctional officer. In this blog, write about how that path gendered. For instance, what is the relationship between previous work experience and becoming a correctional officer? Is it the same for men and women? What role do social networks play in job opportunities and how are they gendered? What motivates men and women to become correctional officers?

The path to becoming a correctional officer is gendered in that men dominate the field, therefore it is a non-traditional field laden with more obstacles than, say, becoming a teacher or nurse. Because men have run the system since the beginning, dominate the authority positions as well as the cells.

The relationship between previous work experience and becoming a correctional officer can either totally hinder or completely foster the position. Britton notes that while demand for correctional officers is high, it is often viewed as a last resort profession, due to the harsh environment and mediocre pay. This pay level makes the position less attractive to men, and more attractive to women and minorities. This has resulted in more women and minorities taking up the roles. This results in men still remaining in more authoritative positions, and women remain lower on the totem pole. Men who pursue prison work typically begin their careers in the military, while women mostly begin with clerical work or service jobs.

Social networks play a leading role in job opportunities, as they determine who is placed where. This attitude and function is a result of the boys' club attitude that prevails in the hierarchy of men's institutions. This is not to say that women to not experience that same type of hierarchy, however it is favored toward men because they have been integral to the system longer. To become a correctional officer the motivation of men and the motivation for women differs. Men generally pursue the field of corrections as a gateway to becoming a police officer.

15: Engendering Prisons and History of Women Guards: Part II

Women's prison populations began booming in the past 25 years, and their growth has continued to unprecedented and unexpected numbers. This has resulted in lower standards in female prisons, and thereby more instances of illness and deaths due to illness. This is the result of women not being perceived as possibly violent, but as naturally idle, sweet beings. Work done in male and female prisons is While men's prisons have employed men for hard labor and harsh punishment. Conversely, women have been charged with distinctly "womanly" labor: sewing, cleaning and cooking, namely.

14: Engendering Prisons and History of Women Guards: Part I

The theory of gendered organization purports that organizations are not neutral organisms, but have definite identities. These identities give attributes to members of the organization, and play on already present assumptions and roles that are assigned to specific types of people in society and then serves to perpetuate them.

Britton uses this theory to frame her research question in asking how prisons continue to detect and then reproduce gender through their structure, practices, and policies. She is asking why and how women continue to hold lower positions on the proverbial totem pole, while men continue to hold positions of ultimate power and authority in institutions, particularly prisons.

Structure, agency and culture are all interlinked in the ongoing processes of organization gendering. This happens through the rewarding of workers who can take on more shift work, often at hours that are nonstandard, meaning that women who have children cannot do things like pick them up from school or perhaps spend time with them at all. Better, more standard, shifts are designated to workers with seniority, because they have earned their dues. This leaves those same women in an impossible situation: they must start at the bottom, and if they cannot meet the odd structure found there, they cannot be promoted and thereby either remain in menial positions or none at all. That completely exemplifies what Britton meant when stating that "organizations are gendered at the level of structure," (p. 7). Men have the capacity to excel in a prison environment, and women, by and large, do not. Finally, women, either in making their own gendered choices or falling subject to the stereotyping of others, tend to take on work that is considered more feminine. This means women work in cleaning and cooking, which are fields where there is no real authority.

When Britton stated that "organizations are gendered at the level of structure" (p. 7), she meant that

Both public and private spheres become gendered concepts by

These are reflected in labor history, labor practices and labor law via

13: Women in Non-Traditional Jobs: Part II

Images of prison guards and correctional officers that are popularized in the media usually are sexualized and minimize the actual responsibility and power of women in those non-traditional roles. These women are either portrayed as extremely feminine, and desiring sex constantly, or extremely masculine, and uninterested in anything sexual. This is combined with another notion: that women are not naturally attuned to the violence that is inherent to men. Because "normal" women are not violent in nature, these women in prisons are seen as a sort of freakish anomaly. This leaves women as either sexual objects, asexual objects, or monsters.

These notions are a stark contrast to how women in non-traditional roles are portrayed in promotional and recruitment videos. The “Women at Work” recruitment video portrays women in non-traditional fields such as aviation, automotive mechanics, drafting, construction. There is a mix of very feminine and slightly masculine women. Women are in power, taking action, and, interestingly, the only male voice in the piece is the narrator. This note is reflected in the real-life continued domination of males in these fields. If a man was not speaking as the ultimate authority, the video might be less effective in persuading females to pursue jobs that men dominate. It’s a voice of permission, allowing women to want to try their hands at new and typically male careers.

The images portrayed of men as correctional officers in male prisons are usually intensely violent. Additionally, men's prisons are generally a gender segregated and not welcoming to women taking on authoritative positions within them. Conversely, men taking on authoritative positions in women’s prisons tend to be welcomed with open arms. This sexism within male institutions is a result of men feeling threatened by women coming into fields that are not gender typical, and infiltrating what had been a boys’ club. Women probably tend to be more welcoming to men in female institutions because men are more likely to be viewed as experts in the field of corrections, because they have dominated the field over more time.

12: Women in Non-Traditional Jobs: Part I

Occupational segregation exists because society classifies professions by gender. This gender socialization leads members of different genders to gravitate towards certain types of professions. For example, women are socialized for working in more emotional fields like teaching, while men are socialized for working in more powerful fields like police work.

This is also tied in with the differing expectations for women and men as far as family roles go. While women can hold traditional nine-to-five jobs, they are generally not associated with jobs that have odd hours or require more masculine traits like police officer, security guard or prison worker. Odd hours equate to the inability to be what society sees as a proper mother, but they also are responsible for a the wage gap that is evident between male and female positions. The ability to work longer, later hours means more money, promotions, and a higher profile job within a field. The notion of a balancing act that women must take on in order to succeed at work and still remain a good mother is not reflected to the same dramatic extent on the male side.

Women gain multiple advantages when breaking into traditionally male-dominated careers. Because these fields are not largely populated by women there are sometimes fiscal benefits to pursing these fields. For instance, to study particular topics in a college setting, women can receive scholarships merely for their gender. This can assist in diversifying a workplace, or school environment, and encourage equality between males and females where it was previously not present. Additionally, pursuing a non-traditional field can be empowering.

Men absolutely benefit from women entering male-dominated professions because it forces them to take in new ideas, see jobs from a different perspective and, possibly, discover a newfound respect for women.

Working Poor Women's Unpaid Labor: Part III

I currently heard a news report on NPR's program Tell Me More titled "The Days of June Cleaver Have Come and Gone." The overall theme of the piece pertains to the fall of the commonality of women staying at home as mothers, and not working outside of their homes. Typically, society has viewed women who choose to stay at home with their children as able to do so because of their socioeconomic status: they either have familial wealth or husbands or partners who provide enough to allow their wife or partner to stay at home.

What has been found statistically is that the "there is no such thing as a 'typical' stay-at-home mother." Some women do not actually have a choice in whether they can stay at home or not. This is a group of women who cannot get jobs, cannot afford child care (perhaps wanting to save money on child care, also), or have held jobs that are incompatible with child care. Yet again, there is a group of women who feel that being a mother is a full-time job and the most important one that they can be carrying out. All of these women are lumped in with the women who compose the set of rich women who stay home as a luxury of sorts.

This diversification of the stay-at-home mother as someone who can be any color, of any class and be doing so for any reason. The major issue contended by Leslie Morgan Steiner is that motherhood as a full-time career is not all that beneficial to women. "... The unfortunate thing about motherhood is that it's a dead end job. And if you start out young and you didn't earn very much money before you had kids, no matter how long you stay home, your being a mom isn't going to improve your chances of taking care of yourself and your family financially," Steiner explained. This is true of all women, and, it should be noted, the longer someone, whether female or not, is out of the workforce, the more detrimental it is likely to be toward their professional skills.

Professor Stone sees current trends as showing that women are graduating from college at higher rates than ever, and after schooling is completed they want to work and spend time in their homes, and wanting both is difficult to deal with because there is no absolute, blanket support system. This signifies that no matter what class a woman belongs to, there is no set way of handling how she balances work and children because it is not a totally played-out trend.

Working Poor Women's Unpaid Labor: Part II

Within our course material, and specifically within the NPR stories that we've listened to, there are vast gaps between those of the opinion that welfare has been effective and those who think that it has not.

While those who champion welfare are correct in that there are less people enrolled in that system than ever, at the same time, enrollment increased for other programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and disability benefits. Vivyan Adair, Associate Professor of women's studies at Hamilton College, argued that welfare needs to work to educate, instead of recipients being ushered into work but still needing to depend on services, where cannot be self-sufficient.

Robert Rector, senior research fellow of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, argued that welfare is working positively because poverty numbers have declined in children and in single mothers. He believes the problem with welfare is that the whole system needs reform instead of simply getting mothers into the work force or offering them educational opportunities.

In Ajay Chaudry's "Putting Children First," the mothers in his sample use a variety of adaptive strategies after their welfare bouts have ended.


Chaudry's recommendations to make the system work to the advantages of the people begins with having the government increase funding for children's programs and making sure that the system is totally synchronized and usable. The system must also be usable and aware of the people who are to benefit from it and with whom it interacts: modern working women who are single mothers. In doing this everything must be made simpler, and redone from the ground up. Systems must work together for the benefit of children, their education and their well being by making programs available, flexible and seamless in their transitions from one stage of life to the next. Finally, the biggest, most sweeping and daunting recommendations from Chaudry is to work toward a society that has eradicated poverty as a whole. While this is the most far off of his ideas, it is certainly the most ideal and would be better than living in a society where we deal with existing poverty instead of proactively preventing it from happening.

Working Poor Women's Unpaid Labor: Part I

Working poor women's conditions revolve mainly around trying to work through a very complex system of red tape that comes with seeking government assistance and varieties of welfare, which is theoretically a system in place to help and make life easier for them in times of need. It would seem that, based on statistics from the National Center for Children in Poverty, the youngest of children and often the ones living in poverty. This could be attributed to a young mother's unfamiliarity with how to handle money, child care and maintaining a job. The NCCP backs up this theory: "researchers believe that parents of young children do not earn as much as parents of older children because they tend to be younger and have less work experience."

Because these young children have generally younger mothers with less job experience, they are poor. The main deficiencies found in these fiscally lacking families are food shortages, food insecurity (which means that the family is unsure of how they will get food and when their next meal will come), lack of housing that does not break the proverbial bank (it should be noted that 41% of families who rent their homes spend more than a third of their income on rent, according to the NCCP), and these children also lack health insurance, which either prevents their mothers from seeking care or ends up costing exorbitant amounts when they do.

The NCCP offers two major ways that society and effectively government policy can prevent children from living in such poverty. The first is to “make work pay.” This would mean that new policies should be created to allow workers to gain earned income tax credits, thereby lightening the burden of tax deductions on already meager checks. It is also recommended that regular increases in minimum wage be enacted to support growth and promise in the lives of these families whose breadwinners do not have much opportunity to grow their money. With these should also come health insurance, paid sick leave, vacation and the possibility of benefits that those making more money receive.

The second way that child poverty can be ridded, according to the NCCP, is by supporting parents and their young children. Educational opportunities, such as subsidized early child care with structured learning, need to be made more widely available

Working Women's Paid Labor: Part II

Urban poverty creates very specific problems for poor working mothers. They cannot afford to leave their homes, because they do not make enough money at their minimum wage jobs. This means that they themselves are probably not well educated, and it leads to their children probably not getting a very extensive and well-rounded education, and almost entirely eliminates the possibility of going to college, because school is not a major priority when rent, food and health care are overwhelming expenses that leave these mothers with very little chance of saving, and thereby little chance of financial success.

Schooling is directly proportional to the ability of a person to escape poverty, and when schools are failing due to lack of funding from state taxes, grants and other forms of improving education levels. When this is paired with women being unable to maintain their low-paying jobs due to the necessity of child care to do so, the result contributes to keeping families in poverty. Before these children arrive at school, they are already disadvantaged because chances are good that they have received very little preschool care that worked to develop their education. Because women cannot afford center care, children are often left with family members, who are not trained teachers or caregivers, or with a group of children that are a variety of ages. There is almost no school preparation in these settings, and when it occurs, it is rare and often not very structured.

In the video titled "Profile of Another America," health care evidences itself as a major expense and issue for working people in poverty because, in many cases, there are no affordable benefits, insurance or overall help to keep these people healthy without severely denting their already minimal paychecks. In contrast from those interviewed for the piece who did not belong to unions, the woman who did belong to a union received benefits, reasonable wages and was able to maintain a livable lifestyle, seemingly without much issue. She did not have to make sacrifices, for instance choosing whether to eat dinner or buy a prescription, as others making low wages were forced to do. The tug between needing to feed oneself and one’s family, versus the need to stay healthy, versus the need to hold down any job that pays enough to make ends meet all comes back to what kind of a job one has, and contributing to that is how educated that person is. People's jobs, and thereby their education level, literally shape how they live.

Working Women's Paid Labor: Part I

The factors contributing to the instability of child care that the subjects Jacqueline and Julia experience in Ajay Chaudry's "Putting Children First" began with the fact that Julia used Jacqueline's father as the child's primary caregiver when she was first born, but the end of their romantic relationship left her without child care. Julia's original reason for using the father as the care provider was because she wanted to better herself and her life through schooling. Then Julia's sister moved in and became Jacqueline's primary caregiver. Then, in need of more money than what was coming from Julia's internship, both Julia and Izzy found work at a fast food restaurant, alternating shifts and lucky enough to have a manager who allowed them to bring Jacqueline to work with them when needed.

Minimum wage jobs greatly contribute to the ability of working women to find and maintain stable and safe children in that children are constantly being shuffled from one caregiver to the next on a schedule that is unstable. Chaudry also noted that the frequent change of a care provider can result in delayed development of children, particularly in their ability to form healthy relationships and in learning how to interact with others, and behave well in general. Often times, when women get jobs they immediately need to find care, which leads them to handing over their children to people who might not be the best reviewed or qualified. Since the jobs also tend to be unstable, children don't spend much time with their mothers and don't keep a set schedule. Additionally, these jobs are not high in compensation and child care is a bill that must be paid. The pay also has the ability to negatively affect how many types of child care a mother can choose, including the availability of things like vouchers or special programs in her community. There is an apparent constant strain, as evidenced in Roseanne Barr's interviews with women living on minimum wages. While wanting to be successful and work hard, many feel trapped by a system that gives them exactly no power over their lives or their futures.

Cost of Child Care

Low-income mothers use a variety of forms of child care which range from state-subsidized care, leaving children with family, and allowing children, of an appropriate age, to care for themselves. These all result in varying degrees of success and very frequently mothers end up placing their children in the different forms of child care either simultaneously, for instance preschool followed by the use of kin caretakers until a mother is home from work, or throughout the youth of the children. Below I have paraphrased definitions of the types of childcare available adn most frequently occurring according to Ajay Chaudry in his book "Putting Children First."

1. Kin care - care from the relative of a child, often the child's maternal grandmother, but also potentially relatives of the mother or father. Care occurs in either the home or the relative or the child.

2. Informal care - Care for a child from a person who is not a relative at that person's home. Care is arranged on an individual basis for the one child, and can come from a friend, neighbor or acquaintance.

3. Family day care - Care with a licensed provider who runs a child care business in her home. The child is generally part of a group of kids who are not necessarily related.

4. Center care - This includes both preschool, day care and nursery programs that congregate large groups of children and the nature of their locations varies from churches, to schools to community centers.

5. Alternative care - This category encompasses father care, babysitters and any other means of care.

What is interesting in Chaudry's findings is that, while mothers prefer the structure and development found in center care, due to scheduling conflicts and the financial burden that comes with them. Most frequently family day care is used because it costs less and the hours can stretch to accommodate commutes and long hours that seem to coincide with the jobs that low-income mothers hold.

Identifying The Working Poor

In "Putting Children First," author Ajay Chaudry agrues that, based on the welfare system in the United States, that while "we [society] are asking the least fortunate to strive and work harder, we are deeply discounting our public responsibility for the children born into poor families and disadvantaged communities" (14). His point of view is the product of, first, legislation passed under President Bill Clinton, called The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This reform set forth the requirement that, in order to receive welfare benefits, one must first have a job.

The videos from this section that identify the working poor support Chaudry's perspective that the issue of poverty is a public one and not simply a personal problem because so much of the population is in the category of "working poor." This means that although they get by, many are in debt because, as Professor Katherine Newman notes, they try to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. Additionally, they must work more, longer hours, at jobs where healthcare is probably not provided. Making ends meet and living check-to-check is a way of life for people who are not bordering the poverty line. Because the group of people that compose the "near-poor" or "working poor" was 53 million Americans as of 2007, according to Newman, this cannot be simply written off as a private problem. It is obviously a wide-reaching issue that is also reflected in the current economic climate: People bought things they could not afford, and which their jobs could not pay for. This class of working poor issue touches women, men, married, single and divorced. These people become trapped in a seemingly unbeatable system where they cannot make enough money to truly be safe or comfortable in the world. When such a large group of people are being affected aversely by their attempts to improve their station in life by either working more or receiving welfare, the issue has to be the system in which they participate, and not they, themselves, as cogs within it.

Balancing Work and Family

Characteristics of a good family life include quality time spent with family, whether that family is children or relatives or even close friends, a distinct separation from one's work life, and the feeling of satisfaction in home life with one's family. The idea that work does not encroach on one's personal life is majorly tied into the balance of career and family life. Boundaries, and thereby expectations for both the employer and employee, that are set upon the realization for more of a balance are key in having a good family life and a good career life. Setting up a work schedule, whether it all takes place in an office, at home, if it includes flextime, telecommuting or a combination of all of the above.

Difficulties arise all over the socioeconomic map when attempting to strike a true balance between work and home. It seems that statistically, people in high-paying positions and those in lower-paying positions struggle most with balancing work and home because of expectations their employers hold for all employees, regardless of the employees' home life. High-profile professionals, lawyers, for instance, are expected to work upwards of 70 hours a week. While low-wage workers are expected to work shifts that are assigned to them, often not schedules that are consistent on a week to week basis. It is telling that the less money one makes, the less options one has as far as flexibility goes. According to the AFL-CIO, "Flextime is available to nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of workers with incomes of more than $71,000 a year but to less than one-third (31 percent) of working parents with incomes less than $28,000."

Across the board, the major transition from the traditional man breadwinner paired with a woman homemaker, to a society with women and men both working. When women fulfilled a role solely in the home and community, while men were the only ones in the workplace, there was a societal norm to which almost all Americans adhered. With gender roles blurred, and many women seemingly questioning their choice to stay in the work force full time, the work landscape is in a state of shambles. Both workers and employers have to make concessions in order to be successful. There is almost a sense of resentment toward women who ask for work concessions to be made once they have children. This is largely a response to women who have worked hard to be men's equals, but then cannot work on the same demanding levels once family becomes important. The result is what is referred to by some as women's choice to opt-out of work, while others call it a push-out. This has also pushed almost half of women who are married or share a household with someone to work a different schedule from their spouses or partners, according to the AFL-CIO. Obviously this attempts to make the family life more harmonious, but actually serves to make it an additional challenge to surmount.

Employers can be sensitive to their employees' family needs and obligations by having an open line of communication between the two. If an employer maintains an open-door policy, then an employee will feel more comfortable discussing alternative work options, like telecommuting and flextime. Employers should be open to alternative ideas and explore the evidence how employees benefit from using non-traditional techniques to achieve comparable, if not improved, levels of success. Positive changes have included increased productivity, higher quality of work and higher rates of material retention. Overall, responses to flextime have been better than responses to telecommuting, although both have the potential to be very potent in assisting people looking to balance their work and home lives.

The support of family members, workers or neighbors would make balancing work and home priorities far easier because having an actual life, outside of work and children or a husband or someone who a worker cares for, gives them more of an initiative to have experiences that are not necessarily just work and home, but also a broader community. Every person has the potential to define their life in whatever terms he or she chooses, but in giving oneself more of an opportunity to experience all kinds of things and people, one can truly become happy and know oneself. Additionally, these types of support will likely push the worker in question toward what is truly best for his or her overall livelihood. It is easy to get or feel trapped in a situation, as a caregiver or worker, but alternative perspectives on any situation can help to realize where a balance lies.

• How can employers be sensitive to their employees’ family needs or obligations?
• How might having the support of family members, workers or neighbors make balancing priorities easier?

Home and Work, Public and Private

In my family I've seen carework through the actions taken by my parents, aunts and uncles in response to my aging grandmothers. My paternal grandmother has early signs of Alzheimers, and my aunt lives with her and cares for her constantly, in addition to working a full-time job. On my maternal side, my grandmother spends alternate parts of the year with each of her three daughters, including my mother. In both cases, the caring individuals put forth their own money, time, love and effort into making my grandmothers as comfortable as possible. I can only imagine that if the numbers were calculated as they were in the documentary The Love Economy, the proportional wages would be similarly substantial.

In relating that private homelife care to the public sector, I cannot recall any of my family members being able to bring their caretaking situation to a boss at work and come to a solution that works for both the employer and employee, as was shown in Juggling Work and Care. In my opinion, feeling obliged to care for a family member likely comes across as an excuse in the workplace to slack off. This is definitely an American mentality, for the formerly mentioned series takes place in the UK and all parties interviewed said that their employers were willing to work with employees who needed more work flexibility.

American society desperately needs to re-evaluate how women, and men, in the workplace are treated when it comes to balancing their private lives. With more women working, and continuing to work after starting families, men and women are sharing more responsibilities in the home, corresponding to the sharing outside of it. What was previously considered "women's work" has been partially transferred to men, but not entirely. Private work, although not monetarily valued, must exist to balance the public work done by men and women. Without maintaining a home life, the work life will absolutely suffer.

If carers, whether for children, ill people, or the elderly, are not supported in the workplace then there is likely no way for them to continue supporting their families fiscally. Carers in America are forced to either continue working, in a then resentful environment, and give up their caring roles, or hire an outsider to take them on, or the carer can give up their job and somehow figure out how to cover expenses.

Major Concepts and Theories on Gender Inequality

"Sex segregation" means the separation of the sexes within the workplace based on specific jobs, and more broadly in occupation. According to Paula England and Lori McCreary's "Gender Inequality in Paid Employment," "This segregation is attended by a sex gap in pay, with most 'male jobs' offering higher earnings than most 'female jobs.'" While socialization absolutely plays a role in how we act and what jobs we desire, statistics from the American Association of University Women reveal that even when men and women are counterparts in the workplace, women make up to 89% of their male co-workers.

Sex segregation at ASU is seen in simply who runs the university: a white male. A white male has always held ultimate power at Arizona State. This also exemplifies hegemony that has been so ingrained at ASU that it seems many fail to notice. This leads into the point made by a CNBC report which notes that women represent only 2.5% of Fortune 500 CEOs. This might be explained away by either sexism, namely that a woman cannot successfully hold a powerful job, or "women's choices" to take time off or work less for more family time.

In my personal socialization, I've always been taught that, regardless of anyone else's opinion, I can do anything I want, whether that means being a CEO, a teacher or an artist beatnik hippie. As previously mentioned, I grew up with a single mother and seeing her major success in the newspaper industry, open her own business and then work in a Fortune 500 company has made me feel ultimate freedom in my choices. I have held ultimate authority jobs, and ones where I've ranked highly. My experiences relate to patriarchy in that my family life growing up was an absolute matriarchy, in a girl power sort of household. When this was translated into outer male-dominated world, I have successfully translated my own ideas of how the world should work into action.

The NPR report “Moms Become Breadwinners As Job Losses Hit Men,” explained that although more men than women have lost their jobs in this recession, women still "make 77 cents to every dollar males make." Additionally women who didn't have jobs are working part-time, while full-time workers have taken on multiple jobs. Men still dominate the normally union-based and higher-paying jobs where health care and retirement plans are factored in, while women are in lower paying jobs without such benefits. I work three jobs, not out of necessity (although extra money is nice, and certainly nothing to complain about), but out of the desire to do more and learn more. I definitely can sympathize with women taking on more work and more jobs because they have to take ultimate responsibility for themselves and their families: if they don't take care of their interests, no on else will. I also know women my age who, despite the increase in women breadwinners, cannot find work, or want to find more work but overall there is little hiring going on. This could be attributed to either the jobs that they are looking to take on, due to socialization, or perhaps a simple shortage in the economy. Either way, the situation, while interesting, is nothing to celebrate.

Student Introduction

I've started this blog as an outlet for a course I'm taking at Arizona State University: Women, Work and Justice. I felt that the blog's title, "Thoughts on Women, Work & Justice," makes clear that what I post will be my reactions and responses to topics that are being discussed in the class.

I am currently entering my senior year at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where my focus is Digital Journalism. My minor is in Justice Studies, hence my taking this course.

I chose this class to satisfy part of my minor because I've always been a bit of a feminist at heart. The topic of women and work is a great interest of mine, and has been since I was a child growing up with two working parents. To inject the viewpoint of justice studies into the realm of gender relations seemed like something that could be beneficial as a woman with a few jobs, and as a student from a purely academic standpoint.

To me, studying women, work and justice will mean looking at women from all walks of life, exploring how they work, what they do, how they are treated and how all of the above compare to men and their work norms. Justice comes into the picture as a means of attempting to balance out inequalities, or injustices, found as discrepancies between men and women and what society expects from them and deals to them.

Justice in this topic would equate to women and men making equal pay, getting equal benefits and having equal expectations levied at them when doing the same job. Injustice, presumably more common in reality, would mean an imbalance between men and women due to ingrained expectations, perceived gender roles (weak vs. strong; worker vs. caregiver, etc.), or any other force that makes one gender supposedly better suited to working one job than another.

I look forward to further exploring this topic and hope that this semester will be a fruitful one.