Disrespect Of Women

Women have been downgraded and mistreated because of their gender. From birth, Women and Men grew up with very different rules to follow. Men were raised to be the head of the house and do work for a living. Growing up as little girls, women were taught to raise their kids and make food for their families. “Strong family structures were necessary because the family was the basis for all other institutions. The government, church, and community all worked through the nuclear family unit.”(“Gender and

Black women have been doubly victimized by neglect and racist assumptions. As they do belong to two groups which have traditionally been treated as inferior by American society. Black women have always been more conscious of and more handicapped by race oppression than by sex oppression, but they still endure it. Provided that the Black Lives Matter movement is more common today than a movement to put forth women. They have been subjected to all restrictions against Blacks and to those against women. In no area of life have Black women been permitted to attain higher levels than caucasian individuals and other women of different ethnicities. They have been powerless than any other racial group or gender in our entire society. They constantly hold the lowest status in society.

When the Founding Fathers brashly declared that all men are created equal in the United States Declaration of Independence, they conveniently forgot to include the word “women” in that statement. In my own pursuit of happiness I have been oppressed on a myriad of occasions due to my gender. As a female in the United States Army, I have been told by my male counterparts that I should be in the kitchen rather than in the field. I have been denied access to branches in the military that are said to be unfit for females to serve in, and I have watched as male soldiers rank up both faster and higher than female soldiers. Being a woman in today’s society means unequal pay, sexism, and overall general oppression.

As I listened and re-listen to my interview with Adeena, I was constantly reminded how lucky I was to have the privileges that I do. I am a White woman who grew up in a middle class family with parents who unconditionally love me. However, I am a woman and although I have never been discriminated because of my race, I have been treated differently than my male counterparts. It took a long time for me to become the person I am today, someone who would speak up for herself if she was put in the situations that I went through in High School, but it is hard for me to imagine how much more difficult my life would’ve been if I happen to be born a different color. This sickening reality makes me admire women of color like Adeena who speak out against interlocking systems of oppression.

To begin with, when looking back into history, we notice that the female gender was a barrier to certain privileges before the Women’s Right Movement. Yet, race and ethnicity always played a bigger role even before that. With both a person’s sex and race being ascribed characteristics, (9/27/2016) a person would assume similar lifestyles, but reality is far from that. Instead, we have social problems like women competing against other women just to achieve the same pay for the same job, as if competing against men wasn’t enough. To be more specific, I am referring to women of color working twice as hard to keep up with White women.

For a very long time in the U.S. society, women of color have suffered too much oppression and discrimination from in many forms including on racial, class, and gender grounds. They have been subordinated, experience restricted participation in existing social institutions, and structurally placed in roles that have limited opportunities. Their congregation includes African Americans, the Asian Americans, the Latinas and others. There case has been made even worse by the fact that being a weaker sex that is subject to oppression from their male colored partners, they are also of color and therefore placing them at the extreme end of oppression. These aspects are more evident in the workplaces, school settings, prisons, families, and others

For my Final project in WS, I have chosen to talk about the oppression of women, and women of color. To narrow more in on the topic, I have chosen to discuss the oppression of women in the work force and all the different forms of oppression women face. Oppression is defined as, “A situation in which people are governed in an unfair and cruel way and prevented from having opportunities and freedom,” (dictionary.cambridge.org). Oppression can be caused by many different things. People can feel oppressed because they are being compared to the opposite gender. People can be oppressed being compared to other age groups. And people can feel oppressed when being compared to different races. Women of color feel oppressed because they are constantly being compared to white women, and some may say they do not always have the same privileges as others. I have enjoyed reading and researching about this topic, but at the same time have had a hard time truly understanding it. To be completely transparent I am a privileged white girl and throughout my whole life I have never felt that I faced oppression. I have witnessed it, but never experienced it. The oppression I have witnessed has only been in the work force; which I will discuss later on.

There is a denial in the observations that there is one specific dominating male gender. There is also an abundance of only white women`s experiences by this masculine hegemon. After women realized that the world view did not only have to be seen on a male standpoint the world started to shift views (Frankenberg, 1993, pp. 8).  Women of colour now want to focus on a standpoint from a radicalized point of view in order to stop racism. Moreover, since white people are the oppressors they cannot see how their situation is reinforcing racism. People of colour are the oppressed and know exactly how they are underprivileged. Subsequently, women of colour were the first to see how gender, race and class forms a persons experience in life (Frankenberg, 1993, pp. 8). White women did not see their race as something that was constructed. They did not see themselves as racialized because they were coming from a position of privilege.  This position for a white person was normalized throughout American history. Therefore, in order to deconstruct race white women have to admit it is something that affects them (Frankenberg, 1993, pp. 11).

Sadly females are viewed already as weak, but when you add a race that's being viewed as inferior there's no chance in winning in this world. For example I wanted to be a lawyer before because I love fighting for what's right and what's being ignored but by Other individuals I was told " no one want a African American as a lawyer". With that being said I found it ignorant that when a male told them the same thing all was said " okay do your best" or " it's a lot of work". Discrimination and sexism is just popular because of what Americans call " Gender roles" which is not fair to us females. Also with that being said feminism comes to play. When you feel that something should change your already looked upon as an extreme feminist (which some

I understand that this assignment is asking to explain my own experiences in the present with social differences, oppression, and privilege and or that of the readings I have done or research. I also understand that I must explain what it means to me based on my surroundings and what is going on in the world to be part of history at this particular time and how it has shaped my identity and my understanding. What strikes me as most important about women of color in particular be given an equal opportunity that of a white woman. In Lordes The Uses Of Anger: Women Responding to Racism she speaks of how she responds to racism with anger, how her fear of anger never taught her anything and how letting it put fear in oneself will also not teach anything.

As African-American women address social issues that are important to their life experiences, such as class and race, instead to acknowledge “common oppression” of gender inequality, they are often criticized by “white bourgeois feminists” (hooks, 2000). Their ability to gain any form of equality within society is tarnished by such groups as they develop a “fear of encountering racism” from simply joining this movement (hooks, 2000). As white men, black men, and white women oppress them, their issues are often ignored due to reoccurring stereotypes and myths that claim black women are strong, independent, and “superhuman” (hooks, 2000). It becomes extremely difficult to seek liberation and equity within a “racist, sexist, and classist” society, as their gender and race causes them to be at the “bottom of the occupational ladder” and “social status” (hooks, 2000, pg. 16). As black women are perceived to demonstrate strength and dynamic qualities as white women perpetrate the image of being

Sexism- "behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex" (Merriam-Webster). Many people believe that sexism is not real or that it has been solved. Neither is true, however, it is still alive and believed in today. Most people know that this is wrong and try not to act sexist, but others take it to the extreme. This idea can be found in Chinua Achebe's book, Things Fall Apart. This book tells the story of the tribe member Okonkwo's life as the British colonize his tribe. Throughout the book, both the tribe and Okonkwo seem to regard females and femininity as lesser beings/things. An example of this could be that all of the tribe, Okonkwo included, agree that an accidental killing is considered a feminine offense and is not as bad as an intentional kill. However, Okonkwo is the main character of this book so we, the readers, see more of his sexist actions such as: not letting his favorite child carry his chair due to her gender, calling all 'cowardly' men

Women were always seen as being inferior or “weak” to men; that they couldn’t do the same things men did because they lacked the physical strength to do so. Because women were physically inferior, it became easy to oppress them due to this difference in power.

Black Feminism argues that sexism, class oppression and racism are linked together. Mainstream feminism that more than often benefits white women, strives to overcome class and gender oppression, however they do not recognise that race can discriminate against women also. Activist, Alice Walker states that black women experience a different kind of oppression when compared to their white counterparts. Professor of Sociology and social activist, Patricia Hill Collins summarises that Black feminism is ‘a process of self-conscious struggle that empowers women and men to actualise a humanist vision of community.’ Her quote welcomes individuals of any gender, whom understands black women’s struggle to fight with them. [Collins, 1991:39]

Women have won the right to do as much as men do. Although feminist activists have fought for women's legal rights such as rights of contract, property rights, and voting rights while also promoting women's rights to bodily integrity and autonomy, abortion rights, and reproductive rights. They have struggled to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape. In the article “ Through the Lens of Race: Black and White women’s perceptions of womanhood” discussed how both, black and white women experience of sexual harassment in the community, concerns about their safety and fears of rape as woman are being approached or groped by strangers. Also black and white women have similar experiences of