Essay Gender Issues in Legally Blonde

Elle Woods was the typical sorority girl while at CULA- she loved shopping; her friends; and her boyfriend, Warner. With her father’s money on her side, Elle never prioritized her education or working. She assumed her future held a marriage to Warner and life as a trophy wife; but when Warner declares Elle a hindrance to his goals of graduating from Harvard University, she becomes determined to do the same. Realizing no amount of money could buy admission to Harvard, Elle works valiantly toward her goal and is accepted. As the movie comes to a close, the scene shifts to three years later with Elle addressing her classmates as she graduates alongside Warner. Though she does not speak excessively, Elle speaks of the passion, perseverance, and determination necessary for success. In her short, yet effective speech; Elle uses ethos and pathos to encourage her classmates to go forth in their law careers with courage and faith, and reminds them to never accept people as they appear on the surface.

Over the past few decades, great strides have been made by women in the workplace. This increased number in women in the workplace does not mean equality however. Even with equal qualifications and achievements, women are still not given all the opportunities that men have. The chapter in the textbook, “Gender at Work”, shows us more of these inequalities in the workplace. Such inequalities cause gender segregation of jobs and can be linked with the pay inequality in the labor force. Even in jobs that are predominantly filled by women, men earn more than women. Women are often stereotyped as being family focused and not as able to travel, therefore they tend to get passed up for promotions (Garson p.353). This invisible barrier that keeps women from moving up the executive ladder is referred to as the “glass ceiling” (Baxter and Wright p. 346). Women also tend to do more domestic work, or unpaid labor and caregiving. This extra unpaid work is referred to as “the third shift” and is largely rested on the shoulders of women (Gersel p. 352). Consequently, this seems to be one of the biggest things holding women back from taking on jobs that are normally considered male

The 2001 comedy film Legally Blonde tells the story of Elle Woods, an upbeat and optimistic sorority girl who, over the course of the movie, transitions from a simple college student with few professional aspirations into a successful law student. Elle initially presents herself as a stereotypical sorority girl: vain, superficial, and self-obsessed. As such, she consistently faces discrimination from her friends, family, and colleagues alike. The film wants the audience to view Elle as a woman who rises up above the stereotype through hard work and intelligence, and who proves herself as a capable individual in a discriminatory society. Because of this, some view Elle as a feminist icon, a person who empowers women to achieve equality to

Elle believes her perfect life is about to get even better when her boyfriend hints that there will be changes in their future and she assumes he's about to propose. However, she is shaken when her boyfriend breaks up with her to find a girl who will be a better fit for his political aspirations. Instead of wallowing in sorrow, Elle decides she can win him back if she can only show him her serious side by chasing after him to Harvard law. Her confidence is weakened however, as she encounters difficult professors and snobby students. Nevertheless, she persisted in her studies and because of this she is given an exclusive internship. This leads her to take on challenges she never imagined she could and demonstrates the knowledge she had all along.

After lots of trying, she realizes it is not going to be a breeze to get him back in her grip with the fact she is in Harvard and looks alone, so she decides to hit the books to outsmart the awful fiancé. In the progress, she meets and great guy who helps her succeed and becomes one of the top students in her class. Elle also meets her a new beautician who she befriends and helps get the man of her dreams with the “bend and snap”. During the process, Elle starts to like herself for who she is, and her true self comes out. She is a bubbly, happy, girly woman who will not take no as an answer. With all her hard work, she even ends up receiving an internship, along with her ex-boyfriend and his fiancé, to work with a client. For one of the few times in her life, Elle was receiving things that she worked for, not that were given to her.

The increased need for more workers has led to less sexist decisions and more decisions being base off of qualifications. “As a result... women's share is supposed to increase from 46.4 to 46.8 percent,” Source A (Zupek). This source state that the amount of men and women in the workplace may soon be equal. A contrary justification would be that certain genders have specific qualities and their careers should pertain to that. Well, this argument can be easily disproved. Anyone can have any characteristic. Even men can have feminine

Throughout history there has always been an enormous obstacle for women to overcome in the workplace. Occupational Segregation has continuously acted as a force that impedes on the daily lives of female workers across the world. It not only eliminates several chances for women to capitalize on opportunistic events, but has also denied them of the basic civil rights they are entitled to. Jobs ranging from the military, sports, and even the corporate world have long been dominated by an aura of masculine characteristics. Why is our society structured in such an uncivilized way? Some women may not possess the "supposed" masculine attributes that are sought for in numerous industries, but in all honestly just as many men fail to meet those

Women are considered minorities making it possible for discrimination and other oppressive factors to creep in. Personally, as an African American woman I have faced unfair treatment in the workplace. Seeing your coworker get prompted over myself just because he is a male. The article reference the fact that women will get looked over for a higher position simple for the fact that employers believe that women cannot be leaders. Men are often looked at as masculine and authoritative. Moreover, this universal idea that women are meant to being doing women’s work and not obtaining any kind of high position of prestige is unsettling. Jobs that are looked at as women occupations are teaching, nursing, social work, etc. Mostly because they always been predominately ran by women. In article, it states that men do not usually accept women into predominately male positions because they feel as if they will take over and switch the role of control. Especially in the economic aspect. Referencing back to the power point;

In many ways today's society, even though women have come a long way, we still live in a patriarchal world. There are many examples of this in everyday life, whether it be that there aren't very many women CEO's or the mere fact that we've yet to have a woman president. No matter where you live, there is the presence of a male dominated world. It especially extends into the working fields. There are professions that are categorically ‘women's' jobs like nursing, school teacher, or secretarial jobs. The rest of the professional world is mainly male dominated, i.e. engineering, CEO's of major companies, and Law Firms. Which brings us to the movie I picked to watch, Legally Blonde?

Men and women have long been compared to one another since they have existed. Ernest Hemingway, the author of “Hills like White Elephants,” wrote this short story, in 1927, to illustrate how much men and women differ emotionally from each other when they are put in a certain type of situation. Gender roles over the years has changed very much, especially since the 1920’s. Both men and women may be raised similarly, but they were not taught the exact same values as each other. Certain expectations are expected from the two genders based on what their parents have taught them while growing up. Gender roles have also evolved so much as time passed, meaning the gender roles then are definitely different from the men and women today. Although men and women are diverse genders, a relationship between the two affects their expectations in society, thought processes, and their values during the 1920’s.

Changing oneself is very difficult to achieve, but a complete change of a group of people is next to impossible. For women, the past many years have changed lives, careers and family life. Yet the women's

Over the past forty years, women have looked at progress; they have measured it, counted it, and tallied it. In doing so, they thought that they were making headway. Women did not look at success assuming that success and progress were synonymous, but evidence of the progress was not an indication of success. Having a woman in a profession unleashed a veritable avalanche of hostility towards her, as a woman, an avalanche of misogyny. It is the same attitude that denied woman an equal place in the executive suite of their larger company, it’s the same attitude that denied her education and skills to life time earnings. It is the same attitude that says women can be equal, but they cannot have real power.

The generation now has made it easier to equalize men and women but there is still a substantial amount of places where gender inequality is still happening in the workplace and where females still face discrimination. Women are often discriminated in the workplace and are usually not promoted as quickly as men are and they also receive less pay. History shows that women have not always been defined as property and thought of as second class citizens. But in the 21st century many have seen a drastic change in the so called “traditional” family ways where women are suppose to stay home and take care of the household chores, food, and children and men are suppose to work to support their family and provide financial stability. Many assume that in the workplace women are more vulnerable and less competent than men because women 's instincts are to put their family before work or anything else. Whereas men are the ones who will usually stay the late hours to work. People on both sides of the political spectrum and everywhere in between seem to be fearful of what is to come and more fearful of others than they are often willing to admit.

In places of work, women are often treated differently than men, good or bad it is undeniable that it happens. They are paid less and work harder. But from a young age, girls seem to want to follow in career paths that pay significantly less than those of the ones that young boys want to follow. If you ask a young girl what they want to be when they grow up you may get an answer such as a teacher. As a result of the way women have been treated in workplaces in the past, it seems that there have been a few jobs such as children's education or nursing that is primarily women, possibly as a way to escape the wage gap. With women occupying a majority of these jobs, many have come to understand that these jobs are feminine. But how can a job be feminine? It's a job, not a person with a personality. Yet it happens

“Learning to be Gendered”: What does this even mean? No one wants to be gendered. Every individual works hard for what they earn in their life. It should never matter what their they look like or what their individual sex is or how they look. In today’s world, no one wants to be treated better than the other; everyone wants to be considered equal and have the same opportunity to succeed as the person next to them. In addition; to wanting to feel equal there is a law that states that men and women are equal. Then by issuing this law it is stating that no matter your gender, thing that you do should not be treated differently based on your sex. Everyone can be who they want to be because in the United States of America everyone’s gender should never be judge. Both sexes have their own opinion and ways to do things and this should not cause any problems. There is truly no factual evidence that will show that our gender decides everything and while growing up gender is throne aside and only thing that should be treated different is the individuals character. Thus, there should not be gender difference with clothing, color, jobs, income, and sports because everyone should be every to settle their own fate based on their preference and not others.