Still Needing The F Word By Anna Quindlen Analysis

After earning a doctorate, Castro was hired by a small men’s college in rural Indiana to teach feminism theory and women 's literature to thirty-five men. She was prepared and ready for the disagreements, the drop outs and the failures that couldn’t open up their minds on feminism. But she values those voices, the questions and hostility because "they taught me how to make feminism 's insights relevant to people outside a closed, snug room of agreement" (Castro, 98). She had learned how to create feminism theory, critical race theory and observation about class privilege relevant, exciting and even needful to people who had no material reason to care. She learned diplomacy.

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

However, before they began to labor for activism, there was a time when they decided to devote their lives to feminism. Only one moment was needed to change Anthony’s career and the world. When at a temperance meeting, Anthony rose to speak but was told she was not allowed to, solely because she was a woman. Due to this injustice, she decided to begin petitioning for women’s rights, as well as temperance and abolition, which she also labored for. Similarly, Friedan had a direct cause to begin feminism, but unlike Anthony, it was a period of several years that inspired her. For a long time, Friedan was a housewife, with three children in the suburbs. These years, torturous for Friedan, showed her how women were expected to give up their careers in favor of cleaning house, and worse, were expected to be happy not bored, sewing and vacuuming all day. In fact, Friedan herself had been a journalist, but she was fired for asking for maternal leave- fired for being a woman. Likewise, Anthony was fired from her job as a teacher, in part because she complained about the fact that she made five times less than men in the same position- again, fired for her sex. Another similarity between the paths of these women was that neither was respected at first. Anthony was a laughingstock for wearing the “Bloomer outfit”, pants that rolled at the calves, and after Friedan wrote her bestselling book on

“ In praise of the F word” by Mary Sherry, the author has her point that flunking students is a way that can help students do better in school. Flunking students can be helpful in getting them motivated and lead to success in their education. Students who don’t want to put in effort because they are lazy, a troublemaker, or good student that gets just passed along to next grade deserve to fail. Is it not going to be easy for students to be successful in their education. The students need to try hard to get to their goals. The students have to pass through failure to have the motivation to do better in school. If more students go through the teacher’s threats of failing, the students will want to put in the effort to able

When I first began this gender, women, and sexuality class I thought it would be an easy five credit class to slack through my undergrad with while I could focus on my “real” classes like stats. However, I have since come to love the subject and find it fascinating. This class has given me a new respect for others and, above all, myself. To reflect on what I have learned I chose two readings that have been the most influential to me; Julia Serano’s selection from Whipping Girl and the first reading by Adrienne Rich called Claiming an Education.

In “In Praise of the F Word” Mary Sherry focuses not on how the difficulties that the students have to face affect their performance in school, but how the “fear of failure” compels them to work. Sherry believes that diplomas are meaningless; because most passing students did not master the work. Additionally, some high school graduates told her that they do not even know how they get the diplomas. She believes that the fluning policy is “an expression of confidence by both parents and teachers” (Sherry 560).And we should give the students the choice to be success or fail. Sherry falsely assumes that flunking a student will make the students perform better at school.

The book describes how complex societal dictation dominated the lives of women and left no room for growth as a unique individual with a passion other than homemaking. It called upon women to take a stand against these so called norms and “seek new opportunities for themselves” (“Betty Friedan”). It instantly became sensation and “continues to be regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century” (Michals). It struck a nerve with all women alike, leading to a “feminist explosion” (Kaplan) because of the recognition of themselves in Friedan’s work (Parry) and the familiarity shared between the women created a sense of community. It also brought public awareness to the glamorized domestication of

Virginia Woolf, an avid woman novelist of the early twentieth century, faced many difficulties on her journey to becoming a successful writer. In her speech, which she delivers to the National Society for Women’s Service, she recounts her experiences as both a newly acquainted journalist and already established professional, all while giving detailed accounts of her struggles with the ghosts of oppression. These personal experiences not only help to establish and defend her credibility, they also serve as a means of developing her perspective on women’s functionality in successful careers. In addition, Woolf utilizes various rhetorical devices, such as the extended metaphor and parallelism, to portray the constant struggles of women in the workforce. She attempts to shed light on what obstructs all social advancement for women – the Victorian ideal of femininity – while encouraging her audience to confront this internal obstacle. Though she intended for her speech to be advice for women in any and all professions who are facing their own internal battles against oppression, Woolf insists her story is only one of many that have yet to be told.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, feminist women in America faced an underlying conflict to find their purpose and true meaning in life. “Is this all?” was often a question whose answer was sought after by numerous women reaching deeper into their minds and souls to find what was missing from their life. The ideal second-wave feminist was defined as a women who puts all of her time into cleaning her home, loving her husband, and caring for her children, but such a belief caused these women to not only lose their identity within her family but society as well. The emotions that feminist women were feeling at this time was the internal conflict that caused for social steps to be taken in hopes of

The women’s liberation movement (or feminism as it is now known) of the 1960s and 1970s touched every home, business, and school (WA, 705). The movement even touched the sports and entertainment industries, in fact, “There are few areas of contemporary life untouched by feminism” (WA, 717). The word feminism in the early 1960’s wasn’t often used and when it was it was used with condescension or hatred. However, in the late sixties that changed thanks to a new group of women. This new diverse group of women included the: young, old, heterosexual, lesbians, working class, and even the privileged. This diverse group came together and collectively created the second wave of feminism.

In an essay by Judy Brady titled “I Want a Wife”, Brady discusses the typical gender dynamics of her time period (the 1970s) and challenges them. She essentially says that women are treated like they are inferior to men and so she says that she wishes or wants someone to fulfill her duties for her just like she does for her husband. This essay shows the struggle to gain equality in this time period and also represents the thoughts that a woman in this time period might have. Not only is the meaning behind this essay significant, but the way in which Brady presents it is also significant and it amplifies and strengthens the argument. This is proven by textual evidence found in the essay itself.

Feminism has been an explored topic since the early 19th century and has remained an important conversation in our society still today. At the time when Roxanne Gay was approaching this topic within her collection of essays, there were some major feminist triumphs occurring. 2014 was a time where Rape on college campuses was finally announced a national issue. In 2003, there were just 74 women in congress, yet 2014 was the year where we finally hit 100 women in congress. With all of the support and the successes of feminism at this time, it was crucial that Roxanne Gay discuss the way in which she fully supports the feminist movement, while staying true to herself. In "Why I am a Bad Feminist," Roxane Gay colloquially portrays how she imperfectly performs feminism in her daily life and how to deal with the constant struggle of trying to achieve "ideal" feminism while also being human. Gay touches on the fact that as a society, we place a high degree of pressure on women to be perfect. Whether the perfection lies in their looks, actions, or personality traits, women are constantly held to unrealistic standards. Gay effortlessly sheds light on this situation using rhetorical strategies to describe how she does not meet these standards. These rhetorical strategies include imagery, to create a picture of what she is saying, as well as a strong use of ethos and pathos, revealed throughout her essay. Instead of being ashamed she shares how to embrace her inconsistencies while still trying to be a feminist and role model.

In this satirical article, Brady expresses the difference between the roles of women and men in the 1970’s by stating men’s point of view on women and women’s roles in society. Throughout her article, Brady emphasizes the roles of women. For example, women could now “work and...takes care of the children when they are sick”. Comparing the 1880’s to the 1970’s, there has been a big improvement. Many women had jobs outside their home, but still were responsible for most housework and childcare while their husband’s only responsibility in a marriage was to go to work and earn money to support the family. Society’s expectations allowed women to work outside the home to support college education for husbands; however,women had to know how to balance their time between their children and their jobs, making sure that their husbands “cannot miss classes at school.” During the 1970’s, women were still oppressed in many ways and had to follow society's expectations in order to live up to the men’s view of women’s roles in society. Even though society’s expectations of women had improved since The Awakening, most of women’s roles had stayed the same. In the article, Brady specifies how once a husband is “through with school and has a job, [he expects the] wife to quit working and remain at home so that [she] can more fully and completely take

There was a stalled revolution. The revolution being the “gender revolution”. The movement has begun again. In the 1920’s we stood idle after gaining rights for women, it took a couple generations to perspire a change. In today’s news mediums, we see that women are tackling obstacles that prevent equality in the especially in the workforce. Through this, women are reshaping the role of the modern woman. In The Richer Sex by Liza Mundy, the author takes us through a time machine to examine the evolving phenomenon called “woman, how she became, or is becoming, the “Alpha Female”. Although in her book she thoroughly analyzes the changes that have occurred because of the advances for the modern woman, her forecast of modern society, in America specifically, does not encompass all factors to produce an accurate prediction.

Woman’s studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to topics concerning women, gender and feminism; exploring our gender existence, how we perform femininity and masculinity and how this interacts with other aspects of our identities, such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and sexuality. Women’s studies emerged in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s as a concerned women being misrepresentation and trivialization in the higher education curriculum and as well as being excluded from many positions of power authority as colleges faculty and administrators. An example from the “ Women’s Voices /Feminist Vision” book written by Susan M.Shaw Janet lee was “the entire course in English or American literature to include not one