Women's History Month Essay

I was able to attend two WGS events on campus this semester, both in hopes to bring awareness and address gender equality issues. The first event I went to was Alumni  Panel: Designing Feminist Futures, College and Beyond, organized by WGS students. The panel was composed of three female alumni who studied WGS at TCNJ and are now pursuing professional careers, two of which are lawyers. The second event I attended was the guest speaker Michael Kimmel, who is a sociologist and professor at Stony Brook University. Both of these events were very informative and provided different opinions and experiences with sexism and promoting feminism.  Sitting through both of these presentations, I noticed a common theme repeating throughout both. The struggle for women in the workplace was referenced numerous times in both the panel discussion and the talk with Mr. Kimmel. Women’s struggle in the workplace has been an issue the country has faced for years. Regardless of the profession, women are constantly making less money than men for equal work. Along with pay difference, women are subjected to much abuse and lack of respect from coworkers.

In the panel discussion, the three women were asked how it was dealing with feminist issues in the real world, and outside of the TCNJ classroom. The first speaker was a woman who attended law school after undergrad and was now an established lawyer. She mentioned how it was harder to confront feminist issues outside of the TCNJ classroom because she is not dealing with the same types of open minded people. She described her experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace and how such situations were downplayed greatly. When she was sexually harassed by her boss, to which then she approached the human resource representative about the situation, she was told she was better off just “dropping it” and that pursuing such an issue would just cause a storm. Another panelist, answering the same question, explained how she was paid unfairly from the rest of her colleagues that were men. Less qualified male colleagues, doing the same exact scope of work, were making substantially more money than her. She described one interview she went on where the company told her that she was not allowed to wear anything but skirts in the office if she accepted the job offer. She explained how these types of issues were way harder to deal with and could not be openly discussed and debated like how it was in the classrooms at TCNJ. All of the panelists agree that they have dealt with guilty thoughts to whether they were doing enough to stand up for themselves, and if they were letting down the feminist community. This is a result from them having to step down in certain situations because they must pick and choose the battles they want to take on, and that every day is a fight.

Mr. Kimmel stressed in his presentation how women need men’s help in promoting feminism. He described how men, typically white men, have a strong sense of entitlement for what is not theirs. Kimmel described the situation where a white man is going for a job. The firm eventually hires a woman in the position the man was hoping to acquire. The common male conception is that “they gave my job to a woman”, as if it was his job to lose. The idea that he feels he is entitled to the job and that any women, or African American man or women, is taking something that he already possesses. Kimmel also described how challenging an “unencumbered worker” can help with gender equality. Those working 80 hours a week are mostly males, as females do not want to participate in a work week that long because they would not have enough time to devote to their families and motherly duties. These men have trouble under the pressures of their CEOs and higher up bosses, who are also men, to sacrifice work for family. These pressures from higher up successful male workers challenge other male workers to work ridiculous hours to be successful. Men combating this sacrifice all attitude will ultimately help women become more successful in the workplace also, and no forcing them to compete with 80 hour work weeks. Women are struggling competing with men who are willing to work 80 hours a week to be successful, and have no other obligations.

In conclusion, both the women’s history month events stressed the ideas and the realities of women in the workplace. The unfortunate reality of women being paid less than men when doing the same scope of work, or even being more qualified, needs to change. How could an employer ever justify paying a women less than a man for the same job? Sexual harassment and other forms of female oppression also need to be brought to attention. It is also difficult for women to compete with male workers taking on ridiculous work hours a week based on pressures from their bosses and higher ups. Women cannot create a more gender equal world on their own; men need to help their cause which will ultimately benefit their lives as well.