Are Society Ready For Women President?

   

     30 years ago society could not even think that women can be a president, but things are changing.  It’s worth thinking about the question beyond whether a woman can raise money to campaign for the presidency of the United States or whether she can win a primary. In a history of the US in running for presidency few women were trying to get presidency, but still unsuccessful.   Postfeminist candidate will be far more likely to succeed. It has become increasingly clear that there is no good reason to support Hillary Clinton other than because she is a woman. This nomination battle is often viewed based upon making history with a black or woman candidate. Looking at this race as a loss for a woman candidate misses the fact that in many ways this nomination falls within traditional patterns. For those who desire a woman president, there is one consolation in all of this. In coming very close to winning the nomination despite her major flaws, she has showed that victory is possible for a woman. Women need more time to being accepted from society as a President. Women are facing with a big "glass ceiling" in the running of presidency. It is not clearly possible for Women to be a president now,but it could be possible in the next future.

Women Doing a Man's Job.

     As women have gradually become leaders in the professions as in medicine, law, and business, they also have taken jobs once regarded as too physically strenuous. The first changes on the work places happened during the WWII, when many of men being recruited for service and there was needed many workers for producing war equipment for the allies. At this time many of women were joined to labor force and definition as "Doing a Man's Job" become very popular. This was the test of women working in men’s jobs that opened doors for females that are still open today.
   
    Women have become sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, and coal miners. And many of women can combine work with family and can do that successfully. Many of them quickly earned acceptance and respect form colleagues.

     During the time when amount of women on men's work places increased, they found many advantages of doing that job. For example Men’s jobs are a good place to find a husband if you are single. Also The pay is typically much higher in careers where men dominate, so women can make more money. And many companies are seeking to increase diversity in the workplace that can open more availing management positions to women.

    Women of the twenty first century  are occupying a greater percentage of blue collar positions - whether in manual labor or in the trades and they got more sense of freedom and fulfillment in the workplace than it was 60 years ago.

"The Glass Ceiling"

    

      According The Free dictionary by Frlex: "Glass Ceiling is an unacknowledged discriminatory barrier that prevents women and minorities from rising to positions of power or responsibility, as within a corporation"(p). More doors are open to women today, but there is to be a "glass ceiling," a level above which women do not rise. "Glass ceiling" is not only barrier which applies for individuals, it is applies for all women as a group, who are keeping from advancing to achieve higher goal just because they are women. Women locked out from the top-management position in bussiness industry, but they could get some leader positions which can marked them as a leader. Very often many smart and high level educated women could not achieve highest job level because they are women and because men don't take them seriously. Many of men have belief that women should be "on their place", it means that women could not have higher level in society than men. Many women hesitate to speak out, fearing it will jeopardize their careers. So they prefer to stay at position that they already got. Also men in corporate management tend not to perceive discrimination as a real problem, thereby making it virtually impossible to implement effective remedies. The most common definition of "glass ceiling" meets in a big bussiness corporations, where people deal with big amount of money, they have unlimited power and a lot responsability.

    Today, there are many more women and minorities in powerful positions, but the glass ceiling is still very real.

1960s Feminist Activities.

   

      1960s become to be important year for feminist activities. 1960s feminism was important phase for thousands women who would like to have equal rights with a man. Especially in 1960s were many feminism political actions and it changed lives for many women. Feminists protested in the streets and marches; there was many opportunities to show their opinion. 1960s becoming turning point for first "Women's Liberation Groups". In 1963 Betty Friedan's book " Feminine Mystique" makes a lot of people to paying attention on Women's problem. Also Friedan found first National Organization For Women, which is the biggest feminist group with million womens to this day. Called the “backbone” of the feminist movement, consciousness-raising groups were widespread and had the aura of a grassroots revolution. Feminist leaders were  against restriction of abortion, it helped women to get legally abortion in the future. Feminists looked at how women were depicted or ignored in history, social science, literature and other academic fields, and by the end of the 1960s a new discipline was born.
     1960s were historical years for many feminists, that opened a lot of opportunity for them in social activities.

"Good" Women And "Bad" Women And How Economics Shapes Our Construction Of Feminity.

    

     In our society we have the idea that good, bad, right or wrong. It can be determined based on behaviour, physical characteristics ,and believes. Why do we see these constructions of "good" and "bad" women? One of the main point is that it important for economics. It means a lot for sales.
- Appearance products and home products.
  Therefore, advertisers want an audience that believes that a woman's role is to look good and take care of others. This woman will buy more of the stuff they are selling. The good woman is more attractive to advertisers. Therefore, media outlets that celebrate the values of the "good" woman are more attractive to advertisers.
  What do we get in women's magazines? The most common picture is a happy, forced smile- the"good"woman who is married or looking for a partner, based at home for raising kids and trying to do her best.
     All these aspects show us that image of "good" or "bad" woman playing weighty effect for advertisers who would like to sell more their products for typical housewifes.

Prejudice Against Women. Women Talk More Than Men.

   

      As we know in society we have stereotype that women talk too much, and their chat sometimes has  no sense or useful information. But some evidence show that when women and men are together, it is the men who talk most. Many researches found that when men and women have business meeting in most cases men speak most, women used to speak only once or twice. Another example is amounts that girls and boys contribute to classroom talk. From kindergarten or  secondary education males dominate in a classroom talk or discussions. Men talk more than women in public, formal contexts because they perceive participating and orally contributing in such contexts as an activity which increases their status, and men seem to be more concerned with arguing status and power than women are. In conversation men tend to contribute more information and opinions, while women contribute more agreeing or supportive talk.   If women talk at all, this may be perceived as ‘too much talk’ by men who expect them to provide a decorative background in many social contexts. Men generally talk more in formal or public contexts where informative talk is highly valued, and where talk is generally the prerogative of those with some status and has the potential for increasing that status. On the ooposite side women are more likely to contribute in private or informal interactions, where talk more often functions to maintain relationships, and in other situations where for some reasons they feel socially confident.
     So on this evidence we must conclude that the stereotype of the garrulous woman reflects  prejudice against women rather than objective reality.

Discrimination Against Women In Healthcare.

    

       Through  researches was  found that women are continuously charged more for health coverage simply because they are women, and individual market health plans often exclude coverage for services that only women need, for example maternity coverage. Women continue to face with discrimination even if they trying to obtain health insurance market. Most of the women get their insurance through their employer, while a smaller number of them are covered their insurance through public programs or individual market. But there is a number of barriers when women try to get insurance on individual market. Individual markets charging women higher than men in a two ways knowing as a "gender rating" and the exclusion of maternity coverage.
-Insurance carriers are charging women and men different premiums for individually purchased insurance in a practice known as gender rating. Most of the insurance companies enjoy this practice. In a different states and insurance companies differences in charging has different point of charging. As was found the practice of gender rating costs women around $1 billion a year.

-Vast majority of individual market plans do not cover maternity care.
     One more egregious case that evidence discrimination women in healthcare is that in most states non-smoker female will be charged more than a male smoker simply because she is a woman. As an example, 56% of best-selling plans charge a 40-year-old woman who does not smoke more than a 40-year-old man who does smoke. This fact is ridiculous and doesn't have logical explanation.

     Women still have discrimination almost in all part of society life and healthcare is not an exception.

Dukes v. Wal-Mart. Largest Case In Supreme Court Against Women Discrimination.

    

     This story started ten years ago, when group of women who was working in Wal-Mart filed a lawsuit alleging that their employer have discrimination against women.  Top management of Wal-Mart has preference to pay less salary to women than man, man employees get promotion more quickly than women and only few women could get higher promotion. This case was the largest case in the US history which involving 1,5 million female employees of Wal-Mart.

    In 2000 Betty Dukes, a 54 years old women who was working in Wal-Mart in California, claimed sex discrimination. She was working on Wal-Mart for 6 years and she has positive perfomance reviews, but she was denied the training which could help her to get higher position.

    In June 2001, the lawsuit began in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The plaintiffs seek to represent 1.5 million women, including all those who work or have previously worked in a Wal-Mart store since December 1998. This case was continue almost 10 years and on June 20, 2011 Supreme Court ruled in Wal-Mart's favor, saying that the plaintiffs did not have enough in based to generate a class.

    Betty Dukes, a plaintiff and class representative, has continued to work at a Wal-Mart store in Pittsburg, Calif., throughout the proceedings. “I am disappointed that we were not able to proceed collectively,” she said. “The Supreme Court has ruled against all women of a poor background in this country. It will cost us quite a bit to fight one on one. We are determined to move forward and present our case in court.

    This case show up that Women Discrimination on workplace still has place to be and it occupied big amount of women who could not fight for their rights to get better job position.

Organizations Fight for Women's Rights.

    
     During the time while  women discriminations has place to be many people and organizations have come to help women to fight with their rights. There is the most popular organizations that has been leading for women's rights.

     National Organization For Women (NOW). This organization the biggest feminist organization in the USA which include more than 500,000 members in 50 states. NOW was founded in 1966. Primary goal of this organization is to eliminate women discrimination in the work place, schools and all sectors of society. They are fight for stopping violence against women, lesbian rights etc. This organization has a lot of events which helps women to communicate with each other and share their problems.
     Global Fund For Women. This organization helps  small groups of Women by investing money in their changes. They based outside of the USA by providing grants  from $500 to $30,000 for operating and program expenses. This amount of money could help small groups of women to promote social rights for women. Also this organization fight for acces for education for women, health and sexual rights, civic and political participation and etc.

      It has been a tough fight through the many years in the fight for women's rights, but with help of organizations listed above women could feel themselves more secure than many years ago. This organizations help them to communicate with each other, to share their problems and they fight for their equal in society all together.
  
     
   
   

Discrimination Women On Workplace.

     

      For many of women discrimination on workplace still playing important role; it affect on wages that they are received, and on promotion that they get. Basically it depends on career you have choose and company that you work. If it is company where top managers only men- you have less percent to get higher promotion,because no one self-respecting man accept competition on one level with women. Most of men have a stereotype that women have no place in economy, politics,  and in workplace where used mental labor. They think that women should on work in educational system, PR, communicational activity and etc. As a result we rarely can see women who work on top position in government, economy.

      Honestly discrimination women on workplace in USA has more place to be than in my native country(Russia). I become to feel this difference when I first time tried to get job in the USA. I faced with severities to get administrative position, because every time requires says-"men position only". In my native country we have a lot of strong women in economy, government who have top management position and sometimes they show yourself more powerful than any men.

Despite the fact that we live in 21 century women still  discriminated  in many areas of activities. And women need to be more educated  to prove their competitiveness with men.

Women In Sport.

   When we are watching TV we can observe that women athletes are rare in our media environment. The question is Why?There are few points.
-We have stereotypes about females that they are object of sexual desire,they are caregiver and nurturer.
-If happened that it is a female athlete she must play tennis and nothing more.
-Popular female sports trend to show off the athletes body and to follow to cultural stereotypes about women.
-Also popular female sports do not permit contact; female sports typically do not direct women engaging in this activity.
-And popular female sports are subjective, not objective in their judging.

   One more interesting fact is that sports program are designed to exclude female audience. and again question is Why?
-Homogenity of audience. No point in gathering in audience of people who are not the target audience of your product. Wasted money,wasted efford.
  Other words, sports programming exists to attract a predominantly sexual male audience. As long as that is it's purpose,the representation of women in sports will remain the same.

Images Of Women In Cinema.

         
           The image of woman in cinema deeply interwined with general studies about film and women studies. Since the beggining of movie industry women actively participate in movies. During the period of 20s-40s of 19th century women were portrayed as capable of intelectual activities, but now it is all about women bodies. Nowadays we have a lot off different movies. But doesn't matter what kind of movie it will be, its almost impossible to see powerfull, beautifulland smart women without any deviation.
           As I said in my previous blog women always are sexual object for men. For example, we can go through typical screenplays in Hollywoood. In most cases the protagonist of the movie is a man, a superhero, who saves the world, but women usially play a passive role. For example, a blond cutie girlfriend of a hero who loves him very much and look forward to making a family with him. Typical character for most movies is a girl with a big breasts and beauty face who has low GPA and most of the time think about getting a boyfriend. But if there is a woman who is successfull, beautifull and smart she always has disadvantages: she has mental problems, not family oriented or just a bitch. As an exception we have few examples of movies where girls could be smart, strong, beautifull and without any deviations, but anyway the story is structured to show us this woman under the strong man who takes care of her, helps and guides her.

         
          The media of the days more focused on women's beauty. Nobody cares how smart she is, which carrer goals does she have; the most important thing is that she should look good. From early childhood media programms people that women are second sort of human being, the most valuable is a man. In most cases women is a sexual object till thirty-five, but after that age she portrayed as an old bitch. So, media don't value smart women as a powerfull and independent element of society. For media women is a sexual object who should be under a man or another case she will be indicated like an abnormal woman.

Discrimination Women In Media.

          Despite the fact that we live in 21 century,we still have women discrimination problem. The discrimination of women takes place in all parts of people lifes. And mass media is no exception. Advertisers dictate  women to be housewifes,caregivers,nurtures and be sexual object for men.
           First of all, in american mass media women are shown as a exemplary housewife. Women aren't shown in any intellectual activities. They advertise house goods, food apparel, cosmetics and baby care products. Advertisers dictate to the women that they should be good caregiver. They should to take care of families and household, buy products for home and all the time are sitting at home. But honestly they buy more products that they actually need. They do this purschaise because advertisers said to buy it. As a statistic says 70 % of money in Unites States spend by women. Also mass media offers a lot of products for cooking, because women should cook. All this activities make of women perfect housewifes.
         Second of all, advertisers dictate women that the goal of their life is raising children and taking care of the family. Woman should stay at home and take care of kids, buy them clothes, toys and cook their meals. And eventually they can't work and achieve their goals. Advertisers need women to be family oriented, rather than self-oriented. They need women to be housewifes, not the business women. Because a good housewife will spend a lot more money for unnecessary products that a business woman.
         And the third important aspect is that Mass Media dictates women that they should be sexual object for men. As a result women buy more clothes and make-up productions. Advertisers create a picture of an ideal woman, so women all over the world have to fit this standard. Therefore they buy beauty products in order to achieve the ideal image of a woman. The key function of advertising is to get people to buy things they dont need. One way of selling excess is to promise that if women buy that it makes them better object of sexual desire.