The Feminist Movement: The Needed Shift for Women in Their Careers
Each year the Department of English selects outstanding essays from ENGL 102 Critical Writing as entries in the James Strickland Award in Writing scholarship contest. RockScissorsPaper is proud to publish these pieces in our summer edition of the website. Below is the second-place winner for 2022, Sasha Jantsch.
Dr. Strickland writes: “Sasha Jantsch’s essay on the necessity of the feminist movement in 2022 is a powerful argumentative essay in the traditional research genre. Not only is the feminist movement not superfluous today, but Sasha also argues it has established and protected the rights of women in the workplace, rights that would have never been realized otherwise. Her essay reminded me of a well-played billiard game, one in which I watched Sasha take aim at each ball on the table and carefully place each in the pocket. Well done.”
By Sasha Jantsch
For those that believe the feminist movement is unnecessary in the workplace, consider these statistics: Twenty-five percent of women in the United States have earned a smaller wage compared to their male counterparts in the workplace (Funk and Parker). Thirty-eight percent have experienced sexual harassment (Shaw et al.). And forty-two percent have experienced gender discrimination (Funk and Parker). This means almost half of the women workforce in the country face opposing and overwhelming constructs in their fight for equality. The obstacles they confront consist of multiple forms of discrimination that belittle women’s contributions and limit their opportunity in the work environment. To say that women face inequalities in the workplace is an understatement. So how do women and society progress from these inequitable issues? The solutions lie within the feminist movement, despite strong opposition from those that believe it to be superfluous. The feminist movement is essential, as it ensures women’s progress in their careers by reducing the gender pay gap, preventing pregnancy discrimination, and discouraging sexual harassment, so that women may be treated equally to men and function independently. Without the feminist movement, the immutable rights of women in the workplace may not have been advocated for and progress never would have been made.
Thankfully though, the feminist movement does exist and is moving to “secure legal, economic, and social equality for women” (“Women’s Movement Definition & Meaning”). What began with the ambition of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her draft of the Seneca Falls Declaration, a single document outlining the movement’s ideology and political approach, has developed into an influential activist organization prominent in guaranteeing equality, women’s educational rights, women’s rights in the workplace, women’s rights in criminal justice, and pregnancy and parenting discrimination, as well as justice for those victimized by violence against women. Before the 1930’s though, the movement was absent from the workforce. It was not until Betty Friedman published The Feminine Mystique, exposing the frustration of housewives feeling constrained and discontent due to the stigma surrounding women having careers, that the movement began to gain momentum. From that moment on, change was already being exhibited. The twenty percent of women working during the early 20th century had increased to ninety percent by the mid 70’s, not to mention that the work they were doing progressed from unsanitary, dangerous environments to sanitary white-collar jobs (Yellen). Through the years, the feminist movement’s purpose has stayed the same—to fortify gender equality—but the specific issues that it opposes in the labor force has evolved. Once focused with women breaking into fields of work, the movement is now concerned with breaking discriminatory practices targeted at women within their professions.
The gender pay gap is one discriminatory practice that the feminist movement has been instrumental in improving upon and has been majorly impactful in the lives of many women and their careers. This gap refers to the income difference between women and men for completing similar work and is innately demeaning of women’s efforts in the workplace (“Gender Pay Gap”). Prior to the early sixties, the pay gap was extremely wide, so much to the extent, that many women’s wages were less than the minimum wages of men. However, due to the labor of the feminist movement, women received a win in 1963 with the enactment of The Equal Pay Act. This act required women who were part of a pay structure, to receive a wage equal to the minimum wage of men (Snell). Although this seems insignificant in its attempt towards equality, it nonetheless reduced the pay gap and provided a platform for women to progress from. Since then, the gap has only continued to shrink, for currently, a man’s dollar is a woman’s 93 cents (Barroso and Brown). This reduction in the gap significantly impacts women, as financial independence is a major aspect of self-sufficiency. By women being paid less, it forces them to become reliant on the man, for they are not paid a reasonable salary to afford typical expenses in life and live life as they wish. This is a direct violation of the unalienable rights inherent in all people, as it limits women’s liberty and pursuit of happiness. If it was not for the feminist movement advocating for equal pay, women today may still be dependent on the man and be even more restricted in their opportunities in life, revealing just how imperative the movement is to women’s progress.
Additionally, by suppressing pregnancy discrimination within the workplace, the feminist movement makes it possible for women to have a career and a child simultaneously. Women are the child bearers of society and therefore are challenged in a way that men are not. This challenge is translated in the office and manifests itself through pregnancy discrimination, or the negative treatment towards employees who are pregnant, have given childbirth, or have a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth (“Pregnancy Discrimination”). In the workplace, women may confront this discrimination in several ways, including struggling to request accommodations for pregnancy, the denial of accommodations, questioning of a woman’s dedication to her job upon returning from maternity leave, and the exclusion of an accessible environment that is conducive for women who breastfeed (“Listening to Mothers: The Experiences of Expecting and New Mothers in the Workplace”). Consequently, this harms women by making it almost impossible for them to care for their child while working, therefore resulting in termination or resignation. Termination typically occurs when an employer biasedly finds those pregnant to be incapable of performing their job, whereas resignation typically occurs because one cannot raise their infant without certain accommodations. For single mothers, this is especially detrimental, because it means they no longer have a source of income to support their family. Reasonably so, the feminist movement views this as unacceptable and destructive, which is why it secured The Pregnancy Discrimination Act and Family Medical Leave Act into legislation (McCann). The Pregnancy Discrimination Act makes it illegal to harass and discriminate against women in “…hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance, and any other term or condition of employment.” Furthermore, it enforces that the same regulations and accommodations in place for people who have a disability, be applied to those who are pregnant. In tandem with this, the Family Medical Leave Act grants a new parent the eligibility of a twelve-week leave of absence (paid if enough days are accrued) and the right to breastfeed at work (“Pregnancy Discrimination”). Implementing these into legislation combats the systematic repression of women within the work environment and has altered its dynamic in a way that supports women instead of undermining them.
Perhaps the most widely discussed inequality the feminist movement is improving is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is categorized by any “behavior that violates, derogates, demeans, or humiliates an individual based on sex or gender”, and it is generally agreed that male dominance, sex ratios, and gender role-spill-over, are the three motivators of this behavior. Male dominance explains that when a man’s power feels threatened by a woman, he will respond through sexual harassment to try and maintain it. Similarly, but less intentional, gender role-spill-over happens when a man who is normally surrounded by women in submissive roles, spills his degrading behavior into the workplace by treating women within it as inferior. More population based is sex ratio, which occurs when few men work in a predominately female work environment and consequently are more likely to be guilty of sexual harassment. Work industries themselves have made attempts to tackle this through imposing two forms of structures: work groups, teams in which employees are divided into, and a human resources department, a unit that handles reports of misconduct and violations of the law within the workplace. It is their hope that by ingraining these structures it will enforce a sense of leadership and responsibility to one’s colleagues and deter some from committing offences of harassment, but these attempts have had a paling impact on women’s work conditions. However, through administering an authoritative structure that mandates proper workplace etiquette, the feminist movement has deterred these motivations. Particularly, the Me Too Movement, a sub-movement within the feminist movement, is concerned with eliminating sexual violence in all areas of society, including in the workforce. It aims to attain this, by instilling “accountability on the part of perpetrators, along with the implementation of strategies to sustain long term, systemic change. So that one day, nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again” (“History & Inception”). Their determination is evidenced in sexual harassment being defined as a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, therefore making sexual harassment illegal. Amending this title has proven to be beneficial, as around the time it was amended in 1972, a survey conducted by The Cornell Human Affairs Program, found that approximately 70 percent of the women surveyed had experienced sexual harassment at work (Nemy). Although still significant, currently 38 percent of women experience sexual harassment at the workplace—a 32 percent decline since the feminist movement influenced the amendment. Though the decreased probability of women experiencing harassment at work is a great improvement in itself, it also bettered their working conditions so that they may remain in their positions. In examining sexual harassment’s effects on women, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that harassed women working within academic sciences, engineering, and medicine, are so physically and mentally affected, that to escape it, they are likely to quit their job before attaining tenure status and resign from leadership positions. This is a hinderance to women’s opportunity in their careers, but with the aid of the feminist movement, women are gradually climbing the ladder of equality (Shaw et al.).
Regardless of the improvements the feminist movement has accomplished for women in the workplace, many consider the movement to be non-essential and damaging, as they believe it promotes misandry and female supremacy. Misandry is problematic as it generalizes men in a way that leads to hateful prejudice against them. From this, terms with the prefix “man” have developed and are part of the feminist movement’s lexicon to describe some of women’s challenges in relation to how men interact with women. It is argued that these terms, such as ‘mansplaining’ and ‘manterrupting’, degrade all men for exhibiting certain condescending characteristics towards women, even if they are not guilty of them (Young). Moreover, this demonization of men has been contended to contribute to female supremacy. People believing this claim that the feminist movement works to put women on a higher pedestal than men in all places of society, for “There is no equivalent political [organization] for men with billions in funding to represent the issues men face and as a result feminists have succeeded in changing laws to create double standards that [favor] women and are bias against men” (Jones). While men do face their own struggles, it is oppressed women who confront those same struggles, amongst others, more often. By the feminist movement highlighting the toxic structures of society and behaviors of men that support the patriarchy, it is not supporting misandry, but rather informing the public of women’s inequality and fighting to extinguish that inequality. Misandry is a misconception of the feminist movement and results when people themselves, not the movement, take these truths of inequality to extremes and assume that all men are perpetrators and, are therefore, bad. In reality, the movement encourages an open dialogue between men and women so that issues of inequality may be addressed, and misandry plagues this progress. A prime example of this open communication in the movement, is the HeForShe campaign, a “global effort to engage men and boys in removing the social and cultural barriers that prevent women and girls from achieving their potential, and thus together positively reshaping society” (“About HeForShe”). Some may interpret the depletion of these barriers as the rise of a women-dominated regime. Those who see it this way do so, as “they are so used to [men] being in power that women being equal to them can seem as a threat, and they don’t understand that it is also supposed to empower men,”, according to the president of the Barrett Feminist Club, Lauren Barnes. The feminist movement has no intention of devaluing or taking away men’s positions of power and only functions to achieve vital equal opportunities for women, which it has gradually been accomplishing (Mo).
No one should be restricted from obtaining the means essential to living an independent and prosperous life, but unfortunately women in the workplace are. This is why the feminist movement is necessary. The movement campaigns and paves avenues for women in their battle for equality in and outside the workplace, in which they otherwise may not have been able to. Through its influence, it has managed to diminish the gender pay gap, implement resisting legislation towards pregnancy discrimination, and reduce the frequency of sexual assault in work environments. These achievements accomplish far beyond the goals that the movement has set for itself. By the significant closing of the gender pay gap, women have been granted financial independence and thus freedom to live life of their own accord, just like men. Likewise, pregnancy discrimination is now illegal, accommodations for pregnant women are now required, and maternity leave is now routinely given, which prevents women from being fired because they have a child or being forced to quit to support their family. Consequently, this gives women the same opportunity as men to work and have a family. Similarly, sexual harassment became prohibited, causing a decrease in its occurrences and in turn an increase in the number of women who remain in their jobs and leadership positions. This is because it makes less women feel the need to escape a sexual harassment-filled environment, allowing women and men to progress equally. While women are far from being treated a hundred percent equal to men in the workplace, there is no doubt that the feminist movement is still necessary, as it advances a critical reformation towards women’s equality in their careers, and therefore their lives—a vital matter for women and the betterment of society.
Works Cited
“About HeForShe.” HeForShe: Movement for Gender Equality, Stony Brook University, https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/heforshe/about/index.php. Accessed 20 Nov. 2021.
Barroso, Amanda and Anna Brown. “Gender Pay Gap in U.S. Held Steady in 2020.” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/25/gender-pay-gap-facts/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.
Funk, Cary and Kim Parker. “42% Of Us Working Women Have Faced Gender Discrimination on the Job.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 7 Aug. 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/12/14/gender-discrimination-comes-in-many-forms-for-todays-working-women/. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021
“Gender Pay Gap.” Gender pay gap | Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/gender-pay-gap. Accessed 19 Nov. 2021.
“History & Inception.” Me Too. Movement, https://metoomvmt.org/get-to-know-us/history-inception/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2021.
Jones, James. “Feminism: Female Superiority Not Gender Equality.” Feminism: Female Superiority Not Gender Equality, 24 May 2019, https://medium.com/feminism-female-superiority-not-gender-equality/feminism-female-superiority-not-gender-equality-785c3fe39f9c. Accessed 20 Nov. 2021.
“Listening to Mothers: The Experiences of Expecting and New Mothers in the Workplace.” National Partnership, Childbirth Connection, Jan. 2014, https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/economic-justice/pregnancy-discrimination/listening-to-mothers-experiences-of-expecting-and-new-mothers.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov. 2021.
McCann, Carly, and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey. “Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace.” Center for Employment Equity, University of Massachusetts Amherst, https://www.umass.edu/employmentequity/pregnancy-discrimination-workplace-1. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.
Mo, Kelsey. “Feminism Is Not Misandry.” The Arizona State Press, The State Press, 15 Nov. 2016, https://www.statepress.com/article/2016/11/spopinion-misandry-is-not-the-same-as-feminism. Accessed 20 Nov. 2021.
Nemy, Enid. “Women Begin to Speak Out Against Sexual Harassment at Work.” The New York Times, 19 Aug. 1975. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/19/archives/women-begin-to-speak-out-against-sexual-harassment-at-work.html. Accessed 21 Nov. 2021.
“Pregnancy Discrimination.” U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, https://www.eeoc.gov/pregnancy-discrimination. Accessed 19 Nov. 2021.
Shaw, Elyse, et al. “Sexual Harassment and Assault at Work: Understanding the Costs.” IWPR, 15 Oct. 2018, https://iwpr.org/iwpr-publications/briefing-paper/sexual-harassment-and-assault-at-work-understanding-the-costs/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2021.
Snell, Mandy. “The Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination Acts: Their Impact in the Workplace.” Feminist Review, no. 1, Sage Publications, Ltd., 1979, pp. 37–57. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1394749. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.
“Women’s Movement Definition & Meaning.” Dictionary.com, Harpercollins Publishers, 2012, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/women-s-movement. Accessed 18 Nov. 2021.
Yellen, Janet. “The History of Women’s Work and Wages and How It Has Created Success for Us All.” Brookings, The Brookings Institution, 6 Jan. 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-history-of-womens-work-and-wages-and-how-it-has-created-success-for-us-all/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2021.
Young, Cathy. “Feminists Treat Men Badly. It’s Bad for Feminism.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 Oct. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/30/feminists-treat-men-badly-its-bad-for-feminism/. Accessed20 Nov. 2021.
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