Are We Really Making Progress?
I just finished the book "Lean In" by Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg is currently the COO of facebook and is regarded as one of the most influencial women in the world. Her book is about how women struggle to make progress in their work, and families, and how they are constantly held back by things including bias and stereotypes. It is obvious that to succeed, even today, women and girls have harder time being more 'successful'. It doesn't seem too present in our classrooms now, considering that at our age everyone is still on the same level, but it's not just about being help back by others, women often internally old themselves back far less then men ever do. Hundreds of stereotypes say that a woman will not perform as well as a man, or is less suited for any given career in many ways. On the outside it looks as though the United States is making huge progress towards gender equality, but I can't help but wonder how much it's helping. People may think that they believe in gender equality but I believe that there are still to many recognized stereotypes and labels subconsiously given to women.
How much does change really help if people are only making the change visibly, but possibly not forgetting about all the internal bias? While many may think that they believe in equality, our country is riddled with too many stereotypes that internally and subconciously hold people back from promoting women. Out of 195 countries in the world, only 17 are lead by women currently, and the U.S. is not one of them, nor have we ever been. Women currently hold 18 percent of seats in the U.S. House of representatives, a percentage higher than ever before, yet still at only less than 1 in every 5 members of the house being female. The numbers are so small that while some amount of change may be happening, women are still being held back in giant amounts. Even though women may be publicly recognized as equal, and earn more masters and undergraduate degrees by about 10% than men, they still account of less then half of the work force, and a tiny amount of high income jobs. For example, as of 2012 women held a mere 4.2% of the CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies. How come if people are truly recognizing that women are men's equals, they are still held back and prevented from so many opportunitites? Change needs to happen in all people, inside and out, and sterotypes need to stop bringing down women, people need to stop making random offhand comments that will pull someone down for change to happen.
Sheryl Sandberg talks on page 22 of the book about an occurance called the stereotype threat. it may sound ridiculous, but it makes incredible sense and also helps prove to me that change cannot happen with people inside and out, unless all of the commonly applied labels to women in the workforce are removed. For example, one stereotype Sandberg talks about is how successful women are portrayed in movies. She points out Sandra Bullocks character in "The Proposal" among others. Bullocks character is portrayed as the annoying, rude, closed- off, work obsessed woman. There are so many other movies featuring female characters like her, but so few with men. Sandberg says that the more successful women are, the less likeable people consider them, but that's not so with men. A stereotype like the one of how women dedicated to their careers must be bad with relationships, family, and their personal lives, is one subconsiously held by many, that really does turn women away from trying their hardest or looking from job promotions. I don't think that until common beliefs such as this one are removed from our culture, real advancements can be made.
After reading Sheryl Sandbergs book about feminism and womens equality towards men in the workforce and in personal life, I began to believe that stereotypes are a huge drawback and until they can be taken out of common belief true change wont happen.
How much does change really help if people are only making the change visibly, but possibly not forgetting about all the internal bias? While many may think that they believe in equality, our country is riddled with too many stereotypes that internally and subconciously hold people back from promoting women. Out of 195 countries in the world, only 17 are lead by women currently, and the U.S. is not one of them, nor have we ever been. Women currently hold 18 percent of seats in the U.S. House of representatives, a percentage higher than ever before, yet still at only less than 1 in every 5 members of the house being female. The numbers are so small that while some amount of change may be happening, women are still being held back in giant amounts. Even though women may be publicly recognized as equal, and earn more masters and undergraduate degrees by about 10% than men, they still account of less then half of the work force, and a tiny amount of high income jobs. For example, as of 2012 women held a mere 4.2% of the CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies. How come if people are truly recognizing that women are men's equals, they are still held back and prevented from so many opportunitites? Change needs to happen in all people, inside and out, and sterotypes need to stop bringing down women, people need to stop making random offhand comments that will pull someone down for change to happen.
Sheryl Sandberg talks on page 22 of the book about an occurance called the stereotype threat. it may sound ridiculous, but it makes incredible sense and also helps prove to me that change cannot happen with people inside and out, unless all of the commonly applied labels to women in the workforce are removed. For example, one stereotype Sandberg talks about is how successful women are portrayed in movies. She points out Sandra Bullocks character in "The Proposal" among others. Bullocks character is portrayed as the annoying, rude, closed- off, work obsessed woman. There are so many other movies featuring female characters like her, but so few with men. Sandberg says that the more successful women are, the less likeable people consider them, but that's not so with men. A stereotype like the one of how women dedicated to their careers must be bad with relationships, family, and their personal lives, is one subconsiously held by many, that really does turn women away from trying their hardest or looking from job promotions. I don't think that until common beliefs such as this one are removed from our culture, real advancements can be made.
After reading Sheryl Sandbergs book about feminism and womens equality towards men in the workforce and in personal life, I began to believe that stereotypes are a huge drawback and until they can be taken out of common belief true change wont happen.
