​​​TashaDavis​

In US History class, I grew the most not in an actual skill but in knowledge during an overview of what happened to different minority groups throughout American History.  One part of learning about the treatment of different minority groups was learning specifically about women, in a section called “The Experience of Women.” Before this section on the struggle for equality, I knew hardly anything about why women are treated differently from boys. I knew there is a difference when boys chose other boys over me to join them in their basketball games. Now I understand what might be needed to fix that, or at least why it is that it happens.

 

Something that really helped me to understand the experience of women was a transcript titled “End of Men” and the questions that followed. The transcript helped me to understand how little respect women had, how they gained a little more freedom, bit by bit, and how far they still have to go. The transcript was an interview between two people, Renee Montagne, the host, and author Hanna Rosin discussing Hanna’s new book “The End of Men: And the Rise of Women.” The questions for the transcript helped me to understand where I stood on the subject of equality for women. My answers helped me to see what I think myself and those around me would feel if I managed to push through the Glass Ceiling before the rest of society.  Now I can understand why men might not want their wife to be the one making more money because of how society looks at that sort of thing.

 

Another thing that helped me to understand the subject of woman’s experience was another reading called “Advancing Women and Workplace.” Getting more women into a leadership position will show other women that they can break through the Glass Ceiling. The Glass Ceiling is a figurative description of women not being able to reach executive level in a company. A woman “breaking through the Glass Ceiling” would be a woman who has reached executive level in a company. U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman, who was quoted in the above mentioned article calls it, “A double-pane glass ceiling stops women in corporate America.” The second pane of glass being unequal pay. She ends up saying that some women are able to break through the first pane, but are not able to overcome the unequal pay.

For the article “Advancing Women and Workplace,” there was a table that I had to fill out that let me dissect the article so I could see the author’s perspective better.

 

One obstacle that I had to overcome was the question that I had constantly running through my head, “Why can’t everyone just accept that no one, man or woman, is better or worse than the other?” I didn’t understand why there were social implications for the roles of both men and women.

 

In the future, this knowledge will help me to create ways to help other women reach equal status as her counterpart. I want both men and women alike to be able to reach the same heights. Teaching both sides of the whole story of everything will provide both men and women, boys and girls that they are not better or worse than the other. I believe that it will be teamwork between the sexes that might eventually close the gap, and right now, I do not believe that there is enough of that.