module 2

Until I began taking this class I was torn about whether or not I considered myself a femminist. Listening to the first lecture and reading the articles has cleared up a lot of things that have troubled me with women's issues. I have always considered it a given that I am equal to men and that all other women are as well. I never questioned the fact that I would be able to go to college. I always assumed that i would be respected and earn as much money as men that I work with at the jobs I have now and in the future. It was brought up in the lecture that some people think "we're already liberated." However I am glad that I have been reminded that there is still a struggle. I have learned in sociology classes, and been reminded in this class that there are still problems for women. Poverty was beifly mentioned in the lecture and it made me remember the many problems relating to women and poverty i have learned about in sociology and in relation to global issues (issues about such as problems for single mothers who must work and care for their children, some of which have a hard time finding jobs becasue they have been out of the work force for a while) . Another issue I was reminded of is that many women today have full time jobs, as do their husbands. However when they come home at the end of the day they are the ones stuck doing all the house work. I tend to forget about this problem becasue in my house my mom works part time, my dad works full time. However, my dad still makes dinner and does the dishes when he comes home at night, and my mom does other household chores. I have seen in other households, and read that this is not the case in many families.

I mentioned this in one of my discussion comments but I'll mention it again. I think that for women to be equal to men, the system needs to change instead of women trying to change. I guess that was an issue I had with femminism, becasue I only knew about the sterotype of femminism. I thought that women were trying to be more like men and that they were trying to change to fit into a system created for and by men. (which I've always thought was a bad way to go about things. What's wrong with women? Why not be femmine?) Although we haven't gone into detail on this concept I get the picture from the sterotypes that our lecture and readings tried to clear up that I had the wrong idea about femminism. I now know that femminists consider it important for men to understand the privledge they have and to try to find ways of gaining equality by recognizing society for how it is. This could be a good chanel for evaulating things like the work place, and seeing how they are set up to advantage men and disadvantage women. One example I've heard about is that some companies have what' s called flex hours so that an employee must work 40 hours a week, but those 40 hours can be whenever they want, and they can also make up hours later. So for exmaple if someone needs to stay home sick with their child, or leave early on Mondays to pick them up from school (in fairfax county elm school gets out early on Monday) then that's no problem.

Another issue I had with femminism that has been cleared up is the issue of choice (and no i'm not talking about pro-life vs pro choice, that's another issue). I have seen some people who may have been misguided femminists look down on women who choose to be stay at home moms (also on women who wear a lot of make-up, wear heels like in one of our articles, you name it). Especially on well educated women who choose to do so. I personally believe that it is just as honorable to be a full time mom as it is to be a full time mom and a full time career woman (and yes they are both still pretty much full time even if your child is in daycare). Some people don't like day care for whatever reason, and that's ok. I think that it's wonderful that we have a choice what we want to do with our lives. I think that was the point of the femminist movement, to give us choise so that we don't HAVE to do anything. Hearing in the lecture and reading that femminism doesn't look down on motherhood and that it strives to make it better made me realize that maybe some people who I've talked to that claimed to be femminists didn't fully understand the purpose of the movement. I now realize that femminism could actually even help draw attention to women's issues that have to do with raising children, pregnancy, and child birth. I don't think many people think of these things when they think of femminism.