Social Work DB
Below are some questions to help guide your discussion on the oppression of women.
- Identify 3 take-aways (important things to remember) from this week’s recorded lecture and explain how you will apply these reminders in social work practice.
- In the video Our Century’s Greatest Injustice, the speaker identifies inexpensive solutions to challenging problems. Which solutions were you most surprised by and why?
- In the video, Why I am a Feminist, 50 reasons are provided for identifying as a feminist, name 5 you were most surprised by. In what ways does this video change your perceptions about feminism?
- in the video, Confessions of a Bad Feminist, how did the speaker expand your understanding of feminism? Name two confessions that you identified with, too.
VIDEOS BELOW
The
Oppression
of Women
Female Population
• 50.8% of US, 50.6% OK
• Historical Discriminatory Policy:
• Voting
• Land ownership
• Education
• Medical leave/childcare responsibilities
• Anti- Reproductive Choice
Supreme Court Justices
Income Gender Gap
Sex, Gender, and Gender Identity
• Sex: Chromosomes, Hormones or Genitalia
• Empirical studies find greater same sex than opposite
sex differences in:
• Cognitive Abilities
• Personality Traits
• Social Behaviors
• Gender Identity: Socially constructed
expectations and norms for male and female
gender role
s
• Man-ness – Masculine
• Woman-ness – Feminine
• Gendered traits facilitate gender roles
• Gender is descriptive and prescriptive
• Shifts with cultural norms
• Gender Expression: Presentation of gender
through dress, action, demeanor
Gendered Expectations
• In Childhood:
• Names
• Clothes
• Friends
• Sports involvement
• Family roles
• Education importance
• In Adulthood:
• Pay scales
• Professions
• Work environments
• Caregiving Responsibilities
• Leadership Roles
Women and Sexist Oppression
•Intersectionality:
examination of
intersections between
forms or systems of
domination of
oppression
Feminism
• A range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements
that share a common goal:
• Define, establish and achieve political, economic, social and personal
equality of sexes.
• Establish educational and professional opportunities for women that
are equal to men
• Examples:
• Women’s rights
• To vote
• To hold public office
• To work
• To earn fair wages/equal pay
• To own property
• To receive an education
• To enter contracts
• To have equal rights within marriage
• Reproductive rights
Male Models of Structured Reality
•Freudian Psychology
• Reflect Historical-
sociological context
• Male centric
Framework
• Anatomy is destiny
• Inequality of feminine
gender role
Contemporary Perspective
•Female Identity
Development
• Females become aware of
and value femininity
• Familial and cultural
influences are weighted
over biological drives
Social Construction of Madness as Female
• Institutional and Structural Classism and Sexism are embedded in the history
of mental illness
• Darwanism = Classism.
• Illness is result of poor genes and evil environment
• Psychiatric Revolution/ Modernism = Heterosexism
• Gender influences the definition and treatment of mental illness
• Rise in hysteria- classic female disorder
• Femininity is synonymous with madness
Feminist Epistemologies
• Logical Positivists:
• Reality is universal, objective
and measureable
• Gender difference are innate
• Subjective Relativists:
• Truth is relative and makes
specific social interests
• Suspicious about general universal
truths
• Emphasize
• Politics of the knowledge makers
• Impact of social status on knowledge
making
• Effect of disparate power relationships
• Feminist Epistemology:
• Emphasizes role of gender in
shaping thought and structuring
society
• Focuses on the forces that exclude
women from full participation
• Strives to produce a society where
men and women are seen as both
different and equal
Feminization of Poverty