Humanities

Week 14: With the rise of Feminism during the late 20th century, why wasn’t feminism seen as a more serious topic back in the days?

It is clear that feminism is one of the most important and pivotal turning step in the U.S. where many individuals began noticing women’s importance. However, after reading the chapter and lecture notes, most of the acts and groups that were formed as a way to express Feminism started within the late 20th century. Dating similar situations to the past, it’s nothing new that women were still being underrepresented and being discriminated due to their gender. My question is that could the idea of feminism stemmed from the past before? Or was it simply due to the later years that contributed to women’s voices being heard for equality.

Week 14:What do ads from the LDEF tell about the changing nature of women in the workforce?

The 1973 ad series by the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) Legal Defense and Education Fund(LDEF) featured several thought provoking ads that ran in magazines and aimed to get the nation thinking about the discrimination women faced everyday. In the decades prior advertisements aimed at women encouraged them to buy products. In the 1970’s the attitude changed. The ads instead focused on job discrimination and how girls were not being prepared to enter the male dominated workforce. I believe these ads worked well and helped encourage employers to hire more women.Women began entering male dominated fields in everything from the fire department to mining. The 1971 Title VII of the civil rights act was a major factor in this. It prohibited discrimination based on stereotypes and left women with the power to decide if they could do a job.

Two years later these ads appeared in magazines.Some delivered statistical data, while others claimed that being born a woman was already a disadvantage. They helped parents think about the future of the own daughters and family members and encouraged them to aim higher. One ad with a young black girl(p.653) quotes her saying she wants to be a judge, or senator, or president. The smaller print than gives data for how many women hold these jobs.

Women are still fighting for equally in 2018 but the amount of women in these occupations has greatly increased. The ad states only 23 women are federal judges and there were only 2 female senators. There are now over 100 female judges in appellate courts alone and 23 women currently serving in the senate. The ads help to bring awareness about the everyday fight that working women faced. The ad with a man lifting his pants and exposing his legs (p.651) expressed that women should be judged on their skills and not their looks. Do you agree that these ads did a good job of bringing these issues to the mainstream and accurately showing the nation’s changing attitude?