Unit2TheChangingWomen.doc

Unit 2 The Changing Women Part 1 A.l. Organized activity on behalf of womens rights began 1800s, when both by law and by custom, women were nonpersons. 2. In the early 1900s, important changes occurred in the political climate in America as a result of World War I. 3. In 1920 after World War I, American women gained the right to vote. 4. During World War II, large numbers of women entered the job market to do the jobs of the men who had been drafted into military service. 5. Today, women make up 1.5%of the 200,000 professional firefighters in the US, and they make up 4% of the airline pilots and navigators. 6. The Small Business Administration predicts that women will own nearly 40% (others say half) of all small businesses in the US by the year 2000. 7. From 1980 to 1988, the number of business men and women-entrepreneurs-increased 56% overall, but during that period, the number of female entrepreneurs grew 82%. 8. In 1969 in the US, only 4% of the state lawmakers were women. By 1993, this number had grown by 500%, and 20.4% of state legislators were women. 9 Today, only 10% of American families have the traditional working father and the mother who stays home to take care of the children. 10. The rate of womens participation in the workforce rose from 27% in 1940 to 44% in 1985. B Tape scripts L-Lynne I-Irene B- Barbara L: I have many, many friends who have opted for a child-free life. I have a great deal of respect for their choice. But therein lies the key; It was their choice. Infertility was not my choice. Is a woman less of a woman without children? Absolutely not in my opinion, but I had to have children. I dont know why. People have asked us, you know, well what was that just made you so obsessed and compelled and driven? I dont know. I dont . . . I dont know that Ill ever know. All I know is I had to have children. I: Well, my daughter, interestingly enough, is the same way. Shes very eager as soon as she finishes law school to get married and have children. And we talked about this and she said, Mom, you dont understand. Ive been thinking about having children since I was eight or nine years old. B: Yes, thats how I was. I: Whereas I didnt, but shes been thinking about it for so long in her life, and I was really surprised when we had this conversation to learn that, that shes been observing me as a mother, observing other mothers, trying to decide what kind of a mother she was going to be when motherhood came her way.L: Well, thats . thats exactly how I have always felt. But I have to say that I certainly respect people who dont choose motherhood. C 1. The difference between men and women when they surf the Internet according to the study conducted by Media Matricks and Jupiter Communications:Women: as a toolMen: tend to spend more time playing around2. The different reasons why women use the web:check email / chat / look for information / resources / studying searchTape scripts For the first time ever the number of women on the web has surpassed the number of men, pushing the huge growth of females between the ages of 12 and 17. Music websites like are attracting teen girls and so are sites focused on fashion and shopping. An unscientific survey of teens, mostly girls attending Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, California, shows teens are using the World Wide Web for many reasons. F: My name is Fi and Im 16. I check my email on the net and I chat sometimes. Thats all I did.P: My name is Sonia Fay Phillips. Im 1z years old. Mostly I use the Internet for, uh, look(ing) up for my college information or check my email or chat. I use . . . mostly use it for resources and studying because I dont have time for play and stuff. M: My name is Lucien Morrison. Im 17. And I use the Internet to chat on, o get codes for Play Station games, to check my email and to play games on. M: Im Meesha. Im 14 years old. I usually just search on the web, just anything Im looking for or just search because Im bored or anything like that Summer school students attending Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, California. The Internet study released today conducted by Media Matrix and Jupiter Communications shows that men and women use the web differently. Women use it as a tool. Men tend to spend more time online playing around. Among the other most popular sites reported for women on the web, for ages 35 to 44: and ; for ages 55 and up theyve been posting the second biggest jump in usage: and Part II working mothers A Tape scripts I-Ivy K-Kate (Ivy Miller interviews Kate Bellow about a program that retrains women for computer jobs. And why 2) I: Weve kind of gone over the range, but could you tell us who generally takes this program? You have 30 students, you get to know them, I guess , fairly well. K: I do.I: Who . . . who are these people? K: Basically they fall into, I would say, five categories. We still have the reentry woman; the woman whos been at home raising her kids, and has decided she needs to or wants to go back to work. I was in that category when I went through the program; Im a graduate of the program. Then we have people who have jobs. Theyre dead-end jobs, theyre not using their intelligence, and they really want a career with a lot more earning potential. We get people who have careers, their first careers, the things that they (were) trained for - theyre teachers, nurses, med techs, and theyre totally burned out, and theyre looking for some kind of transition into another industry. We also get those who are seeing their industry dry up and shrink. I get a lot of people out of the oil patch- petroleum engineers and geophysicists who say, Hey, I dont want to move to Houston; Id like to stay in Denver.” And so theyre they have decided that they want to transition into the computer industry. And then we also get some people whore really happy in their jobs, theyre doing exactly what they want except because the computer is taking over, they need to gain more computer expertise in order to advance, and so theyre planning on staying in their jobs. B 1. According to Beth, which do more and more women choose, to work or to have a child? both / not be superwoman2. According to some research, how important is a mothers role?more important in some regards than we had thought / bonding process / lasts longer3. What happens to children if they are separated too early from their parents? often go into shock4. Why do people need concrete support of community? parents not close by / brothers and sisters in another state or country5. Does Beth think its necessary for a mother to stay home full time to be together with her children? important but not necessary / if not inclined6. What is the wonderful trait that some working mothers have?a. the ability to be attentive to multiple demandsb. the ability to think about more than one thing at a timeTape scripts B Beth I - Irene B: Its a big challenge for mothers today, because oftentimes mothers feel like its an either/ or proposition that they have to work or have a child. And the reality is more women are choosing to do both, and also not be superwomen, so its a tricky its a tricky line to balance. But I do have a quote that says, To choose to have a child is to choose forever to have your heart walk outside of your body, which means , just as weve been talking about, that you are constantly attached to your child, no matter how old they get, but you will learn to walk those lines. And you will learn to create balance and harmony in you life, and youll realize that not everything you do is going to send your child to a therapist. And thats wonderful. I: Yes, yes. Ive just always felt that if you loved them hard enough, and that you had . . . your heart kind of in the right place, which obviously is outside your own body, that there was very little that . . That you could do wrong. I mean you . . . B; I think thats true. I think if you build a solid foundation with your child, especially in the early years, and . . . I: How early are we talking early years? I mean, by what point is the childs personality formed already? B: Well, you know theres a lot of information on that that definitely is conflicting. But there are new studies coming out that are just fascinating about how important, extremely important it is for a child to be with his, her mother until theyre close to four years old. Now, that doesnt mean consistently. Im not advocating that a mother stay home full time if shes not so inclined. But theres definite research thats coming out saying that, you know, a mothers role is more important in some regards than we had thought, and that the bonding process lasts quite a bit longer. In fact, children go into shock oftentimes if they are separated too early. And thats why I think a tot of us are fighting for parental leave and family leave, that allows both mother and father to have time with their children hopefully within the first two years, not just the first few months. People need concrete support, and especially nowadays, I did write another meditation about needing the support of community because nowadays we oftentimes dont have our parents close by, or brothers and sisters live in another state or in another country. And so especially when you come home for the first few months or the first few years, you may feel extremely isolated if you cant hook up with a co-op, a babysitting co-op, or a mothers group . And this is just a wonderful way to remind mothers that we have what Mary Catherine Bateson calls peripheral vision: the ability to be attentive to multiple demands and to think about more than one thing at a time. And I think thats a very valuable trait that mothers do have. And sometimes we think of ourselves as being scattered and airheads because of it, and thats been oftentimes how weve been portrayed, but this is a wonderful, wonderful trait that mothers develop especially in the first few years. I: Well, we have eyes in the backs of our heads, right? B: Exactly. I: But we are able to keep lots of balloons in the air, which means that what we do is, you get up in the morning and you say, I need to do this, this, this, this, and I need to go to work, and whats for dinner besides. B: Exactly. I: You get it all in order before you leave the house in the morning. B: Right and you can take your needs into account as well as the needs of many other individuals, which is extremely important in this day and age. I mean we no longer can afford ecologically to have a one- track mind. We can no longer afford it in the family, in the work place, and I think thats something that women very much have to offer. I: I think that the me generation is over. Part III Mothers and daughters A Tape scripts The second Sunday of May is officially designated Mothers Day here in the United States. While Mothers Day is a happy occasion in most families, it is NOT happy in those where there is serious conflict between the mother and her children. Some scholars believe relationships between mothers and daughters can be especially strained. Lynn Davidman, professor of womens studies at Brown University in Rhode Island, was 15 when her mother died of cancer. She has spent many years studying the immediate and longer-term impact of a mothers premature death on those she leaves behind. The result of her research is a book titled Motherloss. Lynn Davidman says over the years most of her samples, including herself, have constructed an idealized and culturally stereotyped view of their mothers. Most of the people I interviewed told me that their mothers were the most perfect, the most wonderful, the most loving, nurturing people that could have ever lived. Lynn Davidman says this is because people who lost their mothers during the early teens were old enough to remember her love and nurturing, but too young to experience some of the conflicts that come as children start growing up. Clinical psychologist Roni Cohen-Sandler who specializes in women and adolescent girls says mother-daughter conflicts start with the onset of the daughters puberty. She says at that age daughters often become critical of their mothers. You know, they are trying to figure out who they are and they are looking at their mothers who are supposed to be this role model and they are seeing what their mothers are doing and not doing and they are getting very critical. And oftentimes they think everything they are saying is so wrong, you know. So mothers end up feeling very rejected and very upset and take everything very personally and so thats where the challenge starts. Roni Cohen-Sandler says when daughters go through adolescence; mothers usually remember their own and want their daughters to benefit from the mothers experience. Daughters typically reject that. Their common complaint is: Mother is just not listening to me. Sociologist and author Victoria Secunda says she has never been able to have a cordial relationship with her mother. Ms Secunda, who wrote a book titled When You and Your Mother Cant Be Friends, says her research shows that conflicts between mothers and daughters are much more wide-sprea