A Womans Career Path Essays -- Gender Studies

The statistics prove that women are making tremendous strides in achieving careers in a variety of fields that were almost exclusively the domain of men. This much heralded progress, spurred by the feminist movement and the rejection of more traditional and oppressive gender roles, has defied thousands of years of sexual subjugation and has proven that women can succeed at any occupation just as well men. However, as married women with children have moved into the role of (in many cases dominant) wage earner, they have left behind a vacuum where the job of homemaker use to be. In American working class culture there are mounting opposition and obstacles to choosing the job of raising children and taking care of the family. This reversal of conditions, pushing women out of the role they were previously forced into, can also have ill consequences on society. The role of homemaker was naturally placed upon women early in human history, presumably due to the vulnerability of human biology. In other animals, pregnancy and child birth typically does not leave the mother in a state of compromised mobility as is the case in human pregnancy. Our primitive ancestors, sustaining themselves through hunting and gathering, would not likely have placed pregnant women in the role of as strenuous an activity as hunting. The role of rearing children and taking care of the home could then have justifiably been passed on to women. Arguably, the aggressive and dominant nature of the male gender, demonstrated even by modern apes for whom we share the closest biological link, would have been a force practiced by our ancestors to kept women in this role of subservience. In our society, where our biological makeup and physical abilities have very lit... ...age/> Gilbert, Susan. â€Å"Two Studies Link Child Care to Behavior Problems.† The New York Times Online. 16 Jul. 2003. Lu, et al. "Child day care risks of common infectious diseases revisited." Child: Care, Health & Development 30.4 (2004): 361-368. CINAHL with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 17 Apr. 2011. Nelson, Sofia, and Lips, Hilary. â€Å"The Motherhood Penalty: ‘Sequencing Moms’ Pay a Price.† Women’s Media. 15 Dec. 2009 . Warren, Elizabeth. â€Å"Transcript. February 6, 2004.† Interview with Bill Moyers. NOW with Bill Moyers 06 Feb. 2004. Woolf, Virginia. The Death of the Moth and Other Essays â€Å"Professions for Women.† Harcourt Brace & Company, 1942 235-242