I study sociology at university and one of my assignments is to make a research plan, which we get to choose, we can look at anything we want as long as it is relevant. Which is hard because sociology is such a big field. Anyway, I have chosen to look at “Do women hold fewer positions of power in the workplace than men?”. Firstly because I found this article that annoyed me, secondly I was kinda interested if women do actually hold fewer positions of power than men and if it was so then why? And thirdly because how uneducated my generation are on the understanding of Feminism.
Lets look at the third reason first – Backwards thinking here bear with me! Sooooooo, there was this status on Facebook, which as we know produces some total crap sometimes, but it was about feminism. The post went along the lines of “I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes but where has this riding tide of feminism come from?” Stop! Lets just pause – NO just NO! Well lets see it isn’t all of a sudden! The first wave of feminism was a hell of a long time ago and there has been two more since then and women still struggle for the equal rights of women – so no its not all of a sudden! There is just more awareness of it, which may I add is a bloody good thing considering how uneduatced people seem to be! It then goes on to say “Just because Emma Watson has suddenly decided she hates men or whatever we don’t all have to agree, I think equality should be advertised, but maybe I’m in the small minority.” This is when I was on the floor half way between crying and laughing! So yes people are entitled to their opinions but at the same time if you are publicly airing your views at least do a little research! Not claiming to be an expert in this area at all but I’m pretty sure that Emma Watson was not on about man hating? I am pretty sure her point was that there should be equality between men and women? So in between quiet sobs and reading through the 130 post debate, it started me thinking about how women themselves do not understand the point in modern feminism, so how we will ever bring about a more equal society, in the case of gender or otherwise, if the group of people who are being repressed don’t understand their situation? I think by the end of the debate the whole point was lost and the debate had moved on to god knows what but whatever they were arguing about it definitely was not to do with Feminism!
The article was from the BBC in 2011 – and while it did trigger my thought process and my Research Proposal, it also made me question the society that we live in, in a kind of *face palm* sort of way! Here’s the link if you want to look at it – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12560121 but basically its about women do not hold a representative quantity of power seats in companies so they’ve made a report to say that by 2015 25% of board members of companies have to women. So my first though was oh cool…but when you think about it so wrong on like so many levels but fundamentally for me there are two things wrong – firstly that WE HAVE TO MAKE A REPORT TO ALLOW WOMEN TO HAVE THE SAME JOBS AS MEN! And secondly what if men are actually doing a better job than women! What if an individual who happens to be male is better doing it than a women? Which is a possibility – probably not in every case seeing as “Currently 18 FTSE 100 companies have no female directors at all and nearly half of all FTSE 250 companies do not have a woman in the boardroom” which is so so so wrong because I doubt that in all of these companies all the men are better at their jobs than women! It confuses the hell out me that we can live in a society that values one group of people than another….whether that gender or age or race! The facts annoyed me rather than the article itself probably. And then it led me to think well now the women put in to the power positions will know that they have only been given the right to these jobs because a report was created to say that a woman had to fill the boardroom or director position – even though most of them will have probably earned it – the only reason why they are getting it is a report! So I’m divided I want to feel empowered that there is something being down to ensure the progression of women in positions of power in the workplace but also I feel patronized because the only reason why I’m going to be able to achieve that position in the future is because a report said that the company I work for has to fill a quote. I suppose change has to start somewhere right?
As a consequence to the article, it made me think why there are so few women in these positions. I suppose some are mothers which rock on because that’s equally as hard as becoming a women in power! Some probably leave their career half way to do this and than some don’t come back into the job market which again rock on! But that is the only legitimate reason I could think of why there are fewer women then men that are represented in these positions of power. The only thing I could think of was that its harder for women to climb the corporate ladder, which seems so unbelievable because statistically women do better in education so it isn’t that women are qualified to be in the positions, so why then is it harder in the workplace, is it because there is a stigma attached to women in powerful positions? Is it because of the patriarchal organization of companies that means for women these positions are impregnable? It really frustrates me because I’m going to university to get a degree to try and better myself and I suppose one day fill roles where i am a women in power but will i ever be able to achieve this because of the society i live in? so whats the point of my 25 years spent in education and my 50 grand debt at the end of my degree?
So the research proposal should be great…when I actually tackle it! It’s easy to write 1000 words on a blog when your rambling and the unlikelihood of it being read in comparison the terrifying marker at uni!
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Pieces of My Mind 