My Interviews of Two U.S. Women, Essay Example

For this paper, I interviewed two U.S. women: my aunt who lives in California and is in her late fifties; the other is my cousin from Virginia who is twenty-six. Muriel has a grade eight education and was born on a farm in rural Montana and came to San Bernardino after her second marriage. She has never been in the workforce. My cousin Cheryl grew up in rural Virginia and is university educated with a degree in early childhood education. She works as the president of a teacher’s union. The essay that follows forms my understanding of their replies.

Why do women work more than men to get ahead?  It is an interesting notion that men perceive this from a perspective of power, real or imagined. It is however not unlike Bill Gates being benevolent or a slave owner espousing equality.  Donations come easy when the donor has the ability to give. It is not so easy to give what you jealously safeguard. Women work harder and longer hours than men for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to substantiate their equality. Equality is not a reward in the sense that it is to be proven. It is not that women are equal to men-that would suggest that at one time they were not and place them at a disadvantage by the mere words. It is that they are a category of humanity, as men are. It is that men have been the owners of production since the agricultural revolution settled us into pastoral behavioral patterns in Neolithic times… Women and children went into the field to tend goats and sheep and the onus is upon them to prove they are as good at sheepherding as men.

Why do women work in lower paying temporary jobs? According to Muriel women have lower paying jobs because like her, they never went to school. If they had done so when they had the chance none of this would have happened. Cheryl says it is because men have the power to regulate who will have full time work. Men control the means of production so they can select who will produce.

Why is a women paid less for the same full time work as a man? When women come to the work force they are confronted by male managers. There is sparse literature whereby men complain that they are not earning as much as women. This is because for the most part, men own the means of production and as such they know that if women do not accept the wage they are offered, it will be offered to a woman who will accept.

Why do women feel it necessary to act like men to further their careers? Muriel believes that for women to be equal they must display the ability to be equal. Logic tells us this is fallacious reasoning. Cheryl feels that equality is not something to be shown or proven-it is innate. What women or men choose to do with their equality is what is at issue.

Should women delay childbirth to succeed in the workforce? If women delay having children, they shorten their reproductive years with respect to having children. Whether good or bad is not the issue. It is a case of the doctrine of double effect which comes into play when we do something for one reason and another thing also occurs as an unintended consequence.

Why do women and girls and single mothers suffer more (than men) from poverty? Cheryl says that this is because men are in control of women’s social determinants. She goes on to say that nearly half of all babies born are males who suffer because their mothers’ are impoverished, which makes this a socioeconomic and gender issue. Muriel believes it is because women need to raise themselves up to the standard of men.

Why do women have negative or derogatory titles such as slut yet there is no male similar negative? Muriel says that men do not act like this-women do. Cheryl says that for millennia men have had the power to put women down and make them seek upward mobility and it is only two hundred years since the enlightenment. The worst thing that happened in the last century was two world wars yet for women, one gave them universal suffrage while the other gave them a venue into the workforce, the doctrine of double effect yet again.

Why are women the primary caregiver even when they work more than one job? Men do not think that care-giving is their job. They have been socialized for millennia (as have women) to believe that home work is the purview of females. Today, men and women work yet females make dinner, feed babies, while  men ask-“what’s for dinner?” which is the notion of the second shift. This sounds like the Old Testament. Women tend the animals that men tamed, cook the food that they gathered and the men ensure that their lives are free from danger.

Why do women do 2/3 of the worlds work, earn 1/10^th of the worlds income, and own lest than 1% of the worlds production? This is not a question-it’s a statement, according to the anthropologist, Richard Robbins. What it is at its core is that women live in places like Beirut and Beijing where they work for wages and under conditions that in this country would find the employer vilified. Even so, the notion of not owning property is foreign to most people yet women in the world that lies south of our border do not have a right to property yet they contribute to its existence. If the property is owned it is owned by the male gender. Pakistan as a nation hates women. It executes more women in a year than the United States executes men in ten years. Women are chattel and that rhymes with cattle. Though it can be argued that this is an issue of religion, it is not religion that binds the hand of the female.

Do you think there should be men trafficking to offset female trafficking? Such an interesting notion but according to Cheryl, there is trafficking in males. It happens at a very young age when they are pre-pubescent. Human trafficking is horrible whether male or female. Men are circumcised depending on the religion. It is argued that this is cruel and immoral. Fair enough. Women on the other hand are not circumcised. In some countries they undergo much worse. The essence of their femininity is surgically removed so males are assured of her fidelity.

Why are there female prostitutes and targeted, but not men? Why do men not have to prostitute themselves?  Cheryl said that one day she went for a walk in the seedier part of town with her brother to see the world. She was not surprised to see prostitutes, nor was she insulted when they approached asking if she ‘wanted a good time’. She never wondered why till later. Why is it that a woman sells her only natural possession? It is not that men do or do or do not- it is that women are prostitutes, the gender associated with the title. Men sell themselves but female prostitutes must sell themselves, for a number of reasons. More prostitutes suffer work related injuries and death than police officers. Yet we target one which is like victimizing the victim.

Why do assertive women carry the negative moniker of bitch while their male counterparts are considered self confident? Most captains of industry prefer to hire assertive females to fill some higher paying positions because they will work harder than men, produce more than men, and not feel any compunction for firing men. They will however earn less.

Is women’s work important? Women do one very important thing with their lives-they produce offspring that will one day make the argument that prevents their socially equal status which is somewhat ironic. It is not unlike selling the noose to the hangman so you can afford to buy food to stay alive.