Woman History: Equal Rights and Economic Roles by Nancy F. Cotts - Essay Example

Chapter Summaries By Daichi Ito Student No: _____________ History 111 Date: __________ Chapter Outline of Nancy F. Cott’s, “Equal Rights and Economic Roles” Keber and DeHart, 379-89 The author’s main argument was that, it was better for women to break free from the concessions accorded by the laws of sex-based protectionism, thereby ensuring themselves the widest choice of opportunities on the labor market. However, this vision in the 1920s did not come without a conflict of ideas, as it required redefining the very basic meaning of feminism – whether is meant a unique position for themselves as different from men, or it meant removal of subjugation of all sorts, and claiming equal rights in all aspects and reorient their thinking focusing on women’s definition of rights rather than male definition of rights. The author has supported the concept of removing all forms of discrimination, which will enable women to claim equal rights as men in all walks of life. The supporters of sex-based protective legislation failed to see the need to challenge the division of labor on gendered grounds, which was the root cause of discrimination. The protective laws also seemed to discourage women from taking up employment, and therefore nourished apprehensions against employing them. The author has quoted very little statistical evidence to validate the claims of either side. A few more statistical figures for both sides would have helped the readers arrive at their own decisions, as to which side had been preferred by the women of the period. The Key Terms are: 1) ERA or Equal Rights Amendment proposal by NWP 2) National Women’s Party and 3) LWA or the League of Women Voters. Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed by the National Women’s Party, headed by Alice Paul. Shortly after the 19th Amendment in 1920, the NWP started rethinking their stand on the issue of the sex-based state regulation. Though they had avidly fought for it earlier, some factions within the NWP felt that it was hampering women workers opportunities in the labor market. Other women leaders led by the League of Women’s Voters which was actually a daughter movement of the National American Woman Suffrage Association were calling for an elimination of the sex-discrimination in the law. However, the tables turned and under the guidance of Gail Laughlin it no longer supported sex-based legislation. With the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments in 1923, the NWP advocated “equal rights” that did away with any discrimination between male and females so as to ensure a wider scope of job opportunities for women. However, it met with bitter opposition from various sections of women trade unionists like Pauline Newman and Dr. Alice Hamilton, and a former factory worker Mary Anderson. Critical Thinking Questions 1) What were the principle points on which the ERA of NWP was opposed by sex-based legislation supporters? What gave credence to their arguments? 2) How did the perception of the view that NWP’s views reflected only those of the privileged women of the dominant community contribute to the defeat of the equal rights proposal? Chapter Outline of Valerie Matsumoto’s, “Japanese American Women during World War II” Keber and DeHart, 459-65 The main argument of the author in this essay was that the federal government’s dislocation and internment of the Japanese American citizens in 1942, in about 10 concentration camps in far away locations, damaged their self-respect and self-esteem greatly. Though, some of the first generation and second generation Japanese American citizens could never accept the hurt even after resettlement measures were executed, most of the community with their traditional resilience and forbearance took their lot in their stride. The younger generation, girls especially, overcame the barriers with courage, and strong, supportive, community networking. The many empirical evidences quoted by the author highlighting their hard labor, the forbearance with which they suffered the indignity of poor wages, barbed wires, insults etc. Their bid to make partitions with blankets, make their surroundings colorful, and make rudimentary furniture with the leftover pieces of wood, circulate a woman’s magazine with their own authors, despite all their travails, stand evidence to their pragmatism. The author hardly analyzes how the traditional life styles and values of the Japanese Americans took a serious hit, with specific examples. It focuses little on their hardship, and more on the positive resilience, which to some extent gives the impression that it was very easy for the Japanese American community to come out of the mental trauma they had suffered. Key Terms are 1) Issei, Nisei and Sansei 2) Internment 3) Resettlement The terms Issei indicate the first generation of Japanese who immigrated into the US in search of better living, and job opportunities. The Nisei indicate the second generation of the immigrants who either immigrated with their parents when they were very young, or were born in the US to first generation Japanese parents. The Sansei are the third generation children born of both Japanese-American citizens in the US, and are legitimate citizens of the US by birth. Internment is the dislocation of all Americans of Japanese descent, irrespective of whether they were immigrants or citizens, to ten especially built camps in places like Utah, Arizona, Arkansas. The living conditions were pathetic. Resettlement denotes the measures initiated by the War Relocation Authorities, ten months later in 1942, to relocate people outside the camp. This was assisted by the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, a non-governmental agency that helped in the process from 1942-6. Critical Thinking Questions 1) How did the Japanese Americans cope with the insult meted out to them in the form of internment in the ten concentration camps? Would the conditions in the camps have been the same if the dwellings were for European Americans? 2) What facilitated the Japanese Americans re-integration into the main-stream American society? What role did the traditional Japanese values and culture play in the re-integration? Compare the first generation Japanese immigrants and the American born Japanese generation of today? How are they different and how are they similar? Chapter Outline of Charles Payne’s “A woman’s War: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement” in Keber and DeHart, 532-536. The main argument of the author in this essay was that, the participation of African American in the Civil Rights Movements between the years 1950-60, was so intense and dominant that it bordered on a fulfillment of spiritual calling by African American women of the South, in the Mississippi delta region. The author has provided many evidences of the women’s more than active participation in the civil rights movements. Ella Baker’s founding of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Fannie Lou Hamer - a civil rights activist, and Joyce Ladner – a Black SNCC veteran and also a sociologist are a few amongst many. Their courage and spirit of community cooperation has also been brought out explicitly by the author, through the fact that these women ignored the dangers and threats to themselves and their families, to participate in the activities of the movements. The author has not highlighted enough the positive outcomes of the community and how the grass root women helped their leadership achieve their goals. It stops with analyzing the reasons for the avid participation of Black women in the various civil rights movements, and offering tacit appreciation of their roles. However, more empirical evidences of the individual participation would have offered better assessment to the reader. Key Terms: 1) Council of Federated Organizations or COFO, 2) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or the SNCC The southern black women were said to be more politically active and this was seen by the fact that many black women offered shelter, as well as food and moral support by canvassing enthusiastically for civil right activists like the COFO members. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or the SNCC was a child organization of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – NAACP. It was founded by Ella Baker, to provide a platform for voicing the sufferings of black women who were described by the renowned writer Zora Neale Hurston, as ‘mules of the world’. Critical Thinking Questions 1) What were the factors that led to a strong participation of the grass-root level black women in the civil rights movements in the mid twentieth century? 2) Did the racial/gender prejudices in the south make it any less threatening for the black women of the south to participate in civil rights movements? What sustained them through the threats? Chapter Summary of Ruth Milkman’s “Gender at Work: the Sexual Division of Labor during World War II” in Keber and DeHart, 466-77 The author’s argument in this essay was that, the concept of the gendered division of labor was so strong in the society, that women’s labor, though well appreciated, was only perceived as a stop-gap arrangement, during the war. As per the unspoken understanding of the societal constructs, women’s services were to be utilized when the men were on a more important call to defend the nation, and it was only correct that the men were allowed to resume in their rightful places as breadwinners of the family, and women go back to their traditional places in the domestic arena, when the men returned. There were many pointers to this thought by the author. Quoting instances that tended to simplify ‘men’s jobs’ in the auto and electrical industries, by relating the nature of the jobs to what women were familiar with domestically, they justified the exploitation of women in traditionally held ‘men’s jobs’ until they returned. When the men returned, the managements’ reluctance to employ women became increasingly apparent, worsened by the problems posed by equal rights for women in wages. This is a clear pointer to the traditional division of labor on gender lines. This essay, by and large, presents a near accurate picture of the postwar scenario in the labor market already fragmented on racial, color, class lines, in addition to the gendered roles that defined what jobs were done by whom. Adequate figures to support the arguments have been given, regarding wages and percentage of women employed. However, the Women Trade Unionists and their roles in the field could have found more place in the essay. Key Terms are: 1) War Labor Board or WLB 2) Men’s jobs The War Labor Board was the deciding authority in terms of wages and work, during the period. The women’s unions met with partial success in contesting the cases wherein they sensed sexual discrimination in wages for the “equal pay of equal work” jobs, which considerably narrowed down the wage differentials. ‘Men’s jobs’ included the jobs traditionally handled by men in the industries like setting up the machines, servicing them and so on. The term held the inherent connotation that women were too delicate to handle certain types of jobs, and hence they were not preferred for such positions. Critical Thinking Questions 1) What were the ‘pull and push’ factors that propelled women into “men’s jobs?” How did women fare in their unusual roles of doing ‘men’s jobs’? 2) Why were the managements’ reluctant to employ women any longer in the post-war period? How did the women react to their reversal of roles in the post-war period? Did the reversal have any long term impact? Chapter summary of Jane Sherron De Hart’s “Second Wave Feminists and the Dynamics of Social Change” in Keber and DeHart, 598-623 The author’s main argument was to that the Feminist movement of the late twentieth century, known as the second wave of Feminism, was driven by heterogeneous groups with often conflicting ideologies, under the wide umbrella of Feminism. The second wave of feminism was fragmented by the divisions of race, color, and ideological classifications such as the radical, liberals, socialist added to the confusion. Often this led to piquant situations wherein, one demand put forth by one group of feminists is defeated not by male protagonists, but ironically, by other groups of feminists, themselves. Better progress may have been achieved by more coherent approach, with unified force, on a unified platform. The author explaining the difference between the liberal feminist, and the radical feminists and how and what points they opposed each other, and how the dynamics was sometimes centered around personal suspicions rather than the cause they were fighting for, stand testimony to the multifarious dimensions involved in the movement. The length of the essay has necessarily been extended, because of the various aspects that the second wave of feminism represented, is also indicative of the complexity of the subject. The author’s attempt to deal with the multi-faceted aspects and dimensions of the subject has not only made it extremely lengthy, but it is also slightly complicated and has to be read an read a few times, before the contents and the context of her writings emerged clearly. The Key terms are: 1) Women’s Rights Advocates 2) Women’s Liberationists, 3) National Organization for Women or NOW 4) Consciousness Raising and Anti-ERA women. Women’s Rights Advocates denotes a group of older, experienced and reform-oriented feminists, who used traditional pressure group tactic to achieve changes in laws and public policy that would guarantee women equal rights, while women’s liberationists included younger veterans and New Leftists, who were intent on taking the protest route to achieve their demands. NOW or the National Organization for Women was formed by a break away group of 28 women from NAACP in protest against taking sex-discrimination and race-discrimination on the same platform. It included Betty Friedan the author of “Feminine Mystique.” Women’s Liberationists adapted to the strategy of organizing women rights groups to talk within themselves and analyze their problems which seemed personal, but ultimately will be shown as rooted in the social and political situation. These were called “rap groups” and involved in consciousness-raising of the collective group in forming a supportive, noncompetitive setting for women tot meet and organize them-selves. Anti-ERA or the Anti Equal Rights women were who basically opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, since they believed that women were unique in their status due to their child-bearing capacity and hence they should be treated on sex-based discrimination laws. Critical Thinking Questions 1) What were the factions that came under the banner of women’s liberationists, and how did they differ in their ideologies? 2) The Second Wave of Feminism has benefited the women of America to a large extent. Do you agree or disagree with statement, state your reasons either way? Chapter summary of Alice Kessler-Harris’s “Designing women and Old fools: Writing Gender into Social Security Law” in Keber and DeHart, 435-447 The main argument put forth by the author in this essay was that the society including politicians, economists and other experts, despite their best intentions to reform law and to benefit people through the Social Security Act (1935), they failed to recognize that their deeply ingrained gender and racial discriminations could impact the number of people benefiting from the law. The old age pension was based on the contribution of a person to the state’s funds by way of taxes and not citizenship. It divided the society into two – those who are eligible and those ineligible, leaving a good number, especially women and African-Americans in the latter. The evidence towards this is pointed at many places in the essay, by the author. She critiques the law that the economic security that the act provided, to specific people in specific ways, gave rise to a new categorization of the society, based on their economic citizenship. She also criticizes the exclusion of the disabled, domestic servants and agricultural laborers from the security grant. However, little is mentioned regarding how the sidelined African-Americans, or women themselves felt on this. Key terms are: 1) Advisory Council 2) Social Security Board 3) OASI or the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance. Advisory Council was created in 1937 as a federal body by the Social Security Board, which was the deciding authority along with several congressional committees on the matter; it was headed by J. Douglas Brown and consisted of twenty-four members representing employers, laborers, and public participants. Old-Age and Survivors Insurance created two classes of citizens, one with the right to work, and the other who pay for their benefit. Critical Thinking Questions 1) What was the reason behind the large number of people being uncovered by the social Security Act and what were the attempts and impediments to remedying the situation? 2) What would have been a more acceptable method of defining the criteria of the people covered under the Social Security Act in your opinion? Did the subsequent reformations in the later years match the needs of all sections of the society proportionately? Do you see any parallel in the plight of illegal immigrant laborers in the U.S. today with that of the excluded African-American and women laborers of the early twentieth century? Read More