by Marisa Pesa
The truth is boobs are not a blessing. The potent label “feminist” intimidates or aggravates. Throwing the word “feminism” into casual conversation amongst either sex equates to saying the word “bomb” while on an airplane. “Objectification” of women in the media is seen as not only a serious problem, but also a successful marketing ploy that the American public accepts with glazed-over eyes and doughnut-glazed lips.
Words are powerful tools, but only if both parties can agree on working definitions; therefore, it can be said that the feminist movement has developed a negative reputation because the aforementioned words’ definitions are skewed. We as a society tend to mistake feminism as a crazy desire for maternal dominance rather than its true goal: equality for all.
As much as no one wants to admit it, gender inequality, just as racial inequality, is still prevalent today, but who is at fault?
Well, for one, sexism is a product of history. The second wave feminist movement points out that biases against and disadvantages for women are embedded in our culture and, therefore, go unnoticed. According to the second chapter of Genesis, woman was born from the rib of man, so of course she has been viewed as the subordinate, second sex, or in Aristotle’s words, “a deformed male,” since the dawn of civilization.
It is in workplace that sexism has left one of its larger marks. Strong, opinionated men are seen favorably, yet the same qualities in a woman define her as being “bitchy” or “bossy.”
In regards to gender inequality on a college campus, specifically relating to how faculty is treated, Capital English Professor Lissette Gibson feels that the lesser amount of female professors and administrators reflects society’s perception of females. The eternal truths fed to us (by the mustached, of course) decree that men are superior in positions of power and academia.
Reality reflects this way of thinking. As of 2012, Capital University employed 49 male professors versus 26 female professors and 12 male instructors versus 21 female instructors. It can then be said that the overall salary disparity between men and women is a product of rank, for women are more likely to hold lower faculty rank positions.
In addition to holding the higher positions, men can also maintain a comfortable, casual authority with less effort than women. Many women feel they need to downplay their personalities in order to be accepted by their peers. Not only are women judged by their mannerisms in the corporate world, but by physical appearances also.
Capital Political Science Professor Suzanne Marilley agrees that there are “unstated expectations” for female professors. She almost never wears a t-shirt by itself to class due to the built-in gender stereotypes embedded in the workplace.
As of 2012, 60% of male professors at Capital were tenured while on and 40% of female professors had achieved the same position. Gibson, who lives in a two-academic household, left a tenure-track job because she was offered a full-time position at Capital.
She shared that owning two houses in two states was strenuous on the family and comfortably admitted to making many “mom decisions” over the course of her career.
She expressed that as a female, whether you put your family or profession first, you end up losing one way or the other. However, because it was her choice to not become tenured, she is content with the way things have played out.
However, academic women who desire a family should not be forced to have her professional gains come at the cost of family struggle, or vice-versa. While the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 mandated that all employers allow for 12 weeks of unpaid leave for mothers of newborn or newly adopted children, most colleges and universities, including Capital, do not offer paid faculty maternity leave.
The absence of paid maternity leave discourages women because as one would assume, balancing academic research and caring for a child can be extremely difficult and stressful. Gibson supported the idea that having babies in grad school can be beneficial, but this also proves to be strenuous on a dedicated academic. Women have also tried waiting until a tenured position has been procured, but the biological time clock slows for no one.
Why must females methodically plan out their pregnancies? Why is it that men are not expected to pick up 50% of the child care? They may not have been so lucky to have experienced a human being come out their nonexistent birth canals but they aided in (and probably didn’t mind) conceiving it. We can no longer hold onto the wholesome, halcyon ideal of having stay-at-home moms raise our youth. Mothers and fathers should hold equal roles in raising their shared creation.
And for those moms and dads or sons and daughters, just what would you do if in the morning you wake up to find you’ve changed sex physically yet kept your mind, soul or whatever word you wish to assign to your “being?” Most of us admit that our first reaction would be petty−we’d take the time to get to know our bodies. Even Gibson said, “I’d take a really long shower and stare at myself.” (Marilley, on the other hand, would release a drawn-out groan.) However, hopefully after some thought, I imagine that most would use the medical anomaly to their advantage and engage in some sort of social exercise to intimate gender expression.
Do we really need a change in genitalia to enable us to shake social norms? Women are not the only ones treated unfairly due to the social phenomenon of sexism, nor are men solely to blame for not questioning societal gender roles. Men and women alike of all walks of life (that includes us college kids) should question the status-quo.
We can bring about change when we realize that everything has to start from something. Many of us have chosen to live our lives on the default setting, but the remote is near if you simply choose to peal your eyes away from–insert sexist pop culture reference here.
mpesa@capital.edu
