Legal protections for women’s employment rights
Refer to at least three of the learning resources for the week in your response to one or more of the questions below. Include specific examples from your life, history, the news, or the media.
· Why do legal protections for women’s employment rights continue to be an issue? Why isn’t women’s legal access to employment a sufficient victory?
· How do laws protecting women in the workplace benefit society as a whole?
· What factors keep men and women segregated into “masculine” and “feminine” jobs? Why do you think these divisions persist? What does it take to turn a job into a gender-neutral one? Can you think of any examples of where this has happened?
· Is Affirmative Action policy still needed? If so, how would you administer it fairly? If not, which of the reasons for its creation do you think are no longer valid?
· Why does unpaid domestic labor fall so unequally to women? Why is this a problem? Can you suggest some solutions?
· Why are so many women involved in part-time work? How could part-time or home-based work be made more equitable for women? What conditions need to exist before women are able to make a genuine choice between part-time vs. full-time labor?
· Why does it matter if women are in executive positions in business or not?
· How does the #MeToo movement fit into discussions about women’s equality in the workforce? Here are a few articles that will help you get caught up on this recent movement. If you respond to this question, refer to at least one of our assigned learning resources for the week in addition to any references to the articles below:
#MeToo is at a crossroads in America. Around the world, it’s just beginning. [Washington Post, 2020]
Harvey Weinstein’s Conviction Shows How Cultural Change Is Reshaping the Criminal Justice System [The New York Times, 2020]
Where #MeToo Came From, and Where It’s Going: The movement is moving the culture beneath the law of sexual abuse [The Atlantic, 2019]
“The ‘Click’ Moment: How the Weinstein Scandal Unleashed a Tsunami” [The New York Times, 2018]
Original Post: Provide your initial post which response to the Discussion prompt by 11:59 pm on Friday. Initial question responses posted after Friday but before the end of the class week on Tuesday earn a maximum of 70/80 possible points for the original post. Your initial post should be at least 250-300 words in length, excluding the discussion prompt and the references.
Posts should engage meaningfully with at least three assigned learning resources.
Kang, M., Lessard, D., Heston, L., & Nordmarken, S. (2017). Unit 4: gender and work in the global economy. Introduction to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies. http://openbooks.library.umass.edu/introwgss/part/chapter-iv-gender-and-work-in-the-global-economy/
Who Cares: Unpaid care work, poverty and women’s / girl’s human rights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVW858gQHoE
Pat Mainardi The Politics of Housework
Sample Solution
Legal protections for women`s employment rights
Is affirmative action policy still needed? As a conceptual framework, affirmative action remains relevant for a national racial justice agenda. Its surviving policies are critical for dismantling institutional practices that limit opportunities for highly qualified African Americans and other marginalized racial minorities. The policy was introduced in one of John F. Kennedy`s presidential executive orders in 1961 and stated that applicants and employees must be treated fairly regardless of their race, color, or national origin. Meritocracy is an important system that aims to push more capable individuals to places of higher education so that they may have the resources and knowledge required to make important changes in the world. By encouraging universities to admit more students of a particular race, nationality, or gender, affirmative action may be discouraging meritocracy in educational institutions.
