Role and labor of a woman in American Society
Sex is the difference between females and males resulting from physical, natural and genetic distinctions. Gender is constructed basically on social and cultural conventions (Goldin 1983). A woman in today’s American Society is fairly equivalent to a man. In the early America society, women were always subjected to running household chores like, cooking and cleaning. They were challenged with opposing messages about their role in society. In the early days, stringent gender role discrimination gave men more power in public and civil world while women were placed with responsibility of maintaining the home. A notable transition from traditional roles performed by women to equal roles as men has been achieved (Gerson, 2009).
Many countries have not yet embraced the idea that women can also work very well and do as much good work as their male counterparts. Women in the Muslim world and other male dominated societies have faced the brunt that comes with the traditions held dear by these societies. This means that women can never be entrusted with high ended jobs like women in the USA do. This therefore means that these women have never seen the value of holding good positions in the military and even in mainstream civil service.
The reign President Bill Clinton saw women being placed in great official positions in his government, encouraged much involvement of women in commercial business and pursued equal chance for women in the labor force. The formation of Interagency Council on Women announced by President Clinton was a major milestone in ensuring women roles and labor were safeguarded in the society. The Council also took initiatives to ensure women progress in public education.
Currently, a good number of women are committed in every aspect of global affairs, ranging from policy making to military. First Lady Hillary Clinton who now serves as the Secretary of state served as Council Chair. Great women leaders have shown much ability in governmental administration by serving in high end offices (Gerson, 2009). Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice served as Secretary of the state and demonstrated strong leadership qualities and have been actively campaigning for the progression of women roles and labor.
Today in the American society much effort has been put to improve the position of women placing the United States a leader in advancing women rights (Gerson, 2009). Other countries of the world have tried to cope up with this development more especially just to mention that there are quite a number of countries that have women as leaders of government. But the USA has gone to greater limits just to see that its women hold equal opportunities as their counterparts. The labor force participation of women has taken a rapid astonishing change encouraging more women employment since industrial revolution.
The increase in females in labor participation has provided a significant revolution in economic chances of women relevant to their occupation and remunerations they receive. Women currently hold political power. By the year 2009, at the state level, women instituted almost a quarter of all representatives and just below 17% of individuals in Congress (Gerson, 2009). This is certainly a great progress in promoting women representation and in comparison with women in other countries of the world, the American woman is better placed in as far as available opportunities to them are concerned.
The domestic division of labor has currently changed in today’s American society. The involvement of women in housework labor has decreased since the 1960s. This is attributed by the fact that housework is now shared between male and females reflecting a real movement in a new direction (Gerson, 2009). USAID (United States Agency for International Development), is a remarkable administration advocating for improvement of women roles in Politics, training and education. All the above efforts in America are intended to provide women easy access to governance in the society. The American Society has proven to be the vanguard of ushering in these developments.
References
Gerson, K. (2009). The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender In America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Goldin, C. (1983). The Changing Economic Role of Women: A Quantitative Approach. The
Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 13, No. 4, The Measure of American History
(Spring,), pp. 707-733.
