Unit2TheChangingWomen.doc

Unit 2 The Changing Women
Part 1
A.
l. Organized activity on behalf of women's rights began 1800s, when both by law and by custom, women were "nonpersons."
2. In the early 1900s, important changes occurred in the political climate in America as a result of World War I.
3. In 1920 after World War I, American women gained the right to vote.
4. During World War II, large numbers of women entered the job market to do the jobs of the men who had been drafted into military service.
5. Today, women make up 1.5%of the 200,000 professional firefighters in the US, and they make up 4% of the airline pilots and navigators.
6. The Small Business Administration predicts that women will own nearly 40% (others say half) of all small businesses in the US by the year 2000.
7. From 1980 to 1988, the number of business men and women-entrepreneurs-increased 56% overall, but during that period, the number of female entrepreneurs grew 82%.
8. In 1969 in the US, only 4% of the state lawmakers were women. By 1993, this number had grown by 500%, and 20.4% of state legislators were women.
9 Today, only 10% of American families have the traditional working father and the mother who stays home to take care of the children.
10. The rate of women’s participation in the workforce rose from 27% in 1940 to 44% in 1985.
B Tape scripts
L-Lynne I-Irene B- Barbara
L: I have many, many friends who have opted for a child-free life. I have a great deal of respect for their choice. But therein lies the key; It was their choice. Infertility was not my choice. Is a woman less of a woman without children? Absolutely not in my opinion, but I had to have children. I don't know why. People have asked us, you know, "well what was that just made you so obsessed and compelled and driven?" I don't know. I don't . . . I don't know that I'll ever know. All I know is I had to have children.
I: Well, my daughter, interestingly enough, is the same way. She’s very eager as soon as she finishes law school to get married and have children. And we talked about this and she said, "Mom, you don’t understand. I've been thinking about having children since I was eight or nine years old. "
B: Yes, that's how I was.
I: Whereas I didn't, but she's been thinking about it for so long in her life, and I was really surprised when we had this conversation to learn that, that she's been observing me as a mother, observing other mothers, trying to decide what kind of a mother she was going to be when motherhood came her way.
L: Well, that's ... that's exactly how I have always felt. But I have to say that I certainly respect people who don't choose motherhood.
C
1. The difference between men and women when they surf the Internet according to the study conducted by Media Matricks and Jupiter Communications:
Women: as a tool
Men: tend to spend more time playing around
2. The different reasons why women use the web:
check email / chat / look for information / resources / studying search
Tape scripts
For the first time ever the number of women on the web has surpassed the number of men, pushing the huge growth of females between the ages of 12 and 17. Music websites like are attracting teen girls and so are sites focused on fashion and shopping. An unscientific survey of teens, mostly girls attending Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, California, shows teens are using the World Wide Web for many reasons.
F: My name is Fi and I'm 16. I check my email on the net and I chat sometimes. That's all I did.
P: My name is Sonia Fay Phillips. I'm 1z years old. Mostly I use the Internet for, uh, look(ing) up for my college information or check my email or chat. I use . . . mostly use it for resources and studying because I don't have time for play and stuff.
M: My name is Lucien Morrison. I'm 17. And I use the Internet to chat on, [o get codes for Play Station games, to check my email and to play games on.
M: I'm Meesha. I'm 14 years old. I usually just search on the web, just anything I'm looking for or just search because I'm bored or anything like that Summer school students attending Oakland Technical High School in Oakland, California.
The Internet study released today conducted by Media Matrix and Jupiter Communications shows that men and women use the web differently. Women use it as a tool. Men tend to spend more time online playing around.
Among the other most popular sites reported for women on the web, for ages 35 to 44: and ; for ages 55 and up they've been posting the second biggest jump in usage: aarp.org and
Part II working mothers
A Tape scripts
I-Ivy K-Kate
(Ivy Miller interviews Kate Bellow about a program that retrains women for computer jobs. And why 2)
I: We've kind of gone over the range, but could you tell us who generally takes this program? You have 30 students, you get to know them, I guess , fairly well.
K: I do.
I: Who . . . who are these people?
K: Basically they fall into, I would say, five categories. We still have the reentry woman; the woman who's been at home raising her kids, and has decided she needs to or wants to go back to work. I was in that category when I went through the program; I'm a graduate of the program. Then we have people who have jobs. They're dead-end jobs, they're not using their intelligence, and they really want a career with a lot more earning potential. We get people who have careers, their first careers, the things that they (were) trained for - they're teachers, nurses, med techs, and they're totally burned out, and they're looking for some kind of transition into another industry. We also get those who are seeing their industry dry up and shrink. I get a lot of people out of "the oil patch"- petroleum engineers and geophysicists who say, "Hey, I don't want to move to Houston; I'd like to stay in Denver.” And so they’re they have decided that they want to transition into the computer industry. And then we also get some people who're really happy in their jobs, they're doing exactly what they want except because the computer is taking over, they need to gain more computer expertise in order to advance, and so they're planning on staying in their jobs.
B
1. According to Beth, which do more and more women choose, to work or to have a child? both / not be superwoman
2. According to some research, how important is a mother's role?
more important in some regards than we had thought / bonding process / lasts longer
3. What happens to children if they are separated too early from their parents? often go into shock
4. Why do people need concrete support of community? parents not close by / brothers and sisters in another state or country
5. Does Beth think it's necessary for a mother to stay home full time to be together with her children? important but not necessary / if not inclined
6. What is the wonderful trait that some working mothers have?
a. the ability to be attentive to multiple demands
b. the ability to think about more than one thing at a time
Tape scripts B – Beth I - Irene
B: It's a big challenge for mothers today, because oftentimes mothers feel like it's an either/ or proposition that they have to work or have a child. And the reality is more women are choosing to do both, and also not be superwomen, so it's a tricky it's a tricky line to balance. But I do have a quote that says, " To choose to have a child is to choose forever to have your heart walk outside of your body, "which means , just as we've been talking about, that you are constantly attached to your child, no matter how old they get, but you will learn to walk those lines. And you will learn to create balance and harmony in you life, and you'll realize that not everything you do is going to send your child to a therapist. And that's wonderful.
I: Yes, yes. I've just always felt that if you loved them hard enough, and that you had . . . your heart kind of in the right place, which obviously is outside your own body, that there was very little that . . That you could do wrong. I mean you . . .
B; I think that's true. I think if you build a solid foundation with your child, especially in the early years, and . . .
I: How early are we talking "early years?" I mean, by what point is the child's personality formed already?
B: Well, you know there's a lot of information on that that definitely is conflicting. But there are new studies coming out that are just fascinating about how important, extremely important it is for a child to be with his, her mother until they're close to four years old. Now, that doesn't mean consistently. I'm not advocating that a mother stay home full time if she's not so inclined. But there's definite research that's coming out saying that, you know, a mother's role is more important in some regards than we had thought, and that the bonding process lasts quite a bit longer. In fact, children go into shock oftentimes if they are separated too early. And that's why I think a tot of us are fighting for parental leave and family leave, that allows both mother and father to have time with their children hopefully within the first two years, not just the first few months.
People need concrete support, and especially nowadays, I did write another meditation about needing the support of community because nowadays we oftentimes don’t have our parents close by, or brothers and sisters live in another state or in another country. And so especially when you come home for the first few months or the first few years, you may feel extremely isolated if you can't hook up with a co-op, a babysitting co-op, or a mother's group ... And this is just a wonderful way to remind mothers that we have what Mary Catherine Bateson calls peripheral vision: the ability to be attentive to multiple demands and to think about more than one thing at a time. And I think that's a very valuable trait that mothers do have. And sometimes we think of ourselves as being scattered and airheads because of it, and that's been oftentimes how we've been portrayed, but this is a wonderful, wonderful trait that mothers develop especially in the first few years.
I: Well, we have eyes in the backs of our heads, right?
B: Exactly.
I: But we are able to keep lots of balloons in the air, which means that what we do is, you get up in the morning and you say, " I need to do this, this, this, this, and I need to go to work, and what's for dinner besides. "
B: Exactly.
I: You get it all in order before you leave the house in the morning.
B: Right and you can take your needs into account as well as the needs of many other individuals, which is extremely important in this day and age. I mean we no longer can afford ecologically to have a one- track mind. We can no longer afford it in the family, in the work place, and I think that's something that women very much have to offer.
I: I think that the "me" generation is over.
Part III Mothers and daughters
A Tape scripts
The second Sunday of May is officially designated Mother's Day here in the United States. While Mother's Day is a happy occasion in most families, it is NOT happy in those where there is serious conflict between the mother and her children. Some scholars believe relationships between mothers and daughters can be especially strained. Lynn Davidman, professor of women's studies at Brown University in Rhode Island, was 15 when her mother died of cancer. She has spent many years studying the immediate and longer-term impact of a mother's premature death on those she leaves behind. The result of her research is a book titled Motherloss. Lynn Davidman says over the years most of her samples, including herself, have constructed an idealized and culturally stereotyped view of their mothers. "Most of the people I interviewed told me that their mothers were the most perfect, the most wonderful, the most loving, nurturing people that could have ever lived. " Lynn Davidman says this is because people who lost their mothers during the early teens were old enough to remember her love and nurturing, but too young to experience some of the conflicts that come as children start growing up. Clinical psychologist Roni Cohen-Sandler who specializes in women and adolescent girls says mother-daughter conflicts start with the onset of the daughter's puberty. She says at that age daughters often become critical of their mothers. "You know, they are trying to figure out who they are and they are looking at their mothers who are supposed to be this role model and they are seeing what their mothers are doing and not doing and they are getting very critical. And oftentimes they think everything they are saying is so wrong, you know. So mothers end up feeling very rejected and very upset and take everything very personally and so that's where the challenge starts. " Roni Cohen-Sandler says when daughters go through adolescence; mothers usually remember their own and want their daughters to benefit from the mother's experience. Daughters typically reject that. Their common complaint is: "Mother is just not listening to me." Sociologist and author Victoria Secunda says she has never been able to have a cordial relationship with her mother. Ms Secunda, who wrote a book titled When You and Your Mother Can't Be Friends, says her research shows that conflicts between mothers and daughters are much more wide-spread than it is believed. Victoria Secunda says her research and her own experience show that many mother-daughter conflicts start much before the daughter's puberty. They include the mother's early criticisms of the daughter's looks, clothes, behavior, or friends. She says many mothers expect their daughters to follow in their footsteps and a generation or two ago it meant getting married, having children and staying at home. "For many of the women I interviewed, it was - this is mothers as well as daughters - it was a stake in the maternal heart if the daughter didn't follow the mother's domestic example, i. e. marriage, children, you know, food, meal planning. So that they felt in a sense betrayed - the mothers often did - because they felt as if their daughters, by living a very different kind of life, were somehow betraying the mother. " According to Victoria Secunda, another factor in the mother-daughter relationship is the role of the father. She says despite new trends, childcare and upbringing are still traditionally a mother's role in the United States as well as in many other countries. Roni Cohen-Sandler agrees that the father's role is very important. Among other things, fathers can diffuse some of the mother-daughter tension and serve as mediators. Both authors agree that as daughters mature, mothers have to learn to let go. Roni Cohen-Sandler says both mothers and daughters can benefit from viewing conflict as a good impetus for healthy change