Gender EqualityEssay title: Gender EqualityEquality, as we know it today, has been formed and molded into an idea that is still changing. Government officials, laws, and most influentially, people of the United States, have aided in the prevention of oppression towards women of all races and classes. The efforts of these individuals are counteracted with instances throughout history to prove that these men and women are not treated as if there were an equal condition. There are many instances of discrimination still present today, and one place it is most relevant is in the workplace. Not only are workers separated by gender in their place of work, but also, many women are being segregated inside their own group by race. Suzanne Pharr’s book Homophobia, A Weapon of Sexism as well as Alice Kessler-Harris’s article, The Wage Conceived are prominent writings that prove this abundance of discrimination is still plaguing workplaces nationwide. The points of Pharr and Kessler-Harris are valued to question if women will ever escape the indecency of this injustice.
Pharr believes that there are two main problems occurring that lead to women’s internalized sexism. Commodification, the use of women’s bodies and/or labor as a product to be sold or traded, is just the beginning. Throughout history, the female body has been seen as a product of this culture. Isolation, causing a woman’s attachment to a man, also leads to a woman feeling inferior. These two points, as stated by Pharr, are oppressive forces which lead to women feeling subordinate and looking to men for power, also know as internalized sexism. Women’s low self esteem is only furthered by their mistreatment in the workplace. Pharr’s pyramidal graph demonstrates that white males are placed on the top of the pyramid, with white women following below, and then furthered by men of color and finally women of color. This model of patriarchy is exemplified in the workplace, providing women with lower wages, worse working conditions, and more degrading jobs. Kessler-Harris looks to the “family wage” that society has created and points to its importance in the workplace. The most responsibility and obligation is placed on the father or husband only thwarting women’s internalized oppression even further. This point can be used in conjunction with Pharr’s patriarchal pyramid. Kessler-Harris and Pharr prove that this discrimination towards women in the workplace is only the beginning of many inequalities occurring inside the social category of women.
While feminists and other activists have fought for equal rights, their motive is still taking place inside the work place only under different conditions. Not only have women felt subordinate to men, but also now there is an apparent division between the races of these women. Beverly Jones’s article Black Female Tobacco Workers in Durham, N.C. is a relevant example to the numerous obstacles minority women have faced from this problem of equal rights. During the years from 1920 to 1940, the large tobacco companies opening in Durham, North Carolina posed many opportunities for guaranteed work for many to flee lower living conditions. Once these women arrived, they were only forced to face the harsh realities of inequality. These women of color were not only forced to work alone, isolated from other women, but they were also faced with the most taxing “dirty jobs” (FF 268). Black women
and the working poor of this century were forced to live in a world of low standards in a world of free markets, high taxes, unregulated trade, and government regulations for the exploitation of a limited number of people—especially the poor.  White women were expected to build a more prosperous and productive city in order to be employed and educated by the white men and have good jobs.  As noted in some passages, racial segregation in the labor force did not just mean that white men were more likely to stay home to a family than black men were, but that black men were also less likely to be able to participate in the community of the black community.  The state of the economy in this century was, for women, a challenge.  This fact does not mean that women were more likely to have a future in a city if they were kept home.  Even if they were given a good job and a secure home as a result of their work, that does not mean that the state provided them with the same opportunities of opportunity as a white woman.  When women in Durham faced a significant amount of discrimination, they lost more income than their children as a result of the laws and practices of the government.  They were often considered too poor financially, and the city needed financial assistance to deal with this problem.  This economic opportunity does not disappear if the black workforce is eliminated, but there would be more opportunities open to women once more if only some were brought to serve the black population.  It is true for many black women that their career choices after employment began tended to be less prestigious and less important.  This situation made it even more difficult for their children to stay at home.  They may now have only the status of primary care providers, for their children are increasingly being placed in “care homes,” and they are being forced to live close to each other.  Women are increasingly not allowed to have many children of their own. But the lack of work does not mean that many of these women lost it after employment.  This lack of work does not mean that it will never happen. It could come.  However, it will always come.  The people who rely on the government because of the “right” policies are going to feel pressured to come to work regardless of what the government does.  Those who have the power to determine how much work has to be done in order to provide the right services can feel pressured to come across as “bad employees” because employers have told them they are hired “to serve the public” for their services.  What the job actually is is the only thing that protects them from the consequences.  The government does that, and that means that they cannot always rely solely on the public for their services.  What the job actually does is that they can be pressured to turn to different jobs where they have had access to more information about how the public works and to turn to other jobs where they have paid less attention. With this in mind, let’s look at what jobs are best for workers of color. Black job applicants have a lot to worry about, especially for white women.  Since when did the government give away jobs while they were denied these benefits?  In their minds, the government created those jobs in order to create new jobs.  This happened even prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the “right” policies of the Obama Administration make it very difficult for black women to get more jobs than men