Sex and Gender Final
In our first week of class, we discussed a few different topics covering Sex and Gender, such as the difference between sex, gender, and sexuality, what is Feminism, women’s suffrage, along with other topics. Coming into this class I knew little about most of these subjects and tried to keep an open mind when trying to learn.
One topic that stood out to me and one that we covered quite frequently was the definition of Feminism. I knew the basics of Feminism coming into this class but didn’t know how deep the subject could be.
For one of the first readings we read Adichie’s ‘We Should all be Feminists’, I was surprised how good it was. I was expecting a more aggressive or angry approach to the topic but instead, she was very informative and backed her arguments with life experiences from her life other women’s stories and even men’s stories. It opened my mind to what feminism really is and how people deal with issues of sexism. I didn’t fully understand the scale of sexism in other countries and reading about her experience opens my mind a little bit more on the subject. For example, women won’t even be acknowledged or even thanked. This even happened to Adichie where she tipped a man for him parking her car, but instead of the man thanking her, he thanked her brother.
Following the first reading, we started to discuss more about what we thought feminism is. I believe Feminism is a movement or belief that everyone should be equal and treated the same, especially women. Most people believe this too and it is very similar to the internet’s definition which is “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.”
Entering the second week of class the first group presented their discussion. The group touched on some of the topics that were presented in the introduction of “Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies”, which was our reading for the week. A few subjects that were brought up were, personal is political, what taking a feminist stance is, stereotypes of feminists, social media effects, and how this class has possibly changed my thoughts on sex and gender.
Reading “We Should all be Feminists” and “Threshold Concepts in Women’s and Gender Studies” has opened my eyes to see a different side I was not aware of. However, I was aware of that personal political. This topic has been in the news lately with Alabama making abortion illegal. I believe that abortion should be a woman’s choice but then again that choice can affect the man if he wants it or not. Abortion shouldn’t be illegal but there should be some regulations so that each partner is better off on what they decided to do.
Taking a feminist stance can be identified as many different things, like standing up to catcallers, protesting, spreading awareness, and more. I personally define a feminist stance as an act that enforces equality and respect towards women or anyone. I personally have never taken a feminist stance to someone, but I was raised to respect and have courtesy towards women. This means doing simple things like holding a door for someone, waiting for them at a table, being a gentleman. Having a little sister helped me to realize how important it is to be respectful towards women.
We also dove into the history of feminism and some important people that fought for equal rights. One important event was the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington D.C. This parade was conducted the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. The parade was conducted by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns who were apart of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Many women came to protest at the parade, even African American women came to join in, the majority were from Howard University. Ida B. Wells-Barett was an African American that protested at the parade and was not satisfied protesting in the back of the parade with other African Americans. So she forced herself closer to the front of the parade towards the white woman to protest. I have learned more about the history of feminism, what it really means to be a feminist, how people identify, and the facts of how women have been oppressed in the past.
In a later reading it took a much different approach than the previous one that we did, this book shared more facts and statistics on the history and change in feminism and gender. While the previous book talked more about experiences. The new book helped me to understand the struggles that women faced when they were fighting as feminists with statistics rather than their exercises. A quote that stood out to me was “According to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, for example, women today currently earn 41 percent of PhDs in STEM fields but make up only 28 percent of tenure-track faculty in those fields” (p.20). This really surprised me because I am interested in going into the STEM field and that only 28% of the field is women is surprising. What is even more surprising is that 41% of PhDs in STEM are women, but close to half don’t go onto work in the field. I haven’t really noticed it but there tend to be more males in my science classes.
In the reading there are many I wasn’t aware that there were misconceptions and stereotypes about feminists, feminism is interested in critiquing and combating sexism and patriarchy, not hating or bashing individual men, and the term feminism was first used in France, these small details and new information surprised me.
Towards the end of the year, we had a reading that focused on feminist praxis. A quote that stood out to me while reading this reading was, “There is increasing recognition that another component of feminist praxis is individual, everyday actions that reject or challenged oppressive practices”. Feminist praxis stresses the importance of locating oneself within structures of privilege and oppression. The concept of praxis is still considered central to the field of feminism. Some ways that feminist praxis can be displayed by encouraging women to talk to men in their lives about feminism, everyday feminist acts can also be undertaken by men, and even tackling our own implicit biases is a micro-level activist strategy.
