Breaking Boundaries of Women in the Workplace

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March 24th... Dorothy Height

On This Day in Herstory, March 24th 1912, Dorothy Height, an American civil rights and women’s rights activist, who was a widely respected and influential leader of organizations that primarily focused on improving the circumstances of and opportunities for Black women, was born in Richmond, Virginia.

When she was five, Dorothy Irene Height and her family moved to Rankin, Pennsylvania, a steel town outside of Pittsburgh. Her schools in Rankin were racially integrated, and in 1929 she graduated from Rankin High School. While in school she became socially and politically active, by participating in anti-lynching campaigns. At this time, she also became recognized for her skills as a great orator; she even went on to win the national oratory competition, earning a college scholarship. In 1929 she was admitted to Barnard College, but upon her arrival she was denied enrollment at the school because of their unwritten policy to only admit two Black students a year. So, she instead enrolled at New York University, and graduated with her undergraduate degree in 1932; the following year she earned her master’s degree in educational psychology. She then went on to enroll at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work for further postgraduate work. Following her time in school, Dorothy took jobs all around New York City, to help serve the poor communities the best she could. Her skills were very in demand, as she began her work at the height of the Great Depression. She found work as a caseworker with the New York City Welfare Department, before she began her career as a civil rights activist, joining the National Council of Negro Women; she was 25 years old. Throughout her career she fought for equal rights for Black people and women, specifically focusing on Black women. In 1944 she joined the YWCA’s national staff, and around the same time she joined the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She served as national president of the sorority from 1947 to 1956; but was active throughout her life, developing leadership training programs and ecumenical education programs.

Following her term as Delta Sigma Theta president, in 1957 Dorothy was named president of the National Council of Negro Women; she served as president for 40 years. One of her most successful projects for the council was “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” a program she created in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement; the project brought together Black and white women from the North and South to open channels of communication and understanding. She also helped to found the Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, and helped form African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom. Additionally, she served on a number of committees, including he President’s Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped, and the President’s Committee on the Status of Women. Furthermore, she was the chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the largest civil rights for women’s rights organization in the USA. Because of her hard work, and the strides she made as a part of the Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Movements, many leaders took her counsel, including Eleanor Roosevelt, she also encouraged President Dwight D. Eisenhower to desegregate schools and President Lyndon B. Johnson to appoint Black women to positions in government. She was also an honored guest at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and was invited to sit on the stage. Dorothy Height died on April 20th 2010, she was 98 years old. Her funeral was attended by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and many other notable people. Many people consider her to be part of the true “Big Six” of the Civil Rights Movements, unfortunately many of her contributions are glossed over today because of sexism.

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The feminist elements of Mean Girls on Broadway

The character in the Broadway musical, Janis Sarkisian, is unapologetic about who she is. She expresses her feelings without care and encourages other girls to do so as well through her song, “I’d Rather Be Me.” Often, women feel the need to suppress their feelings to avoid being labeled as “too emotional” or “crazy” and Sarkisian’s song encourages women to express their anger, rather than stay quiet to avoid a fight or being labeled as something negative. The scene also includes a woman talking to only women about something that has absolutely nothing to do with men for “the first time in musical theater history,” says Barrett Wilbert Weed, who plays Janis.

Listen to “I’d Rather Be Me”  here: https://open.spotify.com/track/5cesclKWAhsCcZJDBhkWaa

Watch the music video here: https://youtu.be/B-dywz4L6Y8 

Watch the full video (featured above) here: https://youtu.be/bZiObrEMdWo

There are other elements of the musical that have feminist messages as well, such as the finale song, “I See Stars”. The song encourages women to “light each other’s way” rather than be put against each other. In the words of Cady Heron (Erika Henningsen), “It’s me and you, not us and her.” 

Listen to “I See Stars” here: https://open.spotify.com/track/21bID4wyC6UVdtmVMxRbUW

 The musical also features a girl that is good at and very passionate about math. Female representation in subjects such as math and science is lacking and presenting a female teenage character that excels in these areas can empower young girls to excel at it as well. 

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Girlboss: Sophia Amoruso

Sophia Amoruso is a self-made millionaire. She spent her teen years committing theft and dumpster diving for food. By age 22, she had dropped out of school with no idea what she wanted to do with her life. She took a job at an art school just for the health insurance, and in that lobby, she decided to start Nasty Gal. She started her clothing store, in 2006. It started off as an eBay store that sold vintage clothing and within 10 years, Amoruso was bringing in $300 of revenue annually. Her net worth was $280 million, landing her on the Forbes’ list of Richest Self-Made Women as one of the youngest members.  

She now has a Netflix Original show starring Britt Robertson that showcases her journey and a book that she wrote about her experience, both titled Girlboss.

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One Day at a Time addresses gender inequality in the workplace

In season one, episode two of the hit sitcom, One Day at a Time, single mother and nurse, Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado), complains that she isn’t taken seriously as a woman at her place of work. She also discovers that her overly sexist male coworker makes more money than her and gets all the credit for her ideas. Penelope’s career field is stereotypically deemed as a “woman’s job” and when men work in these fields, they get credit for just being there and doing the bare minimum. 

Stereotyping jobs to be for a certain gender is harmful because it can affect who applies for the job, and even the pay rate. In Penelope’s situation, her male coworker was seen as “more valuable” since he was a man in a women’s career field. 

Eventually, Penelope, tired of being taken advantage of, quits her job. Her employer, Dr. Berkowitz realizes that he wasn’t giving her the credit she deserved and he couldn’t run his office without her and asks her to come back. She agrees to return if he agrees to make her pay equal with her male coworker’s and give her the credit she deserves. 

Women are just as valuable as men, and Penelope Alvarez knew her worth and understood that she deserved better than to be overlooked for all of her hard work. 

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Why breaking general stereotypes of women matter in the workplace

General stereotypes of women lead to the stereotypes of women in the workplace, thus damaging their professional reputation. Typical stereotypes such as “women are crazy” can create workplace stereotypes such as “women cannot hold positions of power because they’re too emotional.” Breaking general stereotypes is also working toward breaking stereotypes in a work environment. Our blog will highlight harmful stereotypes and showcase people and elements of pop culture that work to break these stereotypes in order to empower other people to do so as well. 

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Yes, Media’s Portrayal of Young Women in the Workplace Do Have an Effect on Young Women

The conversation of women’s portrayal in both society and media often pivots upon a discussion that most would choose to shy away from. This discussion, you ask, is one of gender equality, which some men would bash with an anguished cry of “Feminism!”, and another group of metaphorical men to mutter cursings in agreement. 

Women are objectified constantly and that is a fact. Young girls have to grow up seeing different types of women portrayed on screen, developing this idea that all are expected to be like the kind they see on TV or in movies. The headless women that garnish a male-dominated comedy film or whatnot, the promiscuous girls that play with men, the rarity of a woman in an authority position faulted by the manner they got to their place or their either cold or mentally unstable personas: these are what girls grow up seeing, and this does not cover all of it.

When the television, book, movie series revolves around women, it is typically the same story. The summaries typically prove it, too. “Average girl”, “Normal girl”, “with big dreams”  — yet all these women are held back by financial issues, restricting people in their lives, etc. 

The problem is not that girls are growing up with this idea that there will always be something limiting them from their ambitions. It is that girls are not exhibited enough with success of achieving their goals. Movies also often hypersexualize women in the workplace than in reality, which gives young girls the wrong idea. 

New Girl’s Jessica Day: Her passion is children and teaching yet for most of the show, despite its comedic play into the show itself, she remains focused on brief romances, some could say relatably emotional, at times, but male viewers would view this as troublesome and “typical”. 

The Office’s Jan Levinson (formally Gould): Her role throughout the show experiences a rocky path as she is introduced as a mere cold, no-nonsense corporate manager, who somehow falls for Michael Scott, despite their incompatibility. She is feared, not only because of her high positions at Dunder Mifflin and the White Pages (two different companies), but because of her absolute merciless, cold, “crazy” attitude.

Maid in Manhattan’s Marisa Ventura: Despite her role as a maid, Marisa desires more, like a role in management, which is put into jeopardy when she falls for senatorial candidate, Chris, and she is essentially forced to choose between her job as a maid, remain in the routine of maintaing her life with her son or to keep living a double life. However, after she is exposed and her son somehow fixes everything, she ends up with him and in control of a hospitality business. Her desire to continue with the risky affair costed her her job, her son (due to the disapproval of her mom), and even her relationship with her friends and Chris. 

This is a very minimal collection of women’s portrayal in media, however, these executed roles fuel the stereotypes that women are subconsciously assigned to. In television and movies, women are basically given two choices: their careers or a love life, which are both scarce for them, in general. While the paths to success for these girls in their careers are flawed, we need to provide more outlets of women healthily dominating their ambitions. 

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Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.

Katherine Johnson

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What’s been making you happy lately

Aside from the very thin return of good grades of my hard work from assignments (haha), it’s been good music, good food, and the GROUNDBREAKING FILM, Captain Marvel. I cannot get over it. Brie Larson really killed it. Carol Danvers, her character, is beyond powerful and as it was directed by a woman, her portrayal as the reigning superhero of Marvel, as of right now,  empowers me. Her emotions were sincere and registered and delivered beautifully. The dynamic of the film, too, is insane. I cannot wait to see her in Endgame. 

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I have nothing to prove to you.

Carol Danvers to Yon-Rogg, in the context of the final battle; as he had originally coached her and would tell her that she needed to control her emotions better, dueling her mercilessly, and now with her reawakened and heightened power, he tried to reduce her power like he had before.