Women

The constant conflict over abortion in America has been a major social problem that started as an issue in our nation over two centuries ago. In the 1960’s and 70’s with the coinciding civil rights movement and women’s rights movement, abortion became the new national issue we still see today between two opposing sides. It is this struggle over whose deep rooted morals and beliefs are appropriate for our society that make the abortion issue such so controversial. First it is important to understand abortion and its history. Then to understand each side, their beliefs, the organizations tied to them, and their wishes for policies in our nation. We must look at the effects that both the mother and child must endure through the process. Then we must look at and understand the laws directed at abortion and why they were set in place. It is then with this information that we can acknowledge the effects and harm that abortion causes, and conclude an answer to this problem.

On August 13th 2012 it was late term abortion day at Orlando Women’s Center. A woman arrived at the OWC to abort her twin baby girls. Her excuse was that she already had daughters and didn’t want have anymore. She was about twenty weeks along, but because it was twins, she was more than showing her progress. It only took a couple of hours for social media took hold of the situation. A man named John who original posted a photo of the woman began to get phone calls and emails from friends who had no idea abortions like these happen. Many offered financial help and many offered to adopt her babies.

The woman ended up aborting the twin girls in her womb despite the generous help that was offered to her. She admitted that she didn’t want girls and that she had no compassion for the babies she was carrying. Through a two day process, she had to go into labor and deliver her babies into a toilet. Abortion like these happen all over the country every day, and it’s because of stories like this and a complete disregard for human life that abortion should be, in a sense, aborted itself. This essay considers whether the purpose of abortion is a solution by answering the following questions:

1. What is abortion and who is involved?
2. How is the baby affected during the process?
3. How is the mother affected throughout the process?
4. What is our government doing about it?

Understanding the history behind abortion, its process, and the effects of abortion to our women and children as well as our nation are very important. It highlights the complexity of abortion in the United States and the need for physicians, advocacy groups, and policymakers to implement the other choices woman can make to save lives, as well as enrich those around them. What is abortion and who is involved?

It is important to know and understand abortion for what it is, to fully grasp the influence it can have on a woman. An abortion is the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus. There are several types of abortions: spontaneous, induced, therapeutic, elective or voluntary, unsafe, and medical abortion. Spontaneous abortion is the body naturally expelling the fetus because of complications produced in the stages of the egg needing to attach to the uterine wall. Induced abortion is a direct involvement by use of medical or surgical methods.

Therapeutic abortion is considered necessary because of fetal anomalies, rape, or to protect the health of the mother whether it is physically or psychologically damaging to her. Elective or voluntary abortion which is the termination of the embryo by request for reasons other than physical or psychological damage, which is the same abortion that was described in the story at the beginning of this essay. Unsafe abortion is the termination of an unintended pregnancy by a person incapable of successfully continuing the pregnancy without harmful effects to the mother. Medical abortion is a non-surgical abortion that uses drugs to terminate the pregnancy. (“Abortion,” 2013) There are several organizations that make it their goal to prove which side of the abortion argument is true.

ABSTRACT

Women in India have served a lot after independence. From just a experienced homemaker, women today have gained skills and potential of not just being a homemaker but being at parity with their male counterpart. Moreover, varying roles of working women, they have preserved the conventional work culture of household. Now a day the companies are thriving towards high rate that the women have to work for longer hours to sustain the standard of living and accomplish their basic needs.

In spite of having the recent technologies and services, women feel to be work loaded and stressed. The abstract literature on stress recommends that working women are lying on to the same face stressors practiced by working men. So far, women are also confronting with possibly exceptional stressors such as inequality, social disconnection, and work/home classes. Stress arises because of many causes which are emphasized in the research paper. The research paper also contains reasons of stress and how to ease the stress and rise above such problems by the working women at their workplace.

KEYWORDS: Workplace, Stress, Working Women.

INTRODUCTION

Know About Stress Stress is a mood that is formed when we respond to particular events. It is the body’s manner of growing to a challenge and getting ready to meet a strong situation with focal point, power, energy, and sensitive alertness. [9] Stress is a normal physical reaction to actions that make you feel endanger and disturb your balance in some way. Fortunately, research shows that lifestyles vary and stress-reduction techniques can facilitate people learn to cope up with stress. 1] Stress refers to the tension from the argument between external environment and internal environment, guiding towards emotional and bodily pressure. [9] In this fast moving world, it is not viable to live without stress, whether it is a student or working women. There is both constructive and destructive stress, depending on each individual’s exclusive observation of the force between the two factors. Not all stress is terrible. For instance, constructive stress, also known as eustress, [17] can assist a person to perform a task at best efficacy and effectiveness.

Therefore, it is clear that some form of constructive stress can adjoin more shades and enthusiasm to lives. The presence of a target, for example, can drive to make the most of the moment pleasurable and generate enhanced value. It is considerable to keep this in mind, as stress management signify to use stress to our benefit, and not on eliminating the occurrence of stress in our lives. [8] I. 4. Present Status Psychological Well Being The present status of women in the current working environment can be demonstrated using some current data on the working women culture. [11] FIG 1.

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL BEING

Source [11] DIFFERENT TYPES OF STRESS: External and Internal Stressors [1] People can get known with stress from outer or inner causes. * Outer stressors include adverse physical state or distressing psychological atmosphere (such as poor working conditions or unpleasant relationships). [9] * Inner stressors can also be physical (viruses and other diseases, irritation) or psychosomatic (such as deep worry about a destructive event that may or may not occur). [9] * Severe or Unrelieved Stress Stressors can also be defined as temporary (severe) or lasting (unrelieved). Severe Stress.

Severe stress is the reaction to an instantaneous threat, usually known as the fight response. The threat can be any circumstances that are supposed, even subconsciously or incorrectly, as a threat. Common severe stressors include:

• Noise (which can cause a stress answer even during sleep)
• Crowding
• Isolation
•  Starvation
• Danger
•  Illness
• Hi-tech equipment effects (playing videotape ,playoffs, regularly buzzing mobile phones)
• Visualizing the threat or detection of a precarious incident Under most conditions, once the severe threat has agreed, stages of stress hormones come back to normal.

This is known as the repose reaction. Unrelieved Stress. Often, up to date life poses ongoing stressful conditions that are not short-lived. The recommendation to take action (to fight or flee) must thus be cautiously handled. Stress, after that, turns into unrelieved. Common unrelieved stressors contain: * Ongoing extremely pressured work * Long-term relationship problems * Lonesomeness * Constant financial worries

WORK PLACE STRESS

Stress at work is quite a new perceptible fact of contemporary lifestyles. Occupational stress adds a load to physical health.

Work related stress in the life of controlled workers, thus, have an effect on the wellbeing of organizations. Stress, either fast or steady, can bring risky body-mind disorders. Instant disorders such as nervousness attacks, worry, sleeplessness, tenseness and muscle pain can all result in unrelieved health problems. It has an effect on immune system, cardiovascular and nervous systems and direct individuals to regular addictions. Like “stress reactions”, “relaxation responses” and stress management techniques are some of the important built-in response systems.

Unfortunately, at present, don’t get peaceful and calming situations without asking. For relaxation one has to struggle to create such circumstances. [19] This study is carried out to investigate that how much the women workforce of the banks are strained and how do the pressure of work influence their occupation life, societal life, productivity etc. In order to do so a sample of 10 women employees are selected from each of the three banks for the research of workplace stress among them. Symptoms of Work Stress

It is no surreptitious that stress and associated disarray is being considered as generally regular cause of employee disability. Managing of workplace stress is leadership accountability. Good leaders who are familiar with the symptoms of stress can manage situations to create more pleasing workplaces and to improve both efficiency and the bottom line. Corporate women who have served in all conditions distinguish stress when they monitor symptoms such as: [7]

• Nervousness
• Indecisiveness
• Petulance
• Complaining
• Forgetfulness Loss of self confidence
• Sleeplessness
• Physical tiredness

WORKING WOMEN

This is the fresh generation of women, who needs to chase their dream career. But this life is not a couch of roses for everyone. Waken up at sharp 6 in the morning after retiring to bed late at night, crackling up an delicious breakfast for each one while getting the children all dress up for school, taking care of the sundry house needs that require her consideration that’s the average working woman’s home schedule for all. Things are not easy for her on the work frontage either.

The collective-roles that women are have to play these days, bring about energy leak both at the bodily as well as mental level. [16]

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The study on the workplace stress among women is conducted with the following objectives: * To determine the major causes of workplace stress. * To find the steps to reduce work place stress among women. * To find the measures to reduce workplace stress.The questionnaires were filled by 30 women those who are working in three major Banks of Bhopal i. e. Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, so the reach of sample findings was less. 0 women employees of different designations filled the questionnaires. Due to this the opinion of employees differs as they are from different levels/designation. Data are collected from various sources, current articles like from online services, the Internet, and public libraries. The research describes the factors causing stress in the workplace and its impact on women. An effective method of coping with stress is given, but limited to ones examined in the primary and secondary resources.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Women and Workplace Stress: WOMEN ACCOUNTABILITY

Stress at work, the stress of lifting up children, the stresses that come with growing old parents, some of these circumstances could offer a fairly high sum of stress [12]. When women are faced with collective roles, all of which carry serious demands, they face stages of stress that are high enough to add to fitness problem, neglected work, and a reduced ability to obtain on additional. ACCOUNTABILITY AT OFFICE ACCOUNTABILITY AT HOME Source: [5] An environment with little flexibility or option would be a bigger risk of agony than an atmosphere of no-voice for a working woman.

Interestingly, women’s stress matters do not deviate considerably. Women are all-rounder by character and include responsibilities inside responsibilities. [3] Job, relations and dwelling are not detached and the subjects around balance surmount in spite of working for yourself or someone else. The new study from University of Melbourne has publicized that almost 1 in every 5 Victorians working women undergo depression[23] that can be attributed to job stress and more than one in eight or 13 per cent of the working men with depression have trouble due to job stress. 3] The literature on work-related stress has made known many different courses of job related stressors and linked them to such matters as job pleasure and worker yield (Beehr & Bhaget, 1985) [6]. One of the major causes of workplace stress is whether the person is satisfied with the job or not. Many researchers found that job related stress issues are related to role ambiguity, role conflict, employee performance and satisfaction, over work load, need for achievement and organizational effectiveness.

In 1976 Research [6] conducted in the financial services sector recognized that stress can also increase the probability of errors and arguments as workers cut corners to achieve targets – 81% believe irritation in the workplace has pessimistic effect on spirits, 74% are less dynamic when in a bad frame of mind, and 15% work slower (in fear of making a mistake) when their boss is angry. Fear of aggression is often on the minds of individuals who handle cash on a regular basis, and can be a major cause of mental and physical distress (Violence and stress in financial services, 2003).

A survey of 1,299 employees from 37 organizations [6] recognized ten causes as the more important providers to employee stress. These were Employees not being free to converse with one another, individual disagreements on the job, Employees not being given charge over their work, insufficient employment or budget, Management and workers not talking frankly, Management supposed as being uncooperative, below average unwell and holiday benefit, lessening in employees profit, Lack of gratitude or return for doing a good job.

In one more research “Managing Stress at Work” by Kate Jenkins conducted in 2001 [6] drew number of factors which add to stress in work places, which are people are working longer hours, taking shorter or no breaks, with increase growth in IT and globalization, decrease in spare time and less sleep and there are more time and travel pressures. (Jenkins, 2001) [6] . Work stress sometimes affects organization by: * Increased rate of absenteeism. * Decreasing rate of dedication to work. * Increasing rate of employees return. * Increasing rate of grievances from clients and customers. Increasing rate of insecure working exercise. * Negatively affecting staff recruitment. [6] With the rapid progression of technology, the rate of work load has increased and thus the stress among working women. To some extent there is the fright from being economized in awful times, leading to better job uncertainty on the part of those who stay [21]. Unquestionably, work-related stress is one of the most frequently quoted stressors faced by persons all over the world. The remarks reported by Lundberg offer some descriptions for why Luecken et l originate that women working in clerical and customer service place who had children at home reported greater than before strain at home, but no increase in strain on the job. [2] While some stress is good for inspiration and growing competence, stress after a limit can result in depressing crash such as reduced efficiency and effectiveness. Most of the people are feeling secluded and upset at work, and this has resulted to better work-related stress. Consulting experts and professionals are being consulted on ways to raise link and inspiration of their employees.

Few companies arrange parties and make their workforce feel appreciated at work. These are method to encourage employees and assist them to sense protected at their jobs, interpret into greater yield. On the other hand, not all companies have such method in place. Figure 2 : Model Of Causes And Consequences Of Work-Related Stress * Source: [14]

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design: This study includes exploratory research on the concerned areas relating to working women and the stress levels that are constantly being felt by them at their workplace.

I have tried to highlight the situation in context of such problem and tried to suggest some of them for correcting the situation.  Data Collection: primary Data was collected with the help of self-administered questionnaire which includes 15 items. Secondary data was gathered from newspapers, magazines and online sources such as websites. Some analytical graphs were also collected to support the research objectives. . Sample Size: I have taken the sample of 30 women employees from three different private banks of Bhopal named ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, AXIS Bank.

DISCUSSION & FINDINGS: The Major Causes of Work Place Stress among women are: In the Modern times stresses can take the form of financial needs, or emotional disturbance. Contest at work and an increased workload are also the root cause of greater levels of stress. The stress can be identified by the symptoms as mental symptoms usually experienced include sleeplessness, headaches and an incapability to focus. Physical symptoms like heart palpitations, breathlessness, excessive sweating and stomach-aches.

Reasons for stress are? There are many different reasons of stress which are also known as stressors, like Common lifestyle stressors include performance, intimidation, and demise stressors. Performance stressors are generated when a person is placed in a state where she feels a need to shine. This could be during performance evaluation, lunch with the boss, or delivering a speech. Threat stressors occur usually when the present situation poses a risky threat, such as a monetary recession, or from a misfortune.

Last but not least, demise stressors take place when there is a feeling of loss such as the fear of losing a loved one, or any other loss. Therefore, there are a variety of stressors, and even more diverse methods and ways of handling with pressure and turning it to our own advantages. The causes which are faced mostly by working women at their workplace in my study at Bank are:

•  Extended working hours
• Harder to balance work and home demands
• Under utilization of skills
•  Unreasonable demands for performance[17]
• Underpaid job
• Multiple tasks at work Deficient of maintaining interpersonal communication between the employer and the women employees. [15]
• Deficient of maintaining interpersonal relationship among the women employees
• The fright of losing one’s work * Minimum time left to spend with the family [15]
• Treated substandard to your male contemporaries. [1]
• Experiencing sexually nagging funny story from your superior and male contemporaries. [4]
• Very few of the women employees feel that they are suffering from depression while most of the employees experience that that they are liberated from the despair.

Most of the women employees worry about their contemporaries view about them whereas hardly any of the women employees are not concerned with the view about their colleague. Most of the women workforce of the bank talk about their difficulty and share their opinion with their other half or associates or others while very few of the women employees are not worried with it. Major part of the women employees job above 8 hours which is the starting point of the stress while few of the women employees don’t work for more than 8 hours.

Nearly 50% of the female employee spent regular time on leisure activities which assists them to stay stress free while 3/4th of the women employees don’t do that. Nearly half of the women employees find their social life to be even-handed whereas 2/5th of the women employees don’t have their social life balanced. Very few of the women employees remain silent. Most of the women employees fright the value of performance being offered by them whereas 15 % of the women employees don’t fear the quality of their work. Major part of the sample i. e. round 70 % women workforce try to find the key of their stress while 30% of them do not find any solution. 45% of the women employees try traditional exercises like meditation, naturopathy, yoga and other ancient medicinal methods to decrease their stress whereas 55 % of the women employees use other techniques to reduce stress like resorting to pastime, holiday. After analyzing the data of all the three banks, it is seen that the women employees working in AXIS bank are less stressed out when compared to other banks. It can be for the reason that it’s a brand name and believe in teamwork as their core values.

Steps To ease from Work Place Stress among Women: Management of Stress is the requirement of the hour. Though hard we try to go ahead of a stress situation, life appears to discover new behaviour of stressing us out and resulting with nervousness attacks. [18] Furthermore, be it our nervousness, mind-body tiredness or our erring outlooks, we tend to ignore causes of stress and the circumstances generated by those. In such disconcerting instants we often do not recall that stressors, if not avoidable, are reasonably manageable and treatable. [10] Unfortunately, today, they do not get peaceful and soothing situations without requesting.

To be stress-free one has to struggle to make such situations. The suggestions range from individually focused actions to broad based organizational policy changes. These include the following:

•  “Just smile away and forget everything” An employee of HDFC Bank
• *“Talking to family members ,loved ones, Watching TV or listening good music, Going for a walk or long drive” An employee of HDFC Bank
•  “Working in environment benefits, lot of optimistic approach. Optimistic approach is only that reduces stress and achieves triumph. ” AXIS Bank employee. “Adjust with others, Find and spend time to go to temple, pray and talk to GOD, Study novels, All are the child of the supreme GOD” An employee of AXIS Bank
• “We should do such actions from which we get pleasure and also make people happy. Share your moments of life with your close friends and relatives. ” An employee of ICICI Bank.
•  Provide day care and substitute work preparation as resources for preventing stress.
•  Provide more job elasticity for women to better manage work home clashes. [22]
•  Deal with Finances and Treat physically in spa, massage centres in weekends. Get Help by a mate or servant so that time could be spent with family. [22] * Cook if you like it and serve by your hand to family members. [22]
• Dropping / Picking up Kids from School in your leave days and then go for a little walk. [22]
• When stressed at work for deadlines or otherwise, give priority to your “me” time first and maintaining home comes second. [13,20]

CONCLUSION

In recent years majority of the women discovered that their stress was essentially due to their idleness and also they were happy with fewer responsibilities.

Lack of loving behavior from their colleagues, scolding from boss, more working hours, under utilization of skill sets was reported as cause of stress always by maximum percentage of the women. Higher percentage of the respondent experienced stress always because of lack of their involvement in decision making in their organization that reduced their responsibilities on their shoulder and the participatory model followed in their organizational set up enhanced their responsibilities to the point of exhaustion. As women, they need to acknowledge what they have and can do for them to reduce stress.

All must remember that old saying, if you don’t look after yourself, no one else will look after you. Honour yourself! SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORK I know that the current level of research may not reveal the exact parameters of stress regarding the causes and suggestions. Therefore, exhaustive research shall be carried out in future research work in this particular field.

REFERENCES

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2. C. Light Kathleen , “Psychosomatic Medicine 59:360-361 (1997) 0033-31, Editorial Comment
3. NALAG Centre for Loss ; Grief © 2008 PRM 003. 1 The Bereavement Buddy Version 1. 1 Last Updated 1 February 2009, pp 1 4. Long C. Bonita,” ERIC Digest” EDO-CG-95-53 5. Pathak Sonal, 2. Dr. Sarin Anil, “IJMBS Vol. 1, Issue 3, September 2011”,pp 66
4.  Rehman Hina, “ Literature Review”, International Review Of Business Research Papers Vol 4 No. 4 Aug – Sept 2008, Pp. 164-166
5. Richardson, A. M. , Burke, R. J. , ; Leiter, M. P. (1992). Occupational demands, psychological burnout and anxiety among hospital personnel in Norway. Anxiety, stress and coping. An international Journal, 5, 55-68.
6. Organizational Behaviour by V.
7. G. Gondalkar, pp 177-179 9. Stephen P. Robbins ,Timothy A. Judge, Seema Sanghi, Organizational Behavior, 13th Edition, pp 700-703
8.  Stein, Franklin, “Occupational Stress, Relaxation Therapies, Exercise, and Biofeedback”, Psychological Therapy:   A Holistic Approach, Second Edition, 2001, pp. 235-245.
9. .Tripathi Parul , Bhattacharjee Sandeep “Present Status”, Zenith International Journal Of Multidisciplinary Research Vol. 2 Issue 2, February 2012, Pp. 3
10.  University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (November, 2007) . “Brain Imaging Shows How Men And Women Cope Differently Under Stress: Science Daily”. Online] Available: http://www. sciencedaily. com
11.  “Women suffer more stress at work “TNN Jul 22, 2010,
12.  European foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions 2007(Adapted from Kompier and Marcelissen, 1990)
13.  Irene Houtman, Karin Jettingh off, Raising Awareness of Stress at Work in Developing Countries, A modern hazard in a traditional working environment, Advice to employers and worker representatives, Protecting Workers’ Health Series No. 6, pp 17-18
14. http://mm. bharatmatrimony. com/featured-story/288-stress-and-the-working-women

Dallas Chambers Mrs. Baker English 112 03/26/13 Abortion: Make It Illegal Some people believe that there is nothing wrong with abortion, and that it is perfectly moral. Meanwhile others believe that abortion is murder regardless of how far along the baby has developed. No matter what a person believes, abortion is not the right choice. I believe that every child has the right to live even if the mother is young or not financially secure. Abortion is the termination of an innocent child. There are many reasons why abortion should be illegal: ethically and physically.

There are many reasons why women choose to have an abortion. Some are selfish and others are selfless, or to protect themselves or the child from future harm. The selfish reasons include that having a baby would interfere with school/work, that they cannot afford a baby or that they are having problems with their significant other. These are merely excuses for not wanting to accept responsibility for their actions. Some of the selfless reasons include medical problems, either with the mother or child, and because the woman was raped. These are the two main qualifiers for this argument.

Some women say it is their right to choose whether or not they want to abort a baby. This is true and that right is protected in the Constitution. Also, in the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case in 1973, the Court ruled that abortion is a woman’s fundamental right. However, when considering an abortion a woman is not just making a choice about her own life, she is deciding whether or not to terminate another. It is fine to make a decision when it only concerns one person, but when it is a decision for that person and someone who cannot speak for themselves it is not fair.

There are plenty of other options to choose from rather than aborting a baby. These women could give the baby away to a loving family who can’t conceive children or who has health problems. They could have the baby adopted, granted it is not easy to give away a child but it is better than terminating it and never giving that child a chance to grow. There are open adoptions and closed adoptions. It is very easy to find a place to arrange an adoption considering in today’s society the world is at our fingertips. If a person looks on Google they can find plenty of websites that can arrange adoptions.

For example, just in North Carolina there is achildshope. com, christianadopt. org, littleangelsadoption. net and many more. A woman could also put the baby in the foster care system or take the “path less traveled” and keep the baby themselves. It is better to have a child and give them to a deserving home or couple than to terminate it before he/she even had a chance. Think about it. Any of the lives terminated could end up becoming a doctor, lawyer, or even the next Einstein. Another reason not to terminate a life is because abortion can cause health problems to the woman who receives it.

These health problems do not only include physical but also mental. Some physical side effects of abortion are bleeding, hemorrhage, infection, inflammation of organs, and increased risk of miscarriage in the future. Some psychological side effects include anxiety, depression, use of alcohol and marijuana, and also suicide. Abortion can cause many health problems and may even kill you, not to mention it is terminating the life of an unborn child… Why would a mother risk that? However, if there are risk factor brought on by a pregnancy then the subject of right or wrong gets more complicated.

Either the mother or the child’s life could be in danger. If the mother could possibly die by giving birth to the child then it is not right for anyone to prevent her from terminating the pregnancy, if she chooses to do so. Also, if the child will be terminally ill from the moment of birth, than the mother should be able to determine whether she should terminate the life of that child. Another qualifier would be if the woman was raped. A woman should not have to endure the pain of pregnancy when it was not her choice to have intercourse in the first place.

However, a woman cannot just go to a clinic and say they were raped. There must be a police report on file stating that the woman was raped in order to go ahead with the abortion. Abortion has been a very controversial subject for the past few years and throughout all the debates regarding it I have heard some very interesting comments made by the Pro-Choice believers. Some of these comments included that women should be able to make their own decisions, the baby isn’t alive until it exits the womb, and it is better to kill a baby than have it suffer in a family who doesn’t want it or cannot provide for it.

While all women have the right to decide what to do with their bodies, they all have to take responsibility for their actions as well. If a woman is headed to work and drinks a fifth of vodka before getting in the car to drive there, that is her choice. However, if she ends up killing someone she can’t just say “well, I’m pro-choice” and then walk away. That woman would have to face the consequences of her actions and go to jail. Why is it any different to kill a human being outside of the mother’s womb than it is when the child is still inside of it?

Either way a human being was killed. Whether they were born yet or not is irrelevant. “A baby isn’t alive until it exits the womb. ” Some people do believe that a baby is not alive until it takes its first breath, which is at birth. However, whether you consider the baby alive at the moment of conception or not, the baby will grow into a human being and for someone to terminate the child’s life before it has a chance to grow and develop is wrong. The only moral termination of pregnancy is through miscarriage and nobody has control over that.

As previously stated, there are other options than just keeping the “unwanted” child. There is foster care, open adoption and closed adoptions. In conclusion, abortion is morally and ethically wrong. It is the termination of an unborn child and a woman should not be allowed to terminate a pregnancy without any consequences. There are plenty of other options to choose from besides just terminating a pregnancy. This is why abortion should be illegal in the United States.

Changing Role of Women in Society How was the status of woman and their rights represented in western society in the 1600 to early 20th century? For centuries, woman and their rights have been oppressed by the dominance of man. There has been continued struggle for the recognition of woman’s cultural roles and achievements, and for their social and political rights. It was very much a patriarchal society for woman, which hindered or prevented woman from realizing their productive and creative possibilities.

These ideas where seen in the play Merchant of Venice written by William Shakespeare in c. 1598 when Portia and Nerissa have to dress up as men so that they can enter the court room to help Antonio because woman are not allowed to enter courtrooms along with many other public places men had deemed unbefitting for woman. Portia says, “And wear my dagger with a braver grace and speak between the change of man and boy with a reed voice, and turn two mincing steps into a manly stride, and speak of frays. Another example of this in the Merchant of Venice is when Portia is talking to Nerissa about the unfairness of her fathers will, she says “ I may neither choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. ” We see this kind of representation of woman again, half a century later, from my source ‘The Law’s Resolutions of Woman’s Rights, 1632. An example of this can be found in the section ‘Sect. viii. that the husband that is his own. It states, “The wife hath therein no seisin at all.

If anything when he is married be given him, he taketh it by himself distinctly to himself,” and that “the very goods which a man giveth to his wife are still his own: her chain, her bracelets, her apparel, are all the good-man’s goods, … A wife how gallent soever she be, glistereth but in the riches of her husband, as the moon hath no light but it is the sun’s…” We see evidence of this treatment of woman again in this source under the Sect. ix. That which the wide hath is the husband’s. It states “For thus it is, if before marriage the woman were possessed of horses, neat, sheep, corn, wool, money, plate, nd jewels, all manner of moveable substance is presently by conjunction the husband’s. ” Moving forward in time another century, we see in my source British Woman’s Emancipation since the Renaissance, in the early 1800s. It quotes from The Times, in response to the proposal of a select committee to be set up to consider how to adapt a portion of the Strangers’ Gallery for Ladies’ Gallery in the new House of Commons, The Times opined: “We should like to see a list of ladies who have sought this mode of killing their time… As to their presence civilizing debate, it is all fudge.

The most violent scene we ever witnessed was in the House of Lords, in broad day, when the benches were filled ladies in all the imposing attractions of full dress… blood would have been shed if it has still been custom to wear swords… If ladies of England desire this novel mode of getting rid of their ennui, let them be indulged, but let us not be so absurd as to expect and influence on the character of the debate. The female listeners may be vulgarize; the male orators will not be refined. ” Finally, I reach the period of the Second World War in the early twentieth century.

This led to a visual advertisement labeled, Rosie the Riveter. I used a commentary by Jessica Valenti called Rosie the Riveter leaves a strong legacy to find information from this poster. It explains the background of the advertisement stating, “The poster commissioned to help recruit women to work during the Second World War. US women had always worked, of course, but the wartime get-to-work propaganda was specifically geared towards white middle-class women, and during the war the female workforce grew by 6. million. ” Though this was a huge change from what woman were used to, we still see stereotypical thinking toward the woman, for example, in one of the advertisements released it says, “Can you use an electric mixer? If so, then you can learn to operate a drill. ” I believe that women, without question, have continually had to struggle for recognition under the dominance of man not just in the 1600s to early 20th century but also for centuries earlier.

They have repeatedly been deprived of the inalienable right to vote, receive an adequate education, and to have the chance to develop to their fullest human potential. I believe that the view society has on woman is almost a bit of a paradox. My reasoning for this is that because society believes women are less intelligent than men, and therefore are not capable of being involved in jobs the rest of society does, they tell woman that they are not allowed to receive a proper education like the rest of society.

This means that regardless of the natural intelligence of a woman, they will never reach the same level of intelligence as men because they are not being allowed an adequate education so that they can develop to their full human potential. I believe that the events that occurred in the 18th century were pivotal in the future direction modern feminist groups would take. Though the events that took place in the 1800s was the first hint of change we saw, it took another century and a huge worldwide event, World War 2, to really get the ball rolling in terms of feminist lobbying and creating real long-term change.

In my opinion, the reason women and their rights in western society had practically no significant change for majority of the 400 years I have studied is because women had never before received the opportunity to have a go at jobs that had always been for men like we saw during the second World War. I believe this is the reason for women to suddenly begin an immense push in women’s rights and equality in the last 100 years. What initiated any change in the status of woman and their rights in western society?

As seen in my first question, during World War II we began to see significant a shift in the role of woman in western society from housewife to working class. When the men returned from war they began to realise that things were changing, the woman had begun to have some experience in management and factories, which are all predominantly male dominated jobs. From that point on we saw a lot of tension between men and woman which then started rapid change in the status of woman in contemporary western society.

A source that was release two decades later that I found had a part to play in the change that had begun during the mid-1900s was Betty Freidan’s nonfiction book, Feminine Mystique, published in 1963. In 1957, Freiden was asked to conduct a survey on the woman at her 15th anniversary with her Smith College classmates. From this survey she found that many of her old classmates were unhappy with their lives as housewives, which led to her to write the book.

The Feminine Mystique was written from surveys and interviews done by Freiden and is widely regarded as one of the main factors involved in sparking the ‘second wave’ feminism in the United States. She states that ‘the editorial decisions concerning woman’s magazines were being made mostly by men, who insisted on stories and articles that showed woman as either happy housewives or unhappy, neurotic careerists, thus creating the ‘feminine mystic’ – the idea that woman were naturally fulfilled by devoting their lives to being housewives and mothers. I found that was had a huge role in the ‘second wave’ as they call it, which began to initiate huge change in the status of woman and their rights in contemporary western society was the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, and national origin. The word ‘sex’ was included very last minute.

Section 703 (a) made it unlawful for an employer to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. ” Another 2 years on, in 1966, 28 women and men attending the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women founded an organization in Washington, D. C. The organization called the National Organization of Women works to secure political, professional, and educational equality for woman.

In a statement released by Betty Freiden, author of Feminine Mystique and one of the founders of The National Organization of Woman’s, says that “The National Organization of Woman is dedicated to the preposition that women, first and foremost, are human beings, who, like all other people in our society, must have the chance to develop their fullest human potential. We believe that woman can achieve such equality only by accepting to the full the challenges and responsibilities they share with all other people in our society as part of the decision-making mainstream of American political, conomic and social life. ” In the past century, society has begun to see an inevitable shift in the roles of women in contemporary western society. Significant events have taken place in the past 50 years, which have shaped the direction of modern feminism today. I found that there were hundreds of noteworthy events that were involved in initiating change in the status of women and their rights in western. In saying this there were definitely two time periods which brought to light the inequalities in the treatment of women, these two time periods are called first-wave and second-wave feminism.

We see in my evidence provided that second-wave feminism was significantly more effective that first-wave feminism. In my opinion, this is because the majority of the first-wave feminists were more moderate and conservative than the radical, revolutionary feminists of the second-wave feminism. I don’t believe that we can expect change by sitting idle and waiting for some miracle. It’s all very well if you know that there is a problem, but knowing is not enough, you must take action.

And in this case, radical action is in order as the views society hold on women have been around for not just centuries, but millenniums! Second-wave feminism had a bigger impact than first-wave feminism because they did not take no for an answer, they acted, and I believe that’s what turned things around. How are woman in contemporary western society portrayed and do they have equal opportunities and freedom as the rest of society? In the past century we have seen a dramatic change in the treatment of women in western society.

We see evidence of this in the non-fiction book The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, published in 1991. Its basic premise is that though women have gained increased social power and prominence post feminism, an ‘iron-maiden,’ has been created which she describes as an intrinsically unattainable standard of beauty that is then used to punish women physically and psychologically for their failure to achieve and conform to it. In the introduction, Wolf offers the following analyses: “During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the astest-growing specialty… Pornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal… More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers. ”

We see further evidence of this objectification of women through the Tui Brewery advertisements. They continue to portray women as a piece of meat, for example, in one of their TV advertisements they show men outwitting scantily clad women brewers in order to steal beer. Spokeswoman Leonie Morris told Newstalk that the overwhelming message was that the only value women had was as sexual objects. Speaking to the Herald, she said: “They are also saying that women are stupid … the men are real dorks, but they still manage to outwit the women. It also promotes a form of mate ship that dismisses women’s concerns, and trivialises relationships with women. ” In the source, Understanding the Differences Between Men and Women, written by Michael G. Conner, he explains that men and women are both equal and different. He states, “When I say equal, I mean that men and women have a right to equal opportunity and protection under the law. The fact that people in this country are assured these rights does not negate my observation that men and women are at least as different psychologically as they are physically. He explains the obvious differences in size, weight, shape, and anatomy of men and women, but also the less obvious differences. For example, “Women on the other hand have four times as many brain cells (neurons) connecting the right side and left side of their brain. This latter finding provides physical evidence that supports the observation that men rely easily and more heavily on the left side of their brain to solve on problem one-step at a time. Women have more efficient access to both sides of their brain and therefore greater use of the right side of their brain. In the article Gender Roles Change at Work and Home by Katherine Lewis, its explains the converging gender roles of men and women, with statistics like, “In 1992, a survey found 80 percent of men under 29 years old wanted jobs with more responsibility, versus 72 percent of young women. The desire for more responsibility decreased both genders in the 1997 survey, (to 61 percent for men and 54 percent for women) and then went up in 2002 to 66 percent for men and 56 percent for women. The article also stated, “”In comparing 1992 with 2008, two emerging trends are striking: among Millenials (under 29 years old), women are just as likely as men to want jobs with greater responsibility,” the report said. “Today, there is no difference between young women with and without children in their desire to move to jobs with more responsibility. ” In my opinion, though there has been significant change in the treatment of women in contemporary western society, women are still not being given equal opportunities and freedom as the rest of society.

I rest this stance on the way that the media is repeatedly portraying women. I believe that the struggles of women have not disappeared, but simply shifted to another area. After the first and second-wave feminism women now have practically no inequality in terms of social power and prominence, in fact more and more often, we are seeing women shown as dominant to men in higher positions than their male counterparts, for example Hilary Clinton. But women now have a new problem they are trying to overcome.

Modern day media has taken advantage of women’s vulnerability and has created a ‘unattainable’ standard of beauty that women must forever strive to reach but will realistically be forever be in disappointment as shown in the Tui Brewery advertisements. Sadly, I do not think they will ever be able to shake off this portrayal and reach complete equality with men. My reasoning for this is that men and women are very different, both physically and mentally.

Men are born physically stronger than women which leads them to be involved in more labour orientated work whereas women are more fragile meaning they tend to lean towards less labor orientated jobs. In terms of their mental and psychological differences, women are generally more emotional than men and also men tend to use the left side of there brain more while women use both equally making men a lot more hands on when there is a problem. I do not think women will ever be able to reach equality with men because they are biologically different.

They can change the way they are treated but they will never be able to change the way they are portrayed. Genderism is the belief or attitude that one sex is inferior, less competent, or valuable than the other. At the start of this assessment I made a statement that the status of woman in western society has changed substantially since Shakespeare’s time. After all of the research I have done on the matter of Genderism in western society from the 1600’s up to present day I have decided that yes, the status of women in western society has changed substantially since Shakespeare’s time.

Women no longer have to worry about struggling for recognition of their cultural roles and achievements. There are now women running the largest firms in the world, we even had a female Prime Minister! Though women’s rights have evolved significantly in the past four centuries in terms of social power and prominence, many new obstacles for women in our contemporary society have arose that I don’t think any amount of lobbying by women’s rights groups can solve.

Society has created an unattainable standard of beauty that for majority of women, will leave them disheartened and depressed. I do not believe that women will be able to shake off the way they are being portrayed by society because it is unavoidable. I do believe my statement is correct in saying that the status of women in western society has changed substantially since Shakespeare’s times. However, contemporary society does prove that they still have a very long way to go if they hope to succeed in reaching equality, if they ever will.

Bibliography Conner MG (2010), Understanding the Difference Between Men and Women, http://www. oregoncounseling. org/ArticlesPapers/Documents/DifferencesMenWomen. htm Freiden B (1957), Feminine Mystique, W. W. Norton and Co. (1963), New York Freiden B (1966), Statement of Purpose, National Organization of Woman, Unknown Jones N (2012), Ban Tui Ads? Yeah, right, New Zealand Herald (2012), Auckland Lewis K (2011), Gender Roles Change at Work and Home, http://workingmoms. about. com/od/workingmomsresearch/a/GenderRoles. htm

Shakespeare W (c 1596), The Merchant of Venice, Oxford (1984), Oxford Unknown (1632), The Law’s Resolutions of Women’s Rights, http://www. wwnorton. com/college/english/nael/17century/topic_1/laws. htm Unknown (1964), Civil Rights Act Title VII, United States Congress, Washington Valenti J (2011), Rosie the Riveter leaves a strong legacy, The Guardian (2011), London Wojtczak H (c 1800), British Woman’s Emancipation since the Renaissance, http://www. historyofwomen. org/ Wolf N (1991), The Beauty Myth, William Morrow and Company (1991), London

How are women represented in the British Sitcom PeepShow Introduction I have looked at how women are represented in Peep Show, a British Situation Comedy based around two very different friends that share a flat in London. The majority of situations they get into involve their attempts to seduce or gain affection from the women they either love or have a fleeting obsession with. The reason I decided to analyse Peep Show is because its two main characters are so contrasting in ethics, morals, life style choices and attitudes towards women that it allows for an interesting look into how women are represented.

I also feel that women in comedy on a whole are underrepresented. Literature review The literary resources I will be drawing upon include and article by Jack Glascock from the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media(2001). In which he looks at gender roles on primetime television and focuses on the shift in representation from the seventies gender roles on primetime television . The article is both theoretical and statistical and provides an interesting overview of gender on screen. I will also be looking at the work of Brett Mills.

I will look at two of his works one is a journal article in the Oxford Journal Screen. Also looking at his book, The Sitcom. Brett Mills is an expert in the sit com arena, with several journals and books on similar subjects, he offers a contemporary look at British sitcom, including Peep Show. Methodology I had several issues when approaching the method of my research. The first issue was that in order to do a focus group, I would have to pick specific episodes to show people. By choosing a specific episode, I would by default be cherry picking the content and with that content cherry picking the ideology of the episode.

I therefore decided to pick an episode at random, so I could try to eradicate the possibility of me picking an episode that would reinforce my own opinions. The episode “The Local Zero” was then shown to two male and one female. These three participants had never seen an episode of Peep Show before, they there for were briefed on the general narrative: i. e that Mark and Jeremy are friends that live together in a flat. I also did not tell them specifically what I was trying to find out; I then asked them a series of questions.

Not all specific to gender, however the majority were pin pointed towards gender. The focus group gave me an unbiased first account of what people thought if they were to just turn on the television for the first time and see an episode of Peep Show. Would they think that the show they had just watched represented women positively or negatively? They would have no bias or favouritism towards the characters. So it was a raw first thoughts approach, that was both useful and a hindrance. I balanced this out with a general textual analysis of the series. Analysis

As I mentioned in my methodology the focus group consisted of people that had not seen Peep Show previously. I showed them an episode in which Jeremy is troubled by his girlfriend’s new found wish for abstinence and Mark is still trying to win the heart of Sophie, the woman he works with, by fighting off the competition. The two female characters we are then presented with are Sophie and Nancy. Nancy is an American Christian who wants Jeremy to break sexual taboos after being criticised by Mark for not following her religion; she decides abstinence to be the last sexual taboo.

When I asked the focus group who the least likeable character was they all eventually agreed on Nancy, when asked why a participant stated she was “just annoying” a statement again that was agreed on. In the episode she comes across as a bit stupid. In response to her abstinence Jeremy pretends that he is fine with it, although in Peep Show you can hear the thoughts of Mark and Jeremy. One of the participants noted when how positive the interaction between men and women was, one participant said “not very as they think one thing and tell the women another. It is the deceitful attitude towards women they use in order to gain either affection or sex. In Jeremy’s case he lies about being religious in order to continue to have sex. However Jeremy was not the least likeable character even though he lied to his girlfriend. I asked the question whether they felt the interests and attitudes of female characters reflected real interests and attitudes of real women, the response was undecided. Feminists of the 1970s were concerned about the narrow range of representations of women offered in the media and argued that these were often ‘negative’ stereotypes.

So, for instance, much advertising was taken to task for restricting representations of women to only a few roles, primarily the wife and mother, the housewife and the sex object. This approach focused on the power of ideology as a force and a mechanism. (Fisk, 1987) Although Peep Show is a contemporary text, we have to wonder whether there is that diverse roles with the characters within. Nancy can be seen as the sex object, although throughout the series there are many similar characters that Jeremy has fleeting relationships with.

Sophie (Marks love interest) in later episodes becomes the “nagging wife” as he decides he doesn’t want to marry her and doesn’t want her child. There are very few female characters in Peep Show that seem to break theses boundaries. Gender issues have been of concern within the study of television. These concerns have primarily taken two forms. First, there has been the question of representation, which initially focused on how television stereotyped, under-represented or misrepresented women.

As a extremely popular show I felt it was important to analyse how women were represented, especially in comedy as a whole, the lack of strong female characters in comedy is apparent not only on television and in film, but also on the stage although it in improving. If you look at Space (c4,1999) the representation is balanced, the formatting is the same in that two friends share a flat but one is female and one is male, the minor characters are also more balanced and interestingly the writing was done by both Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevens something I will touch upon later.

In later series Mark befriends a colleague called Dobby. Nick naked so because of her likeness to the “house elf” from Harry Potter. A nickname that does not associate with beauty or power but that of an elf and a male elf. Dobby is the tom boy character, she is not referred to as attractive, is into typically male orientated activities such as computer games , Mark begins to like her because she makes references to things that he would also make reference to. She is like him and he is amazed that a woman knows about or is interested in the same things as him.

So it would be interesting to note that while she is a character that Mark relates to and befriends rather than obsesses over, she is considered strange looking. This can be seen throughout films and television, the idea of desexualised women because she gains male characteristics. The representation of women in Peep show can be assessed in two ways, by looking literally at the roles of female characters and by looking at the attitudes and relationships men have with women and vice-versa.

Peep Show’s two main characters are male; the female characters are not necessarily permanent, although Sophie is in it from the beginning. The other female characters tend to come in depending on the episode. Female representation in the media and in television in particular, may correspond to inequities behind the scenes. (Glascock,2001 ) If as Glascocks findings show the direct correlation between women behind the scenes and women on screen could it be then that this explains the lack of female representation on screen, or the lack of solid and permanent female characters at least.

By looking at the cast and crew information as listed on IMDB, all episodes have been written by men, all episodes have been produced by men , however it also states that it was a female that has directed a majority of the episodes. Interesting to note that as stated earlier Spaced ( c4, 1999) was co wrote by a female. The interaction between Mark, Jeremy and the female characters has two sides to it. You have Mark who is ultimately the “romantic” he obsesses with women down to minute details; he is the shy and awkward geek looking for the one. However you have Jeremy who is a hap hazard womaniser.

Yet what makes them so likeable is their foolish nature. While the progression of female characterizations on television has been noted, the pendulum may have swung the other way for male depictions. Frequently criticized have been made-for-television movies featuring males as abusive psychopaths (Kloer, 1996; Stein, 1994; Zurawik, 1996) and situation comedies in which “guys run the gamut from insufferable to useless” (Glascock,2001) Due to Peep Shows popularity it could be said that the characters are not “insufferable” however because they never fail to make tremendous mistakes, it could be said that they are “useless”.

This contrast with the useless, clumsy and likeable Mark and Jeremy, and the uptight relatively rigid female characters creates an overall impression of forgettable female characters. In some respects the women in Peep Show act as mother figures and Mark and Jeremy act as the child, the relationships are there for usually relationships that don’t last because they are told off or make a mistake and the women are then completely repelled by them.

In order to see what extent the female characters in Peep Show can be deemed stereotypical I first looked at the definition of stereotype : A process involving the expression of an exaggerated belief about a group that serves to qualify of justify the conduct towards that group of those who hold and express that belief (Long and Wall, 2009) Using this definition I applied it to the female character “Nancy” in the episode I showed focus group. Starting with Nancy, the beautiful blonde, does she fit the dumb blonde stereotype? I would say yes, in the program she says “God wanted us to have fun that’s why he invented pills… in a genuinely serious voice. Is this an “exaggerated belief”? I would propose that very few religious people would actually claim that God condones drug taking. Sitcoms; the genre criticised for its simplistic use of stereotypes, outmoded representations and an apparent failure to engage with social or political development (Mills, 2004) Yet I wouldn’t say the character are stereotypical men. They are very self-aware, self-depreciating, they also make frequent remarks about there in lack of strength, lack of manliness. In the episode shown to the focus group, Mark says “ ‘Mate’… he universal word for befriending taxi drivers, and bouncers” as he tries to fit in with some security guards. He has a sort of inferiority complex and yet acknowledges at the same time that he is middle class. Perhaps then he fits the stereotype of the middle class man, Jeremy often attacks him for his love of typically “middle class food” such as olives and humus. Yet they share a flat together and don’t really have much money. Additionally Peep Show has been noted for its naturalistic style, it is set in a point of view narrative, where we are positioned as different characters at different times.

Bret Mills further explore Peep Show in his book The Sitcom. In which he suggests: Peep Show is better placed in the realist/naturalist category than as a comedy of distinction, because of its gloomy colours for its downplayed performances suggests a kind of naturalism. If we see Peep Show as a realist text then we are to assume to sort of ideology that must also closely reflect the real world. As Mark says in the episode where he marries Sophie “ this has to be a dream, nothing this bad happens in real life. ” He reinforces the realist feel of the comedy. Representations give substance to ideology.

Textual analysis reveals ideology in action. The femme fatale is about gender and power. It is about the male fear of being; unmanned; by the sexual power of the woman, a fear of losing control. (Burton,2004) If Peep Show is a realist view, the ideology within it by default must also be deemed a natural point of view. Although they are exaggerations of characters like them, there interaction with the world are deemed quite natural and realistic. As Burton quotes “that representation gives substance to ideology” how we represent certain groups of society gives force to ideology.

Because of Peep Shows critic of society I would say that it did not promote dominant ideology. I would however say it was negotiated; it promoted new and forward thinking ways, yet with regards to women, it does not promote anything other than dominant ideology. It remains true that in critical studies the concepts of difference and of otherness are often used to emphasize the negative: sameness and difference are marked both symbolically through representational systems, and socially through the inclusion or exclusion of certain groups of people Conclusion.

To conclude, I feel that Peep Show does not necessarily represent women in a bad way, it rather under represents them. What is shown in a derogatory light is the relationships between men and women, the women are often sexualised. Whilst the research I have done has proved useful it has not necessarily helped me to come to a solid conclusion. Bibliogrpahy Books 1. CALVERT, Ben; Lewis, Justin; French, Liam; Casey, Bernadette; Casey, Neil. (2007). Television Studies: The Key Concepts. Taylor & Francis. 2. BURTON. (2004). Media And Society: Critical Perspectives.

Open University Press. 3. FISKE, J. (1987): Television Culture. London: Routledge 4. MILLS, B. (2009). The sitcom. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 5. LONG, P. , & WALL, T. (2009). Media studies: texts, production, and contexts. Harlow [u. a. ], Pearson Longman. . Journals. 6. GLASCOCK,J 2001, ‘Gender Roles on Prime Time TV’, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Fall 2001. 7. MILLS, B 2004, ‘Comedy Virite’ Oxford Journal Screen, Vol 45, no 1, Pp 63-78 Websites 8. Wikipedia, List of Peep Show episodes, http://en. wikipedia. rg/wiki/List_of_Peep_Show_episodes (as of May 22, 2011, 16:05 GMT). 9. International Movie Database, Full Cast and Crew, Peep Show, http://www. imdb. com/title/tt0387764/fullcreditscast (as of May 22, 2011, 16;06 GMT). Television Programs PeepShow, September 2003-, video, Channel Four, United Kingdom Spaced, 1999-2001, Video, Channel Four, United Kingdom Appendices. Focus Group Transcript. Peep Show Episode “Local Zero” What kind of relationships do you think are explored in Peep Show? Participant A: Friendship. Participant C: Sexual, love.

How positive is the interaction between men and women? Participant B:They were all being fake to one another they were thinking one thing and saying something else… made up. Which character including minor characters would you say was the most like able? All: Mark. Lest Likeable? Participant A: The homeless man… he didn’t do anything [laughs] Participant B :No I would say the girl… the American girl.. Participant C: Yeah she doesn’t do anything. Yeah even Sophie doesn’t. Partcipant A: Actually yeah, Nancy. Would you say peep show was a realistic portrayal of men’s attitudes towards women.

Partipant B: I think so… Participant A: I would say some not most Participant c: Yeah but guys think that even if you say no that really you would like them its just a matter of time, What social class would you place Jeremy? Participant C: What are the classes? Participant B: I would say lower class he doesn’t work Participant A:No i would say he is middle. Particpant B :He would be middle but lazy. Participant C: Yeah manybe. What are the main concerns of Mark of Jeremy? Particpant C: Women [laughs] Particpant B: Yeah sex.

Participant A: I agree Just sex, women. Do you think the characters Mark and Jeremy have a respectable attitude towards women? Participant C: Yeha maybe Mark, not the other one. Jeremy he just lied. Participant A:Yeah I agree Mark maybe but not Jeremy. Would you say that the female characters attitudes and interests reflect real women’s attitudes and interests? Participant C: It is hard to say, they were extremes. Participants B: Yeah, It is not really clear what they think. Participant A: You don’t hear their thoughts so you don’t get any idea about them.

Assignment: Article summary The article “Family Coping Strategies: Balancing Paid Employment and Domestic Labour” by Meg Luxton sheds a different view on the responsibilities laid out in family life. In today’s society it’s almost a necessity to have both parents working, to support a family. This fact, along with the improvement of females having independence, is the cause of the ever growing number of working women. These, along with many other statistics are showing the rapid improvement and change that woman and families are showing. Year after year we can see the dynamics of the family shifting.

It is not the same anymore, that women are the housewives doing all the housework and childcare. However women still have to work to get the equality, and not have to face “The second shift” once they get home. Husbands need to start stepping up and help out. Workplaces too need to step up, in the sense that they need to try and create better working environments for women. Unions have been formed to try to perfect benefits, and to shed light on the negative aspects they may have. This whole article shows an interesting view on family coping strategies, and gives lots for people to think about.

Society’s gender roles are changing significantly with the rise in the amount of women who are contributing to the yearly income of their household’s. It has been proven that because women are starting to contribute to household incomes it has resulted in increased satisfaction between husbands and wives and excuses from males such as “I’m the one bringing home the money, I deserve to rest when I get home” are becoming less valid. A statistics Canada survey in 1995 stated that 64% of women who worked said it was essential for their happiness and 55% agreed that it was the best way to be independent.

Females at work who are married no longer have to depend on their husbands for their needs because they are able to provide them on their own. Unlike the many women who stay with their spouse in an unhappy or abusive relationship due to the resource theory which is a theory that explains how women will not leave in fear that if they do they will not be able to support themselves, most working women with a stable job will easily find the strength to leave because they are more independent.

Having a job gives women a sense of control of their lives and an overall high self-esteem because they are recognized by their husbands as well as children for their work. Not only does it give women something to do, it also ensures stability in one’s family income. Here are a few statistics that demonstrate the challenge of balancing paid employment and domestic labor within the family setting in Canada. This challenge arises because of the inequalities between what men and women earn in the work force and also because of the uneven distribution of chores in unpaid domestic labor.

If we compare salaries in 1997, men had the higher income of the couple in 77% of Canadian families. (Globe and Mail 21 Feb. 2000). This situation has however improved since the early 60’s when 70% of women in male-female couples were dependent on their spouse as the sole income provider. (Oderkirk, Silver and Prud’homme 1994. ) Also when couples divorced men’s incomes raised on average 10% whereas women’s income usually decreased by 23% in 1997(Toronto Star 10 April 1997).

Women feel pressured to work from home or part-time because they are often expected to do most of the domestic labour and this is their way to balance the two. In 1993 they represented nearly 70% of Canadian part-time workers (Ghalam 1993). On sharing of domestic labour front, are still generally the ones to do the bulk of it although men have been more active in this part of family life since the 70’s. Women are involved the most in childcare. In 1998, 80 percent of women spent more than 15 hours on childcare compared to only 49% of men (Statistics Canada 1998a).

These statistics show some improvement in the overall equality between the work load divided between men and women in families. However women are still usually found in a position of disadvantage compared to men. The fact that women have joined the work force doesn’t seem to have impacted the way man act at home. Even though there have been many chances throughout the years on how women are seen in society and there role it, there hasn’t been much change when it comes to domestic labour. It is still very sex segregated.

In the past adult man were those had the primary responsibility of earning the income for the family while the role for an adult woman was to act as the housewives whose primary responsibility was running the family home, having children and caring for its members. Yet now that women share the responsibility of bringing in the income, the logic would that man also help around the house but instead what is now happening is that women find themselves carrying out the “double shift”, where they go to work in the morning and then they go home to cook, lean, get the kids to bed and have their things prepared for next day. Due to this inequality of household work between men and women, women find themselves at a disadvantage because they have to learn to balance both domestic labour and paid work, which results in them not putting as much effort in their job as they could, therefore they do not reach their best potential which results in lack of opportunities for them. Some workplace calls their work “family friendly”.

What this means for them is: women can come at work a bit earlier and leave earlier. A few women have struggled to make workplaces more cooperative for their person lives. They have fought for maternity, parental, etc. in order to take care of their love ones. “Family friendly” workplace as well includes women taking their specific amount of “sickness days” (allowed days off) to go take care of their family and once those days ended, therefore will unpaid for additional days taken.

Some will have three weeks off to taking care of their hospitalized husband but will be paid only one week. They are basically losing 66. 7% of their paycheck due that. Those women will have to leave their husband at home to take care of themselves and will have to go back to work due to the time allowed was only three weeks. What the employers do not know is the fact they become anxious therefore difficult to focus at work. Most workplace relies on women workers who are experienced or more skilled because it is hard to replace them.

Therefore, those women are more advantaged to have more privilege than others. The time you have off at work it is very limited that women will have to sacrifice in order to balance family and paid work. Employers do not understand or ignores the fact that those women have family and the time (days off allowed) given is insufficient for them. In conclusion nowadays it’s harder to survive with only one income so both men and women have to bring an income to be able to accommodate to today’s needs.

A job for women brings a sense of control to their life and independence. Although employers have given benefits to women such as maternity leave which is great because women don’t have to worry about since they will have an income coming while caring for their newborn , yet these benefits that employers give them can sometimes be seen as superficial because they know that women tend to need to leave work more often than men ( because they take care of the family) employers are most likely going to ive promotion to men or hiring men for the more important position witch leaves women in what is known as the glass ceiling where their chances of going up in their career is reduced . Women don’t only face inequality at work but they also face it at home where domestic labour is still sex segregation and women come home to the second shift where they are expected to take care of household work. We all need to realize that women are both important in the workforce and for the childrearing therefore we should encourage them to keep doing both by giving them the proper support that they deserve.

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings” -women fighting male power structure Women, you may be feminist if you: -had lots of choices after high school -had the option of college/grad school -have a career/job and family -plan to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer (professional) -support fair work salary for any work -workplace is free of sexual discrimination -participate in women’s sports -go to a woman doctor -vote in any political race -run for any political office intend to use daycare -can get a divorce (custody) -“You have the choose of wearing jeans and tennis shoes instead of a girdle and heels” “man is not the enemy here but the fellow victim” -Betty Friedan -If civil rights are denied by somebody, it affects everybody Men, you may be feminist if you: -are in college or have had other opportunities because of mom’s good job to contribute to income -mom had support services to help raise you/siblings -have a content, stay at home mom -have ever been asked out by a girl (or paid).

Understand and Appreciate Art -How is it put together? What do I personally bring? Where did it come from? Could not buy/sell property could not enter into contracts without husband’s consent actually seen as property Social no recourse to spousal abuse, no divorce without husband’s consent, few custody rights over kids could not go out in public alone. Educational denied any education, denied education in math, language most could not go to college could not enter the professions (law, engineering), some women attended “female seminars” or “academies” to become teachers; once they were married, however, they were fired. Political could not serve on a jury could not testify in a case (too emotional, not trustworthy), could not vote (not smart, too delicate, “vote like a husband”) Lizzy Borden: acquitted by a jury of 12 men: “not guilty” of killing her two parents “Lizzie Borden took an ax And gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done She gave her father forty-one. “The Birth of the Women’s Movement -Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention with their husbands in London; they were denied seats because they were women. The women reunited at a tea party at the and decided on a convention -Stanton mostly wrote the “The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments”. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal”. List of Grievances -never exercised the right to vote he made her morally, an irresponsible being -in the eye of the law, married women were “dead” -denied the right to education denied divorce rights demeaned to second-class citizens.

Women’s Rights. Ratification of their Declaration. Fight over the 11th amendment (suffrage).

Frederick Douglass (great orator, ex-slave, equivalent to Malcolm X) fought for women’s rights at the convention: the compared value of women as lesser than animals in society Video Clip Notes: Not for Ourselves Alone- Seneca Falls narrations from female historians reflecting -a procession of women to Seneca Falls -July 19, only women attended; July 20, open to all (over 300 men and women) -Lucretia’s husband was asked to lead (the women were nervous because they never spoke in public) -men decried women of their rights -68 men and women signed their Declaration -11 new conditions, only 10 were passed; still no right to vote -“The right to vote is ours. Have it we must use it we will” -Stanton -“Without the vote, women would be unable to change the laws that hurt them”.

Last public words: “Failure is impossible”.One of four women and 2 modern women to be on money -Carrie Chapman Catt -Alice Paul “Iron Jawed Angels” (film) -women jailed for fighting for suffrage. Declaration Stanton and Anthony did not get to vote because they died One Step Forward, Two Steps Back -Some improvement -loss of “steam” – Great Depression. “We Can Do It! ” World War II: The 1940s -women take over “masculine jobs” to help win the war -“if you’ve used an electric mixer in your kitchen, you can learn to run a drill press” -“Rosie the Riveter” represented a lot of women; iconic poster by J. Howard Miller -6 million women became Rosie’s -“Rosie the Riveter” by the Four Vagabonds (song) Marilyn Monroe (Norma Jane Baker) was a Rosie working with planes when a photographer saw her and took army photos -Fannie Lou Hamer: sharecropper who became a significant voting rights and civil rights activist Rush to the Altar mid-late 1940s -soldiers come home, women go home, men take back the jobs Marriage rate: 1948- 16. 4%; 2008- 7. 1% Traditional Housewives (Suburbs) the 1950s -normalcy after the war -traditional families/sex roles -PhT (Putting Husband Through), and Mrs. degrees (women going to college to find a husband) -the ideal of the housewife “the feminine mystique” Video Clip Notes: “Why Study Home Economics” (University of Kansas) -“I’m going to need to know” -“.. homemaker the rest of my life” -we’re going to get married, no choice -Counselor: “Home Ec training teaches you how to be a better homemaker” Ultimate Goal: Marriage and Family -regardless of education -TV Show “Leave it to Beaver” portrayed traditional family roles -TV was new in the 50s: what messages were TV shows sending to men and women? -“Drop the Mop” song (“Equal jobs and educational opportunities”). The Winds of Discontent (the late 50s, early 60s) legal job discrimination -1/3 women working outside of the home (low paying jobs, laid off first, “glass ceiling”) -After WWII, new technology -Airline jobs- as soon as a stewardess got married, she was fired; wasn’t the same for pilots (only could be male) -teaching was considered the “best job” (others were secretaries, but no professions) -Lorena Weeks: Used 1964 legislation to fight the legal discrimination at work *operated switchboards under bad hours and low pay Dissatisfied Housewives -Betty Friedan “voice of dissatisfied housewives” -Wrote, “The Feminine Mystique” (1953).

Video Clip Notes -K. Foley: working wife/mother, frozen opportunities and lack of jobs -Dust Roady: earned a college degree in 1950, wanted to be a pilot, denied the position and only offered to be a stewardess Video Clip Notes: Eastern Airlines commercial -discriminatory and demeaning towards female (stewardesses) -they were fired at age 32, versus male pilots being fired at age 60 -Friedan challenged the identity of women in her book; “.. cannot find herself in a house” -not all women bought her message, however -Jacqui Cueball “it wasn’t us, it was a society”

The President’s Commission on the Status of Women 1961 -JFK’s presidency: women were paid $0. 59 for every $1 man were paid -2008: women were paid $0. 77 for every $1 men were paid -low, unequal pay -poor job opportunities -quotas in professional schools (only a certain number of women) -lack of social services -TV show “All in the Family” – wage disparity (Archie was the husband) -60s: some nuns got rid of their habits (changes in the church) “The personal is political” -social restrictions *”men only” and “women only” public places women were isolated in their own homes- they couldn’t meet up and talk -this issue lead to “Consciousness Raising Groups,” where women could talk about anything in privacy without men or children -battered women’s shelters -contraceptive rights, including abortion (Roe V. Wade) -rape laws -Before Second Wave Feminism, issues such as abusive relationships were “personal problems,” not “society’s problem” -However, feminists argued that society needs to be involved with solving these problems Video Clip Notes -Women try to enter men’s bar “women are people,” “start all over” (black and whites, men and women)

“Second-Class Citizens” -60s: in some states, women needed husbands to cosign to get a credit card -70s: women would not be interrupted during consciousness-raising group meetings -women’s strike “don’t iron while the strike is hot” The Mid 60s-70s -Civil Rights Act 1964 banned discrimination (race and gender) -National Organization for Women (NOW) 1966, created by Betty Friedan; still one of the largest poetical organizations for women’s rights today, aimed at men too (better for them) *not all feminists of 60s agreed with her (like MLK vs Malcolm X). LBJ signs Civil Rights Act -Lorena Weeks cited the Civil Rights Act to fight *it took 5 years and an appeal to the Supreme Court, but she got the job she wanted -Women in white robes praying “Mother, Daughter, Holy Granddaughter” -to feminists: Miss America Pageant was the epitome of “ideal woman” -female protestors threw bras, girdles, makeup, and heels in the trash -Shirley Chisholm: equal pay and equal opportunities in the stock market: feminism

Women’s Liberation: “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” -Helen Reddy -Politics -Legal System -Wall Street -Media -Medicine -Arts -Sports -Pop Culture -ALL AREAS “The Feminine Mystique,” or Betty. Mother, housewife, writer, feminist leader -“The Feminist Mystique” -Worked as a journalist in the 50s, but got fired when she got pregnant; she then did free-lance magazine work from home How did the Feminist Mystique get started? -“McCall’s” magazine “women’s” magazine that catered to women’s issues; asked Friedan to write a piece *Friedan interviewed women she graduated with and asked them “What has been your experience as a woman? ” -The initial title of the article was to be “The Togetherness Woman” (the happy, ideal, traditional woman) -Smith College’s Class of 1942 15th reunion What did McCall’s expect to find? -ideal 50s women -high levels of satisfaction and happiness -LIFE Magazine, December 1956: “ideal American woman…white, middle-class, frivolous, spoiled, beautiful, boy crazy. “

Ideal 50s Woman

• Feminine
• Delicate, Not intellectual
• Compliant
• Content
• Him-focused
• Family-focused
• House
• Focused Video Clip Notes

Christian Dior set standards for fashion trends during wartime -Hourglass figure, girdles and slim shapes with a big bust -“feminine, sexy” -Contestants had to peel potatoes and make a bed in Miss America Pageant Barbie -invented in 1959 -commercial doll (doll $3, clothes $1-5) -Mattel International Video Clip Notes: Xerox commercial -first machine in 1959 -a take-off on Marilyn Monroe, ditzy secretary -overall message: “So easy a woman can do it” A Housewife’s Day -PTA meetings Shopping -Seeing her friends -In her kitchen What did Friedan’s survey actually find? -discontent, unhappy -unexplained fatigue and physical illness -prescription drug use skyrocketed *3 years: 1. 2 million pounds of Miltown (tranquilizer) had been taken by women (mid-50s) -lack of interest in the world or hope for the future -went beyond her college peers She found that for women…. -College graduate rates: 60% drop out (PhT) -Marriage rates up, age down (average 20yrs and dropping in late 50s).

Skyrocketing birthrate -Labor Market: 1/3 working; nonprofessional “jobs” Politics: Congress- more in the 40s than in the 50s What did Friedan conclude? Women suffer from “the problem that has no name”. The housewife’s “blight” (doctors used these terms, even). Psychological problem: lack of identity -Trapped in a dilemma *Homemaker lifestyle that was the envy of many but not fulfilling, especially to the educated woman -McCall’s denied Friedan’s magazine Article (editors were men) What is the Feminine Mystique? -The post-WWII ideology that a woman can and should only be fulfilled as a housewife and mother -Resistance: sickness, abnormality Intentionally pervasive throughout society -Fight back against Feminine Mystique is the Women’s Lib Movement What did Friedan do? “Scream of pain”.  Changed the course of history -Became a pioneer of the Second Wave -Remember Susan B. Anthony was a pioneer of the First Wave Possible “Why? ” Theories -nation’s need to return to pre-war “normalcy”? -“Artificial Buoyancy” idea that in society, there are people who feel they want to be on top, meaning some have to sink to the bottom (men vs. omen) -the need for a consumer class with time and desire to shop.

The Freudian “Why” Theory -Sigmund Freud: Father of psychology and psychiatry. Anatomy is destiny. Women are anatomically built to be mothers. “Normal female traits are receptivity and passivity…a willingness to accept dependence. “Freud is a “male chauvinist pig”. Shulamith Firestone coined this phrase Friedan’s Conclusion: All the theories are true -The Feminine Mystique is pervasive in society and it is the result of an intentional conspiracy by the male-dominated society to keep things male-dominated The Stepford Wives Sci-fi book by Ira Levin: men find a way to turn their wives into robots (ideal 50s woman) -Movies: 1975- thriller; 2004- spoof (credits show many different shots to send his message).

American Film Institute: Best movie of all time graduated from William College then wrote it -Ann Bancroft (who inspired Professor Loughran to act very young) played “Mrs. Robinson,” an unhappy housewife -Dustin Hoffman plays “Benjamin,” a discontent college graduate; actor was originally supposed to be tall and attractive, like Robert Redford -Katharine Ross Music: Simon and Garfunkel wrote the theme song, which was originally supposed to be “Mrs. Roosevelt” -Director: Mike Nichols Video Clip Notes “the Graduate” -Scene begins after Ben’s graduation party -Mrs. Robinson resorts to alcohol and music -” Mrs. Robinson you’re trying to seduce me” Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970) -Comedy of manners: making fun of a certain segment of society -exploring dangers of Feminine Mystique in a humorous way -Making fun of upper, affluent lifestyles of these people.

Early Days of TV -1939 World Fair -Rapid expansion. Post-WWII leisure. Better technology Better programming -Content news, drama, variety shows, live broadcast advertising 1955: Fort Wayne, Indiana -Social Lives -Education -Business -Church TV and Politics -JFK AKA “TV President” -TV was live in the 60s death of Lee Harvey Oswald was aired 1950s/60s TV: A Man’s World “Women’s lives are so dull… they don’t need TV shows” “women can make decisions in comedies”. Norman Felton, MGM Executive Producer -Madelyn Martin, writer for “Lucy” shows Television’s Portrayal of Women (according to Friedan) -boring -jealous -inept -foolish -dependent -weak -silly -spoiled -materialistic “I Married Joan” (1954 Daytime TV Show). Joan Davis (like Lucille Ball).

“Mrs. Bradley Stevens” (married to judge_ Marlo Thomas: Arts Hero -Personal Life. Born in 1937. Daughter of Danny Thomas (comedy “Danny Thomas Show”) grew up privileged, wife/stepmother Phil Donaghue (precursor to Oprah, similar talk show) didn’t want to get married *saw the mistreatment of women firsthand in the acting industry, wanted to be an actress, and was concerned about making it on her own Acting -TV Series: That Girl, among others -Film -Theater Writing -Free to Be…You and Me (healthier children’s book), books, CDs, and TV specials.

Other -Producer -Speaker -Awards: Lucy Award (outstanding women in TV), Emmy, Golden Globe, Grammy same as Sidney Poiter: not about winning, but making a difference That Girl -September 1966 -First show about a single woman -Force behind the show, scripts, clothes -Production aspects -end of the season, she had a boyfriend on the show, the producer wanted them to marry but she said “Hell no! ” Making a Difference -Advocate for women’s rights. The Ms. Foundation for Women -St. Jude’s Children’s (Cancer). Research Hospital. Her dad founded this in 1960 Janis wanted what med had- everything Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got. ” Janis Joplin: first female rockstar -wanted to be equal with men -she wanted a personal life -From Port Arthur, TX; always wrote letters and kept in touch with her family -Dated musician Country Joe McDonald -Wanted a career, broke with the band “Big Brother”, and went successfully solo. Died of a heroin overdose -Made it okay for a woman to create her own kind of beauty -made it possible for women to have any type of career -1995: inducted into Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame -Helped women reach for the starts -inspired female rockstars.