Showing posts with label American. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American. Show all posts
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Working Like a Man or How American Feminism Failed Part 2
As the 1960s dawned, so did the birth of feminism in earnest. Many arguments exist in regards to how the women’s movement gained steam. One theory is that the jobs were there waiting, so the women’s movement was a reaction to market pressure combined with a loss of national focus on families and childbearing (such as Marvin Harris in his book Why Nothing Works). Another theory, associated with Joan Williams in her book Unbending Gender argues that the women’s movement was a reaction to an actual loss of status of women as homemakers toward the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s which was caused by women exiting the home and entering the workforce in increasingly larger numbers. It was at this time that the seeds of what we now refer to as “the mommy wars” was born (Anticipate an extensive exploration on that topic throughout the month of June). As the movement gained steam in the 1960s, American feminists focused more on redefining and redistributing gender relations which involved challenging the roles that women and men performed in the home and at work on both a public and private front. This in turn gave birth to the concept of equal rights, equal pay and being treated as equals in the workforce. Women at this time began challenging their entry into traditionally male professional positions as well. As Sylvia Ann Hewlett wrote in her book, A Lesser Life: the Myth of Women’s Liberation in America;
The slogans of the day were extraordinary: Marriage was hell, sex was political, coitus was killing, married women were prostitutes, babies were traps, intercourse was rape, love was slavery, families were prisons, and men were the enemies.
The problem with this push for equality is that the workplace was not asked to conform to the addition of women, specifically mothers, but that the mothers were asked to conform to the workplace. As a result, women ARE treated equally. They are expected to work 40+ hours, they are expected perform at the same levels with the same time commitments as men. In many ways they achieved their dream of equality: they compete equally in a workplace that still assumes that someone is at home taking care of the children and the home but without the supporting addition of the family wage. Now there is the assumption that most households subsist off of two incomes, unless the family has enough economic advantage (or is disadvantaged enough to secure assistance) to subsist off of one.
At the same time in Europe, in the 1960s, women and feminists were challenging things on a drastically different front. European feminists contrasted with American feminists in that while they experienced a similar shift of mothers into the workforce it has been supported through government benefits while the United States offers less governmental support for child care than does any other industrialized nation. European women focused their movement on the difference rather than equality and reconfiguring what would be considered the public and private spheres (what is considered private responsibility and what is considered public responsibility) rather than the American re-distribution of gender. In other words, they challenged that the family belonged in the public sphere and that instead of assuming that childbearing belonged within the privatized sphere of the family they fought for the idea that child care should be a publicly supported endeavor. As a result most European countries have generous, paid maternity leaves, easily available part-time jobs , subsidized child care and subsidized preschools for all children. The economic costs of these programs are offset by the reduction in turnover and the wider pool of labor looking to remain in the workforce (Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood). In other words, few of the choices that European women make create an undue burden on their long-term financial future, at least not in the way similar choices would affect women in America. For example, when a woman in America chooses to stay home, she does not just lose salary, but a long-term security because she is not paying in to social security, thus becoming economically dependent on her spouse.
In conclusion (just in case you were wondering if I would ever get here) there was American feminism and its focus on re-coding gender stereotypes through “equal rights” and European feminism which focused on providing specific help for women’s unique gender positions. The result for American women was that they are expected to compete “equally” in a work environment that still operates under the assumption that all domestic labor (child care, domestic chores, house cleaning, laundry and other family maintenance) is being performed by someone who is still at home (an extensive subject to be addressed in future posts). So women are supposed to work 40hrs a week and compete equally without any compensation for having to place children in child care, or having to either hire a housecleaner or add a second shift. Meanwhile, in Europe, women are enjoying their “special status” as women and are much less conflicted in their roles as both mother and employee, seamlessly passing between the two.
Monday, June 5, 2017
Amex Offers A 100 American Express Gift Card Giveaway!
When I was in college and trying to establish credit, one of the first credit cards I opened up was an American Express card.
I signed up for it to establish good credit and I picked it because of the low fees, rewards and great customer service.
I have loved being an American Express cardholder for the past 15 years!
Now Amex is in a league of its own with the new Amex Offers program!
What is this new Amex Offers I am talking about? Well, let me tell you!
Amex Offers are another way for you to cash in on some savings!
Every bit of savings helps these days and American Express is making it so easy.
The offers are tailored to you based on where you have shopped in the past and also your current location!
It’s great that no matter where you are, Amex gives highly relevant and interesting offers from brands I love that are actually useful and that I can use immediately to save money.
How does it work? Great question!
AmexOffers.com makes it super easy to get savings every time you shop.
Log into www.amexoffers.com (if you haven't signed up yet, do it now!)
You browse through the list of offers available, and all you have to do is click on ‘Save Offer’ to save the offer to your Card.
That's it! So easy!
You go ahead and spend like you normally would except now you get to collect savings on your purchases! It’s like using coupons except you don't have to cut out coupons or remember to bring them when you shop, your Amex Offers are already on your card!
And, you can easily and securely connect your Amex Card to social networks like Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and TripAdvisor to add offers to my Card right in those places.
There are TONS OF OFFERS AVAILABLE:
Card Members have saved over $90 million with Amex Offers… go get your piece of the pie!
Here are some awesome offers that are available now
Whole Foods: Spend $75, Get $10 Back
JCPenney: Spend $50, get $10 Back
Crazy 8: Spend $25, Get $5 Back
Those are perfect for Back to School!
Sports Authority: Spend $50, Get $10 Back
Kevin is most excited about this one since we have a few home projects that we are working on this month:
Lowe's: Spend $200, Get $50 Back.
If you are an American Express Card Member, go sign up for Amex Offers ASAP!
One of the things that I like is that the savings doesn’t apply when I check out, but rather the savings is subtracted on my monthly statement! Love that!
Now let’s move onto the giveaway!
One lucky reader from my blog will win a $100.00 AmericanExpress® GiftCard.
To enter, leave a comment at the end of this post answering this question:
What do you like most about Amex Offers?
One of my favorite things is that I don't have to carry around coupons or use a code; I just have to save the offers! So easy!
Good luck!
Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 8/4-9/1.
Be sure to visit the Amex Offers brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
- Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
- Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#AmexOffers” and “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
- Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
- For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from 8/4-9/1.
Be sure to visit the Amex Offers brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
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