For as long as we can remember, abortion has been a topic of debate in the United States. Protest after protests, women begging to be able to have their own human rights returned, we’ve seen how America handles abortion and ‘pro-life vs. pro-choice. This week’s videos were very informative on women’s experiences and the issues they face regarding their reproductive system. The video “The Abortion Divide” did a great job at illustrating the process a woman goes through during an abortion, showing us both physical and mental difficulties they face. In the video “Hobby Lobby: On Last Week Tonight” we can see how companies are trying to abuse their power by trying to have a say in “people matter’s”.  Hobby Lobby made a case against abortions by saying that their taxes should not go towards the medical procedure of abortions and birth control, because they go against their Christian beliefs. Under the Citizens United Ruling, it states that corporations can have the same free speech rights as people, this makes it so that large companies that have immense influence over their employees and communities can now represent themselves in court as people can.  The Supreme Court had a say over the case and they favored Hobby Lobby by agreeing that companies are people that have religious freedom.  This is unfair as companies are not actual people and are certainly not held to the same standards.  The company is a large conglomerate that has money and the power of influence and religious freedom should not have been granted as their store workers and corporate workers are not all Christians.  The ruling of the case invalidates the beliefs of others and should be reviewed as this has granted a company owned by Christians to have a say over people’s bodies just on the basis that it goes against their beliefs, scripture, and church.

This week’s snapshot posted by Sadira Mohammaed captures the topic perfectly. It is an image of a woman’s organs being pulled in reference to being controlled by groups of men.  I love this image because we can see in a more literal form how men in our society feel so entitled to control a woman’s body and reproductive system. As true as this image is, it’s honestly super sad. Men have control over their bodies and can choose what they do and can’t do to themselves but why can’t we? Why do they feel so entitled to ‘rule’ over a body that doesn’t concern them whatsoever?

 I found this week’s readings very interesting. The reading “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan was one that I enjoyed reading and learning about.  In this reading, the author gave the reader an insight into what 15 years after WWII looked like for women and women’s roles. Throughout history, we have seen how the term housewife has evolved and with this reading, we are able to see the first definition of being a housewife. 

In this week’s reading, readers were able to have a better interpretation of what it meant to be a housewife back in the 1950s and how these women really felt. Being a housewife meant you had to stay home, take the kids to school, cook, clean, do laundry and make sure you keep your husband. This meant being submissive to your husband and doing whatever kept him happy. In this era, happiness was subjective, where happiness meant you were being the best housewife you could possibly be. The only dream was to be the perfect housewife and mother. These women were also not able to make major decisions for the house or for themselves. Women with other ambitions other than being a perfect housewife were frowned upon and women were taught to feel pity towards these ambitious women. While reading this I couldn’t think of anything else other than forced misogyny. These women were bringing other women down and wanted to stay submissive to their husbands forever. Fast forward to modern-day, a housewife now is a lot more optional, where they chose to stay at home as their husbands/partners provide for the family but they are able to have some say in decision making and are able to fend for themselves without it being an issue. Now, ambitions have somewhat changed and they vary by case, they still want to be the perfect wife and mother to the kids but they don’t do it out of fear from their husbands, they do it for themselves and personal goals. As women still compete with one another, especially housewives on who plays the role better, we have grown a lot out of bashing other women for wanting to go out and have careers and bring something else to the table. 

As we know, a housewife’s duties back in the mid to late 1900s were to cook and clean, and watch over the kids while the husband was at work. For this week, I added a snapshot of a meme of a woman saying “there are other rooms in the house?” I found this sad but funny. It is said that women were practically prohibited from doing anything else other than feeding their kids and husbands and making sure all chores were done. It saddens me that it took so long for women to realize their worth and realize that this was not the ‘happiness’ they thought they needed. Another post that caught my eye was one made by Sadira. In this post, there’s a woman saying “I don’t need rights – I have a kitchen”. This caught my attention because women really thought they had it all and were living lavishly while living into this pushed misogynistic idea of only obeying their male superiors – in this case, their husbands. I am so glad for the brave group of women who took a leap of faith and decided to go out and fight for women to have basic human rights again.

This week we looked into the labor laws and the concerns of women in the work field. As we may know, women were not allowed to work for many many years and it wasn’t until recent history where we can see that change and women slowly making their way into the workspace. Unfortunately, when women began working, they did not have the proper rights and laws that’ll properly and equally protect them within the work field. This week’s videos, “Triangle Returns” and “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” alongside another reading vividly described this time with the example of the unfortunate event of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Disaster. 

Throughout history, we have been able to see the baby steps taken in society to help and protect women. In recent history, women have been granted the right to work, in any field they chose. However, they have not always and still aren’t protected within their workspace. From monetary inequality to safety precautions, women have been facing many difficulties while trying to make a simple living in a work area they enjoy or simply need. In the youtube video “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory” We hear about the unfortunate event of March 24th, 1911 where a factory in NYC caught on fire. This factory employed about 500 women who worked extremely long hours for less than minimum wage. In this incident, the women were trapped in the building for 18 minutes total where they couldn’t leave because the energy exits were locked by management to prevent items from being stolen or removed from factory premises. This factory also lacked a sprinkler system which also led to the fire spreading in the building, causing the death of 146 women total. It took this very horrifying incident alongside protests due to the incident for rights and laws to be passed to protect women in the workplace. More than 100,000 workers protested demanding safer environments in the workspace. Because of this, laws and rules were passed that demanded automatic sprinklers indoors, as well as fire exits could not be locked. 30 years later, minimum wage laws were passed, time and a half(overtime hours) law was passed and the working middle class was created. Watching this was very saddening knowing it took a very unfortunate event for women to receive basic protection within the work field. The most upsetting fact of this event was hearing about the owners of the factory trial. The owners went to trial for this incident that was ruled as murder as it could have been prevented, and they were found not guilty. As management, it is your responsibility to make sure your environment is safe for the workers, no matter the incident. There should be no reason why these owners cared more about a few products being stolen, that they had to block emergency exits, than the lives of their workers. While this event may seem so long ago, a few months after its 100th anniversary, another fire broke out, this time across the world in Bangladesh. This event happened exactly the same as the Triangle shirtwaist. Factory-filled with employees, a fire broke out, employees couldn’t leave due to emergency exits being closed off and no automatic sprinklers to put out a fire. After 100 years of the world becoming more advanced, having new technologies and over 50 years of laws to protect employees from events like these put into place, it was super unfortunate and saddening knowing that while we think we take 1 step forward we actually take 3 steps back. 100 years is more than enough time to realize working conditions and there should be no excuse why the same exact event happened twice within such a long timespan from each other. 

Lastly, a snapshot that caught my eye this week was a post made by classmate Heatherlee. They posted a side-by-side image comparison of working conditions in factories for women. The first image is a black and white image of factory workers, while the second image is a colored image, as the people in the image appear to be wearing face coverings due to the recent Pandemic. In both images, women are lined up, hand sewing and hand manufacturing goods. I believe that we should be taking steps forward in society when it comes to factories. These people should not be working in sweatshops where they work extremely long hours for little to almost no pay at all. Technology has advanced a ton and employers from these huge mega-millionaire companies should be able to pay above minimum wage if they want to keep handmade products. If they can’t “afford” this pay, they should be using machinery in factories to protect these workers from these horrible working conditions.

This week we dove deeper into the historical events of activism in America. With the reading, “ 100 Years towards suffrage: An Overview” and the video “Untold stories of Black Women in the suffrage movement” I was able to gain a much better and very detailed understanding of the history of these movements that have led to today’s changes in society. As mentioned in this week’s video, although we have not broken all the way through from all the challenges set for women, especially black women in history, we have come a very long way within the years. 

This week’s video explained the stories of women in history and how their part in this movement has led to a lot of the freedom we have today. A very thoughtful part of the video was hearing about Ida B Wells’s story. She was an African American journalist, educator, and leader in the civil rights movement. She was born into slavery where she then lost her parents and a sibling due to the Yellow Fever that was spreading quickly at that time. After the Emancipation Proclamation, she was able to move to Tennessee with her siblings where she was able to receive a better salary teaching and was able to raise them. Later on, she became Co-owner and writer for the “Memphis Free Speech and Headlight Newspaper ” Unfortunately throughout the years, she was threatened by a white mob who burned and destroyed her work/office space. I found this very inspiring as she was only 16 when she lost her parents and was able to continue to move forward while raising her siblings and continuing to fight for equality and freedom. Another story I enjoyed learning about is the sorority Delta Sigma Theta. Learning about both of these events was very inspiring as they both had to overcome very difficult circumstances but they didn’t let that stop them from getting to their goal. Because of women like this in history, we now have the rights we do as women in this society, and we will continue to fight like these women to get the real freedom we deserve. 

A post that caught my eye this week was the post made by a classmate, Raquel. They posted an image of a woman tied up with ropes with the words “Politics is no place for women” however it seems like the woman is breaking loose from the ropes. This image speaks a lot more than just that. To me, this image represents the liberation of women being trapped by the laws of them not being able to vote, not having the rights they deserved.  It wasn’t until about 100 years ago when women got the right to vote and a little over 50 years ago when all African Americans were granted this right. As mentioned before, this is only the beginning and we need to continue to fight for the rights we deserve.