Entering the Conversation

1. Which of the goals of the early advocates for a more meaningful political and economic role and personal life for women do you believe have been achieved?

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Which of the goals of the early advocates for a more meaningful political and economic role and personal life for women do you believe have been achieved?
2. Some of the authors during the late 1800s and early 1900s advocated social change by arguing that the enfranchisement of women would strengthen the existing culture rather than overturn or even change it. Discuss at least three different arguments put forth to articulate this position. Which do you find the most effective and why?

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Some of the authors during the late 1800s and early 1900s advocated social change by arguing that the enfranchisement of women would strengthen the existing culture rather than overturn or even change it. Discuss at least three different arguments put forth to articulate this position. Which do you find the most effective and why?
3. Many of the suffragists emphasized the plight of the working woman and, implicitly or explicitly, argued for a natural alliance between the suffragists and workers. Discuss how the texts in this Conversation argue that the women’s suffrage movement would not only benefit women but also all workers and, thus, the entire economy.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Many of the suffragists emphasized the plight of the working woman and, implicitly or explicitly, argued for a natural alliance between the suffragists and workers. Discuss how the texts in this Conversation argue that the women’s suffrage movement would not only benefit women but also all workers and, thus, the entire economy.
4. In the 1960s, during the so-called Women’s Liberation Movement, the Virginia Slims cigarette manufacturers launched an advertising campaign with the slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” This campaign continued for more than a decade, with many of the ads depicting fictional historical events involving women during the suffrage period of the early nineteenth century. Many showed women smoking as an act of rebellion and poked fun at the men who tried to censure them. Ultimately, concern over the health risks of smoking led to shifts in approaches to the ads, but during their heyday this campaign was very successful. Find some of these ads online and discuss how images of women’s suffrage were interpreted to serve the purposes of the advertiser.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - In the 1960s, during the so-called Women’s Liberation Movement, the Virginia Slims cigarette manufacturers launched an advertising campaign with the slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” This campaign continued for more than a decade, with many of the ads depicting fictional historical events involving women during the suffrage period of the early nineteenth century. Many showed women smoking as an act of rebellion and poked fun at the men who tried to censure them. Ultimately, concern over the health risks of smoking led to shifts in approaches to the ads, but during their heyday this campaign was very successful. Find some of these ads online and discuss how images of women’s suffrage were interpreted to serve the purposes of the advertiser.
5. In “The End of Men,” an article by Hanna Rosin in the Atlantic in 2012, she asks, “What if the postindustrial economy is simply more congenial to women than to men?” Rosin cites the fact that during the recession of 2008, “three quarters of the eight million jobs lost were lost by men,” and that many of those jobs in construction and manufacturing are unlikely to return to a position of prominence. Further, Rosin points out that today women outnumber men in colleges and professional schools and that the qualities most valued in the early twenty-first century economy—“social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus”—are qualities that women, because of society’s prevailing values, are more likely than men to develop. She concludes:

   Yes, the U.S. still has a wage gap, one that can be convincingly explained—at least in part—by discrimination. Yes, women still do most of the child care. And yes, the upper reaches of society are still dominated by men. But given the power of the forces pushing at the economy, this setup feels like the last gasp of a dying age rather than the permanent establishment. Dozens of college women I interviewed for this story assumed that they very well might be the ones working while their husbands stayed at home, either looking for work or minding the children. Guys, one [college] senior remarked to me, “are the new ball and chain.” It may be happening slowly and unevenly, but it’s unmistakably happening: in the long view, the modern economy is becoming a place where women hold the cards.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Entering the Conversation: - In “The End of Men,” an article by Hanna Rosin in the Atlantic in 2012, she asks, “What if the postindustrial economy is simply more congenial to women than to men?” Rosin cites the fact that during the recession of 2008, “three quarters of the eight million jobs lost were lost by men,” and that many of those jobs in construction and manufacturing are unlikely to return to a position of prominence. Further, Rosin points out that today women outnumber men in colleges and professional schools and that the qualities most valued in the early twenty-first century economy—“social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus”—are qualities that women, because of society’s prevailing values, are more likely than men to develop. She concludes:Yes, the U.S. still has a wage gap, one that can be convincingly explained—at least in part—by discrimination. Yes, women still do most of the child care. And yes, the upper reaches of society are still dominated by men. But given the power of the forces pushing at the economy, this setup feels like the last gasp of a dying age rather than the permanent establishment. Dozens of college women I interviewed for this story assumed that they very well might be the ones working while their husbands stayed at home, either looking for work or minding the children. Guys, one [college] senior remarked to me, “are the new ball and chain.” It may be happening slowly and unevenly, but it’s unmistakably happening: in the long view, the modern economy is becoming a place where women hold the cards.
6. Explain why you agree or disagree with Rosin’s argument that the workplace has shifted to favor women.

   Question

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   Entering the Conversation: - Explain why you agree or disagree with Rosin’s argument that the workplace has shifted to favor women.