1. Gender equality

2. Agenda
1. Warm-up questions
2. Gender equality in the USA
– historical background
– current state
3. Parks and Recreation “Women in
Garbage”
– about the series
– gender issues in the episode
4. Discussion

3. Warm-up questions
1) American women can vote since:
a)1989 b) 1789 c)1920
2) The majority of the US population constitue:
a) men b) women c) no difference
3) On avarage, women in the USA earn:
a) more than men b) as much as men
c) less than men
4) The first book by a woman writer was published in:
a)17th century b)15th century c)1920s

4. Gender inequality – dispairity
in status, power and prestige
between people who identify
as women or men.

5. Historical background
• Puritans believed that a woman should be
subordinate to her husband and dedicate
herself to bringing up children.
• In some colonies wives:
– couldn’t work with men
– worked with men in the field
and stables
– were treated as property
– could only own clothes and some items they
brought with them into marriage

6. Tax-supported schooling for girls
began in 1767 in New England.

7. • The first published woman
writer was Anne Bradstreet
in 1650 (book of poems
The Tenth Muse Lately
Sprung Up In America).
• For centuries women used pseudonyms to
conceal their gender

8. • Women got right to vote:
– in New Zealand - in 1893,
– in Australia- in 1894,
– in the USA - in 1920,
– in Britain - in 1928,
– in Canada - in 1918.

9. Role of a woman
• The typical housewife was expected to spin,
sew, preserve food, cook, and clean while caring
for her children and raising vegetables, chickens
and geese. A wife was expected to be
subservient to her father until she married and
then to her husband.
• Sometimes they worked in typical female
professions as:
– teachers, nurses, servants, weavers, factory workers,
seamstresses

10. Beginning of 20th century
• Between 1930 and 1931, 63% of cities
dismissed female teachers as soon as they
became married,
• 77% cities did not hire married women as
teachers,
• ¾ of cities did not employ married women for
any job,
• during the Great Depression women's
unemployment rate was higher than that of men,
because they earned less.

11. World War II
• Workforce:
– at the beginning of the war – 12 million
– at the end of the war - 18 million
• During the war:
– 350,000 women served in the military
– 150,000 women computed the speed of bullets,
measured bomb fragments, mixed gunpowder, and
loaded shells
– many more worked as draftswomen, mechanics, and
electricians, and some received training in ordnance
engineering

12. After the war
• In 1946 4 million women were fired.
• Woman - a housewife and man - a
breadwinner
• Women went to college to find a husband.
• The average working woman in the 1950s
earned 60% of the average working man's
salary.

13. Feminist movement
• A series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as
reproductive rights, domestic violence, maternity leave,
equal pay, women's suffrage, sexual harassment, and
sexual violence.
• The first women's rights convention was held in Seneca
Falls, New York on 19th and 20th July 1848. 68 women
and 32 men signed a Declaration of Sentiments, which
outlined grievances and set the agenda for the women's
rights movement. A set of 12 resolutions was adopted
calling for equal treatment of women and men under the
law and voting rights for women.

14. What was achieved
• the right to initiate divorce proceedings
and ”no fault” divorce
• the right to have access to contraceptives
and abortion
• the right to own property
• the right to vote
• more equitable wages
• access to university education

15. Gender equality - current state
• 2012 World Economic Forum report on gender equality
– indicators: economic participation and opportunity, educational
attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment
– the US placed on the 22nd position (behind Cuba and Canada)
– in 2011 – the 17th position
• The Time Magazine
– almost 40% of American wives make more money than their
husbands
– almost 60% of collage students are female
– the wage gap: women earn 81% of what men do
• U. S. Census Bureau
– in 2010 women became half of all workers
– small rise in management positions (35 to 38% in the last 20
years)

16. • Possible problems:
– theoretically equal rights,
– need to join the role of a housewife and an
employee,
– women getting pregnant are often fired,
– no legal guarantee of paid maternity leave,
– need for equality in workplace to make use of
feminine skills, e.g. negotiation skills.

17. A bit of statistics:
Aspect Comment
Population (in Mil.) 311.59
Sex ratio (male/female) 0.97 More women than men
Women expected to live
Life expectancy (female/male) 1.066
longer
Income ratio (f/m) 0.62 Women earn less on avarage
Literacy ratio (f/m) 1 No difference
Most politicians are male, no
Women in Paliament (in %) 15.2
woman president

18. Parks and Recreation
“Women in Garbage”
Ron Swanson
Ann Perkins

19. Ben Andy
Wyatt Dwyer
Tom
Haverford

20. Leslie Knope
April Ludgate

21. In the episode

24. Warm-up questions
1) American women can vote since:
a)1989 b) 1789 c)1920
2) The majority of the US population constitue:
a) men b) women c) no difference
3) On avarage, women in the USA earn:
a) more than men b) as much as men
c) less than men
4) The first book by a woman writer was published in:
a)17th century b)15th century c)1920s

25. Discussion
1. What do you understand by inequality and feminism?
Do you think these two terms are still present in modern
societies? Give examples.
2. Look at the problem of equality from the male/female
perspective. Try to find arguments for preserving
typically female and male roles.
3. Nicholas D. Kristof from The New York Times claims
that ”we have gender equality when we’re no longer
talking about it”. Do you agree with this statement?
Why? What is your definition of gender equality?