Women’s place in business, like many other aspects of society, has been and still is overpowered by the ignorant patriarchy of powerful men. It doesn’t just start while you’re scrolling through Linkedin; it can start in your home as a child, or it can start in college when you’re figuring out if you have the “balls” to pursue what is most important to you. Just this past week, I watched a video in my Law, Justice, and Society class about the progression of women in high ranking positions.
The documentary Makers was about the changes that women have made in proving their place in the workforce. It included interviews from some of the first women to pioneer the way for our rights. It showed old advertisements where women were simply portrayed as a way to present the product and how that eventually transitioned into being marketed as the women being entrepreneurs of the products. This is just one example of the way that the history of women’s clothing, attitudes, and opportunities improved through some badassery and hardwork.
From the moment the film started, I was astonished to hear the women being interview say things like, “I just thought it would be fun to do what men do,” in regards to having a career, such as company CEO. This was truly the mindset of women in the 50s, as expressed in Maker so while there’s still a great importance and responsibility in being a home caretaker, women finding a way to become equal with men as a contributing part of business can be a stimulating way to assert dominance.
I want women to be the powerhouse of our society just as much as the next feminist, however I don’t want to get lost in the shadow of the many men who paved the way in their favor decades ago. The messy and frustrating prejudice that women who had once thought to step out of their stereotypical role of only being able to be a housewife should continue to drive us to further to expand the diversity in male-dominated job position. Also we can push ourselves to access what other creative contributions to society we can make. I knew, obviously, that women didn’t always receive equal pay, weren’t always considered for certain job positions, had to be more masculine, and a whole lot of other discrimination. But as someone who teeters between career and major options this idea will always be in the back of my mind. It’s this inner demon that almost every woman has faced when trying to figure out essentially what do with their lives.
For so long,t he cookie-cutter life plan has been to fall in love, get married, have kids, and create a home. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, the long standing expectation for women to be the assistant or secretary to a man who won’t necessarily experience that needs to end. It presents a harmful expected structure of women secondary to men, when far more beneficially would be an arena of hire and promotion based on merits and qualification, void of factors like gender or race. So, my overall inspiration and message I got from this documentary is essentially that whether being a lawyer, doctor, CEO, writer, and/or mom is your dream, achieve it with confidence and the voice of the other driven women in this world behind you.