American woman

A. The existence of women

The existence of women over the time in transition or shift from traditional to modern. The
role of the woman who used to be adopted only capable of working in the domestic realm,
but this time she is able to develop itself in the public sphere. This raises the existence of
variants of interest, between the domestic and the public sphere. These results indicate that
the existence of career women in the public sphere in the family recognized for their
collective agreement concluded between career women with families. Mainly deal agreed
with her husband and children. But the deal does not diminish the responsibility of working
women in the domestic sphere. Role between domestic and public balanced and collaborate.

Gender equality in the last decade has experienced a transition regarding the existence of
women in particular. The existence of women often experiences polemic and resistance from
various parties, especially men. Women become objects that are often marginalized in
people's lives in various aspects such as social, economic, cultural and political. The
existence of women is often oppressed as a housewife and only able to explore themselves in
the domestic realm. But this does not make women become indoctrinated with the
oppression.

At present, many women are found able to explore themselves not only in the domestic realm
but also able to develop themselves in the realm of the public. The development and
development of modernization is currently a lot of women who work outside the home.
Women often have obstacles and obstacles in entering the workforce because of the
oppressive factors committed by the community and the husband. Although women are given
space to develop themselves in the realm of the public or the world of work. This does not
eliminate the function of women in the domestic realm as housewives. This caused a dual
function for women in Indonesia.

The role of women today is no longer only focused on the domestic realm, but is growing in
the public domain. Women who are able to enter the workforce cannot be said to ignore their
responsibilities as wives and mothers. This reality cannot be fundamentally oppressed but
needs an in-depth survey to prove this. Women naturally have a full function in the family,
because they have a duty to protect their husbands and children.
B. American woman

The role of women in the United States has changed dramatically over the past few decades.
For one, more and more women have taken on new responsibilities outside the home by
joining the paid workforce. While women made up only about one-third of the workforce in
1969, women today make up almost half of all workers in the United States. Women are also
stepping up to lead the country; a record number of women ran for public office in 2012, and
a record-high percentage of women are serving in Congress. In addition to making progress
on issues of economics and leadership, women have made progress on health issues, which
impact women’s personal well-being, as well as their economic security. Over the past few
years, women have been able to end gender discrimination by big insurance companies and
gain free contraception coverage because of the Affordable Care Act.

Despite women’s advancements, however, substantial inequalities remain. Although an

increasing number of women are either the sole breadwinner for their family or share the role
with their partners, women in the United States are paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man
makes. The pay gap is even larger for women of color. On average, African American
women make 64 cents for every dollar that white men make. While 2012 was a watershed
year for women in terms of getting elected to public office, women still comprise only 18.1
percent of Congress, despite making up more than half of the U.S. population. They also face
challenges on health issues, as 2012 saw continued conservative efforts to erode women’s
ability to make their own decisions about their health and well-being.

A deeper examination shows that disparities for women also exist among states. Women in
Vermont, for example, make on average close to 85 cents for every dollar a man makes,
while women in Wyoming make only 64 cents—more than 25 percent less than women in
Vermont. On leadership, 15 states have no female elected leaders in the House of
Representatives or the Senate. Lastly, while less than 10 percent of women in Vermont,
Wisconsin, Hawaii, and Massachusetts are uninsured, nearly 25 percent of women in Texas
do not have health insurance.

Status of Women Rises

As women advance professionally, they have begun to redefine their self-images. One
women's leader says: "We used to think we had to marry doctors [to achieve status and
financial security]. Now we know we can be doctors ourselves."

But women have not achieved economic "parity" [equality] with men. A 1987 Congressional
survey reported that women, on average, take home 68 percent of what men earn. That
statistic, combined with the fact that many women are raising children alone, helps explain
why far more women than men are living in poverty.

Representative Barbara B. Kennelly (D-CT) says, "I think the most chilling line of the report
is that women college graduates...earn on a par with high school male dropouts."

"We've made tremendous progress,"says Deputy Secretary of Eduction and former Vermont
Governor Madeleine Kunin, "but the earning power of women is still considerably lower than
that of men. This affects children more than anyone else. The modern family has two wage
earners, for the most part, or a woman as a single support."

An eighth-grade student from Hinsdale, New York reports that her mother, who works as a
food buyer, has found that women are discriminated against in the food industry. A women
with five years' experience may receive the same salary as a newly hired male.

Paying A High Price

Not only have women often been denied fair salaries, but they have paid a price for trying to
"have it all" — both a career and a family. More and more women are feeling the pressure of
trying to balance their personal and professional lives.

"I don't really think you can have it all," says Vieira, who at age 35 gave birth to her first
child. "I'm part of a generation that thought you could, and now is finding that you can't."

Most women today, including mothers, are in the work force. Some women work part-time
instead of full time while their children are young. This choice is not available, though, to
single mothers, or to those whose families depend on two full-time salaries.
For working mothers, finding reliable and affordable day care can be a major difficulty.
Many women have to settle for makeshift arrangements, such as leaving their children in the
library all afternoon.

Women's groups and others are urging Congress and the President to do something about day
care and other family issues. But as Patricia Ireland, of the National Organization for Women
(NOW), points out, "Less than 5 percent of the members [of Congress] are women. If
[women] were 50 percent instead of 5 percent, [Congress] would put a much higher priority
on issues like day care."

Partly for this reason, NOW encourages young women to think about running for political
office. Ireland told Junior Scholastic, "We are saying to young women, 'You have not only a
right but an obligation to be part of the policy making of this country.'"

Deputy Secretary Kunin says, "I would strongly encourage young people to participate in
politics. The legal barriers [against women holding office] are gone.... If a person is interested
in politics, [he or she] should just go ahead and jump in. Anything worth doing is difficult.

Rozanda Thomas state “Being natural is incredibly empowering for women because it's just
who you are. You're embracing all the beautiful things about you from your head to your
toes. Because when you mask so much of your natural beauty, people don't get to see that”. It
means The reality found in the field provides an understanding for society at large, especially
for women, there is no limit to the space and time for women to be involved in developing
themselves in the public domain. The dual role of women both in the domestic and public
spheres is carried out in a balanced manner without reducing the meaning of the real nature of
women.

Although the actual content of women's roles and and status dramatically in the year after
World War II in 1945, there had been a litle substantive progress toward equality and
almost no indication of mass-movement to struggele for the better condition. For
example, in the early of the nineteenth century had much changed protest and condition.
For example, in the early of the nineteenth century women had rights to vote, and worked
outside of their homes in which they did not have before After the World War II, millions
of women began to work outside and tried to be professional workers in many companies
and government offices, but still they had no equality as whar men had done.
Betty Friedan in her book The Feminnie Mystique (1963) initiated to struggle and to
protest such a had and unequal condition of women's status, roles, and positions. She then
charged that American women still had ben brainwashed. Their lives were defined by the
condition of their birth and told that "They could desire no greater destiny than the glory
in their own feminity" As a result, women were imprisoned in a "comfortable
concentration prevented from discovering who they were by society which told them only
what they could be (William H. Chafe, 1991).

Eventhough American women have made great strides and steps in achieving many
aspects of life and eqaulity. American women still are treated unequally by their men
counterparts. As we know that the roles of women in the home and in business settings
and economic life is very important. Yet, it is still seemingly a man's world For example,
eventhough women and men have the same qualifications in school, or business
institution in the same job, they were paid less than the men. It is probably right because
men think that women is not as breadwiner or regarded as the second wage earner. Also if
a man and woman apply for the same job in a field where men dominate, in a majority of
case, it is the man rather than the women who is hired While women hold important
positions in business, industry and education, men are often that not hold the managerial
and supervisory posts. Women are often heard to say, "I don't want to work under another
woman. I'd rather take order from a man." The same attitudes carriers over into the home
she likes to feel that she is under the protection of a man and has judgement to back her
up. There are exceptions of course, but it is generally true of the serious decision is to be
made, the mother says, "We wil ask your father or "I'll see what my husband thinks.

Because the condition and situation of women life are not proportinal and unequally
treated by men, Betty Friedan with her colleagues and patners tried to struggle for the
equality women rights. Originally the women movement or liberation coincided with the
rise of the any other movements in the 1960s such as Youth Movement, Free Speech
Movement, Social Democratic Society, etc. Those movements arise because they were
upperessed on the basis of cultural and physical characteristics. They demonstrated and
protested for freedom and equality. To strengthen and to accelerate in achieving their
goals, many women joined SNCC, SDS or civil-right movement to involve in debate,
discussion and intellectual analysis.
 As SDS, SNCC, and FSM spread throughout the campuses, women liberation movement
quickly also spread to campuses and cities around the country. They felt that they really
involved in this movement. One participant as qouted in William Chafe (1991) says:

One thing become clear that in the black movement I have been fightlng for
someone else's opperassion and now there was a way I could fight for my own
freedom and I was going to much stronger than I ever was.

To achieve their goals, abolishment of the sex discrimination for example, and
govemment failed to end the condition, these activitist then, founded National
Organization for Womer (NOW) in the 1960s in which was led by Betty Friedan to
mobilize pressure on the behalf of women's right. Other groups quickly followed, and the
women's right wing of the new feminist movement was born, using political pressure,
litigation, and mobilization of public opinion to seek justice for women. NOW and its
allies worked for freedom and reform within existing structure to secure for women equal
protection in national, social, economic, and political life.

The National Organization for Women also aimed to reach equal employment
opportunity and equal pay for women, for publically supported child-day care center, and
the other reforms. Soon, more radical groups demanded the total liberation of sex.
Radical women movement seemingly wanted to change the man domination in society.
They denounced every form of "male chauvinism." For example, some radical women
advocated doin way with marriage as a legal institution and raising children in communal
center, other turned their hatred of the system against the male sex and extolled the
benefits of lesbianism.
The radical feminism attacked and rejected all aspects of standard of image of the male
sex They insisted on the total equality. For instance, they also took in course in self-
defense, karate, etc, in order to be able to protect themselves from muggers, rapists, and
casual masters.

It also important to note that they also rejected and denounced the use of masculine words
like chairman ( favoring chairperson), post man (favoring mail person). They also substituted
the term Ms for both Miss and Mrs, on the ground that language drew no distinction between
married and unmarried man. This extreme feminism alos fought legalized abortion, and
inisting on that every woman has right to control her own body John Garathy, 1981).