OPPRESSION OF WOMEN
Through out history women have been oppressed by men and other women. Women of today have come a long way though out history. It was only recently that they gained equal rights in the United States, such as the right to vote or even having the right to speak about issues. In Toni Morrison’s essay she urges women “not to participate in the oppression of your sisters”. Which means that another woman should not be violently dominant towards each other, instead they should be working together towards gaining a higher status in society. Till this day there are still signs of oppression, they just don’t have the respect that a man would have. Nearly all of the high paying jobs are obtained by men and for what reason?
I guess that men see women as being unequal because they are physically and emotionally weaker humans. Unlike men they are more sensitive and less aggressive, seeing this as a weakness in the business world, but should this be seen as a weakness. To me this is just another way of handling a problem or situation. The idea of a women staying home and becoming a picture perfect house wife because she isn’t ready to deal with the competitive world outside is evidence of oppression.
Women tend to take their frustration out on each other instead of taking this anger straight to the source. The different types of anger that are projected towards each other are professional violence, competitive violence, and emotional violence. This usually gets no where and stops the excelleration of women on the verge of moving towards higher positions. This has to be a group effort in order to gain more respect and to prove others that they are die wrong about the capabilities that women have.
The competition with one and other females need to stop. Toni Morrison expresses this message through her essay. She uses the Cinderella story to show the oppression through out history and what not to do to each other in the case of Cinderella’s step sisters. It is a strong and positive point clearly stated to undo the wrong.
There is evidence every where that this oppression still exists today, even with all the changes that we have gone though to gain equal rights for everyone. Jobs that are high on the corporate ladder or jobs that effect our government are mostly given to men, even though a woman would qualify for the same position. My cousin, Jane is a victim of the prejudice. She was about to be promoted to the position of managing the company at her job where she had worked for seven years, but some how a guy who had four years of experience at the company got the position. The only explanation her boss gave her was that he was better qualified for the promotion and just gave her a small raise on her salary instead of the promotion, which would have gave her an opportunity at gaining even better positions at that company. I felt the same way she did when she told me this “it’s totally unfair”.
Another situation of the same oppression occurred during the summer at a store I was working at for the time being. I started off with ten dollars and seventy five cents an hour doing varies types of work. Nearly right away a girl who had just gotten the job two days ahead of me asked me how much I was being paid. When I told her I noticed anguish on her face and asked her why she asked, to my surprise she was only being paid nine dollars and fifty cents an hour. Of course I didn’t complain, but it kept me wondering why, was it because the boss knew I would be a more efficient worker than a girl or was it because other guys in there mostly all had better wages than the girls.
I have come to the conclusion that women are still facing oppression and they need to stand together to face the issues that are holding them back in society because women tend to hold each other back with senseless struggles with each other. Due to the rapid changes in our society hopefully this issue wouldn’t be a problem for future generations.