Sexism In Sixties

I realized that many of the problems that women were facing in the sixties still occur in 2017. The actions themselves have changed a little as society has changed, but the underlying meaning is still the same. For instance, whenever women are lauded for an accomplishment in their field, the fact that they are a woman is brought up. They are never just called a doctor or a lawyer instead “[women are] depicted in the media as strange mutations -- ‘female physician’ or ‘lawyer and grandmother’ -- whose achievements [can] never be mentioned except in the context of their femaleness” (Collins 6). It is this subtle display of sexism that leads to the continuation of demeaning people because they are women. It also takes away from the impact of
Women were not allowed to be flight attendants if they were married. They were held to a certain beauty standard that they were expected to fulfill. Essentially, flight attendants were there for the man’s pleasure. They were expected to bend down and light a cigarette for a male passenger and were treated as little more than objects. There were even restrictions placed upon women when flying, “one regular run, the ‘Executive Flight’ from New York to Chicago, actually barred female passengers” (Collins 19). These restrictions placed upon women, not only in the airline industry, were often thought of with white women in mind. I cannot even begin to imagine how horribly minority women were treated by
A large majority of Congress consists of men, which means the motions passed concerning women are primarily decided upon by men. These decisions set the tone for how women are perceived, which means mainly men are deciding how women are treated. Regardless of how a woman feels about reproductive rights, it is important that they advocate for more women to be involved in the decisions concerning them. The textbook discusses how the public perceived women in the sixties and it is saddening to say that it has not changed that much. “The male politicians, business executives, editors, and scriptwriters who set the tone for public discussion usually felt that wives not working was simply better” (Collins 16). This quote is a prime example of how men are often the ones deciding what is best for women and it has been this way throughout history. Granted, we have many rights that would be unimaginable to women 100 years ago, but the mentality that men make the decisions for women needs to change. We need to have more representation in Congress; we need to have more women, more ethnic minorities, and varying religions represented in our