The Gendered Workforce 2050

“Society as a whole benefits immeasurably from a climate in which all persons, regardless of race or gender, may have the opportunity to earn respect, responsibility, advancement and remuneration based on ability.” Sandra Day O’Connor (http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/s_d_oconnor.htm)


In the year 2050, women are finally getting close to closing the wage gap between men and women. Although pay is not the same in every job yet, it is the closest that it has been since the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963. In the past the more education that a woman had, the bigger the wage gap became. In 2004, “female doctors only earn 58 percent of their male counterparts’ salaries.” (http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Careers/10/22/equal.pay)

Women have always fought for equal pay for equal work, and it is finally within reach. Women are finally entering the ranks of the more hazardous jobs, such as firefighters, construction workers and lumberjacks, where “over 90 percent of all occupational deaths happen to men.”, (Kimmel 197) This is one reason that the wage gap has started to close. Men are staying home in larger numbers and letting their wives be the breadwinners of the family.
Women and men are both huge parts of the science world many thanks to the encouragement women started to receive in the early 2000's. "Large increases in the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and much more moderate overall increases at the National Science Foundation (NSF) continue an upward trend in funding for science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) research and education. NSF's ADVANCE program, which promotes activities to encourage women to enter science and engineering fields, received a funding boost of $7.0 million, for a total of $16.0 million."(http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/xxvi/chap5.htm)


Companies are hiring people based upon their qualifications and there is no such thing as a glass ceiling or cellar. Companies in the past have had problems with the glass ceiling, but once the USA had a female president, men started to realize that women could do anything, and do it well.





References:
http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/xxvi/chap5.htm

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Careers/10/22/equal.pay

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/s_d_oconnor.htm)

Kimmel, Michael S. (2002). The Gendered Society Second Edition. New York, NY:Oxford University Press.

Classrooms in 2050

In 2050, after many battles with publishers, textbooks finally contain equal information about both men and women. In the 1970’s publishers “vowed to reform” and they issued “guidelines for equity”, but when textbooks were examined years later, women were still not mentioned much. (Kimmel 226) In fact, both middle and high school history books were found to contain about 2 percent of information about women, while the science textbooks in five secondary schools “not a single female scientist was depicted.” (Kimmel 223) While some publishers have tried to amend their information, others have gone backwards. If you are to look at the Norton Anthology of English Literature, “there was greater representation of women in the first edition of the anthology in 1962 then in the fifth edition published in 1986.” (Kimmel 224) Kimmel, Michael S., Amy Aronson. (2004). The Gendered Society Reader Second Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.While there are still some co-educational classrooms in 2050, same-sex classes are more popular then ever. Looking back at the late 1990’s and the early 2000’s boys and girls were having many problems in the classroom that some people decided to try an experiment. This experiment was same-sex classrooms, and they worked very well. One example of this is in an elementary school in Owensboro, KY. The principal grew desperate after the school had the worst test scores in the country, so he decided to segregate the first and second grades by gender. The boys, who are more likely to fidget had their desks removed and given “short exercise periods throughout the day”, while the girls were given a “carpeted area where they sit and discuss their feelings.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9285515/site/newsweek) It is also a known fact that “teachers call on boys more often and spend more time with them.” (Kimmel 162) Same-sex classrooms tend to put an end to this, if there are only girls in the class, then they receive much more attention from the teachers.

“The classroom setting reproduces gender inequality” (Kimmel 162)

Although there are more same-sex schools, we still have many co-ed schools where gender inequality is produced. From elementary school throughout higher education, female students receive less active instruction.(Kimmel 162) This is being prohibited because in 2050, there is more integration than ever in the classroom between both sexes, and students of very different backgrounds. Many students are learning more from one another. A quarter of the population is Hispanic. In the ealry 90's all students were required to learn a second language in high school, this has now been changed Non-Hispanic students are now speaking Spanish fluently and are now learning it as young as pre-school. The Hispanic teacher population is one of the highest adding diversity and helping close the gap between staff ethnicity and the diverse service population.

The schools also incorporate more social activities to prevent backsliding in the children's social skills and gender recognition and differences. Unlike in the early 2000's, when "physical education and sports programs had been cut and recess was a distant memory", school officials push for more extra curricular involvement by putting it in the daily schedules (Tyre 2). It allows the children to participate in a variety of activities (changing programs on bi-quarterly basis) while interacting with both genders since lacking in the classrooms. The fine arts are also available and children are able to gain the benefits of same sex classrooms through arts and other activities where their confidence won't be on the chopping block.


Good article about same sex classrooms: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/elementary/default.aspx?article=samesexschools

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10965522/site/newsweek/print/1/displaymode/1098/

http://www.newsoffuture.com/quarter_of_us_population_hispanic_future_population.html

Kimmel, Michael S. (2002). The Gendered Society Second Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Edition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9285515/site/newsweek

In 2050, families will be closer and spend more time together. Technology will allow both parents to work from home and in turn will allow them to see their children more. Fathers will be more involved with caregiving. In the text, The Gendered Society by Michael Kimmel, it states that a Newsweek Magazine poll found that "55% of fathers say that being a parent is more important to them than it was to their fathers, and 70% say they spend more time with their children than their fathers spent with them" (137). These trends will continue to grow. Also, families will be living in "extended family" situations allowing grandparents to be an important role in a child's life. The parents of this generation will be close to their extended families since a trend in nursing home care will more than likely decline. It will be more cost effective and convenient for adults to take care of their parents in their own homes.

A 2050 Society

This blog is an assignment for our Introduction to the Study of Women and Men in Society course. We are working as a learning team to collaborate our thoughts and creativity to look into the future to the year 2050 and predict how society will function...here we go!