A memory I have of a person who has
experienced bias in relation to being a female and having a child. I have a
friend who recently had a child and she took her time off for maternity leave.
When it was time for her to return to work, they decided that her husband was
going to stay home with the baby and the mother was going to return to work. I
remember having a conversation with peers when someone said, why is your
husband staying home, isn’t the Mom supposed to stay home with the baby. This
is bias based of the stereotype that women stay home with the children and the
men go to work.
This experience
diminishes equity because men and women should have the same opportunities and,
in this situation, my peer was implying that a mother should not be going back
to work after having a child. Stereotyping women saying that they should not
attend work and should stay at home with the baby is taking away from a women’s
ability to be independent and make a living for her family. This example shows
that the image portrayed of women is a house wife while the man is the
breadwinner- showing that men and women are not looked at as equal.
As I was
witnessing this conversation I was hurt by some of the comments being made. While
it is a dream to be able to stay home with your new baby, women should have the
opportunity to go back to work and be successful and not feel ashamed or be
judged for doing so. It is frustrating to think that women are still experiencing
discrimination towards gender roles and with the many changes in society. I
hope the outlook on this topic begins to evolve.
In order
for this incident to be turned into an opportunity for greater equity, society
needs to adapt their image of how women are portrayed. In many roles in society,
women are not given the same opportunities as men strictly because they are a woman.
As there are more and more women entering the field of science and business
taking on more roles that men would often hold, there are still many cases
where women are not given these chances and if they are, they had to fight hard
for them.
Your post is so true and very informative. I feel that it should be equal and the determination should be decided with the agreement of the wife and husband. The women has done a major part in birthing and may have a job that the family home benefits off of, whereas the father may not. I agree that was very bias, and just because she is the mother she does not have to be the one to stay home.
ReplyDeleteBrianna,
ReplyDeleteI have heard people say similar comments about men not needing to stay home with their children, and I agree that it diminishes equity! The topic of paternity leave has become more popular, especially since some other countries offer this in the workplace. I found an interesting article by the United States Department of Labor (n.d.) on the issue of paternity leave which discusses the advantages it can have as well as the restrictions that are currently in place. Hopefully one day paternity leave will be as normalized as maternity leave, since both parents are heavily involved in the upbringing of their child!
Tara
Reference
United States Department of Labor. (n.d.). Paternity leave. Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/asp/policy-development/PaternityBrief.pdf
Brianna,
ReplyDeleteThis experience is similar to what I discussed on my blog. It is in fact sexist to assume that the woman should stay home to take care of the baby. If other women were saying this to her, they were "mom-shaming" and internalized oppression. Internalized oppression is not only when a person begins to believe the message they receive from others but also when people from the marginalized group begin to believe these messages and turn against one another (Axner, n.d.)
Trish
Reference
Marya Axner (n.d.) Healing from the Effects of Internalized Oppression. Community Toolbox. Retrieved from: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/healing-from-interalized-oppression/main