"Hannah's Blog" Repsonse

Hannah's blog is based on the topic of the Human Genome Project. Her presentation is straight to the point and gives a general view of the various beliefs of genome project. The question of the human genome project comes down to whether it is moral or immoral. The Genome Project's research has allowed new opportunities to arise in the scientific field. Gene doping was especially interesting to me. The idea of any living specimen's genes being transferred into humans is extremely interesting. The controversy that connects to gene doping is that with the ability to transfer genes, the athletic world will be unfair. Individuals will have strengths that are unnatural and will ultimately be able to beat out others who do not have that particular strength. Genetically engineering humans is also another aspect to the human genome controversy. Individuals who are for the human genome project believe that research can improve athletic ability,create a healthier population, and the population will consist of more intelligent, successful individuals. On the other hand, individuals who are against the human genome believe that God put all humans here for a reason and no one should play the role of God by altering nature. The reasons behind each side's opinion can go on forever. The basis of the controversy comes down to each individuals moral beliefs. After viewing this presentation I still am unsure of where I stand on this topic. I believe that human engineering would only cause problems in society. Parents designing their own children would strive for perfection. Society would become obsessed with making the perfect human. I do believe that genetically engineering animals would allow certain specimens to do specific tasks. The problem with that is harming animals. I also believe that doctors should use this new research and technology to use, and try to prevent disease through individuals genes. If we are able to before hand prevent cancerous cells in a humans body, why not take advantage of that opportunity and remove those cells? This topic is very complex and controversial. However,the aspect of this presentation that I found to be exciting is the fact that the world of science and technology is even considering the idea of human engineering. Our world has become so advanced that even the idea of this is outstanding. I have had previous knowledge on this topic from biology last year, but the way this presentation was presented furthered my knowledge of the humane genome project by providing new visuals and facts that revolve around this topic.

"A Charming View" Response

The blog, “A Charming View,” was based on the topic of child labor. This is one topic that I have had no previous knowledge on. The overall presentation was informative and powerful. The youtube clips that were shown made me realize how lucky I am to be living in a community where poverty, hunger, and child labor are not problems. The statistic that there are 2.2 billion children in the world, and 1 billion are living in poverty was unbelievable to me. I could not wrap my mind around the idea of how many children are suffering. Alyssa’s theme that was based around the presentation was the question of choosing work or hunger. Most children living in third world countries had no choice but to work and try to earn money for their families. These children had to work for 12 hours every day only to get paid less than 2 dollars every hour. Children would either have to give up working and go days without food, or work endless days and make very little money. The problem is a lose-lose scenario. No matter what, these children wake up every morning and fight for their lives. If child labor was eliminated, families would be forced to look for work and live on the streets. Even though child labor isn't so much of an issue in America today, many third world countries are forced to keep child labor in order to support their unstable economy. The real issue of the matter was what struck me the most. Because children are not considered "legal adults" until they are 18, they basically have no say in the government's decisions. The only way for child labor to come to an end, would be for school systems, parents, and the government to stop ignoring the problem. The information provided in this presentation was very captivating. I am know aware of the child labor problem that exists all over the world. I am horrified that almost half of the children living in this world are working under poor conditions in order to help out their families.

"Thoughts on Yesterday" Response

This blog, Thoughts on Yesterday, was on the topic of Gay and Lesbian rights. The presentation in general was very powerful. The youtubes that Laura chose explained and demonstrated the ways that the gay community feels in American society. I have had previous knowledge about gays and lesbians and the struggles they go through because of who they are. I believe that gays and lesbians are born the way that they are, and because of that have no control of their sexuality. Watching Laura's presentation opened my eyes to the beginning of gay community's revolt against society. The Stonewall riots were a significant event for gays and lesbians because it was the first time that gay individuals fought back against the discrimination they were facing. This was the first time the gay community broke their silence. The theme of Laura's blog that was carried throughout her slides was the idea of silence. For a long time in history gays and lesbians had to remain silent. They were not allowed to come out and let even their closest relatives know they they were gay. The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy created by President Clinton in 1993 captured my attention of what was happening in society during the 1990's. This policy allowed gays into the military under the circumstance that they were unable to talk about their sexuality as well as answer any questions regarding it. This relates to the day of silence that was mentioned in Laura's final presentation. Here at DHS, the day of silence occurs. The day of silence is a day where gays and lesbians let their voices be heard, in the sense that they do not speak. For many gays, they were and maybe still are unable to talk to others about their sexuality. Some religions strongly believe gay individuals will go to hell for being gay. It is sad to realize that even today, some states in our country do not allow gay marriage. These people are just like everyone else, they simply just attracted to the same sex. Overall, I really enjoyed Laura's presentation and it helped me form my own opinion on the gay/lesbian controversy that still exists today. I also was informed about the path that these individuals took in order to fight for equal rights.

Works Cited

Anthony, Susan B. "Women's Right to Vote." The American Reader. Ed. Diane Ravitch. New York: New York, 2000.277-285. Print.

"Equal Pay Act (1963)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Featherstone, Liza. "Wal-Mart values: selling women short. (articles). (sex discrimination case brouhgt against discount store)." The Nation. 16 Dec 2002: 11. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 7 Feb 2010.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Essential Feminist Reader. Ed. Estelle B. Freedman. New York, 2007. 128-144. Print.

Julie Lowell. "Women Face Discrimination in the Workplace." At Issue: Does Equality Exist in America?. Ed. Stuart A. Kallen. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 5 Feb. 2010 .

Rampell, Catherine. "Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces." NYTimes.com. The New York Times. 5 Feb 2010. Web. 8 Feb 2010.

Stolberg, Sherly Gay. "Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation." NYTimes.com. 29 Jan 2009. Web. .

"Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Venable, Denise. "Women Do Not Earn Less than Men Due to Gender Discrimination." Opposing Viewpoints: Social Justice. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 7 Feb. 2010 .

"Women in Government." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.

"Women in the Workplace." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010.

http://gstudies.asp.radford.edu/sources/wage_gaps/census/census%20earnings%20ratio%20by%20sex%2060-03%20360.jpg (Wage-Gap Image)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3uryDJzI0&feature=player_embedded# (Attitudes Towards Working Women in the 1950's)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy0dLBX8qzw (Wal-Mart discrimination)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOxGRuKFwJg&feature=player_embedded (The Trouble with Woman (1959))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EWBcrddq9U. (Obama Signs The Lilly Ledbetter Law)

Current Event Analysis

Gender discrimination still exists today. Women are especially discriminated against in the work place. As always, people will take a stance on any major societal issue. Some believe the wage-gap is due to men treating women unfairly, while others believe the women are not discriminated against at all. In the article, "Women Face Discrimination in the Workplace," it is revealed that, "Based on past rates of wage growth, women's wages will not reach parity with men's until at least 2051." The Women's Research Policy found that women only make 70% of what men make in the work place. According to the writer of, "Women Face Discrimination in the Workplace," Julie Lowell the reasoned that the wage-gap is due to the difference between men and women's work skills that have been acquired. She claims, "This argument claims that men's higher levels of education, job force training, and/or work experience account for them holding higher paying jobs in comparison to women." Women are still being unrepresented in higher paying jobs. The Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Case taking place in 2007, was an example of women who were under-paid and discriminated against. Betty Dukes, an employee at Wal-Mart super center, was given a merit pay raise and a full time job. Two years after that she was promoted to a position of customer service manager. She began to undergo hard discrimination from her superiors. She was ultimately denied to training that was needed in order to advance further while male employees were receiving the same training at the same time. She was also denied to opportunity to work in "male" departments like hardware. Seven women from California took their stories to case and fought against Wal-Mart industries. The case went to court several times. The Dukes vs. Wal-Mart case could be considered the largest civil rights class-action suit in history because of its affect on more than 700,000 women. Although thousands of women believe they are discriminated against on a daily basis, other individuals believe that these complaints of "unfair treatments towards women," are over exaggerated. Denise Venable analyzed the wage gap between men and women. She ultimately concludes that the differences between men and women are due to personal lifestyle choices, not because of gender discrimination. Venable claims that when women behave in the workplace as men do, the wage gap between them is very small. Venable claims that women tend to stress factors in their lives such as family and children before they stress about work. With that, they are more likely to make choices based on their work. Part-time working is something women are more likely to partake in. In 2000, one quarter of all women employees worked part-time. Nearly 85% of those women work part time due to family not due to economic standards. Married women women prefer to work part-time at a rate of 5 to 1 over married men. Venable believes Women choose to base their schedules off of their family. The article continues to stress that only 28% of women work work in fields that pay $40,000 or more a year. Fewer women have chosen to enter such technical fields as computer sciences, math and science teaching, medicine, law and engineering. Overall, Venable's perspective demonstrates that women are not discriminated against, they merely choose to have lower paying jobs. The core aspect of the issue that Venable does not preach about, is the women and men who work the same job where women are paid less. Another article, presented in the New York Times, relates to the women-men wage gap. For the first time in the Nation's history, women have a higher payroll than men. Due to America's economic recession, more men have been laid off than women. Casey B. Mulligan who is an professor at the University of Chicago quotes, "Important milestones remain to be achieved, but women surpassing 50 percent of employment is something that historians will note for years to come." Since the recession that began in December of 2007. Women have lost 3.9 million jobs where men have lost 7.4 million. The main reason for this is due to the jobs that men hold. Men tend to work in manufacturing industries, which pay more annually. When the economy is down, the companies that pay the most need to cut back. Women who hold careers in fields such as education, health care or government, are not paid as much and are able to hold their jobs. Unfortunately, as the women continue to have the upper hand in the Nation's Payroll, once the economy starts to improve, men will gradually make their way back on top of the payroll. The questions still remain. Are women discriminated against in the work place and why?

Background Analysis

Discrimination against women has not just been an issue in America for a few years, it has been ongoing from the mid-1800's, until present day. Women have been classified with this idea of being in a "private sphere." Women have been surrounded by this private sphere that contains their homes, husbands, and children. Nowhere in this sphere is there room for work. The stereotype wife consists of, taking care of the house, making food for the family, and watching over the kids while their husbands are out working. Women were constantly being denied the right to participate in anything outside of their "sphere." From the article, "Women in the Workplace," it was stated that, "the cult of domesticity of the time held that women should remain in the home to provide a refuge for men from the difficulties of the industrial workplace." This quotation is suggesting that women should be working hard at home so that their husbands who work so hard during the day do not have to lift a finger when they return home from work. The reason why were women were stuck in their homes, was because they were constantly denied the opportunities to work. During the 19th and 20th century women began fighting for their rights in the workplace. American women were denied job opportunities by law. Wars and industrial movements were the primary cause for women starting to be seen in the workplace. While men were off fighting at war, women would work in shoe and textile factories. From the start, women's wages were still low, working conditions were poor, and they had little time off. These unfair treatments did not go unnoticed. Women began taking a stance and fighting for their rights. The Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1919 which guaranteed women the right to vote in all local, state, and national elections. The more that women continued to fight for what they wanted, the more opportunities came about that enabled women to gain equal rights. The passing of The Equal Pay Act was another major progression for women. On June 10, 1963, the act required equal pay to both male and female employees for jobs that had the same skill, effort, and jobs with similar working conditions. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was amended by adding the Equal Pay Act into a new subsection. The Act stated that no employer, when hiring, is able to discriminate based on gender. No employer has the right to not pay a women equally if they have the same skills, put in the same effort and responsibility as a man. Employers are however, able to distribute wages based on the seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production, or a differential based on any other factor other than gender. Unfortunately, these acts made gender discrimination in the workplace illegal, but men employers found ways around this. Employers continued to hire women in lower-paying jobs. Secretaries and stenographers were two occupations that were popular from women to uphold in the 1960's. These two jobs were based of a lower pay scale, which went around the Equal Pay Act. Women were still not gaining the respect they were hoping for. Men continued to undermine women's labor rights. As harsh as women were treated, they still continued to spread awareness of how they were treated. Unfortunately, the public attention was struck due to a massive fire. Even before the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, the public was well aware of the gender inequalities that were taking place in the workplace. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire was the worst industrial fire in New York's History. The fire killed 146 garment workers, mostly all women. The government's attention was brought to the safety and working conditions throughout the city. The Triangle Shirtwaist Company contained 500 employees who were mostly Jewish and Italian women. The factory had poor conditions, no sprinklers and the exit doors were kept looked to prevent the women from taking breaks. The ventilation systems and fire escapes were in bad condition as well. The fire only lasted for 15 minutes. The building itself was covered with flammable bolts and scraps of fabric. The following week a march of 10,000 sympathizers took place in New York City. The New York legislature passed many laws that improved working conditions and safety. Even today women are still not treated equal to men when it comes to working. The progression for women's rights has been tremendous. Rallies and riots have allowed the public to realize and take a stance on gender discrimination. Laws have been created in order benefit women's rights. As history shows, women have and gradually are making progress for equal rights.

Short Story Analysis

The short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," is a perfect representation of the gender roles in early American history. Before women began to fight for their rights by starting movements and rallies, men were always the superior in a marriage. The unnamed narrator is married to a physician named John. The narrator is suffering from post partum depression after she just had a child. John suggests that he, his wife, and his sister-in-law stay at a summer home until his wife makes a complete recovery. As the story moves forward, the narrator begins to notice that her husband has taken advantage of the fact she is "ill." She is forbidden from seeing her new born baby and also from any mental stimulation, such as reading or writing. That fact that she is "forbidden" from doing anything goes to show that the narrator is taking orders from her husband. At one point of the novel John speaks to the narrator by stating, "What is it, little girl? Don't go walking about like that-you'll get cold" (The Yellow Wallpaper, 137). Although the narrator thinks John is talking to her in a sweet, loving matter, the reality of it is, is John is treating his wife like a child. The narrator is treated as an inferior to John. Women's role in society is the first aspect that appears in this novel. Although John and that narrator are married, the man still overrules the woman. By John not allowing his wife to even write down her thoughts in a journal, goes to show that he does not respect her opinion. By writing out what she believes she is sharing her take on life and what is happening around her. By John limiting her liberty to write about what is on her mind, he is ultimately forcing her to only think the way he thinks. The narrator reveals that, "...I am afraid, but I don't care-there is something strange about this house-I can feel it. I even said so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what I felt was draught, and shut the window" (The Yellow Wallpaper, 130). This quote is demonstrating that when the narrator expresses her fears and concerns about the house he merely tells her to shut the window. Unsympathetically he ignores how she feels. Another aspect of the novel was the symbol of the wallpaper. The yellow wallpaper, being the title of the short story, was a symbol that was connected to the feminist views of Charlotte Perkin Gilman, the author. As the narrator laid in her bed with nothing to do, she noticed the ugly wallpaper that surrounded her. She began to become captivated by the hideousness and the patterns that began to form as she stared at the wall. She reveals the saw, "strange, provoking, formless sort of figure that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design" (The Yellow Wallpaper, 134). This description is explaining the way women were viewed during the nineteenth century. The wallpaper is described to be dull, useless, and irritating. The narrator begins to see a woman trapped behind the wallpaper. For the last days she is in that summer home, she is determined to rip all of the paper off so she can set that women "free." Another interpretation of this wallpaper is how the narrator feels about her own life. The more she sits and thinks about her husband and her life, the more she realizes that sense of inferiority she is experiencing. She wants to "set herself free" from the wall that is holding her back, which in this case would be her husband. Along with the yellow wallpaper, the windows in the room where the narrator stays are barred. These bars on the windows may represent the way women were viewed. They are trapped within themselves. Even if they want to escape the role they play in society, they ultimately have no choice. The discrimination against women is demonstrated in this short story. Men during this era felt as if they had total power over their partners. The reality is, at the beginning of the novel the narrator felt like her husband's power was his way of loving her. As time went by she realized that she was useless and viewed as weak. This is when she spent her time determined to rip the wallpaper off of the walls. This short story was a perfect example of how women misunderstood the way men treated them during this time period.