Oh, oh, since we are all talking about gender, for some reason, haha... I wanted to bring up this film called
North Country. It has gotten lots of criticism.
Anywho, let us talk about how this film was set in 1984. Not 1964. Not 1944. Only 30 years ago (maybe some of our mothers were young girls back then).
Even in the 1980s, when some of us were just born, it was still common to hear of women getting sexually harassed at the work place; even more so if you were working in a position commonly filled by men (which was the case in the film). It was not unheard of for women to be encouraged to take on simpler, easier positions to avoid any harassment, even though it meant taking on less pay. This was something that was portrayed in the film, so I thought I would bring it as an example to talk on gender submission.
To add, the scenario in the film presented several situations where the women had to be submissive toward the men (even though they were not presented in the same work role) lest they suffer from retaliation from the entire group.
How are women taught not to go for higher jobs? I hear nothing but "Help girls' self esteem", "You go girl", etc. on TV. How society is set up makes it very common for both parents to be working, because you can't afford everything on one salary. I agree with your last part, though.
To answer your first question, statistically speaking women are generally (
generally now) less aggressive than men in the work force. For example, they are statistically less likely to argue their salary and take on tasks that require more work (like supervisory roles). There are several theories for this but the most common one is the mindset to settle for less/what is available. Women working outside the house and supporting the family is common now, but you also have to take into consideration things like the gender barrier, gender role (obligations) etc.
This is beginning to be less common, especially for people who are from this generation. Generation X (from the 1950-80s) are the main pool of people who are working right now and they have a different mindset (more gender-oriented) than Generation Y (us)? Change will not come as fast as we hope since they still saturate the work pool now. Women today are now taught to get an education and work hard to advance themselves. A couple decades ago was quite different.
I think a course in gender and politics or gender and society might be of interest to you. As boring as it sounds, it's really interesting and most courses help you examine the roots of all gender issues or "gendergraphing" as my professor like to call it. And this is both male and female (and others). The modern perception on gender is fairly new; and the "GO GIRL" concept you are referring to was not something you heard, until a couple decades ago--maybe less. But then again, who wants to go out of their way to learn about boring stuff, except for people like me, haha.
