The Struggle for Equal Career Opportunities for Women in Contemporary Societies Research Paper

The scientific and technological revolution has had a strategic impact on modern occidental civilization in regard to gender relationships. The revolution has helped to change the roles ascribed to men and women and weakened this dichotomy altogether, rendered it outdated. Contemporary progressive values, the fruits of work of the best minds of humankind, and the expansion of the scope of human activities could not but alter the place that women have occupied for ages. These factors have prepared the foundation for an increase in attention that social sciences pay to the problems of women in general and to the issues of women that belong to different ethnic minorities specifically. The processes of globalization and industrialization made possible the extension of feminist movements across the world and contributed to the development of gender and queer studies.

Nevertheless, the ambivalence of this complex process should be emphasized: several issues that women are accustomed to encountering have persisted, worsened, or mutated. These issues could not be eliminated within the framework of patriarchal approaches in the situation of a globalized human society, and its incorporation into a single social whole. Taking into consideration that the patriarchal structures limit the progress of women’s rights movements, the devaluation of the traditional patriarchal paradigm is becoming increasingly apparent. As a result, new conflicts and contradictions appear in occidental cultures that initiate the tendency to move to a quality-wise new level in societal development.

It should be noted that women’s sphere of interests has been limited for a long time to the sphere of family and children’s upbringing, and it remains so in some ultraorthodox societies. This inherent bias determines the need for women to partially leave the private sphere in order to enter public spaces, strengthen their social mobility and introduce further women’s experiences and values into the discourse of contemporary societies. Incorporating feminist values into the basic human ethics system is necessary for the formation of a socio‑cultural climate that would be adaptive to further changes in the public discourse regarding the role and status of women.

Whereas in some spheres and professions, feminism made relatively rapid progress, some of them remain to a degree resistant to transformations. For instance, in the movie business, women may be treated in an objectifying manner, and their careers largely depend on the patronage of the powerful man within it. The poignancy of the issue in the movie business is emphasized by the emergence of the “Me Too” movement.¹ It is worth noticing that the campaign may suffer from several pitfalls and may need some improvements in its strategies and positions. It even endured negative comments from those for whom it is supposed to be beneficial: Catherine Deneuve has called the movement a “witch hunt” and expressed her general dissatisfaction with it. ² Nevertheless, “Me Too” seems like a necessary tool to promote equal opportunities inside the movie industry.

On the other hand, it seems like women increasingly appear more often on the wide screens in the leading roles. They began to occupy more prominent places in action movies and not just as sidepieces or love interests for the male protagonists. Still, Hollywood producers may prefer to see more women on the screen than to work with them on the set, and there are no specific premises for this trend to cease. The discourse around the status of women in film production has been enhanced by “Me Too,” and the desire to incorporate more women directly into decision‑making processes within the industry has been expressed.

The movie industry is not the only one, where women may face challenges entering or making career progress. It seems fair to state that for a long time, business as an activity was regarded mainly as a sphere dominated by men, and this shared vision still perseveres till nowadays. A lot of obstacles that women have to overcome while creating their business or participating in an established one are associated with gender stereotypes. A certain number of enterprises are mainly described as the kingdom of women – flower industry, sale of cosmetic and household items, and beauty salons are on this list. Nevertheless, the idea that these domains are possibly women-oriented should not limit the space that female entrepreneurs occupy. In this way, it is necessary for the female sphere of employment to reflect women’s involvement and success in fields such as engineering, IT, industrial chemistry, or metallurgy – those that are typically associated with men.

In contemporary oriental societies, the status and place assigned to women in business may be considered minuscule in comparison to the position of women in the occidental ones. Nonetheless, the entrepreneurship becomes more and more widespread, but access to it based on gender is still more restricted in some countries. For instance, Maden reports that in Turkey, women entrepreneurs face a number of impediments, including a lack of societal supports, prejudices, troubles obtaining capital, insufficient training, and shortage of information. ³ These obstacles occur in spite of the fact that the modernization movement that took place approximately in the twentieth of the last century elevated the standing of women in Turkey. ⁴ Thus, inequality of opportunities in the labor market is an issue that women all around the world face, even though to different degrees.

Seemingly, the creation of working conditions that would promote equal opportunities is not entirely dependent on individual women, but to a degree on those who find themselves high on the corporate hierarchical ladder. Besides some evident propositions as applying a positive discrimination strategy and employing more women over men, enhancing the inclusive atmosphere at a workplace and encouraging corporate culture devoid of sexists premises are steps helpful in increasing workplace inclusiveness. Nonetheless, even though the progress may be obtained faster if prompted by authority figures, the initiative should also come from the bottom-up. It is indispensable for individual women workers to know their rights, be vocal about their conditions, and actively participate in the equal rights movements. As Baum notices, “chronicling women’s progress for equal rights and fair treatment helps to remind generations of the struggles that women have endured to create a better future for generations to come.” ⁵ Still, not all women have the opportunity to employ the strategies to navigate safely and securely in their work as expressing non‑conformist behavior may be actively discouraged and lead to the loss of a job.

During the lockdown, the call to stay at home to protect oneself has become the conventional wisdom; nevertheless, home is not the safest place for everyone. Under current conditions of lockdown, women have to face complications of pre-existing systematical issues. Except for increasing unemployment among women, as they tend to work in customer-oriented services more and this part of economy was especially damaged by imposed protective measures, domestic violence rates also increase.

At the early stages of the lockdown, homicide news has begun to emerge in a number of affected countries. Whether it is the result of focused media-attention or an actual increase is questionable to some researchers as they propose to wait till the end of lockdown to draw a conclusion.⁶ Nevertheless, it is common for the reported cases to be a small percentage of the actual ones, and the emerging number of domestic violence incidents shows additional long‑term consequences for victims.⁷ Thus, it is essential to take action to mitigate the effect that the pandemic has on domestic violence victims, for instance, by raising concern and bringing attention of authorities to the problem in these times of crisis.

The growing prestige of feminist slogans indicates a shift in the perception of the movements for equal rights in the general public discourses. The inclusion of feminist values, to the basic value system of society is a step that took a century to be made. The elaboration of the mechanism for adapting these values to the socio-political situation of a particular time was necessary to ensure parity of the active participation of women in all spheres of society. These processes, viewed as shocking at the beginning of the last century at the beginning of this one, comparatively, became a norm in the occidental countries. Despite the progress made, the current situation provoked by the pandemic requires the movement to adapt to new challenges.

Bibliography

Bradbury-Jones, Caroline, and Louise Isham. “The Pandemic Paradox: The Consequences of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence.” Journal of Clinical Nursing (2020): 1-7.

Baum, Bernadette. ” Workplace Sexual Harassment in the “MeToo” Era: The Unforeseen Consequences of Confidential Settlement Agreements.” Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences 31, no. 1 (2019): 4–24.

Otero, Daniel. “How “Me Too” Hollywood Types Destroyed Feminism.” Journal of Arts & Humanities 7, no. 11 (2018): 50–57.

Maden, Ceyda. “A Gendered Lens on Entrepreneurship: Women Entrepreneurship in Turkey.” Gender in Management: An International Journal, 30, no. 4 (2015): 312–331.

Footnotes

1. Otero, “Me Too” Hollywood Types,” 52.
2. Otero, 52.
3. Maden, “A Gendered Lens on Entrepreneurship,” 317.
4. Maden, 314.
5. Baum, “Workplace Sexual Harassment,” 18.
6. Bradbury-Jones and Isham, “The Pandemic Paradox,” 4.
7. Bradbury-Jones and Isham, 4.