FREE ESSAY ON WOMEN IN CORPORATE AMERICA

WOMEN IN CORPORATE AMERICA

The once male dominated, corporate, white collar America has seen a phenomenal influx of
women within the last thirty years. Although a female lawyer, physician, or CEO is no
longer considered a rarity in our times, women still face quite a deal of oppression in
comparison to their male counterparts. In retrospect, some professions have always been
controlled by women, and men have not made a noticeable advance in these fields. 
In 1970, finding a female lawyer to represent you would be a difficult task, since less
than five percent of the profession were women. Today, that number has risen to almost
thirty percent. The percentage of female doctors has almost tripled in the course of
thirty years. African Americans have not made such a conspicuous progression within the
last fifty years, while women have made a tremendous impact on the corporate world. One
may wonder, how did women make these extraordinary advances? For the most part, it is due
to the education they receive. At the present time young girls are encouraged to enroll
in classes dealing with math and science, rather than home economics and typing. As
pointed out by Nanette Asimov, in her essay Fewer Teen Girls Enrolling in Technology
Classes, school officials are advocating the necessity of advanced placement, and honor
classes for teenage girls, in both the arts and sciences. This support and reassurance
than carries over onto college, and finds a permanent fixture in a woman's life.
While women are continuing their success in once exclusively male oriented professions,
they are still lacking the respect and equality from their peers, coworkers, and society.
The average male lawyer, and doctor make twenty-five percent more money than their female
equivalent. Women have always lived with the reputation of being intellectually inferior
to, and physically submissive to men. This medieval, ignorant notion is far fetched from
the truth. In 1999, high school men and women posted similar SAT scores, being separated
by a only a few points. In addition to posting similar scores on the SAT, the average
males score was a mere two-tenths of a point higher than an average females score on the
ACT. Even though a woman maybe as qualified as a male for a certain occupation , women
receive unwanted harassment, and are under strict scrutiny. A good illustration of this
would be the women represented in Two Women Cadets Leave the Citadel. These young women
were just as qualified, and possessed, in my opinion, more desire than most men who
joined the Citadel. The constant hazing and prejudiced treatment the women received from
other male cadets, because of their sex, eventually took it's toll, thus causing the
women to abandon their ambitions. Not only do women receive biased treatment, they must
take supplementary measures to regulate this treatment. In Linda Hasselstrom's, A
Peaceful woman Explain Why She carries A Gun, she portrays the extreme steps taken to
protect herself from the injustices of men, and society. While women are advancing in
some aspects of the corporate realm, socially they are lagging. 
In some professions, the presence of women is resented, challenged, and treated
unequally. In other fields, women have always dominated. These occupations are
librarians, teachers, editors, reporters, dental assistants, and nurses. For the last
thirty years, women have held seventy-five percent of teaching jobs, eighty-five percent
of librarian positions, and an astonishing ninety-five percent of nursing and medical
assistant openings. While women are making progress in traditionally male-dominated
fields, they continue to hold down the majority of so-called pink collar jobs. 
Within the last thirty years, women have made major advances in the corporate world.
Finding a female lawyer, or doctor is not an uncommon commodity nowadays. This
progression was done, and continues to precede without giving ground in traditional
feminine professions, such as the teaching and nursing. In a matter of time, the playing
field will be leveled for both sexes.