Not only have I found a number of articles pertaining to women and their social mobility, but I have also found web pages, which deal with many issues discussed here. The textbooks for the social inequality course were very helpful as well, and provided me with graphs and chart showing the mobility for both genders throughout the 1900's. I intend to address issues such as gender roles, gender in the workplace, and the discrimination that is placed on women.
Before I began my research I expected to find a lot of feminist articles on the topic. I also expected to see a lot of articles on equality, and talking down about the male gender. I wasn't sure exactly how much information I could find on women's social mobility, or if that was even a main concern for women. After a class I took last semester, "Women: Images and Reality"," I found that women are concerned with many different aspects of their social inequality, and not so much their upward or downward mobility. I also was unaware before I began research that women have come so far in the workplace, and that the ratio of men to women now is almost equal.
My personal opinion on women's mobility in society is strong, considering I am a woman. I believe that women, regardless of how we are "supposed " to act, should have the same opportunities as men. Gender roles tell us we are supposed to be submissive, quiet, and tender hearted. Therefore, we would not be able to handle a power position is society. What I was hoping to find before conducting research, was that women are breaking that preconceived view of where our place is in society. After reading many articles and writings about the gender inequality issue and social mobility, I have found a mix of expected and unexpected things. I expected to find that women were breaking out of traditional gender roles and moving up the social ladder, which I did find. But the numbers are still growing rather slowly.
