Reflection: How I Connected To the Reading
As a woman in society, I have seen, done, or felt almost all the things that Johnson mentions about the inequalities women face and I have talked about it to my male friends. One point he mentions is that men don't have to constantly think how to protect themselves when they step outside, like women do. When I leave a store, my keys are in my hand and I am unlocking my car before I am close to it. I'm checking under the car to see if someone will grab my ankles, I'm careful about where I grab the door handle in case there's a substance on it, and I am always checking my surroundings to make sure I'm not being followed. Women have to be consistently attentive in order to feel safe in society.
One gender inequality that he listed was that the standards used to evaluate women as women are different from those used to evaluate them in other roles. This resonated with me because I used to work with a woman who was very particular about designs and would firmly tell men in the field to fix it if done wrong. If it were a man telling them these things, they would realize he was right, but because she was a woman, she was thought of in a harsh way.
As an art major in undergrad, this article made me think of Linda Nochlin's Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? in which she argues that the absence of recognized "great" women artists is not due to a lack of talent or genius, but rather to systemic, institutional, social, and educational barriers that prevented women from pursuing artistic careers on equal footing with men. This is a great read if anyone is ever interested and has time!
I would like to ask my male classmates what they think about how women are treated in society. Do they think women are treated fairly to men? Do some men also face the struggles that women face?
