Today’s weekly post once again draws from Jennifer Shewmaker’s podcast entitled “Gender and Media Talk Podcast” in which her guest speakers Lori Day and Pia Guerrero discuss the topic of girls and leadership via their “Making Caring Common” project based out of Harvard. Primarily, the discussion draws on examples that recount the fact that girls from a very young age face challenges as far as being perceived as legitimate and respectable leaders. One point brought up by Pia that I found especially compelling came from an article entitled “are you holding your own daughter back?” which explicates the notion that female teachers whom are not personally good at math often allow their young female students to be okay with the fact that they are not good at math either. This is considered a fairly common phenomenon. While in a sense it is good for such female teachers to not allow their female students to become discouraged when they do not grasp certain academic subjects such a math, the negatives of this situation outweigh the positives, as doing this not only stunts these student’s development and leadership skills, but additionally allows these students the luxury of accepting defeat without having truly attempted to overcome their struggles with the subject by means of hard work and determination. Without a doubt, it can be asserted that part of girl’s difficulty in assuming roles of leadership in our contemporary setting is related to the fact that girls are overwhelmingly viewed as inferior to men. While society has certainly progressed in its acceptance of female leaders within the last few decades, the unfortunate reality is that women are still less respected than men in the eyes of society, and this reality may perhaps be rooted in the fact that women as young girls are not given the right tools to gain the confidence necessary to push past the boundaries of gender inequality and lead with authority. 

Link to the podcast: http://jennifershewmaker.com/2015/08/10/4422/

In today’s weekly podcast discussion, I will be evaluating Jennifer Shewmaker’s podcast entitled “Gender and Media Talk” in which her guest speaker Dr. Elizabeth Sweet of the University of California, Davis discusses her doctoral dissertation so-called “Boy Builders and Pink Princesses.” Primarily, Dr. Sweet’s dissertation deals with the topic of gendered toys and inequality of the 20^th century. In Dr. Sweet’s opinion, an opinion further supported by Shewmaker, there is a discrepancy in the way that toys are packaged among boys and girls and this discrepancy works to effect and reflect gender roles in society. In part, the packaging of toys largely influences what boys and girls gravitate towards as items of personal interest. As she raised her daughter through the years, Dr. Sweet began to take notice of the way toy stores arranged the toy sections of their departments; namely, a good majority of such stores would clearly delineate the boy’s section blue and the girl’s section pink. Although there are companies out there, such as the LEGO franchise, that initially wished to create a product that was gender-neutral, within a matter of years the company became synonymous with boys and excluded girls almost entirely. In that LEGOs are meant to inspire children to be creative and use their imagination, this is problematic. While there is nothing wrong with the fact that girls, by default, often gravitate towards fairies and princesses as toys, such toys do little to engage their critical thinking skills and may at least in part hinder their mental development. Still, because the product is so geared towards boys, the larger issue at hand may be that girls whom do wish to play with LEGOs may feel unwelcome to do so and consequently may feel outcasted among their peers. It is the opinion of Dr. Sweet and Shewmaker, one with which I agree, that we must begin to take steps as a society to make toys more gender-neutral to benefit both sexes as fully as possible. 

http://jennifershewmaker.com/2015/04/11/podcast-gender-and-media-talk-boy-builders-and-pink-princesses/

My first blog post draws from the BBC Radio podcast "The Working Life of Women Police Officers, Nannerl Mozart, Layer Ann Olivarius" and primarily covers the struggles women police officers face on a daily basis. Working in what is often considered a rather masculine-dominated field, women police officers habitually fail to garner the respect they deserve not only from the general public but also from their superiors. In part, this may be due to the fact that women police officers tend to utilize peaceful tactics to problem-solve rather than brute force, and, while arguably more effective in the long-run, such tactics are considered weak in the eyes of men. Assistant commissioner Helen King of the Metropolitan Police, as the lead for improving public confidence in the police, is often thought of more as a counselor than a “true” police officer. Nevertheless, she stands by her duty as it serves to help drive down crime across the city of London. Nikki Holland of South Whales Police, another such woman interviewed, has made it her priority to lead projects to raise awareness regarding violence against women and girls; again, while such projects keep her away from the front lines of battle that many police officers must brave, her job is no less imperative as a whole. Personally, I respect women police officers just as much as men, and while it is true that society has constructed the position of the police officer to be more masculine than feminine, this does not mean that women cannot be great police officers as well. In truth, there are a number of women police officers that assume masculine-type roles such as those on SWAT and those who work undercover, so while certain women prefer to work on projects behind enemy lines, this is unquestionably not strictly the case for all women who wish to work as police officers.