Jaffe

                                    Shanty Henandez

                                                                                                                        PHI 297

                                                                                                                        Blog Post 10/11

In “Trickle-Down Feminism”, Sarah Jaffe speaks about how feminists should stop focusing on the small amount of women who are CEO’s, and start focusing on the large amount of women who work minimum-wage jobs. “Female-dominated sectors such as retail sales, food services, and home health care are some of the fastest-growing fields in the new economy, and even in those fields, women earn less; women in the restaurant industry earn 83 cents to a man’s dollar. This is where most women spend their time, not atop the Googleplex. ” (Jaffe). Although some women are making strides, not enough attention is being paid to the women who have less paying jobs. Yes, there are women in the workforce but there needs to be an emphasis on what type of jobs these women have, and how much they are being paid compared to men. Jaffe mentions a statement that Laurie Penny wrote in the New Statesman saying “While we all worry about the glass ceiling, there are millions of women standing in the basement-and the basement is flooding”. This quote is the perfect example on how all women cannot be seen the same; there are a few women at the top but there are more women who are not being paid as much as they should be. I agree that there needs to be a larger focus on women who need to be helped instead of the women who have financially been successful because the ones who don’t make as much are ignored. The cycle of women having specific jobs needs to be broken, there is no reason why women should be getting paid 90% of what men make doing retail; they do the same job so they should be getting paid the same.

One may argue that if one woman can become a CEO of a company then that means all women can become a CEO. This is not always the case because not every woman has the means and connections to become successful. Not only are they in competition with men, but they also are in competition with women who are more well-off compared to them. Harriet Tubman would agree that not every woman has the means and connections because in “Ain’t I a Woman”, she speaks about not having the same opportunities as white women. This is a similar problem because not every woman has the opportunity to have a CEO position, therefor every woman can’t be put in the same category. In this day in age, it is amazing to see women becoming successful, but that is not the case for middle and lower-class woman. Not only are they still not being paid equally as men, the problem is hardly addressed meaning society is not closer to a solution.