The Politics of the work force.

The article "Race, Class, Gender, and Women's Works" was yet another reminder of how oppresive our society is. In the arena of labor, an system that keeps this nation a float, women still are not given equal opportunities, but by now I should not expect that.

This article really broke down the system of labor and the roles women and minorities play within it. "Whereas gender creates difference and inequality according to biological sex, race-ethnicity differenctiates individuals according to skin color or other physical features"(17). To all black women, this quote should be very dishearting. Why? Well because when it comes to race in this society, black people find themselves at the bottom, and when it comes to gender, women are at the bottom. So any way you look at it, blacks, women and especially black women get the short end of the stick, in the case of this article this holds ture even in the work force.

This article really reminds me of an article I read in Intro to Women's Studies. "Racial Ethnic Women's Labor: The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class Oppression". In that article Evelyn Nakano Glenn breaks down the laboring system as it relates to women into two models.

PATRIARCHY
The patriarchy model which was developed by Marxist feminists explain the inferiority of women in the work force. There is a sexual division of labor that seperates women's jobs from men's jobs. This goes back to the idea of the public vs. the private; the work force vs. domestic life. Basically, women's occupations should surround home life, children and support of the male (bread winner). Where as the male is allowed to occupy jobs that utilize his intelligence and strength (which are both things women are not supposed to posess).

COLONIZED MINORITIES
Colonized minorities is the other model discussed in the article. This system encourages the economic dependency of minority groups. By providing unfair wages for minorities an instituting "discriminatory barriers" the minorites are often stuck with the worst jobs.

These articles together proves how true this idea of intersectionality is. No matter what way you look the issuses in our society, specifically in this case the labor force, race, gender, and class are a major factor and can not be seperated.