Llenifer Trejo Nunez – Intro to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Post 14- Final Project

This is my final project. It is a syllabus

Audre Lorde was a Black lesbian feminist. Lorde was also a writer who wrote a lot about her experiences and helping others share theirs. Her poems are heartfelt and have incredible messages. Her essay TMTWNDTMH is about using our views and differences from others to our advantage. It is the title of the essay “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House”.

A really powerful thing Lorde said was “What does it mean when the tools of a racist patriarchy are used to examine the fruits of that same patriarchy?” by then replying “It means that only the most narrow perimeters of change are possible and allowable.” This basically means we cant change the injustice that exist with strategies that keep those injustices in place. We need to be different to really bring about change and “dismantle” the house. I agree with Lorde and her powerful messsage. To beat the system of oppresion we must do as she says taking our differences and making them strengths. We have each other and our differences that we need to use them as driving forces of change.

Research Summary

All my life I’ve always known that men got paid more than women, however, I never looked into it specifically until I chose this as my Final Project topic. In the film industry alone, among the stars, I’ve learned that there is a million-dollar wage gap among the most notoriously known actors. So take into consideration that if in one of the most lucrative industries there is such a difference, everyday jobs wage gaps are also substantial. For every dollar, a man earns in the United States women only earn 82 cents.

One of my sources also talks about this issue in sports. There are a lot of factors that also go into the gender wage gap. Those factors range from education level to years of experience and a lot more. Another problem is that there is even more of a gap when you take race into consideration, with minorities being highly affected. This issue needs to gain more traffic in today’s media because women are doing the same amount and quality of work, sometimes more than men but being paid less. Let us close the divide one step at a time. Companies can help close this gap are by starting with a pay audit and taking other steps towards pay equity.

This Bridge Called My Back

The entry I chose as important in This Bridge Called My Back is “I am what I am” by Rosario Morales. I think this entry is important because it deals with a lot of different variables like immigration, naturalization, languages, and even religion. This entry relates to other entries because it greatly discusses intersectionality and the existence of being multiple things at once and how where you grow up really shapes you. I particularly related and resonated with this entry because I am foreign-born but raised in New York.

” I am what I am and you can’t take it away with all the words and sneers at your command I am what I am I am Puerto Rican I am U.S. American I am New York Manhattan and the Bronx”(pg. 14) Being born in the Dominican Republic but growing up in Brooklyn completely made me understand what Rosario was talking about. Morales emphasis on the I am are powerful, and a lot of times people try to tell you what your identity is but only you can decide that and speak for yourself on who you are. No one can place you in one small box, this is why intersectionality is so important. Just like Morales was talking about, your just you not just one definition it’s hard to explain but you just are what you are and I am what I am.

Another quote is “And someone who did languages for a living stopped me in the subway because how I spoke was a linguist’s treat I mean there it was Yiddish and Spanish and fine refined college-educated English and Irish which I mainly keep in my prayers It’s dusty now” Here she is talking about different languages and how they intertwine.

Post 8- Annotated bibliography

Akst, Daniel. “What’s Behind the Gender Pay Gap in Sports?” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 27 Oct. 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/whats-behind-the-gender-pay-gap-in-sports-11603807200.

This source is about the gender pay gap specifically in sports. This relates to my topic because I’m exploring specifically the film industry and sports. This offers my project some reasons behind the gap in this industry. This source is useful because it uses examples about different sports.

Bleiweis, Robin. “Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, Center for American Progress, 24 Mar. 2020, 9:01 a.m, www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/.

This source is just facts about the wage gap, it relates to my topic because my topic is about the wage gap. This source offers my subject a quick look into the wage gap and is gonna be useful as a quick refrence in my final project.

Donner, Francesca, and Emma Goldberg. “In 25 Years, the Pay Gap Has Shrunk by Just 8 Cents.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/us/equal-pay-day-explainer.html.

This source is about the small amount the wage gap has diminished in 25 years. It relates to my topic because my topic is about the wage gap. This offers my project an idea of a timeline on how this is still affecting women everywhere today. This makes it useful to help with creating images about the wage gap using different time periods.

Gray, Tim. “Gender Pay Disparity for Hollywood Actors Has Been a Long Battle.” Variety, Variety, 21 Dec. 2020, variety.com/2020/vintage/features/gender-pay-disparity-actors-1234867430/.

This article is about the pay disparity in Hollywood. This relates to my topic because it’s one of the specific areas I’m researching. It offers my project evidence that even in celebrities, this pay gap still affects many women in this industry. It’s useful because it explores the battle in this field.

Higgins, Melissa, et al. The Gender Wage Gap. Essential Library, an Imprint of Abdo Publishing, 2017.

This book is about the gender wage gap, relating to my topic about the gender wage gap. This offers my project more information than an article and it is useful in helping me learn more about the wage gap.

Litman, Leib, et al. “The Persistence of Pay Inequality: The Gender Pay Gap in an Anonymous Online Labor Market.” PLOS ONE, vol. 15, no. 2, 2020, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229383.

This is a peer-reviewed journal about how stubborn pay inequality has been, relating to my topic about pay inequality. This journal offers my project more concrete evidence of the wage gap and it is useful because it gives a more academic look at the wage gap.

Black Feminism

Audre Lorde(1934-1992) described herself as Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet. These are her intersectional identities. Born in 1934 in New York City, Audre as an adult was also a civil rights activist. Patricia Hill Collins(72) is a philosopher on black feminism, she is also a distinguished professor and academic. Collins’s book Black Feminist Thought published in 1990, followed by a tenth-anniversary edition with some changes but the same viewpoint and ideas.

Lorde had many identities as she was also an educator, Collins is a professor. Both taught others. Patricia Hill Collins book talks about Black women sharinf their experiences with each other, so as to not be lost to time or undermined by others ideas. The importance of community on bringing change is so important. Audre Lordes poem Who Said It Was Simple talks about feminism.

Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.

This specific part is talking about the problem of feminism in its priority on whites. Specifically how these white women are fighting for their own “freedom” but supressing black women in the process and speaking ill on them. In this poem she also talks about being “bound to her bed” or not being able to do anything because of her race and status.

Black feminist thought also talks about different dimensions in the suppression and exploitation of black women. “U.S. and European women’s studies have challenged the seemingly hegemonic ideas of elite White men. Ironically, Western feminisms have also suppressed Black women’s ideas. “(pg. 5) This is also talking about white feminism vs. Black Feminism.

The goals of Black Feminism are to bring the experiences of other black women to light and fight social injustices. It’s different from “mainstream feminism” because it’s about enhancing and showing the experiences of black women not just white women. It is also about intersectionality and the importance of all the identities held by an individual.

Gender wage gap

Works Cited

The Wall Street Journal is a widely known and respectable news outlet that I’ve been guided and encouraged to use throughout my school years.

Bleiweis, Robin. “Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, Center for American Progress, 24 Mar. 2020 www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/.

This is a reliable source because it’s a policy institute.

The New York Times is a widely known and recognizes news outlet that I’ve been told to use for years as a student for research.

Gray, Tim. “Gender Pay Disparity for Hollywood Actors Has Been a Long Battle.” Variety, Variety, 21 Dec. 2020, variety.com/2020/vintage/features/gender-pay-disparity-actors-1234867430/.

This source is reliable because Variety is a recognized and respected source of information in the entertainment industry.

Higgins, Melissa, et al. The Gender Wage Gap. Essential Library, an Imprint of Abdo Publishing, 2017.

This source is reliable because it is a book.

Litman, Leib, et al. “The Persistence of Pay Inequality: The Gender Pay Gap in an Anonymous Online Labor Market.” PLOS ONE, vol. 15, no. 2, 2020, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229383.

This is reliable because it is a peer reviewed journal.

The New York Times, The New York Times. The Gender Pay Gap: Equal Work, Unequal Pay. New York Times Educational Publishing, 2019.

This book is by the New York Times, a reputable and recognized corporation.

My Project Plan

For my project, I will be exploring and talking about the gender pay gap and other gender inequalites in the workplace.

What I need to know about my topic in order to understand it is why this is happening, when did it start, what are we doing/ what can we do to change it, who is affected, who benefits from this and who suffers because of this. This topic relates to women and gender studies. This really concerns so many parts of the world because it affects us almost everywhere. There is race,gender, sexuality, and even media involved. Each factor relates to my project and I will need to dive deep into the ways it affects all these channels and why this is happening.

Intersectionality

The person I will be focusing on is Wanda or the “Scarlet Witch” from Wandavision. I’ve recently been watching the show on Disney plus and her character fascinates me. A superhero, wife, and mother who is living in a made-up world where she basically chooses and controls what happens. She is very powerful as well. Her intersecting identities are being a woman for gender, her racial identity is white, since this is fiction and marvel her nationality Sokovia is not a real place but it seems to be bordered by the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Her age is in the late 20s. Her occupation is/was a superhero. Wanda relates to power and privilege very strongly seeing as she’s a superhero and she also has white privilege. She is very powerful having made an entire town to live her perfect life. How Wanda navigates this world is by resetting anytime anything goes wrong, snapping people who don’t belong out of her world, and by trying her hardest to live a regular life in her “perfect” town. For example when someone who doesn’t belong there mentions the death of her brother Pietro she get rid of her because no one should know that or her/her brother’s identity. Wanda is an asset pre-Wanda Vision but right now she’s just kind of in her town trying to navigate it and be with her husband(who is dead). I haven’t finished the season so I’m not sure what happens next.

Author: Llenifer Trejo Nunez