In my creative project, I decided to do a crossword puzzle based on Women in the US workforce. Women in the workforce have been an issue for centuries now because of sexism, racism, discrimination, etc. Women are constantly facing gender inequalities daily. Many women have lost their jobs or had to leave because they wanted to care for their families after the global pandemic known as Covid-19 erupted. In my opinion, I feel like this issue should be addressed more often based on gender inequalities and how women feel left out, which can affect their mental health. As a result, I chose this subject to raise awareness about this issue. I collected vocabulary words from my research article and reports I read after deciding to make a crossword puzzle. This helped me organize my creative project when I was creating the terms and format of the game.   

The crossword puzzle relates to my research topic on women in the US workforce because it has definitions based on the surrounding of women in the workplace related to my research topic. And I think it is enjoyable, especially since we’re in a pandemic right now  and it is a fun way of learning new material based on vocabulary words. The format that I chose was to pick twenty words that I knew and learned that are important and put them into a generator that includes across and down options for the vocabulary words. The game’s goal is to fill in the white squares with letters based on clues and definitions, leading to the answer. But in the game there are some words that don’t include a space between two words which is number 5, 6, 9, 10,  18. Thus don’t be alarmed by a missing word in the word cross. 

Throughout the project, I’ve learned that one in four working women (25%) say they have earned less than a man who was doing the same job (Parker & Funk, 2017). This point is shocking, and it was written four years ago, and little has improved for women in the workplace. This figure reinforces sexism, misogyny, and other types of prejudice because of women’s willingness to function.  My elementary teachers are the inspiration for my creative project because I used to be given crossword puzzles to learn new materials based on word meanings when I was younger. And it’d turn into a race to see who knew the content and could fill in the blanks with vocabulary terms.  

Overall, the project gave me a better understanding of the current state of women in the workplace in the United States. The disparity between men and women in the workplace exemplifies racial discrimination and sexism, and we need to discuss this issue more often as a community. Women were unable to find work in the 1980s and 1990s because they had to support their families. However, there has been a significant shift over time, with women now being encouraged and obligated to work because everything revolves around money. As a result, this project will not only teach the audience vocabulary but also have historical context.

Below is the link to my crossword puzzle, enjoy: https://crosswordlabs.com/embed/women-in-the-us-workforce-2   

Word choices:

Across: Disparity, Labor market, Wage gap, High ranking, Financial stability, Stereotype, Minimum wage, Housework, Marriage-bar, Millennials, Employment Education level, Segregation

Down: Gender roles, Workplace, Pandemic, Gender inequality, Sexism, House wife, Racism