Throughout this ted-style talk, I am addressing women’s gender roles from as early as the 1900s to now (because this is such a large time frame, I have picked a few key time periods within these years); but specifically the change in women’s roles and what caused this shift. Some of these factors include the need for labor in factories when men went to war, demographic changes in the attitude of society, and feminist activism. Because most people are familiar with what happened during WWI and WWII in terms of filling the spaces in jobs left by men, I will mention that, but focus more on the feminist activism side.
There are so many examples of women with high-ranked, professional jobs. To name an example: Hillary Clinton, first woman to be nominated president of one of two major political parties. An example more specific to our lives: Dean Bieschke, the dean of the Schreyer Honors College.
Women in the 1900s would never have had these jobs. Men went to work everyday and women stayed home to clean. Most women had many children (due to lack of contraceptives, something I will touch on later in the ted talk) which was the reason for their lack of schooling and ability to work other jobs outside of the home. The first spark was WWI – when men left to go to war and women filled their positions – which most everyone is familiar about, so I will not spend much time talking about.
The second spark in the change of women’s jobs was when women began speaking out against these norms and publically broadcasting their opinions – some published articles, or tried to start movements. Margaret Sanger was a key role in the creation of “the pill” which enabled women to control their pregnancies and get an education/job before having kids.
I will close by talking about women’s jobs today and how I think certain percentages regarding jobs will change in the future (for ex: preschool and kindergarten teachers are dominated 98% by females, will this be consistent in the future?)
Hey Sophia,
My first comment got deleted so I will try to remember what I had written the first time!
Our topics are similar in the fact that I will also be talking about how a women’s role went from being viewed as just a child bearer, to being viewed as having a prominent place in society.
I think that you have a good topic and I like your idea, but I think for the TED talk you might want to zone in on one of the examples that you brought up.
For example, if you want to talk about high ranked professional women in society, you can touch upon some of the topics that Dean Bieschke talked about when she came to our LJS class. She mentioned how although women have made their mark in society, they are still facing hardships, but they are learning how to communicate better with men so they can be viewed as being equal.
When you spoke about women speaking out, I immediately thought of Susan B. Anthony speaking out for women’s suffrage. If you wanted to touch upon both topics you may be able to tie in how it went from women fighting for voting rights to Hillary Clinton running to be the first female president.
I think you are going in a good direction, I just think for the 5 minute TED talk you may want to try to tie the two ideas together more cohesively.
Good luck!