This selection is the conclusion to a 20-page research paper dealing with the changing roles of women in the workplace
Despite the slew of laws and court decisions promising protection and hope, women are still subject to discrimination and sexism in all areas and aspects of the labor force. Current statutes are somewhat inadequate, since they can be reversed at any time. Affirmative action, equal opportunity, and equal education laws can be repealed or weakened by decisions of politicians or legislators. As more and more women join to fight in the trenches, they gain the personal knowledge of inequality, and devise methods to help correct this evil embedded within our culture. In sex, as in race, direct experience with a feared reality has proven effective in dispelling prejudicial or uninformed attitudes. When our society laments its lack of leaders and heroines, perhaps it is because we are looking in all the wrong places. Many women of the 1990's have a renewed respect for themselves and possess the courage to triumph over a variety of internal and external obstacles. These women have reached the point where they are able to deal with the harsh realities concerning the paths they have chosen. Earlier fantasies are discarded and replaced with confidence. Women have learned that the most significant barrier between themselves and the upper reaches of management are set within the system. "The secrets of running the show have been revealed as not so magical, not so mysterious" (Easton, 233). Women are no longer vulnerable to the idea that they are lacking some credential or managerial trait. The ladies of working America are the peers and rivals of male employees, not just the secretaries and researchers serving under them. Listen up men, you've been warned!
Margie Fishman