Page 358 - Sociology and You

328
Unit 3 Social Inequality
Women are more likely than men to take extended leaves of absence for such things as maternity leave. How does this affect their lifetime earnings?
“If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.
Sojourner Truth American abolitionist
Women occupied only 13.8 per- cent of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2001. And although the number of female U.S. senators increased from two to thirteen over the 1990s, women still represented just 13 percent of the Senate in 2001 (Center for the American Woman and Politics, 2001). Women in Congress have seldom risen to positions of power. Only ten females chair House or Senate standing committees.
The record for women in ap- pointed offices is also poor. Although there have been re- cent increases in the number of appointments, the total is ex-
tremely small. When President Jimmy Carter appointed two women to his cabinet in 1977, it was the first time two women had sat on the Cabinet at one time. President Bill Clinton, almost twenty years later, appointed three women to Cabinet posts. Still, the total number of women who have ever served as Cabinet officers is very small. President Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, in 1981; and President Clinton elevated Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the high court in 1993. Only a small percentage of federal judges are women.
The number of women holding public office in the United States is among the lowest in the Western world. With some notable exceptions, Western European nations have much greater female political participation. In the Scandinavian countries, for example, up to 20 percent of members of parlia- ment are women.
Sociologists Richard Zwiegenhaft and William Domhoff (1998) do point out that women are now part of the power elite. The power elite is no longer the exclusively male group it used to be. Still, women are seriously under- represented, and most of those women who do join the power elite come from upper-class backgrounds.
Section 3 Assessment
1. Define sexism.
2. Give several examples of legal bias against women.
Critical Thinking
3. EvaluatingInformation Doyousupportoropposeaffirmative action programs for women in the workplace? Give reasons for your answer.
“