Blog #9: Get Pumped because..another American Dream blog post!!!!!!

We be talkin about the American Dream in CONTEXT!

I was skimming the book and a couple chapters caught my attention. For the blog post though I want to focus on the Chapter 5 called "Whose Dream? Gender and the American Dream."

This chapter is written by one of the authors of "The American Dream in the 21st Century", Sandra L. Hanson, which caught my attention because I read her bio at the end of the book. 

As Mrs. Flewelling said, the title gives some insight into the context of the chapter. My chapter's title being "Whose Dream? Gender and the American Dream" makes an obvious connection between the American Dream and Genders. You can expect comparisons and contrasts between women in America and men in America, but I expected her to focus more on the point of view of a women in America trying to take part in the American Dream (that is what it ended up being!). 

At the very beginning of the text, Hanson begins with a poll that shows that "the American Dream and this 'glue' that binds us together may be unraveling, as we see a growing wealth gap, ongoing race inequality, an expanding poor immigrant population, and continued sexism." This is a super important way to start because she immediately introduces the idea that among the other issues associated with the idea of the American Dream, there is: sexism. And sexism being a big deal in America isn't a new concept, but the feminism protests and recent events due to the last Presidential Election prove that this chapter is more important than ever. Hanson writes that there is a gender divide in these key areas: education, earnings, occupations, and politics. 

I want to focus on education and earnings. Firstly, Hanson writes that usually early on in a girl's education there is a good participation/achievement level in science, and yet many girls experience the beginning of a departure from science areas typified by enrollment in fewer science courses, lowered achievement, and increasingly negative attitudes." This is crazy to me, and hits me extra hard because I have always been into science, the environment, etc. STEM is not limited to men, and although most women know this, there is constant societal pressure that is discouraging girls from realizing they can do awesome stuff in science. Additionally, Hanson writes that women are going to college at steady rates, but are entering majors that "assure them of positions in lower-status, lower-paid female-dominated occupations." She doesn't go into details on what that major is, but I think thats so sad and it would interesting to learn more about that. A question I have about that is: What are these lower-status/lower-paid majors AND did they become that way before or after women entered those fields of study??? Also, how do they majors that women are choosing affect their ability to achieve their said "American Dreams"?

Next I want to talk about earnings. Before I even start my question is why the heck is there a wage gap? A real, still in place, WAGE GAP? Hanson writes that in 1961, "working women earned fifty-nine cents to a man's dollar." When you first read this you're already mad. And then Hanson says that "today, working women average seventy-seven cents to a man's dollar." And then you're like, ok progress but...its 2017. $1=$1 is the goal. And I wonder, why has this not happened yet? Why has it taken this long to have such progress, and to still be so far from equality? How is the idea of the American Dream, so greatly represented by men, affecting this progress?

I really like this chapter, and I want to dive into it more. Gender is an important issues concerning the American Dream