Women as a Marginalized Group

Along with the Standpoint Theory, comes the idea of women as a marginalized group. First of all, to elaborate on standpoint theory, I strongly believe that "gender is a cultural construction... gender is a system of meanings that sculpts individuals' standpoints by positioning most males and females in disparate material, social and symbolic circumstances" (p. 443). Men and women are taught by society how they should act based on cultural expectations and treatment. I think we have become so accustomed to it, it's hard to distinguish. Harding and Wood claim that there is a discrepancy found in all societies, and notes that "a culture is not experienced identically by all members. Cultures are hierarchically ordered so that different groups within them have positions that offer dissimilar power, opportunities, and experiences to members" (p. 444). It has been the norm that women have been underadvantaged while men have been overadvantaged in many ways; the workplace being one of them. Statistics show that women working the same position as men, doing the same job with the same experience have earned a significantly different income. Usually white men predominantly have the upper positions of power and wealth.

I do have to say though, I know that we are progressing and moving away from this.... although it still does exist. A really interesting article I came across made me feel good to see, was one in the Wall Street journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122608990529609245.html#project%3DTOP50WOMEN%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

It's about the top 50 women to watch out for who hold executive level jobs, you tells you a little bit about what they do and what companies they work for when you click on their picture. So we'll see how much this really begins to change as time goes on.