Women and the Workforce

Women and the Workforce

Service Learning Log Week 1

Activism: Unfortunately, this is my first service learning log entry. I am not really sure what I should write about.  Our event with Pink Art for the showcase is in a little less than a month and there is much to do till then. Our pitfall is that our group has not met outside of class, but we have discussed the communication that has been made with our community partner. Next week we need to meet to start setting thing in motion. It is crunch time and things need to start happening. I am very excited to do a community service event since I like to help people.

Reflection: The activism that I have done this week has truly inspired me. Since I attended the Take Back the Night event I have felt extremely empowered as a woman. I see how important it is to stand up and speak out. It made me realize how very important it is to be an activist. If you do not take a stand then nothing will change. But I also know how much work it really takes to bring people together to take that stand. As they were thanking one young woman for all of time and work that she had put into to make that event a success, it reminded me of something we learned about in class this week. It made de think of the “second shift” (WLMP 307). As a student I am sure she had her school work and her “second shift” would be to put together that event. Being an activist is like working a second shift, it is a lot of work and it can be very stressful but the work that you put in at the end of the day will help the movement to promote change.

Reciprocity:  Although I have not done anything yet with my service learning partner to service the community, I feel that I am still getting things in return from my community. After this week’s event I have taken a turn in my mindset this week about how I see feminism and what an activist can do. Activism takes a lot of work but more importantly is takes change. To be a feminist and an activist you must change the way you think and what you do. It’s more than just saying it, you must live it.

Word count: 396

 Works Cited

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. "The Second Shift." Women's Lives: 
        
             Multicultural Perspectives. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 166. Print.

Extra Credit

As I watched the movie The Business of Being Born and the Lifetime show One Born Every Minute, I noticed there were many differences. I enjoyed watching the movie, I learned a lot of information about women and the process of giving birth and I also was also informed about options of giving birth that I had never considered before. I learned a lot about what is healthy for a woman’s body while giving birth and how many women do not know a lot of information about what they are doing to their body when they are making unhealthy choices. Although, many women who give birth in a hospital, like in the show One Born Every Minute, are not listened to, the doctors and nurses are the ones whose opinions matter because they are portrayed as knowledgeable and who “knows what is best for the baby.” Compared to the women in the movie, The Business of Being Born, where the women giving birth are the ones whose interests and concerns are listened to, they may rely on their midwife for knowledge but at the end of the day it is the woman’s choice of how she wants to give birth.

In the Lifetime show One Born Every Minute they made the birthing process seem very scary and I may be scarred for the rest of my life (haha). I hated that they made it seem as if drugs was normal. In the movie, The Business of Being Born, I like that I learned a lot of new information on giving birth that I did not know before. It is nice to be educated on the options that I have in the future when I choose to have a child. But, I am not going to lie; I did kind of feel like they were trying to brain wash me a little bit in the beginning. As if to make me feel like giving birth in a hospital is a horrible decision and experience, and that if you do then you are less of a woman for doing so; that bothered me a little bit. But I also liked that the way they portrayed the beauty and peacefulness of a natural birth and the strength of a woman who chooses to experience it. I also love how it allowed the fathers to be more involved in the whole process.