Exercise – Identify Fallacies

• Barbara Streisand, Paul Newman and Julia Roberts are Democrats. Therefore all Hollywood stars are Democrats.

• Listen, as long as you’re going to live here at home and let your mother and me support you, you can rest assured that you’re going to cooperate. And that goes for your opinions as well as your behavior.

Women in the Workplace

Overview• In recent years, in many parts of the world, there has been a

fundamental shift in what are normally thought of as typical gender relationships.

• In many of these places, it has been generally accepted that women have an equal right to a good life, same as men, and that in the past women have been unfairly denied access to a life of equal quality to that of men.

• The question that remains is: What does an improved life for women (and men by extension) look like?

What Does Equality Mean?• If we accept that men and women are equal people of equal worth,

the next question is what does equality mean in practice?

• There are two poles and many positions in between on this.

• Absolute Equality – Men and women are so fundamentally similar that there should be no distinction in gender roles whatosever.

• Relative Equality – Men and women deserve equal rights as people, but differences between gender (cultural or biological) give them somewhat different goals.

Absolute Equality• Variants on this position generally insist that differences in gender

roles should be minimized if not eliminated altogether.

• In the workplace, this would mean that men and women should be able to hold the exact same jobs, should be paid the same, and should be hired at equal rates.

• At home, this would also mean that men and women would evenly split responsibilities surrounding domestic work and family life.

Relative Equality• Versions of this position say that creating equal rights for women

requires not simply making all things equal but making certain provisions for women that are specific to their gender.

• In the workplace, this means providing things like maternity leave and day-care that allow women to fulfill their traditional role as a caregiver while still pursuing a career.

• At home, this might mean that a stay-at-home mom who takes care of children should have more opportunities to work on the side or have her own social life free of her husband.

The Modern Dilemma – Where Absolute and Relative Equality Clash• In practice, women are often left in a difficult position by certain

combinations of measures designed to create either absolute or relative equality.

• On the one hand, the concept of absolute equality has dominated thinking about the workplace, with women often being encouraged to aggressively pursue ambitious careers like their male counterparts.

• At the same time, relative equality dominates thinking about the home, with women being encouraged to have a career while still being the primary caregiver for children and possibly for a working husband.

The Modern Dilemma• The result is that women have come to be expected to fulfill both

roles – that of the modern woman seeking a prestigious career and that of the traditional mother taking care of children.

• Our ultimate question then (for debate) is this: How do we change the current system to make it realitically feasible for women to live as good a life as their male counterparts?

• This is not a simple 2-sided debate, though we are going to examine two opposing arguments to get some clarity on the issue

Sandberg’s Position• Sandberg’s position, presented in her TED talk, roughly lines up with

the concept of women’s rights that I have termed absolute equality.

• Sandberg believes that women should essentially have all the same opportunities that men have, both in the workplace and at home.

• Women should pursue the same types of careers men have traditionally pursued, and men should take more responsibility for domestic obligations (childcare, cooking, etc.)

Critiques of Sandberg’s Position• Many people generally agree with this assessment of things – they think

women should have more access to traditionally male jobs and that men should do more of traditionally feminine work.

• However, Sandberg has received criticism for her proposed method of how to accomplish this.

• Sandberg proposes that the problem is women’s confidence, that women need to change their own self-perception and try harder to negotiate for good jobs the same way that highly successful men often do.

• Critics suggest that this puts too much responsibility on women to change and does not make men or the system as a whole change enough.

Brooks’s Position• A couple years after her TED talk, Sandberg came out with a book

called Lean In, encouraging women to negotiate more aggressively in the workplace.

• Brooks dislikes Sandberg’s approach not simply because it asks women to change, but also because it assumes that the good life for women means achieving the same goals as traditional highly successful men.

• She notes that, when she adopts Sandberg’s recommendation, she is more successful in her job and even in her home life, but the experience doesn’t give her satisfaction. It makes her miserable.

Recline• For Brooks, the vision of equality Sandberg imagines accepts too

easily the model of a good life created in a masculine world.

• We might roughly align Brooks with our “relative equality” position, though she thinks changes are needed to adjust both women and men’s lives in similar ways.

• She feels that a real success for women in the workforce would be to change the culture of work itself, to encourage people to work reasonable hours and also take time for other aspects of their lives, including leisure, something that Sandberg completely ignores.

Possible Critiques of Both Positions• Both of these women are white, American, highly-educated (Harvard),

and highly successful in their careers (COO and law professor).

• As such, both may potentially be out of touch with the problems faced by women of different economic status, different race, different nationality, and different goals in life.

• The question of gender equality is immense and complicated, and our debate question here only scratches the surface.

Summary of the Positions• Sandberg: We need to get more women to take positions usually held

by men. The way to do this is to encourage women to negotiate for better jobs the same way that men do. Men will need to take on more domestic work. (Absolute Equality – roughly).

• Brooks: We need to change (feminize) the culture of work so that it is more amenable to women who will never be able to succeed in the workforce as it is today. The way to do this is to fight for everyone’s right to leisure and enjoyment in their lives. Men should also embrace this concept. (Relative Equality – roughly).

Debate• As before, you form groups of 4-5 and construct a debate position on

this issue.

• Here is your question: Does equality for women mean getting women into traditionally male careers (Sandberg) or changing the culture of work so that is better suited to women (Brooks)?

• As before, come up with a claim and several reasons (grounds + warrants) to support it.

• We will debate next week.