‘Women’s identity is not fixed by destiny, anatomy, genes, biology, or DNA. Rather, it is capable of change, fluid and malleable. Once it is admitted that women’s physical, material and biological nature does not determine them, but social trends, customs, beliefs, and prejudices limit and prescribe their roles, then the door is open for re-education, transformation and social change.’ (Chanter, 2007, p.14)
Quantifying the Invisible
In her 2007 book Gender: Key Points in Philosophy, feminist author Tina Chanter points out the extent to which women’s crucial role in society has long been disregarded and excluded from analyses of production. Indeed, apart from being active members of the workforce, women have long provided domestic work — within the social unit of the nuclear family and outside of it— that has not been accounted for in patriarchal systems.
The question of unpaid labor that Chanter touched upon was also acknowledged by British feminist author Caroline Criado-Perez in her 2019 book Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. The book explains that between housework, child and elderly care, globally, women do ‘three times the amount of unpaid care work men do’ (Criado-Perez, 2019, p.40) – this unpaid care work is often times compared to a job shift.
Looking to explore the relationship between individuals and Invisible Work (or house/care work that is unaccounted for), I took it upon myself to create a survey that I then sent around.
Link to survey
The survey did not garner a large enough audience to be valid, however, here are some of the questions and responses:
Do you feel like you have enough time for your career, hobbies and aspirations?
- It’s either one or the other. Time slips through, I never have enough time to do what I want to do. I end up having days/weeks where I’m working and neglecting all of I want to do on a household labor (&hobby) front or only doing household labor (and a bit of my hobbies). I don’t know why it takes me so much time, other people always look like they manage.
- I would feel better if I had more time for exercising and enjoying a healthier lifestyle
- I have 2 full time jobs. Managing and caring for others, including doing the household labor leaves me with little time for leisure activities and hobbies
- I’m retired so I have time
- The overwhelming amount of work doesn’t allow any “me” time which is equally important
- I usually do my part of house work during my free time
Do you feel like the Household Labour (housework and care-giving) you provide is recognised and appreciated?
- It’s difficult living in a flatshare. Household Labour/caring is a strange one when you live with strangers.
- Occasionally recognized by my daughter only
- I give more than I take
The Underrepresentation of Women in the Media
As mentioned by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, in their 2016 publication Are we human?, ‘human dimensions become the dimensions of the designed world’ (2017, p.150) By extension, it would then be difficult to achieve a gender equitable societal model in a world where half of the population is consistently underrepresented (and misrepresented) in popular media.
In her 2019 book Invisible Women : Exposing Data In a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado-Perez states that ‘women make up only 24% of the persons heard, read about or seen on Newspaper, television, and radio news’ (Criado-Perez, 2019, p.11)
Curious about the figure, I acquired one of the daily newspapers that were displayed at a local store to analyse its ratios of man:woman journalists and man:woman subjects.
The Daily Express is a conservative tabloid magazine in the United Kingdom with a high daily circulation rate. Political tensions were on the rise during the week in which the newspaper was acquired. Irregardless, the figure that was proposed by Criado-Perez seemed to be fitting as the results stayed consistent past the pages addressing those tensions and through the various sections of the journal. The journey was documented on video (>https://youtu.be/Z_9iqCxLRmo<).
I would like to re-create this experiment. For any future attempts I would like to pick out newspapers that pose themselves across various points of the political compass.
The Misrepresentation of Women in the Media
An array of pink-coloured mainstream lifestyle magazines occupy the vast majority of the magazine shelves in corner/book stores in London. According to Vevila R. C. Dornelles and Edward Wigley in their 2021 research article Blue is for boys: postfeminist continuations of gender, body and hue in UK magazines, those mainstream lifestyle magazine – much like other mass medias – ‘play several roles in capitalism, one of them being the assertion and reinforcement of the gender roles and relations sustaining it.’ (2021)
In their article, they expand on the various ways through which those magazines reinforce and sustain the primitive gender roles that hinder the process of gender equity within our society, notably:
COLOUR SYMBOLISM AND ASSOCIATION
‘The association between gender stereotyping and hue or colour is firmly established and can be seen regularly in everyday life, most notably in the deployment of blue to signify boys/men and pink for girls/women.’ (2021)
Nearly all of the covers of lifestyle magazines that are intended for women’s consumption contain vivid pink hues. The colour ‘pink is consistently linked to femininity and exposed to girls from an early age, as products such as toys and clothes marketed to girls, continuing through adulthood.’ (2021)
This persistent association of colour with gender reinforces gender norms and ‘evidences a subtle yet stubborn refusal for change in attitudes and associations’. (2021)
ETHNICITY
Several feminist theorists that I have studied throughout Unit 1 (c.f. Secondary Research page) have established a link between inequalities in race and gender (Firestone), some going further and taking on an Intersectional standpoint and stating that all modes of discrimination and privilege are directly interrelated (Chanter).
FINDINGS IN LOCAL CORNER STORE
The magazines that are displayed in my local corner store:
Of of all the magazines at the store, nearly all of them mentioned weight-loss and age/age difference (which exacerbates body dysmorphia and insecurity) as well as violent wording. The media often relies on scandalous stories and shaming which further pushes dangerous stereotypes (e.g. dramatic, insecure and subservient).
Bibliography:
- Chanter, T. (2007) Gender: Key Concepts in Philosophy, 1st ed. London: Continuum
- Colomina, B. and Wigley, M. (2016) Are we human?. 1st ed. Lars Müller Publishers
- Criado-Perez, C. (2019) Invisible women. 1st ed. London: Penguin Random House UK
- Edward Wigley & Vevila R. C. Dornelles (2021) Blue is for boys: postfeminist continuations of gender, body and hue in UK magazines, 2009–2018, Gender, Place & Culture, DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2021.1891864
- Firestone, S. (1970) The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. 1st ed. United States and Canada: Bantam Books