The Help

Like any other typical weekend my Grandmother and I try to go out to Breakfast and as always she chooses Snooze. For many of you that are not aware of this restaurant it is a cool 1970's themed place where the line always extends way out the door. As we were sitting there waiting for our order to be taken a family walks in with two small children, a white women and man, and then an African American women holding each of the children's hands. This is something I had never seen before up north, but in Cherry Creek this must be something prevalent. I thought to myself the connection between the African American woman and these two children is greater than the connection between the children and the parents. For instance the father was on the phone majority of the time "not to be disturbed" and the mother was constantly looking down at her phone as well as reading a magazine on Women’s Health. The woman was sitting between the two children coloring the color sheet and cutting up their food, waiting for it to cool down. This image was quite striking to me because i really felt sad for the children that their parents were way too busy than to raise these children on their own. Moreover, I think of the life the nanny lives, meaning where did she come from? Does she have children herself? Did she travel far to get here? 

 

In Introduction of Global Women by Barbara Ehrenreich it talks about the female underside of globalization. This piece was very eye opening to me especially when it went into the topic matter of how many rich and poor country households can rarely rely on males as the soul breadwinners. Women are needed out in the workforce to be able to provide for their families. In most other places aside from the United States women are forced to commute very far for work, and without their families. This was something that i found to be very shocking because this article even provided a story of a woman that had to travel and leave her family behind to be able to support her children. In turn usually they go work with families to raise their children and be their nannies. It is very upsetting because I am sure these women would love for nothing more than to raise their own children, but in fact having to raise another woman's as if they were her own. 

Moreover, something that I read that was quite surprising is the fact that before wealthy women used to flaunt their help and use them as wealth symbols. As for today the hired help is hidden and not as present as it was before. For women to show leisure was powerful but now women feel the need to employ the "super women" perspective. Which is the idea women that cooks, cleans, works, takes care if the children and the husband with grace. 

Another article that I was able to connect this situation to would be Real Men Join the Movement by Michael Kimmel. Through this article he talks about actively supporting women’s equality on the job or on the streets and by quietly changing their lives to create that equality at home. This statement alone made me think that if this was the case in third world counties would these women have to leave their homes to work for other families?? Would they be able to stay and raise their own children?? Why is it that the women have to travel and leave their children?? I mean Kimmel makes a good point when he said, “Men may oppressed by many things but gender is not one of them. For women they are oppressed from it all”. Do you see gender oppression frequently??? Work related??? Classroom related??? Also in popular movie from 2011 The Help which chronicles An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis. For those of you that have watched this movie as well do you see the correlation??  Do you emphasize with these women?