Why is Women's Studies Even More Relevant
in the 21st Century?
Because, Lucy, You Got Some ‘Splaining To Do!
Written for the 1st Annual Women’s Studies Essay Competition
Awarded First Prize
© Alys Caviness-Gober
Doctoral Student
Department Of English, Applied Linguistics
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
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In 1913, Rebecca West said, “People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments
that distinguish me from a doormat.” She was twenty years old. In 2008, as a forty-four-year old
domestic violence survivor, I refuse to be a doormat. Yet, I’ve been negatively perceived for
standing up for myself and my children in our male-dominated legal system. I’ve been called a
bitch both privately and publicly for speaking my mind on just about any subject. Women’s
Studies began in part to address negative perceptions of women; reviewing the 20th Century can
answer whether or not Women’s Studies is even more relevant in the 21st Century.
In 1923, The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in the United States Congress. It
has never been ratified.
In 1937, the American Medical Association recognized birth control as a legitimate
medical school topic. In the 1980s, pharmaceutical companies began selling discount-priced
birth control supplies at university and low-income health centers: over three million women
depended on those providers for affordable birth control. In 2006, the Deficit Reduction Act
included a provision to stop those discounts, and birth control unit prices rose from $5-$10 to
$40-$50: many university and low-income health centers have simply stopped dispensing birth
control. Yet Viagra, which “cures” male erectile dysfunction, is the most-prescribed, mostwidely available drug on the market.
In 1943, Norman Rockwell's painting Rosie the Riveter appeared on the cover of The
Saturday Evening Post. The war-effort portrait presented women as equally able as men to “do
the job.” In 2005, women’s median annual earnings were only $0.77 for every $1.00 earned by
men. The wage gap was $0.71 for African American women and $0.58 for Latinas compared to
every dollar earned by men.
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In 1951, I Love Lucy premiered on CBS. The female stereotype of a stay-at-home wife
and mother whose attempts at independence – even simply working outside the home – included
lying to her husband and eventually being forced to “’splain” her actions to him. Lucy’s antics
were presented as entertainment, and to this day are deemed “funny,” yet Lucy’s “funny”
behavior popularized a negative female stereotype that continues to haunt women today. I Love
Lucy portrayed women as untrustworthy, manipulative, and ridiculous – ridiculous for “wanting
more” than the life provided by men. Today, many women never achieve their true potential
because they answer to domineering men; when women try to assert independence, maledominated situations of abuse and control are anything but funny.
In 1963, the Equal Pay Act required equal pay for men and women performing the same
jobs. Despite this federal law, there is still a marked gender wage gap in the United States. Over
the last 45 years, the wage gap has narrowed by less than half of a penny per year. Wage equity
in the workplace follows gender equity in society: males are valued more highly than females.
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that women, for the first time in U.S.
history, had the legal right to make their own reproductive decisions, rather than submit to the
dictates of a man (doctor, father, husband/boyfriend). In 1980, Sandra Day O'Connor became the
first woman appointed to the Supreme Court; she was replaced in 2006 by reproductive rights
opponent Samuel Alito. On April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the first abortion ban (the
joint 2007 ruling Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood). The ruling is a
clear step towards repealing Roe v. Wade. Our highest legal authority stated that not even
doctors, let alone women themselves, can say what is best for women’s reproductive health.
Without Roe v. Wade, men could once again control women’s bodies: in 1989, my now-ex-
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husband consulted an attorney in an attempt to legally force me to have an abortion: he did not
want child-raising financial responsibilities. But for Roe v. Wade, my ex-husband might have
succeeded in forcing me to abort my daughter.
In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman vice-presidential nominee of a major
U.S. political party. During the 2008 Presidential race, the media debates Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton’s hair styles, clothing, and emotional state; the media does not mention these
“issues” about the other candidates (all males).
In 1994, the Violence Against Women Act provided women with federal protection
against gender-based violent crimes. Today, women are 10 times more likely than men to be hurt
by an intimate partner. Young women, separated, divorced or single women, women with lowincomes, and women of color are all disproportionately victims of assault and rape. Every single
day, domestic violence kills four women. More than four million women are battered each year;
over 130,000 women per year report being victims of rape or attempted rape. Unreported rapes
raise that number by an estimated two to six times. Every year, 1.2 million women are forcibly
raped by their current or former male partners; many of these women suffer multiple attacks over
time. From personal experience, I can say that male-dominated police forces and legal system do
not adequately protect women and children from abusive and violent men. As if to prove the
point, in 2000 the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Morrison that part of the 1994
Violence Against Women Act is unconstitutional, thus weakening women’s legal protections
against violence.
In a time when legal protection against violence is deemed unconstitutional, when the
Supreme Court seems bent on repealing Roe v. Wade, when choices about birth control and
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reproduction are consistently portrayed in terms of religious “good versus evil” yet Viagra is the
most widely available drug in the country, when women consistently earn less money than men
for the same jobs, when media coverage demands we pay more attention to Hillary Clinton’s
emotions than her political agenda, when women still must answer to men in almost every public
and private arena – well, we all have some ‘splaining to do: Women’s Studies is indeed even
more relevant today.
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References:
1. Caviness-Gober, Alys. unpublished lecture material 2005 – 2007.
2. The Center for Survivor Agency and Justice, 2008. http://www.csaj.org/
3. National Organization for Women, 2008. http://www.now.org/issues/economic/factsheet.html;
http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/; http://www.now.org/issues/violence/
4. Parker, A., and Brown, J (2000) Detection of deception; statement validity analysis as a means
of determining truthfulness or falsity of rape allegations. In Legal and Criminological
Psychology 5 237-259.
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