Are strong women still oppressed in American society?

Answer 1

Great question! It goes deeper than women in the workforce, though. Men and even other women are threatened at ALL levels and in many ways by strong women. Yes, a "strong" woman may be just someone who wants a career, but she may also be someone who stands up for her rights and does not tolerate abuse from anyone (whether physical, mental or even legal!), just as a man would (yet nobody says "that's a strong man!" if he does the same thing!). She might also be someone who's independent enough to be comfortable NOT "waiting for a husband" as someone above wrote" (cripes, is that EVER 40 yrs ago!), but instead, comfortable with having a career, no spouse, no kids and enjoying her sexuality in a way that society would term "playboy" if it was a guy, but we all know, would be called "loose" or "slutty", merely because women are SUPPOSED to want to marry and have only ONE partner!

What a crock! The worst part is that men so often PREFER "loose" women, after they're done with the whole love and marriage, child-rearing thing and want a younger, "sexier" trophy!
Often, women's very thing that is supposed ATTRACT men because the women are "good mates" eventually drives the men away!

As my kid (a teenage boy) often says, "Women are screwed no matter WHAT they do!". I could not agree more. Women need to expect MORE from men, but above all, more from THEMSELVES! They need to stop tolerating neglect and abuse and general sexism. Once they do that, they can truly be called "Strong" women, regardless of income!

Answer 2

Good Question. This is just a guess, so please no one jump all over me. The company I work for the women say they want to "have it all" but as soon as they get pregnant, they go out on maternity leave and wait until their last day of leave to call Human Resources to quit their jobs. That ends up costing the corporation a lot of money - expenses for paying for baby, her salary while she was on leave and paying the salary to pay for a temp to fill her position while she was on leave - only to never return. I'm not saying I agree with this - but I've been at meetings where this infuriates management and they feel these women are taking advantage of the system. So, those women kind of ruin it for the women who have NO INTENTION of doing such a thing. Another concern H.R. has expressed is that the few women who do return, have a higher rate of absentism. They tend to call in because their kids are sick, snow days, babysitter cancelled. So, most of the corporations view most women as "They'll work until they find a husband, so they can have a baby and quit their jobs and stay at home". Like I said: Its not fair, but, having worked in HR, they are suspicious of women's true intentions. And its not fair to the women who aren't like this. After all the protests in the 60's, it seems after the 1970's the fad wore off and a lot of women lost the motivation and started wanting to stay at home. So, in essense they said one thing, but then behaved differently. If this attitude is going to be changed, women are going to have to work a lot harder and change the sense of entitlment because they have children. This is especially unfair to the single mothers who are being judged because of other women's behavior.