Hi!!! I am a senior at California High in Whittier, CA (Los Angeles area). For my Senior Project I want to doing something involving an arguement of WHY WOMEN NEED FEMINISM IN THEIR LIVES but i can't quite address it like that. Sooooo unformal, right!!? Anyway.. I need ideas (don't worry im not looking for someone to do my project.. although that would be oh so nice). An arguement. I originally wrote down "Many young women are infulenced by the "tradtional american values"(or media? idk..) perception of women and how they're supposed to live and act, making feminism critical in every women's life." (Of course this will be revised) I need to have something SPECIFIC and STRONG. I feel like i don't have that..
And along with what i decided on.. I NEED TO DO FIELD WORK (a learning stretch, min. 15 hrs of field work) (ex. of this work: Say someone were to choose "why children need preschool" they would do field work working with children in preschool, watching and hepling them develope) SO.. if anyone has ideas on that too, PLEASES LET ME KNOW, I am so stressed on this!! Im 17 and i don't think i can volunteer work at a clinic..? I need help from other who are more experienced in this then me..
PS I NEED A MENTOR FOR THE FIELD WORK.. IF YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO DOES WORK INVOLVING FEMINISM..PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF I CAN VOLUNTEER IN ANY WAY
Thank you so much for taking the time to read<333333333333333
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Hm... sounds like a tough project.
A suggestion- maybe to focus on a problem rather then the solution first of all. Such as economic disparities between men and women, how women earn less then men. Fewer women in position of higher power whatever specific inequality you focus on-
Once you have defined your issue then to suggest that feminism should play a role in solving said problem. Because Feminism is the goal of equality, and the problem that you have honed in on shows that there is a disparity.
The next step would be to hypothesize what women can do to employ these feminist ideas such as knowing how much male counterparts in the field make, asking for a raise etc.
Also it doesn't have to be a clinic, I'm sure there are work training programs that help train women to get into the workforce. It could also be something like a homeless shelter, a domestic violence shelter, the criminal system etc. There are women in every facet of life so there are bound to be sexism issues in any arena you think of. Talking to a social worker that works with women, maybe helpful.
Hope that helps!
Good luck with your project.
What about volunteering with a women-oriented group? There's probably a Planned Parenthood (or similar org) in your area, or maybe something with the women's studies department of a college near you? I don't know about age limits on volunteers, but I'm sure someone could tell you if you called a specific place.
And I second what Chris says about finding a specific issue. The problem with just picking feminism is it covers so much. Pay inequity, choice, childcare issues, media representation, male:female ratios in various professions, violence/rape, etc, you could focus on one area and show how feminism will help remedy the problem.
Good luck! (also, this is way more insightful than my senior project - I tried to teach myself to play the sax...unsuccessfully)
I'd focus on children, personally, but that's a reflection of my personal interests. Just one day in high school will provide you with a ton of raw material. And then there's the gendering of childhood, academic issues. So much stuff.
Plus, it's generally easy, at least here, to get a volunteer position at a public school. I did it for a year, and I'm generally not good at wrangling my way into things like that.
An addendum to katemoore's comment-
You could probably find a volunteer position at an elementary school, as you could explore the way schools further reinforce gender binaries, or something along those lines.
In all, I agree with all the above, as you need to find something very specific to focus on (and it also helps for it to be something you are really passionate about).
If I could go back to high school to do a senior project, I would take a look at magazines, music vidoes, popular music, TV shows, movies (maybe narrow it down to one medium). And examine how women are portrayed: magazines photoshopping models, sexualized women in music videos, what the words of our favorite songs say about women, how women are portrayed in several or just one TV show.
Basically, if you narrow your scope to very very small, like just how women are portrayed in Sex and the City, you can get a lot. Or how women are portrayed in Seventeen magazine (how do the pictures of women look, what kind of stories do they "sell" to young women [I'm certain it is always "how to get more fit, how to tell if a guy likes you, and style advice"]) You could look at a year's worth of one magazine and examine how its always the same stupid shit.
If you choose a TV show, sounds like "field work" could simply be watching the show! (maybe)
Your conclusion could be that because sexism against women is still so prevalent, feminism is still relevant. But remember, that is the conclusion, and not really the focus of the project.
Oo, maybe a collage of positive and negative female images from a magazine. With an accompaning paper, of course, talking specifically about the images.
Basically, examine something that is close to you. I used to have a subscription to Seventeen, so I probably would have done that. OR I would have examined women in the animated show "Daria."
I don't know if yours is the same, but for my senior project, organizing and putting on our own event counted as "field work" (I organized a fun run to save the rainforest, lol). So if you were to focus on, say, beauty standards and body image, you could organize a "Love Your Body" day at school.. encourage girls not to wear makeup for a day, maybe bring in some guest speakers, have some fun events. (I honestly can't remember if I came up with that idea myself or if I got it from "Grassroots"... which by the way is an awesome resource if you're looking for suggestions for feminist activism. It's by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, should be in the Women's Studies section of Borders.)
Some specific issues you could focus on... reproductive rights, body image, equal pay/work discrimination, teaching of women artists/writers in high school classes, the need for alternative feminist media (I think Ms. Magazine has an LA office, maybe you could spend some time with them?). I really like the media idea, although I'm biased because I'm a journalism student and I'm currently freaking out about Bitch Magazine possibly folding. But that sounds like it would be a really fun project to do :)
Good luck, and update us on what you end up doing! You may be stressed now, but this is a great opportunity to build some organizing skills. I actually ended up using my silly little fun run on my resume for a number of years, which was really helpful. I wish the school would have told us that instead of just being all "DO THIS TO GRADUATE"... I probably would have tried a lot harder :P