WNBA

Another area of work for women is sports, like many other things there have been obstacle after obstacle to be able to fairly participate in sporting events. In 1996 the idea was passed to create the WNBA for women to play basketball professionally. The WNBA began play in June of 1997 with Sheryl Swoopes as the first signed player to the league.
There were many steps in forming the WNBA to be successful such as finding networks to sponsor and air the games. Once this was established with NBC, ESPN, and Lifetime then the main concern was forming the teams and signing players. The first inaugural season was played with eight teams; it continued to expand to sixteen teams. Nearly 200 players take part in the WNBA and they are all pioneers for the organization.
The next task at hand was creating logos and uniforms. The WNBA logo was decided on after narrowing it down from about 50 choices and then the team names and uniforms needed to be finalized. Based on numerous factors such as a link to the NBA team, a link to a key characteristic of the city/state or creating a name fitting the city/state landscape. Finally after this was all sorted out designs were unveiled for team uniforms on May 21, 1997.
Once the league was up and running fans started to get connected and things soared from there. A website was created and made user friendly so that it was easy for fans to keep up to date with their favorite teams and players. In 1999 there was an inaugural All Star Game at Madison Square Garden where the Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference 79-61.
The WNBA is a prime example of how far women have come not only in the office workforce but in areas such as sports. This league is very important to many women and proves that women are just as capable as men to play sports successfully and that people actually want to watch!

Women in NASCAR

This article talks about women in NASCAR. This is not a familiar sight to see a woman driver in this masculine world of race car driving. This takes place in South Boston, VA where race car driver Kristin Bumbera who is a 21 year old girl from Sealy, Texas is making heads turn as she claims title after title and brings home countless trophies. She has sponsors following her because she drives like a professional and someone that is the makeup exactly of what they look for, except the part that she is a woman. Although many think of this as a fully male world there are actually a surprising number or woman drivers in NASCAR. In this race she was participating in there were 16 female drivers and only 9 male drivers. They were all competing for a fully funded ride for 2009 but only 14 spots were available so there were going to be many cuts. This Drive for Diversity program has opened doors for many drivers and students. There have been major leaps in driving class after participating in this kind of event and the publicity alone is something to be cherished.
For many girls this is their lifelong dream because they have either grown up watching a family member participate or it has just been a family pastime to watch the races. Just because they are woman they have had a much harder time breaking into this business although it has been done successfully and people are definitely starting to take notice. It is becoming more and more common for women to be participating in major NASCAR events that were historically all male. Certain sponsors are even looking to just sponsor woman drivers. This is a major leap agreed many of the female drivers in South Boston but they also agree there is still a lot of work to be done and they will help that.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/motorsports/3010ap_car_nascar_diversity.html

Women in Hollywood

Women that work in show business have an interesting part in the workforce. Compared to low income women they have a much “better” life but this is all depending on the definition of what the ideal life is for women in the workforce. Although movie stars, singers, etc. have a lot of money and get to go to classy premiere events they also have every aspect of their lives put in the spotlight. This includes when they go grocery shopping, take their kids to school, or even just go for a walk with their dog. This is a very hard life to lead for anyone but when you are woman in this situation all the sudden there is so much attention put on your physical appearance. Tabloids are covered every week with pictures of celebrities that have gained weight or are anorexic, or what dress looked better on who at the awards ceremony, etc. There is more attention drawn to what the women look like as opposed to the actual work they are doing. Even if a woman has a stunning role in a movie there can never be a review covering just her pure talent and work on the film, there is always side comments about how she looks very tired after the film was over or she might be battling a drug addiction because she seems to look a little out of sorts. There have been more awards given to men regarding their role in movies or distinction for their record albums than there have been for women over the years and it is about time for a change. There should be much more focus on the actual talent of these women and not just how they look. Women are more than just sex idols, they have brains and have real talent and it is time this is recognized.

Low Income Women

I have found that when it comes to discrimination in the workforce for women although it is a problem everywhere, low income women get the majority of it. As we have talked about in class, women that work at places such as Wal-Mart have a terrible time getting equal rights. The amount of pay given to a woman is nothing near what they pay their male workers and it is so much harder for a woman to work her way up in the company. Wal-Mart will choose to promote a male worker with less experience and qualifications over a woman with more experience and qualifications that is a problem. The pay that women receive is significantly lower than the men and when attention is brought to this issue women are forced to write down and keep track of their budget and everything they buy or spend money on. The reason given for why men get such a higher pay and continue to get promotions are because they are supporting a family, ironically the majority of women working these low paying jobs are single mothers trying to take care of their kids. Another trick that many companies including Wal-Mart have used is having their employees work long hours that are overtime and not recording this or paying them for overtime, and they also have them work the most possible hours in a week without qualifying for benefits. No benefits for these families means no health care which can lead to very significant problems for these women, they can't afford to take their child to the doctor for something simple they are forced to wait until it reaches emergency level to receive any care. The worst part about this whole situation is that this is a vicious cycle for these women, once they are stuck in the rut of these high hours, low pay jobs they really have no way out because they are desperate for the money. If their job is threatened at work because of new rules or new hours they most likely have to comply because they have no other option if they want to keep food on the table. The sexism that takes place is ridiculous and something needs to be done about it.

Introduction

I chose to pick the topic of women in the workforce because it is an issue than I have read a lot about and soon I will be faced with personally. This topic originated once women really became a significant role in the workforce and they had to start competing with men for different positions and salaries. This is a hot topic to many women out there whether they are employed or not because it shows how women are viewed and respected (or not respected) in our country. Discrimination against women in the workforce has happened ever since the first woman got a job, and women have had to fight their way to the top the whole time. People still argue that some jobs are best left for a man to do. Women have had to prove themselves ten times more than men for the same job and one mistake on a women's part is equal to about five for a man. Not to mention something that is shocking to me is the idea of the "second shift" that women have to take on after their full day or work. It is expected or very common that women come home from a day of working and they have to clean the house, cook dinner, take care of the kids, etc. Studies have shown that most men don't feel this need to help out or be involved they expect to come home from a long day and relax. Not only is this a problem for the women that work, but this also takes a toll on the kids and the whole family dynamics in the home. There are so many issues in the workplace for women that it is astounding and hopefully people will be able to open their eyes and notice this problem very soon so we can make a change.