There is never a single story.....

Upon watching the video of Chimamanda Adichie's speech on the dangers of a single story, I came to the realization that there is never a single story, no matter who or what is being discussed. Adichie, a Nigerian novelist spotlights the idea that people often have an essentialized view of cultures other than their own becuase they are misinformed or are constantly exposed to only one perspective. This leads to a single story and after listening to Adichie speek, I discovered that I had a single story of Africa which began with its early colonization by white merchants followed by violence, slavery, and disease. This is because I have been constantly exposed to only one perspective of Aftica and its inhabitants. This is the perspective of a caucasian American male that doesn't know too much about africa except for what he learned from all the stories flourishing throughout the media. When thinking about Africa's story, I didnt recall any knowledge about the government, the art, music or religion; only what I had seen on television or read in texbooks.

When only one story is available, we risk a critical miscommunication and Adichie has the perfect example. When she was attending college, Adichie's roomate was surprised that she knew English so well and asked if it was tough to get down. What her roomate didn't realize was that English was the official language of Nigeria and Adichie has been speaking it her entire life...

There is never a single story, and if there is, something is drastically wrong. This leads me to the conclusion that there is no single story for what it means to be a woman and with that said, it would be ridiculous to try and represent women globally. I say this because in order to represent women globally one would need to essentialize women, in turn creating a single story...

The Media and Working Women

The media surrounds us and we are constantly exposed to it in many forms. You could say our society is completely saturated with it and a strong message portrayed by the media is that women belong at home doing housework and nurturing children, not sitting on the board of directors or fighting for their country. Stereotypes like this flourish throughout the media and they come together to form somewhat of an agenda setting by telling the public what is important. Instead of telling us what to think, the media focuses our attention on specific issues like which roles men and women should embrace. In magazines, movies, television shows and a variety of other sources, women are shown being emotional, engaging in domestic activities, shopping, and trying to make themselves look sexually appealing. Men on the other hand are portrayed as confident, tough, serious, hard-working individuals who are in control of their emotions.

The National Association of Working Women known as 9to5 is working to combat the idea that women belong at home instead of working equally among men in a professional environment. 9to5 works to involve women in improving policies addressing pay equity, work/family issues, sexual harassment, discrimination, welfare, unemployment and protections for temporary and part-time workers. By engaging members of the community to get politically active and educating them on pertinent issues, 9to5 is successfully increasing media literacy. This is great because with a higher level of competence, the public will be able to make decisions based on their own agenda and not that of the media.

9to5 and the Community

A large part of any non-profit organization involves educating the community about the issues which it is working towards solving. 9to5 has local chapters in Colorado, Atlanta, California, and Milwaukee that come together to involve women of the community in improving policies addressing pay equity, work/family issues, sexual harassment, discrimination, welfare, unemployment and protections for temporary and part-time workers. They also have many ways for members of the community to get involved such as registering people to vote, asking voters to get in touch with their representatives, distributing voter guides at events or to neighbors, and talking with members of the community about policies that would better their lives in the workplace. If somebody is looking to get involved with  9to5 it is quite simple, all one has to do is log on to http://9to5.org/ and contact the director of their local chapter.

I believe 9to5 does a good job of educating the community about crucial issues that are being faced and getting people involved in improving policies to combat these issues. I say this with conviction because in 2008 9to5, with the support of the Denver community helped lead a historic campaign that lead to the defeat of a ballot referendum that would have eliminated Colorado's equal opportunity programs for women and people of color. This was the first time any state has successfully defended against this type of campaign. 9to5 has a few other victories under their belt such as wins on crucial state policies including a higher minimum wage, establishing a state pay equity commission, protecting workers who discuss their wages, increasing welfare cash assistance, breastfeeding accommodations and unemployment insurance. 9to5 is doing their part to implement immediate improvements in the lives of women of the community and low-wage workers.