American Women

Assignment Details
The Workplace: 1960 to Present

For this Assignment, you will consider the impact of the second and third waves of feminism on womens opportunities in the public sector. In some cases, the impact could be the opportunities for promotion and/or management roles; in others, this could be the ability to enter fields in which women were less likely to be present, such as scientific research, IT, the military, etc.

For this Assignment, you will explore the experiences of women in the public sector by conducting an interview with a woman who is currently employed. After conducting your interview, you will share your own workplace experiences as well as those of your interview subject, in combination with connections to the Unit 8 Reading. The goal of this Assignment is to determine how individual experiences in the public sector reflect the challenges and successes of the second and third waves of feminism between 1960 and present.

Interviews:

Select one woman employed (in any field) and ask her about her workplace experiences. Your interview subject could be a female coworker, family member, friend, neighbor, or a total stranger, who is currently employed, and interview this woman about her experiences in the workplace. You should create at least 5 interview questions to ask your interview subject. Be prepared to ask follow-up questions if you would like additional information. For example, you may wish to ask questions related to your interview subjects career history, impressions of upward mobility, or pay scales.

Essay:

Begin with an introduction in which you address the significance of improved opportunities in the public sector for women between 1960 and present, including employment legislation and entrance into previously off-limit fields.
Introduce the individual you are interviewing and explain why you chose her for the interview. Then, you will summarize her replies and highlight her experiences in the workforce. *You are not required to submit the interview transcript for this Unit 8 assignment. Consider the following when you address her experiences: What were your interview subjects observations regarding changes in the workforce in recent decades? How have these changes impacted her personally? How have these changes impacted her family?
Address your own experiences in the workforce and address the same considerations you addressed for the assessment of both interviews. Compare your experiences in the workforce with those of your interview subject. How are your experiences different from, or similar to, those of your interview subject?
Connect the Unit 8 reading. What has been the impact of employment legislation, in your perspective, on the workplace between 1960 and present? Address why learning about the history of womens experiences in the workforce is useful.
Include a conclusion to summarize your points.
Word Count:

The Assignment should be at least 500 words and should employ connections to the Unit 8 Reading material. You should follow the Unit 8 Assignment template in Course Documents.

APA formatting:
Connections to the Unit 8 Reading material are required for this Assignment. Be sure to include APA parenthetical citations and references; formatting for citations and reference entries should follow the APA 6th edition style guide, which is available under Content / Academic Tools via the Academic Writer link.

Submit the Assignment to the Unit 8 Dropbox when it is complete.