Module 06 Course Project - Critical Analysis

Article Review

Name: Rodney Wheeler

Institution: Rasmussen College

Course: G380/AMH3304 Section 01 Visions of America Since 1945

Date: 01/26/18

The article “Women and Power” by Gloria Steinem is a unique piece of writing that tries to elaborate on the cultural difference between different groups of people in the society. The article was funded by the New York Magazine when it started as an insert and later upgraded to publish its free issues beginning in December 1971. The article brings the idea of the cultural difference between various groups of people. In her article, Gloria explains the cultural relevance today where women rarely hold positions of power as opposed to their male counterparts (Gloria, 1968). Women are only seen as a creature to subordinate the male and deemed wrong to exercise control over others. Funded meaning who owned the magazine and what is their political bias.

There exists a political bias in the article. This is because the writer brings out the woman character as an inferior being that cannot be allowed to exercise hold leadership positions in the society. The notion is gender biased as it is cruel towards the women and hence discourages them from vying in elective positions to represent people in the community. The article brings out the idea political bias when it explains that there are men and even some women who held that ladies were not interested at all in power. In fact, she goes to the extent to say that these individuals believed that women had a gene that makes them take the option of being ordered out in the society.

The main point of the article is to bring out the issue of gender inequality as far as the issue of leadership is concerned. The writer’s message to the readers is to give a challenge to the women in the society to embrace the trait of leadership. The author is encouraging the females to beat all the odds to be able to get power and use it on their own.

Gloria's article was very impactful in popular culture. Now, most American's leaders were leaders. The culture did not encourage women leaders. Gloria's article criticizes this notion that women should not lead. She advocates for equal allocation of leadership opportunities for both men and women. Both the public and the private sectors do not value women leadership. According to the article the society has allocated specific roles to women that do not encourage leadership at all. However, she argues that women leave their communities to seek opportunities that men look for. This is a demonstration that women too want similar opportunities. She tries to eradicate the belief that women are not interested in power as this is an assumption made to deny them power. Most women in the cities do not have the training and knowledge to enable them to acquire influential positions in the society. This is a significant reason why most of the women are not in power despite the campaigns by feminist movements.

The article by Gloria attempts to manipulate the cultural values of its audience. Gloria's apparent knowledge of her audience's culture helps her in managing their values to help them understand the message. She uses some examples to communicate to her audience. For instance, girls have been coming into the city to seek job opportunities (Johnson, 1976). She uses this popular trend to help her audience understand that women also want power. She uses the example of Negroes coming to the city to escape their problems. Similarly, women come to the town for the same reasons as the Negroes.

This week’s assignment asks you to analyze one of the required readings from this week, and explain the cultural relevance of the article. In addition, your paper should work to explain how this particular magazine article reflected and/or attempted to manipulate the cultural values of its audience.

Assignment Rubric:

Thesis explains the cultural relevance of the article. 42 /50% (Explain the cultural relevance of the article. How does this article fit with the time? --How is it a Historical artifact of the time? What is the main point of the article? What is the writer's message to his/ her readers?)

--More needs to be done with this… put the article into context of time and place historically.

Defines how this particular magazine article reflects and/ or attempts to manipulate the cultural values of its audience. 4/10% (Who funded this magazine? What are their political biases? What might be the writer’s interest or newspaper’s motive in writing or publishing the story?)

--Funding and bias questions need to be answered. More could be done with manipulate questions, please see my note in the essay about this.

Demonstrates knowledge of the writer's message to his/ her readers. 20/20%

--This is done in your essay.

Research, documentation of research, and grammar. 10 /20%

--Paper is missing in-text citations and more research needed. Remember, our course rule of at least 3 sources for an academic paper of this size. I have also noted some grammar things in the main body of the essay. Please let me know if you have any questions about these edits.

References