Lesson Notes - Systems of Power, Race and Class

Admin

• Blog Post #1 was due today (by beginning of class) (see assignments and calendar)
• if you didn't make a blog post, it's too late
• make sure your pen names are correct!
• posts will be graded by next week
• if you made a previous blog and did NOT include your pen name, please go back and edit your post!
• Readings Blog Post assignment-- slight adjustment-- if you're making a blog post about our readings, one of your labels should be "Readings Post"
• I've updated previous ones-- see link under "Lesson Notes"
• Semester Projects (30 minutes in-class to discuss and think about your project)
• Wallwisher posts- I've started to make comments, in general, they're not detailed enough
• your Semester Project Proposals are due next week!
• anyone interested in a group project?
• Anyone what to create a blog? group blog (separate from ours), try out Pearltrees? Clipboard? 
• Excursions Assignment (again, see assignments)
• Over spring break, they should complete their excursions!

Readings - Systems of Power, Race and Class

• 14. "Is Capitalism Gendered and Racialized?" by Joan Acker.
• 17. "Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth, and America's Future," by Insight Center for Community Economic Development.

Student Posts on Readings:

• Capitalism a system embedded in racism and gender
• Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth, and America's Future

A couple things that come to mind:

• We've discussed in a previous class that one of the reasons women don't make more money is because we don't negotiate-- how does Acker's article impact your thinking about this? 
• lest you think this is an academic exercise, consider the brouhaha over Sandberg's new book, Lean In
• "Women make up 51% of the U.S. population and 47% of the workforce, yet only 4% are CEOs and 17% are board members, according to Catalyst, a non-profit market researcher. They also earn, on average, just 77 cents for every $1 for a man, says the Institute for Women's Policy Research." [USA Today]
• "Women hold 97, or 18.1%, of the 535 seats in the 113th US Congress"
• 20 (20.0%) of the 100 seats in the Senate and 
• 77 (17.7%) of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. 
• In addition, three women serve as Delegates to the House from Guam, the Virgin Islands and Washington, DC."
• Bringing the two articles together, what do you think are the long-term and continuing long-term (cumulative) disadvantages for all women and women of color in particular?
• Consider women's pay gap over time: "Women’s pay gap over a lifetime of work, as shown through the cumulative gap by educational level, rises from $270,000 with no high school diploma to $713,000 with a BA or more. Simply put, women’s educational advancement, on average, does not yield a similar rise in earnings, as comparable to men."
• What are the structural factors?
• What are the "cultural" factors?

Median Wealth

	Woman of Color	White Woman	Man of Color	White Man
Never Married	$0	$2,600	$4,020	$16,310
Divorced	$4,200	$52,120	$16,100	$80,000

Median Wealth

	Black  Mother	Black Father	Hispanic Mother	Hispanic Father	White Mother	White Father
w/children <18 years old	$0	$10,960	$0	$2,400	$7,970	$56,100

re: Lego post-- also see http://www.goldieblox.com/