Women In US History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Women In US History - Essay Example difference. But they have seldom talked about race (ibid 251). While white feminists have engaged in universalizing women’s culture and oppression from white (basically middle class) women’s experience and thereby failed to separate their whiteness from their womanness, Afro-American history also failed to examine the differential class and gender positions men and women occupy in black communities thereby constructing the image of a monolithic black community. This history reverberates with a male voice and is based on the experience of men (ibid 255-56). The social context for the construction of race as a tool for black oppression is historically rooted in the institution of slavery (ibid 256). The slaves were defined by law as â€Å"animate chattel†; they constituted property as well as a social class and were exploited under a system that sanctioned and institutionalized white ownership of black bodies and black labor. Women were denied right to their own bodies and sexuality. Women’s bodies and sexuality was under white ownership and this was institutionalized. It formed and essential part of the system of subordination and exploitation. The children the female slaves gave birth to immediately became the property of the slave masters (ibid 257). It reminds me of Alice Walker’s â€Å"Meridian†, where Meridian’s mother explained to her that Emancipation to female slaves meant that they could retain their own children. In the eyes of the slaveholders, slave women were not mothers at all. They were merely instruments guaranteeing the growth of the slave labor force. They were classified as â€Å"breeders†, animals as opposed to mothers. Hence, their infant children could be sold away like â€Å"calves from cows†. Courts ruled that female slaves had no legal claims on their children (Davis 7). Hard labor in the fields from sunrise to sunset was the norm. Where work was concerned, strength and productivity under the threat of the whip

Reflective Journal M02 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflective Journal M02 - Essay Example Entrepreneurs and investors embark on business ventures because they wish to make money, and a business that does not make money on a regular basis deserves to be terminated. All the tools and techniques for decision making that are taught in the MBA or any other business management course will always have the profit maximizing criterion as a major consideration. At least, that is the common perception, and one that I had entertained prior to my studies about business ethics and corporate social responsibility. In my readings, I was struck by the observation of Pride, Hughes and Kapoor (2009), that the profit maximization goal is impossible to define, and therefore impossible to achieve, because there is never a satisfactory answer to the question, ‘How much profit is enough?’ Exactly, businessmen are depicted as greedy and heartless, loving money for money’s sake, and much like Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, the profit a business accumulates never appears to be enough. Such a goal is thus never attainable, and therefore the profit maximizing aim is a senseless one for business, as there is no maximum. After all, a goal that could not be defined could not be attained, and success becomes elusive and illusory. What I have learned about ethical decision making is that it is the core of ethical business, the thing that makes business a noble undertaking that seeks to provide for the needs of people. It has the humane goal of satisfying people, of bringing goods and services to match human wants and needs. Business creates value, and offers this value up for human consumption, and the resulting profit is but a just reward commensurate to the value that was created. Ethical decision making is what guides a businessman to do the right thing at the right time, and because of this his business becomes a tool to making peoples’ lives better. I believe that this is the social responsibility of