2. Consider Ehrenreich's ethos. What is the central argument of this piece? In what ways does her personal experience build her case?
It is obvius that Ehrenreich is qualified to comment on this subject. She put herself in the shoes of various typically feminine jobs such as a maid solely for the purpose of observing how people perceive her in that role. Thus, her ethos is obvious. Ehrenreich points out that women who are home makers for their career are often seen as lower than and more like property of the men that support them. This is evident in the example she provides of the German cartoon in which the woman that is cleaning the floor on her hands and knees is being gawked at by her husband behind her. She uses her own experiences to show how the men and women that hired her did treat her like property and she shows how degrading that can be. In my opinion, if a woman needs to support their family and has to do a job that is less appealing than others to do so, they should do it.
It is true that Ehrenreich has credibility in this issue, however there may be a bigger picture that she has missed. For example, instead of her having to raise an entire family on that salary, she had to take care of only herself for that period of time while she lived in a hotel. She did have a great amount of credibility, though, because she did do all of the dirty work that is so vividly depicted in her descriptions.
ReplyDeleteI agree. In the areas where Ehrenreich lacked experience, such as raising an entire family on minimum wage, she was able to provide readers with second hand descriptions of this lifestyle by learning from her coworkers' stories.
ReplyDeleteAlthough your last sentence threw me off, I see your argument. That cartoon bothered me as I think it's a common view of maids (note every costume for Halloween), but we don't realize how that stereotype degrades the maids.
ReplyDeleteWhile she is credible because she puts herself in that situation for a few weeks, she also lacks the experience of it being a lifetime career like it has been for many women.
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