The Pursuit of Happy Endings: Women in the Workforce

Over the course of spring break, it was not uncommon to find me in a sloth-like stage with Netflix constantly streaming in the background. In the midst of a lazy afternoon, I happened to stumble across a classic, yet rather underrated, tale-turned-film, The Princess and The Frog. While Disney’s reinvention of this age-old story is lesser known in comparison to its counterparts, this film is brimming with beautiful scenes of an idealized Louisiana, jazzy ballads and poignant scenes of self-determination. Beneath the surface romance is a rather complex issue that can be easily missed in the hodgepodge of colors and characters. In a turning point for protagonist Tiana, her plans to own a restaurant catastrophically comes to a halt when the Fenner Brothers decline a piece of property to her because it appeared that a “woman of her background” was in no condition to claim the title of business owner in a man’s corporate world. With the film taking place in 1920 America, the denial of business and property rights to a woman, would have gone unquestioned in the patriarchal status quo. Even though Disney follows its “happy ending tradition”-where Tiana gets her prince and restaurant-it triggers a more critical reevaluation of our current society and the role gender plays in the workforce.

 

 

Since Tiana’s era of prohibition, jazz and beignets, it is quite obvious that women have increasingly become more present and powerful in the business sector of American society, thereby being able to slowly find their own “happy endings.” According to the Pew Research Center, the pay gap between men and women has drastically narrowed with females making twenty cents more in 2014 than in 1980. Furthermore, large companies are instituting anti-discrimination policies to protect workers, and with industries booming more than ever before, we have been able to see a drastic climb of women in the workforce to enter management, executive and CEO positions. However, it is still significant to note that a pay gap continues to exist-with women earning only 77% of what men earn according to a White House report in 2014-and lingering sentiments of sexism continue to persist. What’s more is that the women of a minority descent face a double edged attack in all occupations, with pay gaps and discrimination exacerbating the issue even further for minority women. So even as many may argue that progress has reached its pinnacle, it’s critical to note that there is still much left to cover. Recently, tech-based companies, like Twitter and Facebook, have come under scrutiny for perpetuating an elitist type environment where women are less likely to rise to the top of the corporate ladder or even discouraged from pursuing careers in this male-dominated field. The Silicon Valley in California has notoriously become an epicenter of female workers banding together to fight the status quo that is filled with sexual harassment and intersectional discrimination based on race and gender. One current and rather controversial case in Northern California involves a law suit filed against a venture capitalist firm on the basis that discrimination played a role in the company’s decision to fire Ellen Pao, an Asian American female employee. While the jury found the company’s decision to be based on Pao’s merit rather than discrimination, writer Lauren Williams, from Think Progress, argues that this landmark case has opened the doors to understanding these companies that have followed the suit of tradition for far too long. Williams points out that certain situations of discrimination in the workforce are no longer black and white, but a continuing spectrum of gray nuances with different point of views acting in on the construction of the end result. 

 

 

In ultimatum, it’s true that society has made leaps and bounds in gender equality in the workplace, but there are definitive areas for further speculation and analysis. Even as progress has been inevitably observed, there is much more that can be done to alleviate a socio-economic concern that is as old as the tale of The Princess and The Frog itself. While Tiana got her happy ending, it’s beneficial to question if women today have gotten theirs.