Tokenism: A Step We Should Take to Overcome
Tokenism: the practice of making a symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from minority in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce.
The concept of Tokenism has long been considered in the society when discussing the difficulties that minority groups face as they enter into workplaces where "white males" have traditionally been dominant features. Ever since the African-American Civil Rights Movement, tokenism was used to describe a symbolistic movement to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting ones from underrepresented groups to give an impression of equality in the workforce.
Tokenism can easily be linked to moral licensing - the recruiters, with their minds full of pride after the recruitment of minority groups, feels innocent enough to go back to the past oppressions they have put upon these groups. It is easily found among different races and differing sexualities. How many times have the society put restraints on the actions of these "varying individuals" from freely expressing their own capacities? A lot. Women - the most prominent figures disadvantaged by tokenism that can be distinguished in the modern society. Many of women's negative experiences associated within the workforce and their inability to achieve equality have been attributed to their token status - work has long been dominated by men, and the disproportion between the men and women further accelerates this issue.
Yes, there have been cases which female figurines have made significant success. However, what is so-called the "glass-ceiling", prevents individuals with overwhelming capacity from breaking the "social-norms" and success. There are only a few particular cases in the case of women compared to men, and that is a mere example of tokenism. People are biased - the way they think have long been colored by the social normalities and culture that has long been existent. Still, the attempt to overcome what has been considered a social norm before and moving forth to accepting the divergence must be taken into account. If we stay as we were before, things won't be better, and the attempt is to break the subconscious prejudice lying within our minds.
The concept of Tokenism has long been considered in the society when discussing the difficulties that minority groups face as they enter into workplaces where "white males" have traditionally been dominant features. Ever since the African-American Civil Rights Movement, tokenism was used to describe a symbolistic movement to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting ones from underrepresented groups to give an impression of equality in the workforce.
Tokenism can easily be linked to moral licensing - the recruiters, with their minds full of pride after the recruitment of minority groups, feels innocent enough to go back to the past oppressions they have put upon these groups. It is easily found among different races and differing sexualities. How many times have the society put restraints on the actions of these "varying individuals" from freely expressing their own capacities? A lot. Women - the most prominent figures disadvantaged by tokenism that can be distinguished in the modern society. Many of women's negative experiences associated within the workforce and their inability to achieve equality have been attributed to their token status - work has long been dominated by men, and the disproportion between the men and women further accelerates this issue.
Yes, there have been cases which female figurines have made significant success. However, what is so-called the "glass-ceiling", prevents individuals with overwhelming capacity from breaking the "social-norms" and success. There are only a few particular cases in the case of women compared to men, and that is a mere example of tokenism. People are biased - the way they think have long been colored by the social normalities and culture that has long been existent. Still, the attempt to overcome what has been considered a social norm before and moving forth to accepting the divergence must be taken into account. If we stay as we were before, things won't be better, and the attempt is to break the subconscious prejudice lying within our minds.
Good paragraph number 2. I'm not sure I'm comfortable describing Park or Hillary Clinton as "token" female presidents, but the way they didn't quite break the glass ceiling shows us that moral licensing will make it harder for the next women to follow them - and hopefully their relations to former presidents won't be of any consequence or influence. Figurines in second last paragraph is a strange word choice by the way. Try to use "I" and don't feel compelled to be as formal in future writings.
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