Feminism Within ‘Hamilton’

From the redlining of school districts to keep Black neighborhoods in lower income areas or the ongoing disenfranchisement of minority voters, WOC have historically faced struggles unique in comparison to white women’s experiences. By dismissing their privilege, white feminists create an environment that gaslights and diminishes WOC who speak about their lived experiences. The image of a girlboss mirrors that of the American dream, the simple statement that hard work equals success. Under America’s supposed meritocracy, it is uncomfortable to point out how one might have inadvertently benefitted from others’ oppression. Often painted as attempts to be “logical” or “positive,” white women’s tendency to tell WOC to “calm down” when expressing their frustrations with girlboss feminism erases the historic and systematic nature of their disadvantages to blaming it on an individual’s personality. By nitpicking at the delivery to distract from the overall message, this tone policing shifts the focus of the conversation from systematic racism to a diluted “bad apple” perspective that fails to recognize the larger systemic barriers that WOC face. The prominence of self proclaimed girlbosses in the media can certainly encourage young girls to become confident entrepreneurs, rather than feeling confined to traditionally female jobs or powerless. However, to WOC, it is an empty promise that may lead to disillusionment. It is difficult to distinguish capitalism from racism: minorities will be negatively affected by hiring practices due to the pervasiveness of unconscious stereotypes and biases in larger culture, as employers continue to only seek who might help maximize profits, as shown in a United Nations report from 2016 that found that white people were most likely to be hired for skilled, non-manual jobs. Although white women reaped the most benefits from first and second wave feminism,, it is time for them to take a backseat to the voices of BIPOC women who can speak more personally to the intersectionality of issues such as racism and feminism. Rather than hijacking the feminist movement, white women must focus on using their privilege to continue to uplift minorities’ voices and contribute to meaningful change. True allyship results from acknowledging one’s privilege and contributing to movements of racial justice and equality without diminishing those that have experienced these injustices firsthand, and this starts with abolishing girlboss feminism.

THE GLASS CEILING & THE ILLUSION OF EQUITY

First popularized in the 1980s, the “glass ceiling ” describes the invisible barriers that prevent women and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) individuals from receiving promotions, raises, and other opportunities. While the term is often used to describe implicit bias in a business corporate setting, the glass ceiling is just as present in sectors like the news and media industries, even if it might be less visible. Despite the widely-held perception that women are represented equally in the media, the industry is not as supportive of women as it is made out to be.

On the surface, women are represented fairly well in the media industry in comparison with other predominantly-male sectors such as business or STEM fields, where women make up only 19% of the total workforce, according to data from the Pew Research Center. The misogyny that women in the media face is most prevalent in three areas — promotions, attrition, and external hiring.

Women make up a whopping 49% of the workforce in the media industry, but are concentrated almost exclusively in entry-level positions. Although McKinsey & Company’s 2019 Women in the Workplace study reported that 93% of HR representatives from media and entertainment companies reported that their organization was committed to achieving greater gender parity and diversity, most fail to deliver upon this promise as one progresses higher in the corporate ladder. Women in the media and entertainment industries are noticeably absent from higher-level positions. While 60% of journalism undergraduates are female, only three out of ten C-suite positions (CEO, COO, etc.) are filled by women. The inequality in job distributions grows when race is taken into account — while white women

make up 33% of entry-level hires in the media industry, women of color only contribute to 17%. Further up the corporate chain, women of color hold just 4% of C-suite positions.

Clearly, the “get one foot in the door ” mindset has proven to be a double-edged sword for women in the media and entertainment industries. While it has allowed them to

reach base-level representation in entry-level hires, it has also prevented them from advancing further in their careers. By focusing on artificial metrics of equality in the workforce through seemingly progressive entry-level representation statistics, the media industry fails to address the far more insidious issue of why women in the industry don’t receive the same opportunities and compensation as their male counterparts.

Analyses suggest that issues such as toxic masculinity, hierarchical newsroom structures, and the patriarchal nature of “macho-man” culture are also contributing factors to the lack of gender diversity within the news industry specifically. Because the structure of a capitalist society is tied so intrinsically to position-based hierarchies, companies are able to exploit female workers’ contributions in entry-level positions while denying them further opportunities for career growth in the future.