Film Comment 3 on the movie - The Awakening PDF

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Summary

Film commentary on the movie - The Awakening and its impact on women in the early 1900s. Extensive commentary and answer....

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Lorena Weeks was a single mother who, in 1967, was seeking for an opportunity to secure a more lucrative job. For this, she contended with her erstwhile employer, Southern Bell, where she had been working for a while as a telephone operator, when she applied for the post of a switchman, and her application was denied. She sued Southern Bell for sex discrimination and a violation of her rights under the Civil Rights Act. The case interested the National Organization for Women (NOW), and she was represented by a NOW lawyer, Sylvia Roberts. The judgement in this case was a breakthrough in the struggle against sex discrimination at the workplace. Weeks had worked in the company for a while and was in a position of seniority, which should have made her the obvious choice for a promotion but she was rejected. The articulated reason for the rejection was the supposed desire of the company to protect “women from lifting equipment weighing as much as 30 pounds.” (21:19), but her boss explicitly told her that her application had been turned down because “the job was reserved for men.” (21:43). Weeks’ response to this decision was “When I go through the grocery store line in the grocery store, they don’t push back a loaf of bread and say, ‘You’re a nice little lady. You could have this ten cents cheaper,’ just because I’m a woman”. She subsequently sued Southern Bell. During the trial, Sylvia Roberts demonstrated with some objects that women are able to carry objects of more than 30 pounds, dealing a blow to the defence of Southern Bell. Weeks’ lost the initial case, but in 1969, after two years and several appeals, the court gave judgement in her favour and held that Southern Bell had violated her rights under the Civil Rights Act and that “Title VII rejects this type of romantic paternalism”. (23:48). Romantic Paternalism refers to the notion that women are weaker than men and ought to be protected from supposedly strenuous and dangerous jobs. Word Count: 337...