"How To Be A Person" by Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long

Do you have a bronze ceiling?

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Cross curricular Reading

Read the definition of bronze ceiling and the article. Answer the questions in paragraph form.

Article retrieved from :
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/bronze-ceiling.html

Definition

bronze ceiling

noun [singular]

the fact that most public statues represent men rather than women

'The politicians are among over 40 men signing a letter to the Guardian saying the time has come to break the bronze ceiling and celebrate the extraordinary life of Mary Wollstonecraft … The men are following in the footsteps of more than 80 female politicians, academics and public figures who demanded a statue be built to honour the pioneering figure last year.'

GUARDIAN 7TH MARCH 2018

2018 marks the centenary of women's suffrage in the United Kingdom, around 40% of the female population gaining the right to vote for the first time in 1918 (though it would in fact be another ten years before all women over 21 were able to vote). A number of public events are honouring the centenary, rightfully remembering the women who bravely and sacrificially fought for more than forty years to uphold the democratic rights of women. But as women across the country march the streets in remembrance, the British cities that form the backdrop to their celebrations contain very little artistic representation of these or other women who have made such a significant impact on society. This curious and unfortunate dearth of female statues, mirrored in cities across the globe, is what is now being referred to as the bronze ceiling.

This curious and unfortunate dearth of female statues, mirrored in cities across the globe, is what is now being referred to as the bronze ceiling.

A situation which up until recently had very much slipped under the general radar, the so-called bronze ceiling has abruptly hit the spotlight in the past 12 months, perhaps in part due to the emergence of the term itself – a neat and catchy way of characterizing the issue at an important time in the history of gender equality. A review of the real statistics is actually quite staggering. In New York's Central Park, for instance, the 22 statues of historical figures are exclusively men, any females are restricted to fictional characters like Alice in Wonderland or the Juliet famed in Shakespeare's love story. Of the 82 statues in central San Francisco, only two represent women – a US senator and Florence Nightingale. The situation is no better in the UK, where the majority of women that do happen to be memorialized appear to be royal. Research based on the PMSA (Public Monuments and Sculpture Association) database revealed that, discounting religious and mythical figures (e.g. mermaids, the Virgin Mary, etc.) the count stands at 517 historical men to just 71 women. Of these, 46 are royal women, an astounding 29 of which are of Queen Victoria!

Happily, it appears that cities around the world are finally waking up to the unacceptability of this situation and beginning to redress the balance by breaking the bronze ceiling. One such step in April 2018 was the unveiling of a statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett in London, the first statue of a woman to be erected in Parliament Square.

Background – bronze ceiling

The term bronze ceiling first appeared in 2014 as a play on the earlier expression glass ceiling. Bronze is substituted for glass, because public statues are traditionally made from bronze.

The expression glass ceiling, first appearing in the late 1970s, refers to an unacknowledged barrier that prevents women from advancing professionally. It's a clever juxtaposition of glass as a substance that you can see through (potentially making it 'invisible') and ceiling as an upper limit. The term has turned out to be one of those occasional catalysts for linguistic creativity, bronze ceiling being the latest among a number of new expressions which have followed the same theme. These include brass ceiling, describing the same principle for women with careers in the military or police, stained-glass ceiling, referring to barriers preventing female vicars in the Church of England becoming bishops, and celluloid ceiling, describing the under-representation of women in the film industry as directors, producers, etc.

Not all variations on the theme have related to gender inequality however. The expression grey ceiling for example, describes the phenomenon of people approaching or past retirement age staying in their jobs and thus preventing younger people from progressing.

Questions drafted by Nilda V. Vargas @ https://www.blogger.com/profile/05477020476346072027

Answer the questions in complete sentences. Give an example  for each answer.

1. What is referred to as “bronze ceiling “?

2. What prompts the author to claim that  Mary Wollstonecraft  led an “extraordinary

     life”?

3. What event is the author commemorating with the article?  

4. How is the phenomenon of “bronze ceiling” seen in New York, San Francisco and the

     UK ?

5. What country has made progress to abolish the “bronze ceiling phenomenon and how has it achieved this prowess?

6. Women from all fields fight for gender equality and have coined words to point out the injustice inflicted upon them. The terms glass ceiling, bronze ceiling , brass ceiling, stained-glass ceiling, celluloid ceiling are all used to describe the phenomenon.  Does this coinage help or hinder the women’s efforts to be considered equal? How does it help or destroy these efforts?

7. Do teenage girls suffer gender discrimination in schools? If so, coin a word that describes this phenomenon and explain how it is suffered by young women in schools, dancing troupes, acting classes, sports or even in the company of male teenagers who are their friends.

8. Also see; http://disq.us/p/1v44oad

    Write a paragraph with your personal response. What is your position regarding gender equality?