Opposing Ambitions Book Report

Opposing Ambitions In Opposing Ambitions by Sherryl Kleinman she writes about an alternative holistic health care organization that focused on the mind and body known as Renewal. Renewal was a health care service that sought out to deliver a health service within an organizational structure where equality was the main Center for both me and women. Another purpose of the health care system was too lessen the emphasis that was being placed on the roles of both personal life, money, and finances that were heavily attached to men and women. In the book kleinman brings to light several factors that take place in the work place that characterizes why woman are indeed treated unfairly and therefore leads to the famous term the glass ceiling. Two

For example Margaret who was known as the ore outspoken woman stated that “at first thought she thought the staff women’s lack of assertiveness meant that they were ineffectual. Over time, she came to believe that the staff’s feminine demeanor, and their contributions, were both valuable and unrecognized by others.” (pg. 101) This quote to me is significant because this not only takes place in this book. This is something us as woman face on a regular. We are constantly devalued and go unrecognized for not only being contributors but because of our kind and sometimes sensitive demeanor. And this is very much important to gain insight in this book because in higher up positions in the business field you begin to see the difference in men and woman. Men are raised to be the bread winners and ones who provide while woman are taught to act like a lady, respect man, and literally make ourselves submissive to them as well as available in any situation. And seen in this book the woman are to be only considered as volunteers. Even though they do work that is for pay. This a problem because so often women are seen as already being in that nurturing nature and what they work as and do shouldn’t be considered work. Another example from the book came from when it was stated that Ron (one of the practitioners) didn’t seem to understand that renewal held multiple meanings for the staff of women, which

And it truly shocks me that even in 2015 this is still very relevant in the work place no matter where a woman finds work. At the end of the day no matter how independent the woman may be, or how high of a role she may play in her job, she will still have to go through the chain of men who can easily decide the fate of her career. And in my opinion, this way society runs wont changed. We as women will constantly be taught that men are the superior. They are the main providers and they are who should be looked at as leaders to any kind of business attributes. Before finishing this book I declared that I hated this book and that it was very one sided and written in some woman’s ignorant way of thinking that women need to be seen in this light. But the further I read along I began to understand and grasp the real concept. I would definitely recommend this book to any trying feminist who want to get the message out because the evidence is in it. We as a society have to change. We have to stop diminishing the appreciation of women, change our perspective, and respect our community as well being open and vulnerable to these changes. We and I mean that as a society can’t keep making actions and emotions gendered. We have to respect the roles of women and