How far must one go in order to be successful? In the film The Associate, investment banker, Laurel Ayres, went to extreme lengths in order to climb up the ladder of Wall Street. In her pursuit of rising through the ranks, the film beautifully depicts the social forces and mindsets that hindered many women like Laurel Ayres to reach their full potential. Laurel was a brilliant investment banker for the frim she was working at. It was because of this that she was destined to receive a promotion. However, despite her brilliance, the promotion was given to her less qualified friend, Frank. Laurel was enraged by this. In a discussion with Frank, she expressed her disfavor towards his promotion. She was doing all the work, yet he was getting
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In the 1990’s a third wave feminism was going across the nation. There was reference to this at the beginning of the film when Laurel told Sally that the women’s movement didn’t make it to Wall Street. The third wave of feminism wanted to accomplish three goals. They first wanted to fix the mistakes of the past two feminist movements, the first one taking place in the 19th century and early 20th century and the second one taking place from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. One of the biggest mistakes that many feminists believe took place in the two previous waves was the lack of representation. Those waves only focused on middle class white women. In this wave, they would include more people of different backgrounds. This may be why Laurel was chosen to be African American. The second aim was to speak out for the equality of men and women. It wasn’t that women had different capabilities than men, it was just that social conditioning led to societal roles they had. Laurel and Sally reflected this. Laurel was inducted into the gentleman’s club and Sally created a program that boosted the efficiency of Laurel’s business. Laurel and Sally could do anything that those men could and they in essence did it better than them. The last aim of the feminist movement was to speak out against objectification of women. Objectification was a major issue in The Associate. The issue was
In the 1990’s a third wave feminism was going across the nation. There was reference to this at the beginning of the film when Laurel told Sally that the women’s movement didn’t make it to Wall Street. The third wave of feminism wanted to accomplish three goals. They first wanted to fix the mistakes of the past two feminist movements, the first one taking place in the 19th century and early 20th century and the second one taking place from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. One of the biggest mistakes that many feminists believe took place in the two previous waves was the lack of representation. Those waves only focused on middle class white women. In this wave, they would include more people of different backgrounds. This may be why Laurel was chosen to be African American. The second aim was to speak out for the equality of men and women. It wasn’t that women had different capabilities than men, it was just that social conditioning led to societal roles they had. Laurel and Sally reflected this. Laurel was inducted into the gentleman’s club and Sally created a program that boosted the efficiency of Laurel’s business. Laurel and Sally could do anything that those men could and they in essence did it better than them. The last aim of the feminist movement was to speak out against objectification of women. Objectification was a major issue in The Associate. The issue was