Deconstructing

cartoons Analysis

Liza Donnelly
No 1

 People
From what we can see they all
wore working suits, around 30-
40 years old, and composed of
different races and ONLY 1 girl.
But all the men has their gases
locked on to the girl, which
means she isn't ingored and her
opinion is valid
 Objects
We could see a proper chair and
table with some paper to discuss, to
interact with someone, in this image,
everyone is using a similar chair and
the same table, this symbolizes that
everyone in this meeting is equal and
respected.
 Debatable issue
The Issue at hand is that there is usually
no woman present in important
meetings, and no woman would hold an
important work. The woman in the
picture thought 'I am supposed to be
here' meaning before this she, like many
other women has been brainwashed by
the media that women can only depend
on men, or women cant achieve great
things.
 Artist's technique

The artist use very simple lines, she

also draw a smile in the felame's
mouth, the woman in the picture
also sits very comfortably in the
chair, meaning she enjoys her time
there. there is even a man opposite
to her imitating her actions, and as
no people in the meeting frown at
the girl for being the odd one out
they clearly respect her opinion.
 Artist's purpose

To abolish the stereotype that

women can't work, and promote
women's equality. She wanted to
change the old mindset and allow
women to also contribute to
important decision-making situation.
The artist also wanted to tell that its
ok to have a woman's opinion in a
business
 Agree/Disagree

Agree, 49,6% of the world's

population are females, and having
a women's point of view during a
meeting could help increase the
targeted demographic, as women
know other women best. Inequality
in workplaces also baffles me as in
my opinion woman usually create
better, more structured
presentation than men.
No 2

 People
Middle-aged men in suits and one
such man presumably called
Harold try to 'cosplay' into a
woman. This is proven by his outfit
which is a skirt and high heels.
Everyone seems to be the same
race
 Objects
We could see two charts, hung on the wall
which could be interpreted that, this is a 'serious
business' and the reason they asked Harold to
wear female clothing is to provide a feminist
viewpoint and hopefully increase their sales. But
of course, they don't get the whole picture.
Harold is incapable of providing the correct
response of a true feminist because he isn't
one. These guys are still confined by the old
thinking that women can't contribute to
business and such destined to fail.
 Debatable issue
The Issue at hand is that there is no woman
present in this meeting. By logic, we would
know that just hiring a woman and asking her
opinion would result in a better conclusion than
by asking one of them to wear female clothing.
It saves some possible expenditure and
Harold's shame. And from how everyone is
paying attention to Harold, we can conclude
that they want to hear his opinion. Donelly
highlight these men's old preconception, bias,
and stereotype that women can't lead a
business
 Artist technique
The artist uses very simple lines and clearly
outlines an office, and they are in a meeting. The
guy on the leftmost is the only one opening his
mouth, presumably the one that has spoken the
words bolded below. Harold himself doesn't
seem to have any protest wearing female
clothing, with no frown or sadness present on his
face. This shows that he like the other men in this
meeting is taking this seriously, and he believes
that just by wearing female clothes he could
provide significant comments which are definitely
false.
 Artist's purpose
To highlight the stupidity of the old way
of thinking where women cant contribute
to a business, In contrast to the other
work where they respect a woman
enough to be one of their meeting
members, this company has a more
biased and stereotyping method of
thinking. The artist wishes to motivate
women to be brave and voice out their
opinion
 Agree / disagree
I disagree with these people's actions to
represent women just by wearing their
clothes and agree with what the artist is
trying to convey. Women should be
respected as everyone should have a
mother to bring them into this world, and
these people's actions show disrespect
and humiliation for females.
questions

 What is Donnelly depicting about gender in these

two cartoons? How? Why does this matter?

Woman experience discrimination in a way. Men especially those that have an old mindset would believe that
females are just not cut for business. These stereotyping and discrimination has been present for a long time
and even in the present day, we cant guarantee equality for woman in workplaces

In the first comic she depicts one woman sitting comfortably and contributing to the decision-making while in the other
one, a man dressed up in female clothes trying to give 'her' opinion. The reason the artist only put in one woman in the
first comic despite her intention to equalize man and woman is that she wanted to change people's minds one step at
a time. From introducing the idea that women can also contribute to an important business meeting, and slowly
decreasing female stereotyping and increase their opportunity.

After introducing this idea the next step that the artist may take is to start increasing the appearance of female in
similar meetings, maybe just 2 or 3 but changing a mindset that has long been implemented need a step by step
process
Are businesses in general poor at
being inclusive of women? Why or
why not?

Around 42% of women in the US reported having face discrimination on

their job, from earning less, to being not included in important
assignments or decision making. Even though a study showed that firms
with women on their boards saw 42% higher sales returns, a 66% higher
return on invested capital, and a 53% higher return on equity over firms
that did not.

So if we see the data we could conclude that leaving women to do their

job will produce a better result, yet why do people still discriminate
against women? Some company try their best to promote an equal
workplace environment and some would rather keep facing less profit
than to just change their mindset
 What's Donnelly's take on this
and why does this matter?
Gender equality is a human right.

Gender inequality is a global issue, and is a key factor in the persistence of poverty. When
women and men do not have equal access to resources or equal opportunities to take part in
decision-making, other than the obvious ethical problem there are also direct economic and
social costs. Right now serious actions must be taken to implement 'REAL' equality, even
though there are many policy to equalize females, some people still managed to create
unequality by various reasons, this mean that women often experience lower human
development outcomes than men. These factors result in women's disproportionate ill
health, lower education levels and poor access to service. So by presisting in our old mindset
that women are less than men, we would never progress our society and even worsen it.

“There is no such thing as a woman who doesn’t work. There is

only a woman who isn’t paid for her work.”

― Caroline Criado-Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a

World Designed for Men
 Thank you!

“How important it is for us to recognize and

celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”
― Maya Angelou