Aishita, Shaurya and

Ayaan (IBDP-1B)

TIME AND
SPACE
How important is cultural or historical
context to the production and reception of a
text?
 Contents
● Definitions what is text & culture + analysis of definition
● Disney Letter analysis
● Disney Gender Pay Gap report
● Striking Women article
● Pay Discrimination Suit
● Guardian article
● Business-Human Rights article
● Reflection and IB Learner profile
● Alternative resources
● Citations
 What is historical context and what
does one understand by it?
Historical context is nothing but a social, religious, economic, and political condition that existed
during a certain time or place. It allows one to see and comprehend more than a piece of the scene
in which the situation occurs. It is critical to pay attention to the surrounding context in order to
correctly interpret historical information. It helps us understand the incidents that influenced other
incidents or peoples mindset.
 The Disney Letter
- This text is a letter of rejection from Walt Disney Productions, to a woman named Mary V.
Ford
- The letter is dated June 7, 1938, a time period when equal rights was not a concept that
many large companies paid heed too
- The main reason given to Ms. Ford for her rejection was her gender
- Women having to overcome multiple barriers to entry
- The female gender was considered incapable of handling such important and delicate tasks
- In the second paragraph, the words “young men” and “girls” used by the author in the same
context show the aforementioned bias
- “Young men” is a very proud and mature word in comparison to “girls”, which portrays
young women as unfit for the job because of their lack of maturity
 Relevance to historical context
- If the letter is taken out of historical context, there would be a massive uproar against
Disney for such misogynistic policies
- Women were denied jobs on the basis of certain work being available only for men
- World War 2 played a huge role in the reception of text in respect to the time period the
letter was written in
- Such gender-based rejections were not halted, but at least they stopped being the norm
- As seen in another letter from Disney a few years later, they stopped publicly claiming that
gender bias was the reason for rejection
- Something like this wouldn't have been received in the same form of manner in today’s time
but the same situation still stands in some way or the other
 The Disney Gender Pay Report
- This text is a statistical analysis presented by Walt Disney to the public.
- It outlines the status of the gender pay gap within the company in the year 2020, much after
the events of the aforementioned Disney Letter and WW2
- It shows a substantial decrease in the pay gap, and in some cases women earning more than
men
- This implies that the situation within their company has improved, and they have evolved
from what they once were
- However, this only shows the data from the UK branch of the company, and not the world
- Hence, it cannot be concluded that the situation has actually improved
 Relevance to historical context
- As this text is quite recent, it seems acceptable to the world when its face value is looked at
- If this were published back in pre-WW2 times, the world would laugh at Walt Disney as
such low gender pay gaps would be unfathomable
- This shows that the concept of equal pay, along with Disney’s own practices, have come a
long way since the writing of The Disney Letter analysed previously
- However, the shortcomings of this document prove that there is still some way to go before
true equality is established, both within Disney as well as the whole world
 Striking Women Article
- WW1 and WW2 was similar in terms of employment of
women. Men had to go to war so women were hired as
there was no other choice available to them unless they
didn’t wanna keep their business running
- Despite their success in wartime industries in the ww1-
similar stereotypes were repeated in the next war
- WW2 prompted one of the largest shifts in female labor
supply in U.S. history. Roughly 6.7 million additional
women went to work during the war, increasing the female
labor force by almost 50 percent in a few short years
 Relevance to historical context
- If the WW2 incident is taken out of historical context, there would be a massive uproar against
the American government and the perception of the so called leaders of america at that time
would be completely different as to what we believe it to be now.
- The current government would still be facing repercussions for having been unfair to women in
the past.
- The economical conditions would have been far worse because if women were not allowed to
work in high profile jobs which would have led to fewer inventions and would have resulted in
the world being far backwards than it is today.
 NY Times Article
- The article talks about the pay discrimination lawsuit filed agaoinst disney and how it started
with only two people ( LaRonda Rasmussen and Karen Moore) but now 8 more ex employees
of disney have joined this lawsuit against disney.
- It talks about how in addition to the lawsuit of pay discrimination they have also filed a case
against them for pay secrecy claim.
- ‘A claim that the company illegally prohibits employees from discussing pay has been added to
a lawsuit accusing it of paying women less than men.’ and according to One plaintiff, Chelsea
Hanke, now a senior home entertainment manager at the company, claimed to have “direct
knowledge of a female Disney employee being disciplined for disclosing her pay to co-
workers.” No further details were provided by the plaintiff. Disney said their claim was false
and they would prove it in court because that is against the national labor relations act of 1935
and the california fair pay act of 2015 further supports it .
 Guardian Article
- Women were paid less than their male counterparts and POC were affected more.
- Rausamann received $25,000 as compensation after a complaint was filed by her
- Disney denied allegations and stated them as ‘meritless’
- A man with less experience than Rasmussen was paid more than her and she was payed less
than 6 other men with similar work as her
- She was also paid less than other male managers who has the same responsibilities despite
having good performance reports
- Moore was discouraged to apply for the role of a manager.
- A man eventually got the role of manager and then Disney converted that role to a senior
position, making the man receive a higher salary while Moore and him had similar work and
responsibilities.
 Business-Human Rights Article
- 4 other women joined the case with Rasmussen and Moore
- Wide gender pay gaps were found in all sections under Disney
- According to the allegations, Disney paid women less than their male counterparts, denied
them promotions and gave them lower job titles and pays which didn’t match their
responsibilities
 Relevance to historical context (10, 11,
12)
If anything like this happened in the 1930s, there would have been no case or lawsuit filed against
Disney in the first place. This is because women being allowed to work at all, was a new and
foreaign idea so being able to work as a woman and getting paid at all was a big feat at the time.
While women were expected to do all the work, they couldn’t be paid for it. For example, a
women is expected to be the ‘housecook’ or just know how to cook but as soon as you think of a
chef, you expect them to be a man.
 Reflection and IB learner profile
IB learner profile aspects applied :
- Inquirers
- Open-mindedness
- Knowledgeable
- Thinkers
- Risk-takers
- Caring
- Communicators
- Reflective
 Alternative Resources

★ Rose, Evan K. “The Rise and Fall of Female Labor Force Participation during World War II

in the United States.” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 78, no. 3, Sept. 2018, pp. 673–

711, 10.1017/s0022050718000323.
for statistical graph of the total labour forces of both men and women over the years.
 Citations
Flemming, Grace. “Understanding Historic Context Is Key to Analysis and Interpretation.”

ThoughtCo, 19 Aug. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/what-is-historical-context-1857069.

Accessed 18 Aug. 2022.

Rose, Evan K. “The Rise and Fall of Female Labor Force Participation during World War II in the

United States.” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 78, no. 3, Sept. 2018, pp. 673–711,

10.1017/s0022050718000323. Accessed 18 Aug. 2022.

THANK YOU