Researching the Advancements of Women in the Workplace from the Early 2000’s – 2024

Allura Surat, Verrazzano Class of 2025, completed major in History and minor in Psychology

When thinking about my capstone, I looked back at two different papers I had written in classes I enjoyed which lead me to my research topic. The first paper was about the gender pay gap in the sports industry and the second paper was with an interview with my mother, and dealt with the impacts of being a nurse during COVID-19.

My mother is my motivation. When thinking about working and what I want to do with my life I always look back at what she had to go through to get to the position she is in now. This heavily influenced my research as I wanted to find out more about not only women in the workplace but nursing specifically.

When I first started my capstone, I was nervous about everything that I was going to have to get done and it felt overwhelming at first. I did not have an idea where I really wanted to start and all of the aspects that I wanted to include. I felt like I had so much information that was not specific enough so I needed to figure out a way in which I could narrow my research but still make it relevant to the broadness of the topic.

Working throughout the process I understood the importance of time management, and I became proud of the work I was doing. All of the hard work I put in was worth it in the end when everything came together.  

I was quite surprised about some new information I was researching, especially in Staten Island since I grew up here. There is so much nursing history in Staten Island that I never really paid too much attention to until I had started doing this research.

I would really like to explore this topic more in the future by not only focusing on Staten Island but other areas or maybe even countries. I could also focus on hospitals in Staten Island and see how things are currently, since there have been new units added, different nursing staff, and improvements on technology.

I was able to obtain a lot of new and useful information when doing this research. It was really an eye opener to see the ways that nursing and women in the work field have made improvements despite there still being many challenges to this day. I was able to look at a profession other than my own and see how others may be impacted compared to myself. I recognized how hard nurses have always worked despite any conditions that they were put in to help their patients to the best of their ability. All in all, this research was an enjoyable learning experience.