Gender Inequality: Can We Change Something so Engrained

Living in peace needs equality of men and women because humans don’t fight if all humans have equality. Everyone has a chance to get peace and happiness, but some people cannot because of custom. For example, in the past, women had to work for men, and there was a gender discrimination. From 19th to early 20th century, women fought against women’s issues such as education, economic, violence, and abortion because women’s position is very low and weak, so they couldn’t have decision rights. However, the society became better as the years went by. The comparison between past and present history shows the current situation of gender issues in the workplace and in education, and results shows how gender equality is important for peace.

These same people who oppose homosexuality then influence their children who act in the same manner in which they do. Students today learn words such as “queer” and “fag” all too soon and teach other students to tease and taunt those who may possess slightly feminine characteristics this in turn causes the said student to have absolutely no self esteem and to view his or herself in a unhealthy and unnatural way. Complete acceptance of homosexuality will probably never be gained within society however there are still various adversities homosexuals must endure more than heterosexuals, such as anti-gay bullying within school systems, various types of discrimination, and ultimately fighting for their basic rights.

According to gotquestion.org “the Bible condemns homosexuality as an immoral and unnatural sin” (gotquestion 1). The religions that discriminate against the LGBT community are wrong and are taking advantage of their beliefs to judge people. Members of religious organizations such as Pat Robertson a Christian founder said that being gay is “a sickness that needs to be treated”. (Americans United 1). These religious people use techniques such as “conversion therapy” to try and turn a homosexual person into a heterosexual one. Even though there are certain people that say it works most of the feedback for these practices state they’re unsuccessful. These religious activists don’t care for the feelings or rights of this community. They are more focused on making things normal opposed to accepting the changes. These are the kind of people who don’t want to accept progress for anything that they think goes against their beliefs. according to an article by Joe Dallas “The prohomosexual public not only rejects the traditional view on homosexuality but also derides it as ignorant, intolerant, and dangerous, which poses a formidable challenge to Christians” (Dallas 1). The way they see things is that this is a very big sin therefore they can discriminate and blame it on their religion. There are many problems when it comes to religion and the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered community. One

Over the years, this country has experienced its fair share of social movements. Some of the most famous among these are the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement, and the LGBTQIA Rights Movement. Brave members of these marginalized minority groups rose up and fought for equality and justice, and historically, they have achieved it. All of these movements share similar struggles and experience comparable triumphs, and they often use the same strategies to overcome obstacles and achieve victories. The most recent of the movements mentioned is the LGBTQIA Rights Movement. In fact, it is a movement that is currently taking place. Members of sexual orientation and gender identity minority groups are still being oppressed and treated unfairly, so the fight for their rights continues.

“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons… but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters,” Gloria Steinem once said about the inequality between genders that exists in the world (Green). Gloria points out the fact that while female rights equality has been empowered, male inequality is ignored or taken lightly. Because of its adverse nature to all genders, the social construct of the masculine stereotype should be abolished, so both men and women can experience the freedoms to be how they want, raise their children, receive parental leave, and unreservedly express feelings to improve their psychological well being.

Gender inequality is a social problem that is widespread in society. It is referred to as the unfair treatment of individuals based on one 's gender. Historically, laws have opposed women to go to school, access certain jobs, and purchase property. Gender inequality has been experience through culture – honor-killing, sex-selective abortion, and society – occupation, gender roles, and education. The social expectations of men and women differ between cultures that are constructed socially and culturally. These expectations are displayed in roles, and behavior believed both by men and women and their interdependent relationships. Gender inequality can be further understood through the structure of sexism. Discrimination takes place in gender inequality for the reason that men and women are treated on the basis of gender alone (Amjad, R., Ashfaq, M., Kousar, R., Saghir, A., 2010).

Gender inequality has become one of the oldest issues throughout society. Gender inequality can be described as unequal treatment or specific perceptions based on an individual’s gender. In most cases, it has developed over time with the socially constructed gender roles the society portrays. It was said “Nearly one-third of women said they feel discriminated against or treated unfairly based on their gender at least once a week." Opportunities are wasted if stereotypes and biases evaluate people based on their gender. Both men and women have arguments about this issue, but men are unaware of the treatment that women face in field. Today, people feel that women are becoming ahead in the work field because more women are receiving higher education and studies have shown that women tend to go to school for higher education rather than men which is bringing them many more advantages. Others feel that women are still being held back in their occupations and still face the unfair treatment based on their “roles” in society. Despite that inequality towards women on the workforce was worse before and some laws were changed, unfair treatment towards women is still occurring. Gender inequality can be manifested in different ways such as the hiring process, wage gaps, occupational sex segregation, maternity leave, sexual harassment.

Gender is based on cultural assumptions that classifies on what positions should be held based on gender. Therefore, Gender inequality affects people in the workforce because of the gender wage gap in institutions. For example, jobs are sex segregated based on gender roles and status. The gender gap is based on wages and job positions. This causes for males and women to earn different because of gender. Even if they have the same positions males are look as authority. Men are favored because of the concept of being dominant. Ridgeway says “Not only the existing sex composition of the job but also the stereotypically gendered nature of the work or the status of the establishment that the job incumbent is expected to connote can implicitly activate gender beliefs and the color of image of the preferred worker”(Ridgeway, 101).This quote helps explain that employer are hired based on gender and racial background. Also, this shows the inequality of gender because gender belief is based on hiring males for authority.

Gender inequality has become an ongrowing issue in today’s society. This issue begun in early history and has grown over time. In early days it simply began as women not being able to vote or not being able to work. This has improved over time and now women have gained those rights, but there are still inequalities in today’s society between genders. When most people think of gender inequality they automatically think of women. Men have also started to become victims of gender inequality. Men are expected to be tough and show no emotion. They are also expected to live up to the standards of other men by doing work that is considered “manly.” Having this type of gender gap is impacting today’s society greatly. Gender issues are affecting men and women in today’s society and a change needs to happen.

There are many ways someone can sit and analyze why a social problem exists, came to be and where its future lies. The best explanation on why gender inequality is, always has been, and will continue to be a social problem is from the functionalist perspective. Functionalist focus on how a society creates the social problem and then analyzes how and why the social issue has been maintained over the years. The objective reality is that gender inequality has and always will be a major issue in society. The scope of gender inequality has changed drastically over the years, but there is still a constant struggle for equal rights, pay and respect from society towards women. While organizations like Association for Women 's Rights in Development (AWID) are constantly fighting for women’s rights and spreading awareness on the inequality for women, the issue is that it still exists and is in great force. I believe gender inequality to be a pride barrier for men; men were once thought to be the kings, the providers for the family and the pillar that held everything together. Today, women can provide, and do for herself and don’t need men to keep them stable or hold the roof from collapsing and men find that demasculinizing.

Gender inequality is the difference in the way someone is treated perceive depending if they are a male or female. Throughout the years, it was common to see a great inequality in the way women were treated. It is not just that males and females are biologically and anatomically different rather that society has created stereotypes as a way to assign roles for both, making a gap between them. There has been a long battle in the women’s community as a way to try to achieve equality. One of the greatest accomplishments on equality happened in 1920 with the 19th amendment. The 19th amendment is accountable of providing women with the right to vote. Even after the battles it is still common to find gender inequality in today’s society. Society has created a setting in which men uphold roles that make sure to prove their power and superiority. We can find that gender inequality still exist in settings such as families, workforce, sports or politics.

The world surrounding us today tells us what to do, how to be, and what to think based on the bodies that we live in. However, what the world has forgotten is that we are all just people. People that cry, that bleed, feel the hurt of sorrow or the happiness of pure joy. At the end of the day, it doesn 't matter what we do in life but how we live it, how we love ourself and how we love others. So why is gender inequality still such a huge problem? Gender inequality refers to the unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It is evident from our workforce to our society with gender stereotypes and degradation being seen in everyday life, however no one wants to do anything about it. Most of the time gender inequality is just pushed away, forgotten about, because there always seems to be bigger problems that we should be worrying about. Although this is a big problem, and we, as females, should not back down.

Life as we know it has always maintained a balance in the fact that gender inequality has remained almost unchanged since before this generations time. The factors that keep gender inequality unchanged are the ones that have been discussed amongst the human race for centuries. To teenagers of our generation equality amongst both men and women are rarely visible but derogatory behavior or words towards the opposite sex show how one sex really treats and feels towards the other sex.

The topic of this report is gender equality which addresses both men and women’s rights and those who identify as a specific gender and how they are affected in modern day. This led to many debates on the issue of gender equality so why is gender considered an issue in today’s society? Anyone can specify themselves to a gender and within each gender there is a risen conflict such as how certain genders are treated. This issue affects everyone from the people of the United States of America (views from political areas) to the ones who passionately reveal that gender inequality is a human rights issue. The United States is a country of freedom so it is important to note that identifying this issue now could result in a change of freedoms or rights for all. We have to tackle this issue through different perspectives such as identifying yourself whether or not it is right for women to be treated differently from men. In our constitution, the 9th amendment states “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” (Staff, Lll). This shows that we can not make individual judgements based solely on the person’s gender; however, people in modern society continue to state their bias within politics.

Those opposed to same-sex marriage have come up with many arguments that do not really have any thought behind them. One of their arguments is, “Same-sex marriage is against my religion.” Religion is to be respected but how many people have not read the Bible front to back. The Bible has spoken against many other things, but these things are excused every day. “The Bible says that you can execute people for cheating on their spouses [...] The Bible also says that you can keep slaves” (10 Reasons). People have decided to pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to follow. This argument has been continuously used over the years. Religion has often been used as a scapegoat for abuse against the LGBT+ community. Religion should be hope, support, and faith… not inhumanity, violence, and discrimination.