Gender Inequality Essay

In class, the topic of gender inequality was brought up constantly. The book “ A People's History Of The United States” by Howard Zinn mentions a chapter on the Intimately Oppressed. In the chapter, there are examples of gender inequality such as the wife serving the husband, how the wife is the homemaker, women having no rights, different norms about sex, girls not allowed into schools and are not allowed to own property. Women were denied property, right to vote, wage inequality, education and careers. There are many social inequalities that occur between men and women, such as denying of education for women. Also in work areas women get paid less than man. There are many crimes against women that are not taken seriously. Men prevent women from getting higher paying jobs and keep them for themselves. In many countries women get paid less for doing the same exact job as men. Gender stratification theory of child bearing is discussed in the book as well in class. Many women are raised in other countries with the mindset to have as many babies possible and not concentrate on education. The conflict theory illustrates that men maintain position of power over women was discussed in class as well as in the book. The book highlights many different situations where women feel vulnerable because men have all the power. We also discussed about the ideology of control that women face.

We live in a society where men and women are not see the same nor are treated equally. Gender inequalities have always been an issue in our society. Women have always gain less respect than men based on their sex. The society has developed certain images and roles for males and females. Men are seen to have masculine traits such stability, independence, and confidence; whereas, women have more feminine traits such as nurturing, affection, and patience. As well, the society has developed the division of occupations for genders. Females are expected to work in caring professions such as: a nurse, sectary, or teacher. While men are expected to be: doctors, lawyers, and construction workers. These stereotypes of gender should not state what a woman can do. A woman should have the same opportunities as men when is come to issues such as paying rate and job positions. This paper will address gender inequalities that women face in their occupations.

For an immense period of time, society deemed women as inferior to men. However, through many protests and the growing acceptance of women, society continues to increasingly close the gap between the two genders. The differences in the societal expectations of women in the early 1900’s and 1970’s compared to the expectations of women in modern society demonstrates this improvement. Although women’s oppression dramatically improved over the past century, it persists as an apparent issue in today’s society.

Gender inequality has been a dominant and consistent struggle of human culture since its existence. To this day, women constantly face oppression, unjust treatment, and less opportunities. For centuries, women have played inferior roles compared to men, especially in marriage. When a man and a woman would wed, it was understood that the woman would serve her husband’s needs and demands. Over the centuries of human existence, however, many feminists and progressive revolutionaries demanded change in the treatment of females.

Being a woman and working in an environment full of women, gender inequality is transparent everywhere. Gender can determine how much education one gets, how much money one earns, what jobs one is qualified for, and how one is treated in society. Men are in the dominant group of society, while women are subjected to the subordinate group. Women’s duties and appearances are under immense pressure due to western culture. Women are pressured to be sexually attractive and to serve men.

Freedom and equality are ideas this country has had for centuries that have evolved over time. In 1776, what Thomas Jefferson meant by “all men are created equal”, is that white males are dominant in society. Women are treated worse than men and slaves treated worse than women. People that weren’t of the “superior” race/gender of a white male were typically treated as if they were less. Women and African-Americans aren’t being treated as bad today, but they’re still being treated worse than the white males of society. Even today, when white males are typically the leaders of society, it’s not always race and gender that creates inequality; sometimes it’s money that creates the issue. Not just from past evidence, but from present

Over the last ninety years, women have battled to become equal with men in all aspects of life and work (Parcheta, 2013). Male domination and power has become the social assumption as gendered occupations and beliefs have been projected throughout society as the status quo. Though challenging, this status quo is still present. Women have manufactured huge developments in career and education training, but equal treatment to a man, pay, and promotions in the workplace still escape them. Sociologists have documented that gender is not mainly a role or identity. It is an institutionalized system of social practices for constituting people as two different categories; male and female, and organizing relations of inequality around that difference (Ridgeway & Correll, 2000). In categorizing gender as a social construction, differentiations between males and females help to develop gender difference.

Gender inequality is a controversial concept about the unequal rights and treatments of individuals due to their gender … . Women everywhere have not been treated equally to men in the case of employment, stereotypes, and human rights. Females have been paid less than men for the same work, have been discriminated in the workplace, and, in some countries, can’t go to school. This issue is unacceptable and must be stopped immediately.

Recent studies have shown that overcoming gender inequality could take up to 83 years (at the pace America’s going). But is there a way to speed this up? Gender inequality is simply when one gender is not treated as equally as the other. In fact, it has been around for a long time, and is still around today. It is mostly a problem with women because they are not given the same rights as men, though men can experience the same events. Gender inequality is still a problem in America, but there are ways to fight against it

Gender identity and Gender Oppression opinions have varied throughout the years. By this I mean the awkwardness of seeing gay or lesbian characters in movies or tv shows have been decreasing throughout the years, or has it? Seeing movies displaying different genders than just male and female have varied reactions from many people. Despite the setting of the book being in this dystopian futuristic world, gender identity and gender equality is subliminally present and plays a key role in the book. Gender Identity is restricted to just straight male and females in both schools and the Sixers group as well as gender oppression can be seen through influential characters.

In the 21st century, many people believe that we have overcome the obstacle of gender inequality and evolved into a society of fairness and righteousness. As many know, females can be just as proficient and qualified as males at any task. Though some efforts to off-set this gender imbalance is in place, it is still commonly acknowledged that many careers are stated to be a male job such as lawyers, and female jobs such as secretaries. Gender inequality is a visible fact in our society and in this essay, I hypothesize that gender inequality still exists as a result of factors such as post-secondary education differences of the two genders, role of females in families, female objectification, career choice differences of the two genders, and

Gender inequality has been an issue since long before the 1840s, when feminists finally brought the problem to light. Most ancient cultures were societies based on gender inequality, skewed towards male-dominance. Most societies are still mostly patriarchal, in fact. Patriarchy is the root of discrimination between sexes and genders and has been for a very long time.

If I were to teach a class that dealt with the twentieth century in America, I would choose to make my focus the women's struggle for social equality. Comprising fifty-percent of the population, women are by far the largest "minority" in the United States. Through them I could relate the most important social, political and economic trends of the century. Their achievements, as well as their missteps, tell us a story of America that we most often hear of in snatches, or read about in digressions. Though we are making an effort to improve women's right for equality, the American dream is still yet to be achieved by many mothers, sisters, aunts, wives, and daughters.

Although they have been given more rights and equality, women still lack fairness in areas such as education, domestic abuse, crime, and lower class value. Cassandra Clifford states in her article “Are Girls still marginalized? Discrimination and Gender Inequality in Today’s Society”, “Woman and girls are abused by their husbands and fathers, young girls are exploited by sex tourism and trafficking, girls in many countries are forced into arranged marriages at early ages. Twice as many women are illiterate as men, due to the large gap in education, and girls are still less likely to get jobs and excel in the work place than boys.” She describes some of the issues that women face today around the world. These issues are what keep society from coming together to form a better world.

It is only recently that sociology has begun to explore the topic of gender. Before this, inequalities within society were based primarily on factors such as social class and status. This paper will discuss gender itself: what makes us who we are and how we are represented. It will also explore discrimination towards women throughout history, focusing mainly on women and the right to vote, inequalities between males and females in the work place and how gender is represented in the media.