Gender Inequality Essay

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.

Gender inequality has engulfed the United States and placed copious varying roles onto the male and female sexes. According to Leila Aboulela, Minaret, “All through life there were distinctions - toilets for men, toilets for women; clothes for men, clothes for women - then, at the end, the graves are identical.” Discrimination places women into different roles and takes away numerous privileges. However in America today after more than a century of struggles by dedicated activists who fought to alter these ideals and gain further rights, the perception of women in society and their contributions to society have been greatly transformed.

The role of women in society in the United States has undergone dramatic changes over the past several decades. For instance, an increasing number of women have taken on new responsibilities besides the traditional ones at home and taken up paying work. Besides making up a lot more of the work force than before, more women are also taking up leadership roles and have also made great progress on health issues affecting women. While World War II and the feminist revolution of the Sixties did a lot to redefine gender roles in American society, equality has not yet been fully realized for women in America.

Socialization is the unequal distribution of power, wealth, income and social status between individuals and groups. This distribution is not random, it is patterned and structured. Three important axes of global inequality are gender, race and ethnicity, and class. These inequalities are on a global scale and are found in virtually all societies. It wasn't until relatively recently, however, that a caste system developed to include race and ethnicity among class and gender. Since imperialism and the conquest of the America's, a number of social changes have occurred, and, as a result, the dominant groups today are not only higher in the social order, in terms of rank, but they are considered better as well.

Gender, class, and race are different forms of categorical inequality established by exploitation meaning that a certain class, gender, and race gets an overwhelming amount of opportunities than those of the opposite group. We have all been affected by these types of inequality in one way or another. Unfortunately in my case my gender and race has affected certain aspects of my life in a negative way. I identify as a hispanic women, which means that in the United States I am a double minority. Being a women, especially in my household, always put me in acquiring less power than the men and boys. Also, being hispanic has put me in a disadvantaged position throughout my life.

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

True equality means holding everyone accountable in the same way, regardless of race, gender, faith, ethnicity - or political ideology (Crowley, 2015). “Women from different classes, from different racial and cultural groups, from different regions, and different ages or abilities often face different barriers and frequently have different work experience ( Armstrong, 1978). Race, gender and class are the main factors that intersect and determine how a person is segregated in the labour market. For many decades, women have been devalued for the work that they do in the labour market and work done at home.

All men and women were created equal. However, this obvious truth is not universally shared. Fortunately, there is a very real fight for gender equality that we are currently engaged in, and a participant in that fight that holds a fundamental role are non-governmental organizations (NGOs). NGOs exist as private, voluntary organizations that function without government restriction and bias because they are not for profit and not funded by the government. These organizations coordinate strategies in order to “perform a variety of services and humanitarian functions, bring citizen concerns to governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information.” These core characteristics of NGOs meld and cooperate to advocate for women’s rights and gender equality. These organizations are actually quite effective in achieving their missions of promoting women’s rights and gender equality. Women’s rights NGOs led the General Assembly to adopt the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women. Women’s rights NGOs advocate for the idea that women’s rights are included in human rights.

In the 1800’s a women was suppose to have four things Piety, Purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. These principles shaped the “Cult of True Womanhood” an idea that women were to be seen but not heard. Women had no say when it came to politics, they couldn’t own property, they were not allowed to do many jobs, and they couldn’t even speak in front of men. They had the duty to be a mother and raise their children but even thought they had this responsibility it was the husband who had the complete control and guardianship of the children. Because of these ideas it was very difficult for change to happen. When women started to receive more education they began to ask questions about why they were being denied these rights, which began the

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.

Throughout history, countless acts of gender inequality can be identified; the causes of these discriminating accounts can be traced back to different causes. The general morality of the inequity relies on a belief that men are superior to women; because of this idea, women have spent generations suffering under their counterparts. Also, a common expectation is that men tend to be more assertive and absolute because of their biological hormones or instinctive intellect. Another huge origin is sexual discrimination; even in the world today, many women are viewed by men as just sex objects rather than a real human being with

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.

Nelson Mandela once said, "Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression." What Mandela is trying to convey is that society is being restrained by social norms and gender roles. While today’s society is not as controlled by gender as Mandela’s, women still continue to be oppressed by it. In the reading “The Cycle of Oppression,” the cycle is explained part by part, and why it is continuous is discovered. The cycle remains continuous because of internalized oppression. Internalized oppression is defined in “The Cycle of Oppression,” as “The "buying into" the elements of oppression by the target group.” Meaning that the oppressed began to believe that the stereotypes about them

At first glance, the words feminism, veganism, and locavorism may induce many different thoughts and images. One might think of a celebrity, a stereotype, a character trait, or a group of specifically similar people associated with each word. For some, these three words may not even bring anything or anyone significant to mind. But no matter what thoughts arise through them, all three of these words represent an ideology, and two of them commonly have to do with diet. Feminism, or the advocacy of women’s rights and gender equality, and veganism, or the lifestyle and diet of avoiding animal products, are widely known and decently popular. However, locavorism, which is the lifestyle and diet of purchasing and eating locally and sustainably grown food in order to help the environment and be healthy, is more of a modern concept that was not always relevant or present in American society. In fact, it only became popular in the past decade (Rudy, 2012, p. 27).