Gender Inequality In The US

Inequality between different groups of people within the United States is concerning for many sociologists and society in general. One of the main inequalities throughout the United States is gender inequality. Gender inequity is found in all past and present societies. It takes the form of patriarchy. From the patriarchal point of view, gender inequality can be traced back to biological differences in early societies (“Steven Goldberg on Patriarchy” 2006). This inequality is present in society through many different forms, including job segregation, the gender pay gap, and a great difference in women’s political representation (Joan Acker, 1989).

When you think about women in the work field today, what do you see? A successful lawyer, a doctor, perhaps. That’s true. In fact, there have been more females holding high employment positions in the late 20th and 21st century than ever before. According to Donald M. Fisk in “Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003”, 60% of working-age women worked in the labor force in 1999. That’s 41% more than that of 1900, where only 19% of women worked in the labor force. Among these women, a vast majority have seen their salaries sky-rocket in the past two decades, almost surpassing those of male workers. However, it is not always this way.

Places like the USA have shown great inequality. This can be supported by the fact of unequal job pay, racial inequality and discrimination. Despite this being faced between both genders it is mostly targeted to females. The use of unequal job pay suggests that the USA has not developed its equality, therefore, more uprising and gender wars become more common due to this. Also racial inequality between genders is also a problem in America’s society. It is proven that men earn about 20% more than women. However different coloured women earn 40% less than men. This indicates that not only gender discrimination is happening but also racism within that. This doubles the attacks against women as most women are from foreign countries which differ them in colour from other people. This difference symbolises the difference in women and men. This shows us that

“The US is the largest economy in the world,” yet inequalities within it plague it. Though there are several measures of inequality, some measures of inequality that seem to be especially daunting are gender inequality and wealth inequality.

Feminism and gender inequality are not just issues that women face in the US, but the entire world. Comparatively, women in the US are actually treated much better than women of other countries, such as those in the Middle East, where women have no rights and are seen as property. Talk about objectification! Transnational feminism takes a look at the same women’s issues that we have in the US and how they affect women in other countries. Transnational feminism also takes into account the various cultural difference that might also affect these issues and create other issues that women of different origins might face. Likewise, these cultural differences also affect the social construction of gender and maintain gender inequality. For example, Asian and African countries still abide by the very traditional patriarch lifestyle, in which the men are the “breadwinners” and women do the housework and take care of the children. Because many of these countries have corrupt governments, women remain having no rights due to the fear of punishment they would receive for trying to combat these issues. It is hard to fight for rights when some countries don’t even consider women as humans, but this is where transnational feminists come in. They fight for equal rights for all women, regardless of their ethnicity, race, sexuality, size, age, etc. because women are worthy of fair treatment and shouldn’t have to prove that.

“Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Yet, on average, women continue to earn considerably less than men. In 2015, female full-time workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent. Women, on average, earn less than men in virtually every single occupation for which there is sufficient earnings data for both men and women to calculate an earnings ratio” (“Pay Equity & Discrimination,” 2015).

For every dollar that a man make a woman only gets paid seventy-seven cents. They are multiple reasons for this gap in pay. One being that they are different types of jobs that are targeted to a specific gender group. And a “man’s job” will have a higher pay that let’s say a “woman’s job”. Another reason is that people assert importance to one’s decisions in life. For instance, women are pushed to have children and raising them not to have a job. There for women will not get paid as much because they are expected to have children and then the father, or male-figure, is the main source of income for the family. The final reason for the gender disparity in the United Sates is the gender inequality that women suffer because of discrimination. Women are constantly faced with discrimination. Some companies just pay women less because they can and they won’t be called out or punished because of it. This companies are making more money from the lessen women wages. In conclusion, the gender disparity in pay in the United States is above average compared to other places in the world, but it still has a long way to go till it reaches gender equality in pay. (Macionis, 2014, pp

Parents believe that if their children are able to sustain a similar education in comparison to their peers, then they will all be equal in life.

Both within and across different cultures we find great consistency in standards of desirable gender-role behavior. Males are expected to be independent, assertive, and competitive; females are expected to be more passive, sensitive, and supportive. These beliefs have changed over the past twenty years within the United States and apparently around the world as well. Therefore, modern society has been trying for the past decade to eliminate all of these stereotypes and double standards, thus creating equality among genders. However, women are not treated equally with men in developing countries because most women take low-level jobs. Last year, I came back to my hometown and visited some local factories. The industry is about producing textiles and the most labor in it were females who live on lower-wage. Even the circumstance changed, the equality between gender is still an issue.

As the inequalities in this world are increasing, the amount of people aware of it is decreasing. People’s views on inequalities have been advancing for years; but as it became more common people have stopped noticing these social injustices. As the world is transitioning, people's views on gender and race are developing with it and it is for the worse.

Gender equality, the measurable equal representation of women and men, does not imply that both genders are the same but that they have equal value and should therefore have equal treatment. In this modern era, when it comes to politics, women are under represented in most countries worldwide, in contrast to men. Women are slowly but increasingly being politically elected to be heads of state and government, with more than twenty countries having women that are holding a position in office. Increasing women’s representation in government can empower women, and is necessary to achieve gender equality. In my assessment of the United States political system I argue that gender inequality has prevented women from becoming President of the United States

The social gender inequality has been a serious problem since the ancient period. Women were dominated by men and had little power in the society. Men were mostly doing agriculture work or hunting. On the contrary, women were basically doing works like house cleaning, breeding children, and making clothes that they played the domestic role in a family. Although the historical event—enlightenment emphasized the importance of human rights, it is excluded the women’s rights. After the emergency of capitalism, the situation became worse and women had less power and rights either in family or in society. People earn money through works and consume products according to their financial ability. The gap made by wealth, status, and power promotes

In the past, women are recognized to be feminine who contributes more at home while men is the person who being more masculine and is the one who goes out and earns money to support the family. Nowadays, women education level is getting higher and they have more opportunities to receive better education and work in the society while men are not only limited to jobs that requires leadership but also some caring jobs like nurse or social worker. So we can see there is a trend implicates that the gender roles are slowly starting to change but the gender stereotype still have stayed firmly over the years in North America even though people are now more aware of the problem of gender inequality. In North America, gender roles between women and

A woman who has been working for a company for over six years is preparing to go into labor with her first child. She is due to have her baby in two weeks and have not missed a day of work since she has begun working for her company. She informs her boss that she will be forced to take a three week leave so that she is able to attend to her child after she gives birth. The boss’s response is, “That’s fine” with no secure words following behind his statement. The woman is in fear that she is going to lose her job but thinks nothing of it. A man, who is a coworker of the pregnant woman, has become very ill with the flu. He has been at the job for two years and has taken a few sick days before now. Starting at the same position of the woman who is bearing a child, the man was called in for a raise in pay for all of his hard work and loyalty to the company. He calls his boss and tells him that he will not be coming in to work for a few day due to his illness. The boss’s response is, “Take all of the time you need, the company hopes you get better.” Two different scenarios, along with two different genders, received two different responses. Gender inequality in the United States is an ongoing conflict. The quality of a woman’s work is a substandard compared to the quality of a man’s work. According to WIC, women were long considered naturally weaker than men, squeamish, and unable to perform work requiring muscular or intellectual development. In the United States, women are

What is gender-equal? Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision-making, and when the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and favoured. In this gender-equal society 2015, a male’s position still higher than female in most families. Generally speaking, men are the breadwinners, and women may give up their jobs to focus on raising family. Theoretically, the man should have more pressure, and it seems to be the woman benefits more from marriage. However, this phenomenon is not unique to the United States, most civilizations have the same or similar circumstances as well. While in fact