Gender Roles In America

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

Gender roles are defined differently by people and are usually centered on opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity. They are a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex. Gender roles now compared to back in the day have very much changed, but there still remains a strong influence as to the way a woman should act and how a man should act. In places such as America, now, women and men both have jobs and can still balance spending time with their family and taking care of children whereas back then, women were housewives and were not able to hold a job because that was the man’s responsibility. The traditional roles of men and women are also looked at, as well as behaviors of men and women that are considered socially appropriate. Gender roles vary greatly from one culture to the next, from one ethnic group to the next, and from one social class to another. But every culture has them, they all have expectations for the way women and men should dress, behave, and look.

Within the past 50 years, there has been an increasing amount of women in the government. Whether these women hold powerful positions such as Secretary of State, or hold minor positions such as PTA President, a political revolution is brewing. The United States of America is lacking substantially with regards to females in office, in fact if one were to look statistically at the amount of women in the government, the United States is failing tremendously. Although the United States likes to claim that they are the land of opportunities, it seems as if the only ones reaping those benefits are cis white males. But, there are women who choose to break the glass ceiling and attempt to explore the opportunities that are in front of them, and one

Many women have faced difficult paths to get elected into office whether they are Hispanic, African American, or White. Even if they had all the qualities or they were overqualified they failed based on their gender, race, or lack of confidence in themselves.

America currently seems unready to be led by a woman of non-dynastic origin. Like ancient Egyptian society, men and women in contemporary America are legal equals, but this equality has not yet really filtered into the uppermost level of power.

According to the most recent US census in 2015, 50.8% of the population of the United States are in fact, women. Despite the sex ratio essentially being equal, female representation in government is not equal. A correlation is women in the federal bureaucracy and (generally) in federal politics did not occur until the early 1900s. For example, through the determination of Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others strong women, women were brought the right to vote in the United States by the nineteenth amendment (1920). By this initial crack in the gender barrier, women were given the understanding of the importance of women in politics as well as the chance for their voice in politics. The crack has only furthered over time as more women are involved with the bureaucracy.

Many women, 44 to be exact, have had the opportunity to be a part of the US Senate. Currently, we have 21 female senators in Congress as opposed to the few we had this past Century. People, however, say that more women need to represent Congress. I argue that it is not about what a person looks like or identified as, but it is the policies that they intend to put in place. Senators using the ideals of substantive representation should be the Mainstay of our current political system.

Women in the government has always been an uncommon thing to see except for in recent year’s history. Women were never involved in politics as there were always male leaders representing the nation. Men were typically seen as good political leaders and women were never considered for the American government until the first time a woman ran for vice president in 1984 and everything changed.

One of the main purposes of the United States government is to make policy that is relevant and helpful to the people of the country. To this end, it is important that our leaders understand and reflect the values and concerns of the people they represent. It is important, therefore, that it is comprised of a diverse group of individuals to match the diversity of the nation’s population. It is concerning, then, that, despite the fact that women make up 52 percent of the population, they only make up 17-18 percent of the United States Congress. Not only are they underrepresented, but they also show lower interest in running for office to begin with compared to their male counterparts. It is important to address the causes of and solutions

D. I believe the numbers provided in the first paragraph are general and do not provide an accurate reflection of society today. It brings me to question how differently the numbers would read if focused on each economic class. The results would show completely different numbers for each economic class level. In today’s society lower class tend to experience first childbirth, marriage, divorce, health care issues, and enter into the workforce at earlier ages than shown. If they do not enter the work force earlier, they are using government assistance earlier. The individuals’ economic class, education levels, and home life will vastly influence the outcome of the age at first marriage and childbirth. It will also affect the probability

Gender politics have for the longest time acted in favor of the male gender as opposed to the female gender. Despite, the U.S being a dominant political power, women in leadership have experienced great struggles to ensure that they are equitably represented. However, besides America being a democratic nation, America women still faces many hurdles in the political arena while very few have been able to rise to the highest executive offices. While some countries have had female presidents, U.S has never had a female president with Hillary Clinton coming close in 2016. However, Hillary took a hit from the Electoral College who chose a minority president in Donald Trump despite Hillary garnering the popular majority votes. This begs the question

Women for far too long have had a hard time being taken seriously, especially in politics. Historically, politics has been a boys club: we’ve never had a female president, of the 535 seats in congress just a little over a hundred of them are filled by female representatives and only 20% of the members of the senate are women. Even in our modern government, we still have such an underrepresentation of women, which poses the question: why is this? Why is it so much harder for women to be involved in politics? Regardless of whether we are comparing men and women in media, sports, business, politics, etc., it seems our society is often times much harsher on females than males, so we must ask our selves: What makes us more critical of women than

The socialized norm that citizens of a diverse society has fallen accustomed to and believes the best representative for a leader is a white male. Growing up with this exposure women were influenced into having a lack of confidence, ambition causing women to underestimate their own abilities. They choose not to go against the norms of cultural confrontation, because they’ve unconsciously been socialized to assume responsibility for their families. These factors are influencing women less and less in the last century, on the contrary women in society are fighting for their voices to be heard as political powers. Women perform just as well as

Children are taught by their parents and society the idea and roles of "femininity" and "masculinity." Much about these beliefs is not biological but instead very much cultural. The way in which we feel about men and women and their gender roles in society amounts to the prevailing paradigm that impacts outwards thinking. Sexism is the effect of that bias imposed by our undertaking of acculturation. Gender roles in Western societies have been developing quickly in recent years, with the changes created both by evolutionary changes in society, including economic shifts that have altered the way in which people work and as more and more women enter the workforce, and by maybe pressure/force to create changes because of the view that the traditional social structure was unfair. Gender relations are instilled throughout life, with the initiation brought by the young by society, teaching them distinct values and putting in them certain behavior patterns acceptable/respectable to their social roles. These role-expectations have been in flux in American society in current years, and men and women today can be seen as having more unique and nontraditional roles in society, with women entering previously male-dominated areas and men finding new ways to exist in their families. I.e. “stay at home

When it comes to holding a political office, normally it is a man who is in power rather than a woman. For women are viewed as too weak or emotional to have control over that sort of power. Though, the increase in feminism is bringing a change to that