How Can Women Expect And Dream Be Successful With Only Half Work? Essay

For centuries women have been depicted as weak beings when compared to men. In the early days, women were not allowed to go to work because men did not think they had the same abilities as they did. The role of a woman was to stay in the house, cook, clean, and take care of the children. However, through the World War II propaganda poster exclaiming “We Can Do It!” featuring Rosie the Riveter, women were able to prove that they had the same abilities as men and began a revolution in the U.S. workforce.

“Look at us! We’re just like everyone else. We’ve bought into the same ridiculous delusion; this idea that you have to settle down and resign from life.” (April Wheeler, Revolutionary Road). It has become a society norm that women are meant to serve housewives; to cook, clean, garden, and nurture children, even though they are much more capable of other things. The role of women is greatly overseen, as they are not perceived to be of their full potential, rather than as societies idealistic expectation. This is because men and those who are wealthy are unable to look past gender and accept women as of equal significance.

Today in society it can be agreed that women have indeed gained many rights that were not accessible to them 100 years before. Although, despite the mentality that men and women are treated equally there are still very many discrepancies between the treatment of genders. Many of which can be attributed to the expectations placed on the genders, gender roles between both genders, and women in the workplace. These issues have caused a great rift to form between the genders, a rift that has caused one gender to claim dominance over the other and this can develop a sense of inferiority by the submissive gender.

The reading, “Taking On the Second Shift” by Melissa A. Milkie, Sara B. Raley and Suzanne M. Bianchi focuses on the gender differences between men and women. The authors claim that the root cause of work discrimination is based on gender, which is affecting many Americans in our contemporary society. Money is what humans need for survival, without money there wouldn’t be an economy. There are stereotypes in our society which dictate how much money we make. As mentioned in class and seen in many studies, women make less money than men.

In the article “The End of Men,” Hanna Rosin offers several examples of women overpowering men. The inequality between men and women has become a critical issue in today’s society. According to Rosin, women are slowly surging ahead in the workforce and family life while men are left behind struggling to meet expectations. Rosin argues that this role reversal is taking place because women are simply better suited for postindustrial society.

"Women do two thirds of the world’s work...Yet they earn only one tenth of the world’s income and own less than one percent of the world’s property. They are among the poorest of the world’s poor." –Barber B. Conable Jr, President, World Bank

One thousand years go by and an abundant amount of people still view women in a stereotypical type of way. On the opposing view, if women did not overstretch the slightest of things, this wouldn’t be such an enormous issue. Women may be overreacting to what the media has to say about them. It is not affecting everybody but a vast majority of successful women from continuing to moving forward said Marianne Schnall. Important to realize, women are capable of doing jobs men can do. Such jobs as being an engineer, physician, mechanic, lawyer and even top notch business women! Up to the present time there is an ongoing public debate on women suffering from double standards. If it makes a female feel threatened or belittled than it may be

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

From the beginning of time the male and female have been expected to perform certain roles in society. Males have been expected to work and provide for their family while the female raises the children, cooks, cleans and keeps the house in order. Today many women have broken that tradition and are starting their careers and becoming more independent. Even though females today are braking away from that stereotype, they are being discriminated in the work place because there are still individuals out there that believe that women should play a certain role and that they are not strong enough to work in a cooperation or

Gender roles is a very controversial topic in today’s society, especially when it comes to working. 100 years ago, in Europe, women were working long hours in factories. Women also worked as nurses, cleaned wealthy people 's homes, and were craftswomen. Meanwhile, 100 years ago in the United States women were expected to stay home and take care of the family/home, while the men went out and worked an average of ten hours a day for six days a week, compared to the traditional five day weeks and 8 hour days.

“While women represent 50% of the world’s adult population, and one-third of the official labor force, they perform nearly two-thirds of all working hours, receive only one tenth of the world income and own less than 1% of the worlds

The economic arguments for gender equality are overwhelming - but stereotypes keep getting in the way of progress. There are many reasons women are being held back from being seen as an equal to men. Women are generally perceived as more “communal”:and “loyal”, whereas men are described more as “protectors” and “competent”.  For generations people believed what women should be, how they should behave and what they represent and that reinforces unconscious and unseen biases of who a women is.

Currently, according to statistics from the Department of Labor of the United States; of the “123 million women age 16 years and over, 58.6 percent or 72 million were labor force participants and in the long run, women are projected to account for 51 percent of the increase in total labor force growth between 2008 and 2018” (U.S. Department of Labor). These numbers will clearly demonstrate to any skeptic that women are leaving behind their old dependence on men and becoming more autonomous and self-determined to succeed; it sounds great, doesn’t it? On the other hand; however, men are losing as women are gaining. The Department of Labor has reported that men have lost about 4.75 million jobs during the current economic recession that started in 2007, while women have only lost 1.66 million. Additionally, “the only parts of the economy still growing—health care, education and government—have traditionally hired mostly women”( Cauchon). Now, as a result, of the statistics that show that females are overcoming males in the workplace; the gender segregation has created some kind of imaginary “glass ceiling” that impedes both sexes from advancing professionally and economically.

The sight of a working woman today is not something that causes one to look twice. However, this was not always the case. It was a long struggle for women to get to where they are today, and there is still a long way to go. There were a few momentous occasions throughout history that caused a shift in the way women were viewed as workers, such as the need for workers during World War II, the Equal Pay Act, and the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court. Women have made great strides in integrating themselves into the workforce alongside men and continue to do so today.

In the article “But what Do You Mean?” Tannen deborah also talks about the genders at work where she too acknowledges that women are more at the disadvantage of men. To prove her point she provides the following example “An engineer who was the only woman among four men in a small company found that as