Women Of Color: A Case Study

Whereas in recent decades major strides toward gender equality have been made, sociologists are quick to point out that much remains to be done if inequalities in the United States are ever to be eliminated. Behind much of the inequalities seen in education, the workplace, and politics is sexism, or prejudice and discrimination because of gender. Fundamental to sexism is the assumption that men are superior to women.

In the past and present women have had to endure sexism as a part of everyday life. This is unfair and unjust to the female species. In this paper I am going to be talking about some of the issues of sexism and how they affect women. Some of the issues I will be talking about are the white males club and how non-membership effects women. What are the benefits of having a membership to it. How women are kept in their place by society and by themselves. How has this unequal affected women through their lives and the business world. If women are being liberated or not. What types of problems women are experiencing. These are the issues we will be discussing in this paper. The first issue we will be discussing in this paper is the

Nowadays, there are still a lot of powerless groups exist in this world, such as the group of women. The problem of gender sexism exists from the beginning of the history and still continues in today’s society. Women are still inferior to men in my country, whether from family and job status, social position and political views, women are treated unequal and disrespectful, therefore, this problem needs more abundant attention. “Sexism, like many forms of prejudice, only survives in a traditional environments and this is how it continues in China” from All-China Women’s Federation’s website, yet this problem is still happening in China, but there must be a way to solve it.

Over the last several decades, great strides have been made when it comes to eliminating sexism and progressing towards gender equality. However, sexism is still ingrained in our everyday culture. This is evident in the fact that in 2017 women earn about 80 cents to a man’s dollar and are less likely to be promoted within the workplace. It’s an unfortunate fact the most women will experience some form of sexism throughout their lives. In this paper, I will address my personal experiences with both hostile and benevolent sexism, how the two forms of sexism differ, and how these experiences have affected me.

51 percent of the United States is female but only 34.4 percent of doctors are women. While 90.4 percent of nurses are female (“Women in Medicine”; “Male Nurses Becoming”), the women who do become doctors earn an astounding 25 percent less than their male counterparts (Groves). These staggering figures are only a single piece in the larger overall lack of women in STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which has remained prevalent since the beginning of these fields. Although women are underrepresented in these STEM fields, this is not due to ineptitude, but instead it is a result of the force of societal stereotypes coupled with their wider range of abilities. The recent increase in women’s association with STEM seems

Overarching research on women of color (African American, Native American, Latina/Hispanic, Pacific Islander American, and Asian American) and the impact of racism and sexism as interrelated constructs on their academic aspirations is limited. A few scholarly pieces that explore racism and sexism as intersecting constructs, primarily focus on understanding the relationship between these isms and the mental health of women of color (DeBlaere & Bertsch, 2013; DeBlaere, Brewster, Bertsch, DeCarlo, Kegel, & Presseau, 2013;Martin, Boadi, Fernandes,Watt, & Robinson-Wood, 2013).More specifically, extant literature suggests one of the major consequences women of color experience in relation to racist and sexist events is psychological distress,

From short stories like “The Yellow Wallpaper,” to the court cases like Ellen Pao’s Suit vs. Kleiner Perkins, and even a data book like Women in the Labor Force, it is clear to see that inequality and mistreatment of women still exists today. People often say that inequality is a thing of the past, however it has been a serious problem since the dawning of civilization itself, and it is still so today. Women are often seen as lesser beings than men, and are treated accordingly. It is getting better, and women are starting to take their rightful places as equals in the workforce, and as equals in general. However, the world still has a long way to go before the inequality and mistreatment of women comes to a complete stop.

By Marilyn Frye’s conception of oppression, men cannot be oppressed. She sees sexism in terms of mainly its institutional and structural states, with interpersonal and personal expressions perpetuating the oppression. Because of her views, she concludes that men as a group cannot be oppressed. However, there are problems with her analysis and ultimately I will argue that men can be oppressed as a group - but only by other men. They can suffer under the institutional sexism that Frye describes but the institutions and structures are created by and mainly perpetuated by men.

Women’s advance in power is a hindrance to the development of equal rights in a traditional patriarchal society through the oppression of men by emotional restriction, and an excessive amount of guidelines that women expect only men to follow. The escalation of women’s prestige in society results in an imbalance of privilege shared between the two genders.

Female oppression has since long been taken for granted. From males opening the doors to females, stating their incapability, to their imposed career of becoming beautiful house wives. Today, with advances in technology and

Abiding by this form of hegemony is to perceive “sexism as the ultimate oppression,” thus dominating feminist critique with issues of the patriarchy and social differences between men and women (Thompson 2004: 545). This in turn fails to acknowledge the plethora of social and racial differences that exist between women alone, ultimately marginalizing the realities of those whose identities are shaped on the basis of additional constructs. However, amid review of this narrative, it is important to establish that the construction of gender is indeed an immensely influential aspect of women’s lives. As a process, system, and means of stratification, it is “built into the general social structure and individual identities deliberately and purposefully” (Lorber 1994: 62). Gender categories work to label women of Western society as the “different, deviant, and subordinate” ‘Not-A’s’ in an institution where the A’s- men- are perceived as normative and superior (Lorber 1994: 60). This results in a “devaluation of women” and the “social domination of men” which sustains the presence of gender inequalities within many cultures (Lorber 1994: 62). Yet, as gender studies scholar Judith Lorber writes, “gender is also

Gender inequality is one area where the sociological imagination can be applied, the link between personal bias and discrimination leads to a much broader public issue. Gender roles have changed over time and within cultures. Various feminist movements have seen women evolve from confined to being wives and mothers, to taking on other roles in the community and workforce (Holmes, Hughes, Julian, 2015: 72). The World Economic Forum, in producing the Gender Gap Index, has made more people aware of gender inequality by comparing men and women in one hundred and twenty-eight countries in areas such as health, education and politics (Germov & Poole, 2015: 253). Culture and society manage gender through manipulating gender identity from birth by enforcing

Gender equality has been a well-discussed issue in recent years. By some people, women are not treated on the same level as men because of preconceived stereotypes and gender roles. However, others have been fighting tirelessly to increase the amount of people who treat women and men equally. Although women are treated more fairly with regards to men today than in the 1950’s, there are still many discrepancies between the sexes. One main concern is that the amount of men and women going into science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, majors and occupations is disproportionate, with the larger amount of entrants being male. Despite the hard work of feminists, women are not pursuing STEM careers because of stereotypes and a specific idea of their gender role, both of which females are exposed to from a young age throughout adulthood.

One possible solution to avoid gender stratification is eradicating cultural norms. For many people, especially in the developed world, discrimination is mostly a moral issue and must be resisted as a matter of principle. What is often overlooked, is “tradition is a guide, not a jailer”, wrote W. Somerset Maugham. Women should not be treated poorly. Governments should eliminate any possible culture norms that discriminate women. Also, governments should promote the well-being and empowerment of

Although some may deny it, as societies grow, the underrepresentation of females in educational fields, specifically science, technology, engineering, and math, is gradually increasing. There simply aren’t enough women in STEM.. There are many factors that supplement the repetitive ignorance of the intellect of women as well as perpetuate the concept that women are academically inferior to men. As seen throughout a substantial portion of history, society tends to underrate the cognitive and academic abilities of women. This lowers their confidence to achieve in academic fields and limits their ambition to pursue STEM education. Many credible sources reflect that women feel incapable of excelling