Sexism : Discrimination Against Women

Women have virtually the same rights as men. However, the fault needing to be recognized in today’s society is the way that women are treated. Even in simple areas, such as jobs, women are put on the back burner. A woman is able to become a CEO of a company, nonetheless, she will struggle twice as hard as a man would. Even as an employee, women are statistically paid less than men are.

Women first gained the right to vote on August 26, 1920 with the 19th amendment was approved, giving women full voting rights. Fortified by the constitutional victory in 1920, the handful of new women in Congress embarked on what would become a century-long journey to broaden women’s role in government. In the intervening years, the drive for more women’s rights encompassed the lives of the next generations of women. Even today, women are still fighting for their rights and stand up against prejudice. On the forefront of this movement are our women congresswomen who speak on behalf of all women. When Hillary Clinton announced her presidential candidacy, controversial questions immediately surfaced about the role of gender in politics. Through Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2008 and 2016, media is the principal propagator in showing bias and sexism.

Sexism against women in the workplace is still common, particularly in managerial positions, which creates glass ceilings for women who can do as good or better job as their male counterparts. It is a sad fact that sexism still exists in the twenty-first century. What is the glass ceiling you may ask? The glass ceiling is (Bell, Mclaughlin, & Sequeira, 2002) as “the invisible or artificial barriers that prevent women (and people of colour) from advancing past a certain level” (Federal Glass Ceiling Commission-FGCC, 1997; Morison and von Glinow, 1990). As a civilization where we want equality for all – we should strive to eliminate inequality caused by the glass ceiling. I believe that if we do not seek to eliminate sexism, it will have a negative impact on us and future generations.

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.

The Great Depression was the big economic crisis in the 1930’s. People lost their homes, their jobs, and their dignity. Not until the middle of the 1950’s did the stock market return to pre-depression levels. During this unfortunate time people hunted for good paying jobs, but were unable to find them. To this day class in this country is under scrutiny. The middle-class is vanishing before our eyes as the poverty level increases and the wealthiest class becomes larger. Not only was there great inequality in the U.S. during the great depression, but also there was still very strong dislikes toward anyone of color. Racism in this country is still prominent today along with class inequality.

In a statistic released by the United Nations, it was discovered that, “while forming more than one-half of the world’s population, women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, own one-tenth of the world’s wealth and one-hundredth of the world’s land, and form two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people … Over three-fourths of starving people are women with their dependent children” (Johnson, p. 26). While this statistic may be shocking, it is part of a battle that women have been fighting for centuries. Women have consistently been the target of sexism. But what, exactly, is sexism? Margaret Farley posits sexism “is ‘belief that persons are superior or inferior to one another on the basis of their sex. It includes, however, attitudes, value systems, and social patterns which express or support this belief’” (Johnson, p. 23). How can women fight back against a concept such as this that has been deeply engrained within society? Many suggest fighting for equal rights in specific aspects of one’s life (such as equal pay), but these actions are worthless if the system itself cannot be made equal. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of sexism, the entire social system that allows for the devaluation of another being based on

Sexism has been a problem in America for a long time. If a person compares a man to a woman, the man takes it in a negative way. From kids to adults, women get unfair treatment all the time. The privileges women get are almost always inferior to the privileges men get (Forbes). Feminists have stood up for themselves since the 19th century (Greene, Busse, and Haynes). Feminists are women who stand up for their rights and equality. Although women’s rights have gotten better, there are still many disadvantages to overcome. Men have portrayed women in demeaning, submissive, and often sexualized ways for decades. Many people in America believe that sexism is not present in today’s world, but there is plenty of evidence that should convince people to see that that is not the case.

When thinking about institutionalized discrimination one form that come to the forefront of my mind is sexism against women, primarily in the workplace. Sullivan stated that “males are physically stronger than women and free of the responsibility of bearing and nursing children” (2016,p 210). This is absolutely true and understandably however, these should not be factors when you compare the work a women vs a man can provide.

Ratified into law in 1920, the 19th amendment guaranteed that women now had the right to to vote in elections. This began a long journey for women to treated and recognized as equal to men. That journey is far from over. Sexism is the unfair treatment of a person or people based solely on their gender and is mostly seen against women. In the United States, it is generally believed that as a nation, equality is a fundamental right and is given freely to all who live here. People are treated fairly. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily true. Although many believe that all genders have equal rights, sexism is a major problem because of sexism against males and females, violence against LGB, and discrimination against transgenders.

Women make up half of this world’s human population, and with consideration of this fact, who is to say women are lesser of the two genders? Sexism and Women’s Rights are a global issue, that affects more than just woman themselves. Even in the United States, commonly known as the “Land of the Free”, ironically is empowered by the Statue of Liberty, which presents false ideas that women are well respected in this country and provided with equal rights. Throughout history, women have constantly been working hard to prove their strength and ability, it was not until the twentieth century that women started to rise up in society and were slowly beginning to be viewed as an equally capable being in the eyes of the United States. From Cleopatra

In terms of gender equality, myriads of accomplishments have paved the way towards the elusive egalitarian society many idealize. The Equal Pay Act and the fight for women’s suffrage were quintessential landmarks exemplifying the valiant struggles of women in the past to establish themselves as equals to men in society today. However, as with anything, society is not perfect and women are still exposed to a fair amount sexism even in the present day. Fortunately, women do not currently face legal inequality. Prejudice against women in modern times are usually concentrated instances forged by cultural constructs and cognitive bias. With that said, it is important to highlight the mistakes of the past in order to prevent societal regression in

In many cultures around the world, women have always been considered less valuable than men. However, within the last century, more progressive nations have improved the rights of women. Despite this, many nations do not share this opinion on equality. Many countries do not have laws in place

The inclusion of environmental justice as a part of feminism includes women who extend to aid to counter the injustices of the immeasurable instances in which companies contaminate and devastate the neighborhood environment of people of color. Jasmine Kumalah says, that “the problem is these spaces live within a hierarchical structure; these dominated spaces are often mostly accessible to those of more means” (Kumalah). Additionally, Hooks finds that “the foundation of future feminist struggle must be solidly based on recognition of the need to eradicate the underlying cultural basis and causes of sexism and other forms of group oppression (Hooks 240), as well as

“Gender equality is a human fight, not a female fight.” How is our world unequal when it comes to gender? Out of the subjects when it comes to inequality, which ones are we unequal in? Men and women have come a long way in the rights of equality. Around the world, there’s abounding ways that men and women are still unequal, even though countless think that this may be the end of the road for equality. Some of these ways include equal pay, equal opportunities, as well as equality in politics. Some examples of these inequalities include The Clinton Foundation, which fights for women’s rights, but, in it there’s large pay gaps, another example is that in Britain there’s women who are receiving jobs politically but don’t have actual power. In several

Gender discrimination against women is out of control across the world and seeps into many aspects of women 's lives. This discrimination harms women in two ways. First, women directly experience stressful events. The experience of sexism is so common that some research suggests women can experience one to two instances of everyday sexism. But women aren 't only harmed by sexism through the physical stress caused by others. They are harmed to the extent that they internalize and adopt these sexist attitudes that can manifest as poor self-concept. This negative self-concept often obvious on a subconscious level, as women and men will demonstrate automatic negative biases against women (Ferguson, 2013).