Social Justice In A Socially Unjust World

Throughout History, women have been permanently oppressed and treated as subordinate to men. They have been considered mentally weak and biologically inferior. The power of their opinion has been limited and in many situations ignored, being condemned to live in that condition for several years. Therefore, we can conclude that the only responsible for strengthening this characterization of women’s inferiority is our society.

“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.

As part of the larger movement for equal rights, this feminist mobilization focused on a broad spectrum of economic, political, and cultural dimensions of the distribution of power that entailed the discrimination of women. Political struggles targeted the stigmatization of women as caregivers and the devalorization of this role in relation to that of the male breadwinner, a mainstream culture of sexism permeating all spheres of life and cutting across income and educational levels, as well as women’s unequal access to and unequal positioning within the labor market. (Azmanova 751)

In Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s, “The Rights of Women”, she introduces the idea of how developed countries, like England, believe that both men and women receive equal treatment, yet it’s evident that this is not true. Thinking back to any point in time one can come up with a multitude of ways women’s rights differ from men’s. For instance, in many cultures women exist only as the child bearers, homemakers, and wives/servants of their husbands, nothing more. Why? Because many men rationalize their ideas about women by enlisting physical and mental explanations as to why women are less superior than men. The idea that men hold more intelligence and strength, while women assert a more passive and caring nature, accounts for much of this inequality. Khan paints a picture of this inequality proclaiming, “A women is like the left hand and a man the right hand.” Essentially, women are less valuable than men, they are only to do simple tasks and help the man with the things he cannot find the time to do. This, in turn, creates a hierarchy of sex with men always inhabiting the top rung of the hierarchy ladder.

For an immense period of time, society deemed women as inferior to men. However, through many protests and the growing acceptance of women, society continues to increasingly close the gap between the two genders. The differences in the societal expectations of women in the early 1900’s and 1970’s compared to the expectations of women in modern society demonstrates this improvement. Although women’s oppression dramatically improved over the past century, it persists as an apparent issue in today’s society.

“Women’s Right” claims that society’s view of women is an indicator of intellectual, economic, and cultural progress; however, women have been denied many fundamental rights (n.pag.). Write declares that the lack of confidence and forcefulness in women are some factors that are holding the progress of equality back (n.pag.). In today’s society, women are taught to think that a man’s job is more important than a women’s (Write n.pag.). Women were raised to believe that the men’s paycheck is the primary support for a family. Society teaches women to be passive and nurturing while it teaches men to be aggressive and dominant (Nadler and Stockdale 281+). Boys are trained to focus solely on themselves while women are supposed to place the needs of others first (Johnson n.pag.). Society is the reason that women lack the aggression and motivation needed to advance in their career

One of the reasons income inequality continues to prevail in today’s society is because lawmakers disagree on the issue at hand. The New York Times (n.d)) notes that Republicans blocked a bill on equal pay presented by Democrats that was aimed at closing the pay gap between men and women. Republican lawmakers impede that bill because they believed that given existing anti-discrimination laws, the legislation was redundant and is a transparent attempt by the Democrats to distract from President Obama’s much –criticized health care law. Another reason the income equality persist is due the difference in pay between genders within the same occupations. However, some lawmakers who turn down the equal pay bill believed that the disparity remains because of difference in occupations held among male and female. An example of an occupational difference is a female social worker that makes less than a male engineer (New York Times, n.d). Finally, I believe these income disparities persist because this civilization refuse to dismantle the past sexism views of women’s role as the weaker, idle and subservient domesticator. All in all, until society as a whole embrace women’s ingenuity, strength, and eagerness to be a working productive member of society the pay gap between men and women will continue to prevail for generations to

Effect of Social Justice on Clinical Mental Health Counselors The issue of social justice in counseling is a significant factor that ensures that counselors are promoting the common good for their communities and human development issues. By considering the influence of social justice, the mental health practitioners are able to address issues associated with distributive and individual justice. The counselor has a role of actively confronting injustice in the society and empowering individuals and groups. The clinical mental health counselor works towards eliminating the causes of injustice and inequality in the society by focusing on the issues of access, equity, harmony and participation.

Social injustice can have a devastating and crippling effect on persons, both physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Injustice carries with it the potential to trigger life events that negatively affect individuals’ health, lifestyle, and relationships with family members, friends, and the workplace (Hays & Erford, 2014). Currently, in the United States, there are many and more individuals and groups who struggle to overcome past and present prejudices in the areas of housing, education, differential treatment, discrimination, child exploitation, and racial profiling. Barrett (2011) found that multidimensional issues associated with the biological, psychological, and societal differences among persons, social justice, and fundamental human rights many times prevent practitioners from supplying adequate services to all the peoples of a town, area, or country. The complexities of national, state and public administration have generated institutional inequity that is so entrenched within communities that “professional standards and documents and United Nations Conventions and Declarations are not enough” (Barrett, 2011, p. 5). To understand and apply the construct of multicultural counseling and social justice as interdependent and interactive forces practitioners and researchers should analyze and fine-tune traditional counseling theories and methodologies using a systems approach.

“Hidden Figures” is where three women are passed as just one race and they persevered against the peoples odds. These women became a big part of history and culture, like Mary Jackson was the first African American Engineer to graduate from an all white school. Women were facing as great amount of discrimination during the 1950s. “Hidden Figures” highlights the importance points that provides us with gender roles. “Hidden Figures” is a powerful example of issues within social justice.

In present day it is easy for a person to take for granted what comes so simple to them. Women have not always been in the position in which they are seen as equals to men. In the course of the last decade, women have evolved as human beings through revolutions in the 1920’s, 1960’s and modern day era.

According to research obtained by Cornell University scientists, 92% of Americans watch TV, 87% read newspapers, and 81% specifically watch local or national televised news stations…

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.

In the social justice system of Australia, indigenous people in prison lack the intervention and treatment of mental illness. This article also covers how imprisonment may cause underlying psychiatric conditions to become present. As said in the article, “New models of service provision that incorporate indigenous perspectives on social and emotional wellbeing, recognize culturally specific mental health risk”.

Not only are woman subjected to society norms based on their personality characteristics, but also on their life choices and “domestic responsibilities” questions arise for woman like “who will care for you children and husband”. Montague Kern and Paige P. Edley state that women will continue to be “criticized for abandoning their traditional family roles” (1). This topic is not something that is brought up to their male counterparts. I don’t believe I have ever heard a man be questioned on who was going to assume the responsibility of raising their children. So until society genuinely accepts that raising children and other domestic issues are shared endeavors, then women will continue to face this barrier. (Robson, 208)