The Importance Of Gender Inequality In Society

In society these days there is a noticeable difference in the treatment of men and women, the most common examples would be found in the social, business and culturally convention realms. These ways of life have double standards in many different ways. There are many ways to convey the ways of discrimination towards women by men.

In Plato’s The Republic, Plato illustrates what his ideal city would look like. He describes the educational systems, ideal legislators and the purposes of democracy. The republic influenced many people to understand the purpose for democracy, and it led to new philosophical schools of thought. Although this work was written hundreds of years ago, it still affects our modern world today.

In the world, there is inequality in everything. But there is a ton of inequality in the work force. The tension that this inequality causes is brought home to the family. The resentment that is felt toward male workers is brought into the house and causes unnecessary arguments among married couples. Now if there is inequality in the home as well as at work, the probability for fighting is more likely to increase. These fights maybe just verbal fights, but it may lead to physical violence. I’m going to use my personal experience to explain inequality and marriage.

Gender inequality is a social problem that is widespread in society. It is referred to as the unfair treatment of individuals based on one 's gender. Historically, laws have opposed women to go to school, access certain jobs, and purchase property. Gender inequality has been experience through culture – honor-killing, sex-selective abortion, and society – occupation, gender roles, and education. The social expectations of men and women differ between cultures that are constructed socially and culturally. These expectations are displayed in roles, and behavior believed both by men and women and their interdependent relationships. Gender inequality can be further understood through the structure of sexism. Discrimination takes place in gender inequality for the reason that men and women are treated on the basis of gender alone (Amjad, R., Ashfaq, M., Kousar, R., Saghir, A., 2010).

The goal of this paper is to describe and analyze gender inequality, focusing on the history of feminist ideas. I will start with a basic overview of the entire feminist movement, and will then analyze feminism more specifically. In this analysis I will focus on the different types of feminism. Most notably of these types will be the main groups that consist of socialist feminists, liberal feminists, and radical feminists. I will describe the goals and ideals of these groups along with describing how a functionalist and conflict theorist looks at gender.

There are many ways someone can sit and analyze why a social problem exists, came to be and where its future lies. The best explanation on why gender inequality is, always has been, and will continue to be a social problem is from the functionalist perspective. Functionalist focus on how a society creates the social problem and then analyzes how and why the social issue has been maintained over the years. The objective reality is that gender inequality has and always will be a major issue in society. The scope of gender inequality has changed drastically over the years, but there is still a constant struggle for equal rights, pay and respect from society towards women. While organizations like Association for Women 's Rights in Development (AWID) are constantly fighting for women’s rights and spreading awareness on the inequality for women, the issue is that it still exists and is in great force. I believe gender inequality to be a pride barrier for men; men were once thought to be the kings, the providers for the family and the pillar that held everything together. Today, women can provide, and do for herself and don’t need men to keep them stable or hold the roof from collapsing and men find that demasculinizing.

Every human being has the right to be treated equal, regardless of their skin color, race, gender, or religious preference. The problem in our world to this day is the fact that people, mostly women, are being classified as weak and because of their gender they are being mistreated. In recent cases women have been deprived from a higher education. Also, when working, their workplace is not equal. Gender inequality is happening all over the world. It has been occurring for decades and decades. Gender equality “means an equal level of empowerment, participation and visibility of both sexes in all spheres of public and private life” (Menstruff). If men and women were the same would there be any conflict? Could it be that everyone is equal but the inequality is all in the mind? “4 out of over 135 nations have achieved gender equality including Costa Rica, Cuba, Sweden, and Norway.”(Pinto) When gender equality is brought up what is the first thought that comes to mind? Is it the discrimination towards all kinds of people, the violence brought upon them? Gender inequality has its pros and cons. With gender inequality there are boundaries and limits. The world is not a one person, one mind type of thing. Gender inequality is happening all over the world, with all kinds of consequences because of it.

As far advanced as we think we may have become, gender inequality is still a prominent issue in our society today. the topic of gender roles is a very sensitive topic which is not easy to avoid, because it entwines with numerous aspects of our daily lives such as sexual orientation, identification, basic human rights, healthcare, etc. The effect of gender inequality on the magnitude of gender differences in authoritarianism may change depending on the cultural context, in particular whether a society is predominantly individualistic versus collectivistic (Brandt, 2012). There are many aspects that play different roles in gender inequality in the society, and one of them is sex. A lot of people often assume that gender and sex are the same thing, but it is actually not true. Gender is defined as a socially transferred variation of man and women, while sex is the biological difference between human based on their reproductive organs. Norms and values of a society are usually built upon gender roles Gender roles because it increases the influence of these roles.

Mistakes happen and they follow us throughout our lives whether the outcomes are positives or negatives. It is hard to say, but some of those mistakes rise not because we intentionally want it to happen, but because of our sex, “physical or physiological differences between males and females”, and gender, “behaviors, personality traits, and social positions that society attributes to being a female or male” (Sociology, 253). Not all mistakes are life threatening, but factors especially gender division is what really push people to their limits. Gender division is a huge subject for me because I do not see the reason why women would be considered to have less power than men (Major, Gender and Age). I remember when I was working at this company where a majority of the workers were males with the exception of me and two other females. I was ecstatic when I was hired, but the environment was not what I expected. There was definitely sexism in the work area because our boss would always compliment and acknowledge the men and sometimes even gave them bonuses, but I and the two female workers were completely invisible to him. I did not want to make a big deal out of the situation because I thought maybe one day the boss would see the hard work I put into the job and be able to see me the same as the men. One of the two females was not happy because she felt it was really unfair to even acknowledge the lazy male workers when she worked even harder. Then, throughout the

Congressman David Scott once said, “Racism, unfortunately, is part of the fabric of America's society” (David Scott Quotes). As a black state representative of Georgia, Scott has seen his fair share of how race can divide a nation. Although the Jim Crow laws were abolished in 1968, the racial divide between black and white people in the United States is still very much present. Among the African American population, gender and economic inequality negatively affects their daily struggles. Therefore, the United States is not living up to its national credo, “all men are created equal.”

For many years, the fight for equality has either brought peace and unity or hatred. One of the greatest events that happened in the United States was The March on Selma better known as “Bloody Sunday”. What started as a peaceful protest, turned into turmoil. Another event was when Dr. Martin Luther King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington. This speech has been effective for many decades and is a reminder that us people should unite and strive for greatness. Though gave the Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, our nation and other parts of the world continue to bring division and hatred. When will the world know when enough is enough? I believe that society does not owe us equality due to the fact that true equality is impossible. In order to have a perfect society, we would need to have the same level of education, the exact same amount of wealth, and the exact same social status. In other words, we would an utopian society in order to be successful.

When we talk about gender inequality nowadays, people will usually, most of the time more often than not think that it’s females’ problem. Why wouldn’t they? for the past years, there have been lots of social justice movements organized by a group of people that advocate gender equality more specifically sexism towards female called feminist .I’ll be honest, I don’t like no, I hate most of them. They advocate gender equality but disregards inequalities that male suffers .Feminist frequency, an non-profit organization, tweeted “There is no such thing as sexism against male”(2014).So now ,I, as a male myself, will try to,hopefully,shows that it’s also a male’s issue and change the perspective that gender inequality is only a female’s problem.

From the time a baby is born, their parents dress him/her into pink or blue clothing, immediately enclosing by their gender. While growing up, that baby will be taught how to behave, play and speak like a boy or girl. Girls do not play with action figures; boys do not grow long hair. Gender plays a vast role in today’s society. The gender language learned will confine men and women into socially oppressive roles. Each gender uses language to maintain their “status quo”. A status quo is the existing state of the affairs, especially regarding social or political issues. It is expected of the gender to speak a certain way or tone so if a person does not abide by these standards, they are viewed in a negative viewpoint.

As we are all birth equally throughout the world, there is still contingency that causes a barrier between human kinds. What barriers are we talking about that can’t be changed through our DNA? That is our gender. When each of us are born into the world, we are labeled as male or female due to our genetical DNA and different types of organs (WHO). Yet, society still isn’t as balance enough and there are still so much discrimination in gender in even today’s society.

Gender equality will NOT ever be completely achievable because there will always be differences between woman and man such as biological differences as well as gender roles and expectations in society. Although the idea of what a woman and what a man should be has changed over time, stereotypes still exist that make a clear distinction between the two. Stereotypes still exist due to many generations of how children have been raised. For as long as humans have been on this earth, inequality has always been evident between genders and that has laid the foundation for beliefs in societies. To conclude, because segregation has existed, it will continue to exist.