The Struggle of Women Trying to be Equal to Men Essay

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

Since the beginning of time women were never treated as equals to men. Men have always been seen as stronger and the providers for their families. Women are often viewed as the nurturers and caregivers for their family. Women’s role in society has always been to make sure that everyone is happy and healthy while, men go out and work to make sure that women have the necessities they need to keep everyone happy.

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.

Although it was not seen as a right before, equality has grown into the statement for all of the natural human rights. Throughout the growth of the United States, much has changed: technology has advanced, wars have come and passed, old ways have been updated. However, the one thing that has followed slowly behind in the race for change is the equality for all. Those who were once viewed as lesser to the American males—females—are still having to make strides towards equality, but are considerably closer due to their fight for freedom and recognition. The documents “Now We Can Begin” by Crystal Eastman and “What’s Become of Rosie the Riveter?” by Frieda S. Miller are examples of what some of the women were out there fighting for.

Traditional gender roles (men performing instrumental tasks and women performing expressive tasks) are viewed as important not only for the individual but also for the economic and social order of society. Failure to maintain the traditional division of labor is believed to lead to destruction of family life as well as higher rates of crime, violence, and drug abuse. Human capital theorists claim that sex differences in promotion rates are due to sex differences in commitment, education, and experience; women are believed to have less to offer employers. Even if these differences exist, this position ignores the fact that women are in a system of inequality, where social expectations prevent them from having qualifications that are similar to men. The conflict perspective emphasizes men’s control over scarce resources. The gendered division of labor within families and in the workplace results from male control of and dominance over women and resources. Differentials between men and women may exist in terms of economic, political, physical, and/or interpersonal power. Men remain the head of household and control the property. Also, men gain power through their predominance in the most highly paid and prestigious occupations and the highest elected offices. Liberal/Equal Rights Feminists – seek equal access for females within the current social system; focus is on equality of opportunity (e.g., civil rights and occupational equality). Radical/Transformative Feminists –

My mother has always promoted sisterhood and support for women. Growing up, I was taught that women, although we can do anything we want to do, need a support system, because we are traditionally the underdogs, and we should not accept being treated unfairly. My mother likes to tell a story about how, when she was a girl, she told her dad that she had decided to become a lawyer when she grew up. In response to her proclamation, my grandfather, an attorney himself, asked, "Isn’t that an awfully expensive education for a girl?"

American society is heavily influenced by the power of privilege; who has it and who doesn’t, and how those groups interact together. This influence isn’t only based on who holds most of the societal privilege in the present but it can even be viewed in terms of which groups historically had the power of privilege, and how they interacted with the groups who historically did not have it. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary privilege is defined as “.a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor especially such a right or immunity attached specifically to a position or an office” (Merriam-Webster). In America we see a clear definition between those who have it and those who do not. In our society it is safe to say men hold the most privilege while women are left to deal with what powers the men throw our way. By thrown our way I literally mean the powers men allow other social groups, not just women, to have through a variety of forces. Men use their privilege to dominate over women in almost any way they can, or at the very least they sit back and benefit from their privilege.

Freedom and equality are ideas this country has had for centuries that have evolved over time. In 1776, what Thomas Jefferson meant by “all men are created equal”, is that white males are dominant in society. Women are treated worse than men and slaves treated worse than women. People that weren’t of the “superior” race/gender of a white male were typically treated as if they were less. Women and African-Americans aren’t being treated as bad today, but they’re still being treated worse than the white males of society. Even today, when white males are typically the leaders of society, it’s not always race and gender that creates inequality; sometimes it’s money that creates the issue. Not just from past evidence, but from present

For generations women have been fighting for equality in our country. Although there have been many advances in this movement women are still treated unequally today. One of the most critical problems with women's rights today deals with women in the work place. Human rights violations against women must be documented, publicized, and stopped. Human rights violations against women have for too long been denied the attention and concern of international organizations, national governments, traditional human rights groups, and the press. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of women around the globe continue to endure debilitating and often fatal human rights abuses (equalitynow.org, 1). No one

It’s clear that a growing movement is happening in America. Protests, speeches, and news articles all show that women are coming together to fight for equality. They point to certain statistics, claiming women are downtrodden in American society. These women are known as feminists, or women’s-rights activists. Feminists are fighting for the rights of women in society through journalism, marches, and media. But can any results come from the feminist struggle? Are women truly being treated unfairly? The answer is no. Many factors influence these statistics other than gender. It is proven that women and men are treated fairly in society. Gender equality has been

In the 1800’s a women was suppose to have four things Piety, Purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. These principles shaped the “Cult of True Womanhood” an idea that women were to be seen but not heard. Women had no say when it came to politics, they couldn’t own property, they were not allowed to do many jobs, and they couldn’t even speak in front of men. They had the duty to be a mother and raise their children but even thought they had this responsibility it was the husband who had the complete control and guardianship of the children. Because of these ideas it was very difficult for change to happen. When women started to receive more education they began to ask questions about why they were being denied these rights, which began the

In the 21st century, many people believe that we have overcome the obstacle of gender inequality and evolved into a society of fairness and righteousness. As many know, females can be just as proficient and qualified as males at any task. Though some efforts to off-set this gender imbalance is in place, it is still commonly acknowledged that many careers are stated to be a male job such as lawyers, and female jobs such as secretaries. Gender inequality is a visible fact in our society and in this essay, I hypothesize that gender inequality still exists as a result of factors such as post-secondary education differences of the two genders, role of females in families, female objectification, career choice differences of the two genders, and

Gender inequality has been an issue since long before the 1840s, when feminists finally brought the problem to light. Most ancient cultures were societies based on gender inequality, skewed towards male-dominance. Most societies are still mostly patriarchal, in fact. Patriarchy is the root of discrimination between sexes and genders and has been for a very long time.

The concept of gender denotes the distinction between culturally driven and created roles of masculinity and femininity. These specific and normalized attitudes and behaviors transcend and effect how differently men and women live their lives. Based on society’s continual re-enforcement of such gender stereotypes, we see an on-going dilemma of gender inequality. Though some may argue that men experience gender inequality, this seems to exist on a much more invasive level for women. As of recently, the awareness of gender inequality in the workplace has increased. With the fight for equal pay and equal respect, society is already making strides towards the equality of women. With that being said, one aspect of gender inequality that seems

Women are portrayed to be equal with their counterpart’s males in society. Equality in society would be ideal if both genders had equal opportunities to succeed. Success meaning fully able to complete whatever task or job that an individual may desire depending on qualifications alone. Many people in society that would not know hardships that women endure are of the mindset of” we are all equal”. This becomes a regular assumption for most people because most have been trained to recognize from an early age that girls can complete any tasks a male can complete. Which is a traditional value that is constantly stressed upon to an individual who is in adolescents to teach equality to the future generations. The assumption that men and women are equal in society isn’t true in the fact, that women are not paid equally which could ultimately lead to women being more susceptible to be poor, women are more likely to be assaulted or even in some extreme cases, women may even be more likely to be sexually assaulted. As stated by Joseph Stiglitz, “The gap between aspiration and reality could hardly be wider. Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country” (Equal Opportunity Our). While some numerous amount of countries widely accepts America globally of being a hegemonic power, all is not well in America. A hegemonic figure in terms of being the great country that is so well it can help countries that may happen to be less