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The history of gender inequality
What extent gender stereotypes are still prevalent in today’s society
The history of gender inequality
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A master status that crosses all aspects of life, every social class, every race and in every society in the world is gender. A pervasive inequality seen across the globe is a disparity in available access to property, power and prestige known as gender stratification. (Henslin, 2014, p. 288) Sex is a biological characteristic that separates gender. Primary and secondary sex characteristics such as genitalia and changes through puberty are determined by sex. Sex differs from gender in that gender roles are typically learned from what society deems as behaviors and roles that are acceptable for each sex.
Gender inequality is found in all societies in history. Each society typically assigns specific tasks or behaviors to each sex, although those assignments are not always the same in every society. This sex typing is not absolute across any society, one society may attribute a specific job as a “male” job, while a different society will attribute that same job as a “female” job. Sex typed work was researched in 324 societies around the world by Anthropologist George Murdock. (Henslin, 2014, p. 297)
Females have always been considered a minority group despite outnumbering males. Gerda Lerner learned in her research that
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Women have gained more equality. In the United States, laws were passed giving women equal rights as men, such as the right to vote, affirmative action to gain education and employment and anti-discrimination laws making it illegal to discriminate based on gender or sex. Despite much progress that has been made and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 that made it illegal to pay men more than women for the same job performed, there is still a wage gap between women and men, with women only earning 78% of what men earned in 2013. ("Wage Gap," 2015, para. 2) Many people are continuing to fight the gender wage gap and ensure that women are paid
Though, they still face many issues and many walls that have to be broken down before they can be given the equal life opportunities that men are granted at birth (Lee). Feminism is still a prerequisite in the world today to battle against the iniquity in financial, social, and political aspects so gender equality can be achieved. Under the Equal Pay Act of 1863, the gender wage gap supposedly no longer exists, but the facts are that “as of 2012, women in the U.S. earn 77 cents to a man's dollar” (ProQuest Staff). Men try to justify this unjust statistic by saying that “wage gap isn't necessarily the result of discrimination” (ProQuest Staff). However, there is no logical reasoning behind it.
President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act over 50 years ago which requires that men and women be paid equal for equal level jobs. Over the last 15 years women have only gotten a nickel closer to equal pay. Though much has been said about the injustice of unequal pay very little attention has been paid to trying to find a solution to this problem. To most, there is no longer a wage gap discrimination. However statistically women are only making 77cents for every dollar a man makes. Women involved in the government have stood up and tried to get the Paycheck Fairness Act approved which would reinforce the 1963 Equal Pay Act; this has been denied twice already.
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law, he hoped that it would allow working women to finally earn the same amount of money as men; however, more than half a century later, men continue to out earn women in almost every field of work (Lipman para. 4). Male dominated fields tend to pay more than female dominated fields at similar skill levels. In 2012, women earned an average of $691 per week while men earned an average of $854 per week. Furthermore, the majority of women remain unaware that they are earning less than their male colleagues (Hegewisch para. 1).
In 1963, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, making it unlawful to discriminate against a worker on the basis of sex. Since that time, the wage gap between men and women in the United States has narrowed by just 15 cents, now being 74 cents, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sex is a grouping in view of biological differences. For instance, contrasts amongst males and females established in their life structures or physiology. By difference, sex is an order in view of the social construction of social qualifications amongst males and females. Gender shows a social building in regards to culture-bound traditions, roles, and practices, and in addition relations between women and men, girls and boys. Lind describe this matter as “The dividing line between groups that were created in the past condition our perceptions and impressions in the present (2013).” Our knowledge that gender and sex can be used to judge others and our sensitivity to this characteristic reflects our socialization into a race conscious society with a long history of racial satisfaction.” Lind stated. Overall this class has taught me so much about the world we live in, while also educating me on the proper terms to use when address these
Sexual division of labor is the allocation of tasks between males and females. Often, these tasks will be labeled as either a man or women’s job which influences the job allocations of men and women, as employers will adopt certain expectations of who should be performing specific jobs. Whilst these expectations will vary from between societies and change over time, the division of labor will persist and men and women will continue to do different jobs (Padavic and Reskin,
Gender inequality is prevalent in the United States today through health, education, income, power, sexuality, and everyday life regimens. The old saying, “this is a man's world”, expresses the struggles women must undergo in their everyday lives. Even though the male figure is seen as dominant to the female figure in our society, “...women's relatively low social position and access to power often disadvantages them, but sometimes gendered expectations increase men's risks” (206). In the health industry, men are at a higher risk than women because of their gender roles to depict obsessive masculinity. Men are risk takers that choose to perform the unthinkable in order to gain attention from the public eye. Men also lack structured emotional
U.S. society is highly stratified, but many people underestimate the extent of structured inequality in U.S. society for the following reasons: In principle, the law gives equal standing to all. Our culture celebrates individual autonomy and achievement. We tend to interact with people like ourselves. (2006 Alan S. Berger)
Women’s right to equal pay or gender pay gap has been a subject of discussion over the years in the united states, women perform similar jobs to men, but are paid
I attend at college that would consider itself to be very liberal and as a young black American from the South there were a lot of learning moments from my freshman year. One thing that I never understood fully growing up until Wooster was Sex/Gender which may have caused for ignorance to grow within me over the course of 18 years. One day I was arguing about gender equality in America but, I was only focusing on biological male and female that are cis-gender. At the time of this argument “cis-gender” was not a part of my vernacular. Someone randomly came over and unprovokingly began lecturing me on how ignorant I was, and how only focusing on biological gendering is oppressive. Even though I was not even originally speaking to this individual,
In order to grasp the concept of social construction of gender, it is essential to understand the difference between sex and gender. Biologically, there are only two reproductive genital organs that are determinants of sex: the vagina and the penis. Sex is established solely through biological structures; in other words, genitalia are the basis of sex. Once a sex category is determined, gender, a human categorization socially attached to sex, is assigned based on anatomy. Gender typically references social or cultural differen...
Months ago, June 26, 2015 to be specific, the United States Supreme Court gave a landmark ruling that so many people have waited years, even decades to hear: Legalizing marriage equality in all states in Obergefell v Hodges. The case merely solved one issue facing the community, and only in the United States. However, in the United States and globally, many and much worse challenges are to be faced however. For the most part, there are still no laws in place that protect the community from discrimination in society or at work. In the United States, in many states, there is still discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexuality in the workplace (where someone may be fired or denied a job on these bases), they
America may have progressed over the last couple of decades, but there are still major problems. Gender equality has been a major issue over the last couple of years. It has progressed in some ways, but there is still so much to be done. “Many differences we observe between men and women do not have much to do with gender differences at all; instead, the behavior arise as a result of the different positions men and women occupy” (Dalton Conley 289). In America you have the “perfect” family. The perfect family includes a hard working dad, a domestic mom and their children. The father is always the superior one and makes all of the decisions on how the money is spent, who is in charge of the house, etc. The mother is the stay home mom, cooks
Gender inequality is a very bad situation through the world that needs to be fixed. Throughout the world, many women live with an unfair lifestyle, many with only a smattering rights. Bringing awareness to the topic of gender inequality and persecution is the crux for modern America and the rest of the world. Aside from gender inequality impacting teenagers, authors can impact readers when writing about social inequality and many genres can be used as a proactive tool.
Women earn 74 percent less for every dollar a man earns, even after the Equal Pay Act of 1963. If men and women were paid equal, 50 percent of households in poverty would make a middle class wage. While women band together to create equal pay, many companies have offered thousands to settle lawsuits.