Gender Gap in Our Society

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Gender Gap in Our Society

Language is a very powerful element. There are words in the English language that exist that are inherently biased against women. The language is arranged so that men are identified with glorified and exalted positions, and women are identified with more service-oriented positions in which men are dominating them. Even word pairs the bias is evident. In the English language, the masculine form of a word is almost always put before the feminine form of a word. Think about the following phrases: Mr. and Mrs., his and hers, boys and girls, and brothers and sisters. The word order is almost never reversed in the English language. This shows that the semantic usage of many English words contributes to the bias present in the English language. The media reports on the 2008 Presidential elections offer many excellent examples of gender bias.

On January 7, 2008 Hillary Clinton participated in a question and answer session with 16 undecided voters, mostly women, in a coffee house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire one day before the New Hampshire Primary. Kate Snow reports:

…she took an unexpected question from a woman standing in the back. "My question is very personal, how do you do it?" asked Marianne Pernold Young, a freelance photographer from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She mentioned Clinton's hair and appearance always looking perfectly coifed. “How do you, how do you keep upbeat and so wonderful?” (1)

It has been repeatedly reported that Senator Clinton choked up and became emotional when answering this question. With tears in her eyes, Senator Clinton answered:

It's not easy, and I couldn't do it if I didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do. You know, I have so many opportunities from this country just don't want to see us fall backwards. You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political it’s not just public. I see what’s happening and we have to reverse it.

The first example of gender bias is the fact that this voter asked about Senator Clinton’s appearance. A male politician would never be questioned about his appearance or about how he stays well coifed. Mrs. Clinton’s appearance, everything from her hair, to her clothing, to her cleavage has been reported on.

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