Equality Essay: The Roles Of Gender Equality In Society

Gender Equality

Gender equality has been an issue for centuries. Ever since the days of the bible, women

have been seen as the lesser sex. Women today face discrimination in fields such as the media,

the workplace, and government. We still have to fight for fundamental rights such as abortion,

birth control, and equal pay. Even though there have been massive improvements in the way

women are seen, I still believe we have a long way to go.

The media, while a relatively new issue, is one of the biggest contributors to the way

women are seen in the world. There are many different facets of the media such as magazines,

advertisements, television, movies, and the list continues. When you look at the cover of a

women 's magazine,

According to Princeton University, a gender role is, "a theoretical construct in the social sciences

and humanities that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex" (Gender Role).

In other words, gender roles are the roles that specific genders are supposed to abide by.

Generally, society as a whole is what sets these gender roles. Over the years, gender roles have

changed, but in the same ways, they haven 't. For women, we are supposed to be feminine, adore

the color pink, and learn to do domestic chores. Housework is always seen as "the women 's job".

This idea dates back to an idea called Republican Motherhood. Republican Motherhood is the

ideology that revolves around the roles and responsibilities of the American woman in regards

to creating and maintaining a pure and righteous household. Not only do women deal with

gender roles, but men do as well. For men, they have to be the bread winner, be completely

masculine, and do all work regarding physical labor. Gender roles are extremely

Along with the pay gap, workplace discrimination is a serious

issue. Smallbusiness.chron.com states that, "Stereotypical views regarding gender can cause

supervisors to engage in the illegal practice of passing a person over for promotion due to

gender" (Gluck). Because of the stereotypes, or gender roles as I explained earlier, women are

not looked at as serious contenders for raises and/or promotions. Not only is this extremely

problematic, it is also illegal, as the quote points out. Sexual harassment is an even bigger issue

in the workplace so it seems. EEOC.org acknowledges that, "Harassment does not have to be of

a sexual nature, however, and can include offensive remarks about a person 's sex. For example, it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general. Both

victim and the harasser can be either a woman or a man, and the victim and harasser can be the

same sex." Although it is more common for women to be the victim, men are most certainly

harassed as well. These examples all show how the pay gap, gender discrimination, and sexual

harassment affect gender equality at large.

In conclusion, I realize there are a lot of people who may read my essay