How Social Inequalities Define Men and Women Roles - Essay Example

How social inequalities associated with gender have define men and women roles Introduction The recent years have witnessed significant changes in the social status with new roles developing for both genders that were not witnessed before. Social inequalities that have riddled our society for a long time now have influenced the roles of both genders in our society. Social inequalities is defined as the presence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different individuals based on their social standings, race, gender, religion and a number of social approaches used to categorize people. A number of categories of social inequalities exist and these depend on the aspect of life being distributed or considered unequally on people differentiated by social images (Scott & Jackson, 2006). This results into different classes of social inequalities including gender inequalities, opportunity inequalities, racial inequalities and even wealth inequalities. Human beings are coded to behave in specific manners, which are defined, by individual’s gender, race or even religious inclination. These behaviours tickle down to the way we handle people within different racial and gender profiles and the opportunities that we ultimately avail to the different groups. Gender inequality has remained one of the most discussed and debated aspect of social inequality due to its impact on the role of men and women in the society (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000). The issue of gender inequality has affected the roles of men and women in a number of ways and this has resulted into a new breed of professionals whose responsibility has been created by the arguments revolving around social inequalities. The paper will discuss the impacts of social inequalities in redefining the new roles of the two genders in the society will be discussed. Role of gender inequality in defining male and female roles Gender, an aspect that has been developed as a social construct distinct from sex, which is a biological concept, has led to the development of different roles for both men and women. Gender inequality is a societal aspect that began long ago and this led to the definition of roles for both the sexes, with the female gender given roles that are considered subordinate to those played by men. This resulted into a situation where the society assigned women jobs, which are considered to be of, lower status as compared to those of men (Scott & Jackson, 2006). According to the united nation report released in 1980, women who form more than half of the total world’s population are burdened with over two thirds of the work available. Through this report, the United Nations highlighted the extent to which social discrimination has defined the role played by women and confined the total benefits they derive from their massive effort to a meagre ratio of the total income earned (Scott & Jackson, 2006). The origin of the inequalities in the roles of both men and women that has significantly impacted on their societal positions has several traces and some chauvinists use these to support their roles as men and insist on minor roles for women. The bible in Leviticus set the pace for the development of a society that treats the two genders without equality and consideration of the roles that each play. In this book, God directed Moses to pay different amount of money to men and women for similar roles they played and this strengthened the belief the men play a more significant role (Wallace & Tyler, 2005). One of the core oiling factors in the gender inequality issue in or societies that have led to the determination of the responsibilities for the two genders is stereotypes. This has remained as the major determinant in the social inequality issue as it has continued to build on the perception that men are superior to women and should therefore be responsible for superior roles in the society. Our language, which gives the male gender more dominance as compared to the male gender, has supported this stereotype and this has led to a new definition for their roles. In a situation where an individual’s gender is unknown, the term ‘he’ has always being used due to its universality and applicability to all the genders (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000). Today, because of the gender weakness stereotype, the roles for women and men have been significantly affected and influenced and this has contributed to the social inequality. According to a sociology survey, 90% of nurses remain female while 85% of engineers remain male due to the strengths that these careers have been given. Engineering is still viewed as a male area with massive responsibilities and requirements beyond the female gender. Nursing is on the other hand considered as a weak course that few men are willing to major in for fear of being seen as too weak and having characters reminiscent of the female gender (Scott & Jackson, 2006). Progress has been made to ensure that equal opportunities are provided to women as men are and this has led to a significant increase in the number of women in a workplace. However, a number of organizations in different countries across the globe continue to adopt practices that demonstrate the impacts of social inequalities especially gender inequality. Despite earning the chance to work in organizations previously dominated men; the women have been confined to roles which have been viewed as weak enough to suit their gender (Friedl, 2002). Most women in engineering companies are either confined to secretarial, clerkship and accountancy roles while the men are hired for the more complex roles. Most organizations also pay less than 80 cents for every 1 dollar paid to the men due to the continued feeling that the impact of the male in the workplace is more than that of the female. Most sociologist also agree that women are still confined to training in certain areas and professions viewed as being fit for their weak gender like clerical work and teaching professions which have remained to be some of the lowly paid professions across the world (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000). Apart from active responsibilities within the society, the presence of social injustice especially gender inequality has defined the participation of the genders in politics. The notion of being the weaker gender, one that has been moulded by the inequality concept, has confined political seats to the male gender. Despite the massive attempts that have been made to increase female representation in politics, their presence has remained significantly lower as compared to the male gender. The murky nature of politics that has led to its being defined as a men’s specialization has continued to sideline the participation of the female gender (Friedl, 2002). Politics is associated with aggressiveness, malice and propaganda, one that demonstrates the abrasive nature of the male gender thus restricting the active participation of the female in it. In the United Kingdom for example, the ratio of male to female prime ministers has been significantly lower and this can only be due to the political aggressiveness that has been developed by male dominance in the area and gender inequality perpetuated by the system (Wallace & Tyler, 2005). As indicated in the introduction section, the biblical view and perception of women has played a significant role in stereotyping the abilities of the two genders in the society. The bible considered the two genders as possessing different abilities and strengths which has been used today to confine women and men to specific role. In religion, the society has perfected the gender inequality to isolate women religious leaders across the globe and across different faiths (Abbot, 2006). Save for the modern Pentecostal churches coming up today, the mainstream churches have perfected the societal perception and created a religious society where social inequality based on gender is perfected. As the men continue to dominate major roles like in other sectors of the society, women have been confined to other peripheral roles like maintenance, assistance of the clergy and part of the choral teams. The ratio of male to female church leaders within the mainstream Christian churches has continued to lag with some churches like the catholic and faiths like the Muslim isolating the female from leadership roles. This attitude and stereotyped belief in the strength of the man as opposed to the strength and abilities of the woman within the religious discourse is borrowed from God’s directive to Moses in Leviticus over payment rates (Friedl, 2002). Conclusion Despite the role that social inequality has played in defining gender roles, progress has been made today to ensure that a balance exist between the representation of roles in different sectors. Most countries have enacted laws that require one particular gender not to exceed a specific limit. This has enabled both genders to have a fair representation in different sectors of the economy and in other areas of the society. However, a look at the representation agreed by the law strengthens the belief that the stereotype is not leaving us any time soon. Most of the countries have a two third rule, which implies that one gender should not be more than the two thirds in relations to the others (Abbot, 2006). Social inequalities has been considered as a source of a number of societal problems as breeds a group of people that are made to feel less important. The prevalence of gender inequality has led to redefinition of roles for the genders within our society, an aspect that has stuck for a longer time despite the attempts to eliminate them. The roles of both men and women in our society have not been defined by their abilities and knowledge but the stereotypes that created room for gender inequality (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000). References Abbot P, ‘Gender’ in Payne, G 2006, Social division (2nd edition), Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Friedl, E 2002, Society and sex roles (4th edition), New york: Routledge. Haralambos, M. & Holborn, M 2000, Sociology themes and perspectives (5th edition), London: Harper Collins. Scott, S. & Jackson, S. ‘Sexuality’, in Payne, G 2006, Social division (2nd edition), Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Wallace, C. & Tyler, M 2005, An introduction to sociology, feminist perspective, London: Routledge. Read More