Gender Inequality - Research Paper Example

? Gender Inequality The individual’s ability always needs to be judged on his way of thinking and above all thinking rationally. In this era of globalization and advanced education the literacy rates of men and women appear to b leveled. Yet several instances of gender discrimination are witnessed in the society. In fact gender categorizations are all social construction. All appears to be equal when it comes to humanity (Ahl, 2003). For a developed nation like United States it has been found that benevolent sexism pertains to gender inequality. Women are seen here as attempting to forcibly capture men’s power (Glick and Fiske, 2001). American society has always given more opportunity and facilities to men as compared to women in terms of power as well as status. Such discrimination is inevitable when it comes to workplace. The employer considers the gender of the individual rather than his/her ability while offering the job. Such discrimination is also common for wages and while offering higher posts or promotions (Ridgeway, 1997). Even being a developed country with high Human development Index (HDI) the gender inequality is found to be much more in United States than other developed nations. Apart from labor market such gender inequality is also witnessed for health as well as educational sector (Human Development Reports, 2011). Thus Gender Inequality is quite high in America and needs to be eliminated for further human development. Keeping this at the backdrop the paper intends to support these arguments with suitable findings and analysis. For American families gender inequality problems mainly arises for working families. This is because provision of public care for children, especially infants is very low in United States. Thus women are expected to give majority of their time for children and take proper care of them. Husbands consider their wives to be irresponsible and not performing household duties in case they fail to take proper care of children because of work (Jacobs and Gerson, 2004, p.145). Vast inequality is observed for sharing of domestic time. Gender inequalities are mostly observed within couples where both are working full time and for very long hours. In America no such policies have yet been implemented that can bring down the working hours to a descent level. If the work schedule has moderate working hours then the disparity may be assumed to be a bit low. This may also help to strike a balance between family and work and hence lower gender discrimination (Jacobs and Gerson, 2004, p.146). A number of awareness programs on gender issues undertaken over the years have failed to reduce worldwide gender inequality. Even developed industrial nations have comparatively lesser number of women than men in the workplace. Equal qualification and abilities also lead to lesser pay for women in the workplace. This gender disparity remains embedded in the politics, economics as well as culture of countries. Policy makers and planners have done very little for elimination of such gender inequality which can largely affect human development. Even economic development of a country is related to the notion of gender equality (Rives and Yousefi, 1997, p.1). Workplace Discrimination Gender Inequality is observed for daily life activities in United States and also other such developed nations. This phenomenon of discrimination is more common when it comes to structure of workplace. Gender discrimination activities are carried on fully fledged in many organizations. Past years have witnessed many protests by Union activists against these organizations for promoting as well as protecting feminine rights in the workplace. These rights need to be looked upon as civil rights. Feminine activists have often attempted to eradicate such inequalities prevailing in society. The work culture even in developed nations has been found to promote and support the male workers of the organization. When it comes to team work or working in groups this inequality is found to increase. This pattern of gender inequality has varied with respect to organizations. Although such discriminations have reduced to some extent in managerial posts, it has not diminished completely. In due course women have been coping with such workplace discriminations because protests have resulted in vain (Acker, 2006). Gender Inequality is evident in labor markets with trends indicating discriminations in areas like occupation and the observed workforce. In fact such discrimination is considered as rational by employers. Unequal pay is prevalent in United States and fails to die down. A number of reasons have been attributed to this. Firstly it is seen that working women also carry significant responsibilities and duties towards their children. Hence they have to choose that jobs that gives them considerable amount of time to look after their children. This kind of jobs involves less working hours and in turn the pay is also less. But this is not the only valid reason for unequal pay. Clearly much discrimination is shown when it comes to on job training (England, 2005). In US it is seen that Asian American women have higher experiences of work which in turn results in higher amount of earning for them as compared to the American White women. The reason has been traced out in childrearing. The American white devote much more of their time for taking care of their child than compared to the Asian American women and hence they can afford to work for lesser hours. Thus greater attention to childcare results in lower earnings for American white women even if they have similar educational qualification as the Asian American women (Greenman, 2011). Gender Inequality in US and other countries Gender discrimination is also prevalent in European countries. Workplace discrimination can be traced out for factors like overall experiences and experience with the current employer. Working hours have tended to increase the gender discrimination in workplaces. Women face much more disruptions in their career because they are the ones who are expected to take proper care of their children. Even women with higher educational qualification have been lagging behind than men in jobs. Unemployment is considered to be a more serious concern for men and less for women. The European countries have also invested quite less in human capital for women (Abendroth, Maas and Van der Lippe, 2011). Even for a country like Sweden where gender inequality is supposed to be quite low it is seen that there exists a significant pay gap between men and women in workplaces. Women usually find it difficult there to strike a balance between their workplace commitments and family related duties. A prestige issue arises in occupation when this inequality is witnessed between a married man and married woman, both of them having children. Such prestige issues in workplace are less frequently observed for single men and women (Magnusson, 2010). In recent times these developed nations have started raising concerns on such issues of gender discrimination. Accordingly gender equality measures were imposed by policy makers in twelve democratic industrialized nations. These measures were implemented in different spheres of society like the politics, culture, economics and households. It has been witnessed that presently women workforce have absorbed deeply into law making and regulating bodies of the countries. A large number of women in industrialized nations are found working in governmental organizations. For the spending patterns also it has witnessed a joint effort of both the men and women (Bolzendahl, 2009). Gender mainstreaming has been recognized as a factor that causes gender inequalities in countries. Its effects are more visible across countries rather than within countries. A strong relationship exists between the notion of gender mainstreaming and the changes occurring within the societies of countries (Daly, 2005). United States although being a developed nation with high HDI experiences more gender inequality compared to other developed nations. Although gender inequalities have existed in other countries as well it has been found to be lower compared to United States. According to the current data the country has a higher index of gender inequality compared to other such developed nation with high human development. This is shown in the table below: Table 1: Cross country comparative study of gender inequality Source: Human Development Index, 2011 In the table above United States has been compared with other countries which are developed nations with very high human development like United States. The two highlighted countries are United States and Sweden. Sweden is the country with lowest Gender Inequality Index while United States possesses the highest index of gender inequality compared to all the other countries in the table. The result is as per the data for the year 2011. Literature Review The paper considers the research works of eminent sociologists and economists to get an idea of the gender inequality prevailing worldwide especially for the country of United States. A research study was conducted based on the 1994 data of International Social Survey Program to examine the impact of macro level factors on causing gender inequality. Such factors have been found significant in causing gender disparity within households and the resulting tensions between husband and wives. This study was undertaken for 22 developed nations. It was found that equality effects for gender ideology are more significant for women. This was for countries with more socialization. For less socialized countries like United States women enjoy less advantage of their individual assets. Further the results also revealed that household works can be equally divided only if gender inequality can be reduced in a country (Fuwa, 2004). Women have been facing discrimination in the workplace and the reason for unequal pay has been cited as lesser hours of work with greater responsibilities towards family. Such an instance has been measured in the research study using the job resource model. The work – family role blurring has been computed using the national sample of workers in United States. The overlap of professional roles was found to have strong correlation with the conflicts occurring in households with the inability of striking a balance between work and family. The correlation has been found stronger who are experiencing more pressure that those who work within a controlled schedule. Such a result definitely suggests for a policy in US that could control the hours of work and create less pressure on workers especially women. This would definitely help to reduce gender inequality (Galvin and Schieman, 2011). For nations like United States and other European countries gender discrimination exists in the workplaces irrespective of levels of education. This has been proved by the comparative research study had been conducted to compare the variation in gender inequality with respect to levels of education. This study has been conducted for developed nations like United States, Sweden and Netherlands. This has been considered less than three modes of welfare namely liberal, conservative and also social democracy. Overall the educational qualification pertains to be high for the three countries, so gender inequality in terms of the economy’s workforce and separation of occupation appears to be less influenced by levels of education. For United States levels of education are found to be insignificant for explaining unequal pay observed in the workplaces. Such inequality needs to be explained by other factors. For European countries like Sweden and Netherlands returns from education has been found to be higher in case of men rather than women (Evertsson, England, Hermsen and Cotter, 2009). A research study has been conducted to study the influence of hours on gender discrimination. For this a comparative study is undertaken on part time and full time jobs done by women. Data has collected for the year 1994. More significant results have been obtained for full time employment. Part time jobs do not considerable change in women’s role in households. Full time jobs become the cause of tensions emanating between husbands and wives because husbands are then expected to take some responsibilities of households. Full time jobs are also significant for causing reforms in the role of a women and hence is the root cause for gender discrimination and gender inequality within a society (Stier and Lewin-Epstein, 2000) A research study has been conducted to trace out the reasons behind unequal pay in workplaces and categorization of work based on gender. Two hypotheses – the wage hypothesis and the human capital specialization hypothesis have been used for the study. Data for research has been collected from Population Survey for the year 1988. The results show considerable differences in the amount of professional trainings between men and women. There also have been significant discriminations during investments in human capital for men and women. Men have undoubtedly received better professional training and for a longer period than women. This has resulted in better jobs and better pay for them compared to women. The research has shown that such a phenomenon has been observed for both the races- whites as well blacks in United States (Tam, 1997). Findings and Analysis The country of United States has been found to experience the highest among of gender discrimination than other countries used for comparison (Table 1). This is as per the data of 2011. The paper intends to find out whether the country has showed any concern towards the gender issue. For this we adopt a time series data showing the gender inequality index for United States as well as for the other countries. This is shown in the table below: Table 2: Trends of Gender Inequality for countries for 1995-2011 Country 1995 2000 2005 2008 2011 United States 0.284 ….. 0.311 0.288 0.299 Australia 0.192 0.158 0.139 0.127 0.136 Norway 0.106 0.105 0.083 0.077 0.075 New Zealand 0.208 0.195 0.189 0.172 0.195 Canada 0.168 ……. 0.147 0.135 0.140 Japan 0.160 0.137 0.149 0.128 0.123 Sweden 0.076 0.073 0.065 0.061 0.049 Switzerland 0.109 0.100 0.084 0.078 0.067 Netherlands 0.095 0.090 0.077 0.039 0.052 Source: Human Development Reports, 2011 From the table above it is clear that United States have been experiencing many isues of gender discrimination for more than a decade. But still it has not shown any significant improvement whereas some other countries (except Canada and New Zealand) have shown some improvement over the years in gender inequality. The trend has also not been satisfying for Australia whereas the achievement of reducing gender inequality in case of Netherlands. United States have remained more or less the same range and continuously showed a higher trend of gender inequality. The phenomenon can be more clearly understood with the diagrammatic illustration below: Figure 1: Line Diagram showing trend of Gender Inequality in United States Source: Human Development Reports, 2011 From the diagram above it is seen that in the year 2005, gender inequality rose to a high of 0.31. It has brought down moderately in 2008 (0.288) but then it again rose to 0.299. This shows that either the Federal Government has not shown much concern over these matter or the measures undertaken have not been significant enough to reduce gender inequality. Case Study of Netherlands The paper conducts a case study of Netherlands in order to get an idea of the strategy undertaken to reduce gender inequality. Netherlands has considerably brought down the family- work conflicts prevailing in households and thus causing gender inequality. It has reduced the total amount devoted by the entire family in work. However no gender discrimination has followed during such reduction. Part time work is more common for Dutch women. Although Dutch government has undertaken such measures for promoting family life but Dutch wives in turn are found to be economically dependent on their family. Sweden has also followed a policy of reducing work hours but here work hours have also been reduced for men. This has enabled Sweden to achieve a low gender inequality index. Clearly United States experiencing the same trend of gender inequality should adopt similar policies for reducing and in turn eliminating gender discrimination (Jacobs and Gerson, 2004, p.145). A study for gender equality have traced out the main indicators of gender inequality and have assigned scores to them in terms of their influence in causing overall gender inequality in the country. The indicators have been found in all spheres of the American society i.e. politics, economics and household. The indicators and their assigned scores have been presented in a tabulated format below: Table 3: Gender Inequality scores for different indicators Indicator Gender Inequality score Household Divorce Single headed 0.52 0.81 Education University No high school 0.49 0.5 Income Average Employment Income 0.41 Work Labor force participation Employment rate Managerial positions Unpaid childcare 0.45 0.45 0.39 0.57 Politics Decision making positions 0.5 Source: Tamambang, Auger, Lo and Raynault, 2000 It is seen that disparity has remained high for workplace. However the disparity has lowered down for managerial positions. As women suffer lower positions in workplace due to responsibilities of children childcare disparity has been found to be high. Although measures have been undertaken in industrial nations, gender disparity still exists in the political sphere. Case Study of United Kingdom UK is one the nations having the highest number of part time workers. A large number of women here are engaged in part time work. But this developed nations like United Kingdom also has many instances of gender disparity in the workplaces. Separation of occupation or discrimination is also found for part time work. Thus women have less number of opportunities for part time work. Moreover women also face discriminations on returning to work after childbirth. The skills possessed by the employee are completely neglected in this case. Moreover the government here has also not taken any active measures to prevent such discriminations in the workplace (Tomlinson, Olsen and Pardum, 2009). Conclusion United States despite having high HDI have been found to possess a high gender inequality index compared to other developed nations. Gender discriminations have existed in all spheres of American society but have more commonly been observed in the workplaces. Women have been unable to strike a balance between family and work and this has led to disparities in the household sector. Clearly from the studies it is seen that households’ tensions has been less with women indulging in part time jobs. Again there is limited for part time jobs for women in countries like United Kingdom. Moreover American women have spent more time on child care and hence can afford less hours of work. This all have contributed towards unequal pay in workplace irrespective of educational qualification. Although some steps adopted by government have reduced gender discriminations for managerial positions but have not shown much improvement overall. Thus findings show a high trend of gender inequality prevailing in US. Thus high gender discrimination prevails in US and needs to be eliminated. The policy implication part of the paper suggests reduction of working hours to reduce and eliminate gender inequality. References Abendroth, AK, Maas, I and Van der Lippe, T. (2011). Human Capital and the Gender Gap in Authority in European Countries, European Sociological Review, Oxford Journals. Retrieved on January 13 2012 from: http://esr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/07/28/esr.jcr059.abstract Acker, J. (2006). Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in Organizations, Gender and Society, 20(4), 441-464 Ahl, HJ. (2003). The Scientific Reproduction of Gender Inequality: A Discourse Analysis of Research Articles on Women’s Entrepreneurship, 5th European Feminist Research Conference. Retrieved on January 13 2012 from: http://www.iiav.nl/epublications/2003/Gender_and_power/5thfeminist/paper_346.pdf Bolzendahl, C. (2009). 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