Gender Inequality Sociology - Term Paper Example

 Gender Inequality Gender inequality is already rampant since the dawn of men as proven by history across cultures, locations, races and time. It is the never-ending battle between men and women for rights. Usually the concept is more of a concern for women than men. This situation goes on through the eras regardless of the fact that there are other issues needed to be given attention that can affect the whole world. Tremendous efforts are being made today regarding gender inequality, but still the equal rights for women are not yet fully achieved across the globe. The concept is easy to say, but much work and efforts are needed to gain more advancement and give the equality for both genders worldwide. The thorough discussion regarding gender inequality would start positively when the concept of gender and sex would be defined first. Gender and sex are usually used alternately or they usually mean the same for many people, but for the context of discussion, gender and sex would be differentiated as they both affect the inequality issue between men and women. Sex differs from gender as the former is concerned in distinguishing men from women through physical differences while the latter is more of a social category comprised of sets of norms and behaviors that each sex must conform. A good example of social differentiation made to distinguish men from women is the role in the family as men are considered to be breadwinners and women are homemakers (Teacher’s Presentation slides 1 and 3). Another example is in terms of jobs wherein males or men focus on jobs that require physical strength while females or women get remedial jobs like office clerks. The second example is considered as a stereotype (Williams Students’ Presentation slide 12). Stereotype is the generalization made by people in the society due to the popularity of certain beliefs and norms. Since gender is a socially-created concept, it is likewise a synthetic creation based on anatomical or physical features of men and women. The traditional point-of-view is like stereotyping which largely depends on sex. Although the tradition points out those men are usually the breadwinners and women are homemakers, some societies and cultural groups have their own gender stereotypes. For the Arapesh society in New Guinea, the feminine way of behavior is prevalent for both men and women who show their passiveness and gentleness while the opposite is true for Mundugumor society in which both men and women show aggressiveness and cruelty. Tchambuli society is really unique since its norms regarding gender roles is the opposite of the prevalent gender roles in European and American countries (Teacher’s Presentation slide 2). Although there are certain exceptions to the tradition, in general men are still more favored in the society than women despite of the efforts being made to alleviate the discriminations faced by women. The discrimination may have been due to the separation of roles for men and women. The separation of roles of men and women is called gender roles, and the learning of roles is called gender socialization (Teacher’s Presentation slide 1). Many agents affect the gender socialization as discussed in the next paragraph. Gender socialization is affected by family, peer, group, school and mass media. In the family, male and female are treated distinctly from one another through differentiation in roles. In terms of peer groups, females tend to be more cooperative and indirect with conflicts than male. At school, various subjects and specializations are given to separate the male from female students. For the mass media, more often than not females are considered as sex objects (Teacher’s Presentation slide 5). The roles in the family have certain stereotypes that allow male to be differentiated from female gender. The differentiation is intensified by the stereotype that male parent is considered to be the breadwinner or the primary worker and provider in the family while the female parent is considered to be a home worker or more popularly called as house wife (Giddens 254-255). For peer groups, it is usually the females who are the ones who cooperate and maybe affected by the motherly instincts as influenced by the biological factor. As school students are being prepared for the real world so the differences in subjects and specializations may come out since the work stereotype is prevalent as men are inclined to physical work while women are more into clerical work (Williams Students’ Presentation slide 12). Lastly mass media can still be considered as the most abusive factor in the lives of women in the society due to the fact that they are depicted as objects of fantasy for men just like the issue raised in a study made by Meika Loe as the author applied for a work as a Bazoom. The author tried to check the gender inequality and raise the issue of sexual harassment. It may be prominent in mass media like in posters, but the legal definition and workplace definition of sexual harassment is different. For Giddens, sexual harassment is anything that is unwanted sexual advancement that may affect the job performance of female workers, but for Loe based upon the policy of Bazooms, sexual harassment is not related to occasional compliments with sexual advancement as long as the acts are socially acceptable. Also the works of Bazooms greatly capitalize on sexual appeal (Loe Students’ Presentation slide 6). The gender inequality is rampant and its effect may be seen in three primary fields: education, employment and politics. It can be said that in the recent years women have proven certain level of achievement in the academe but inequality is still rampant as behavior of both genders are differentiated sharply at schools. Dress codes are inevitable in going to schools that may encourage sex typing and more boys participate at class. Also women are less than men in terms of being full-time faculties and are paid less (Teacher’s Presentation slide 7). Boys are more than girls in terms of student population that may also become a disadvantage for boys since they are more punished than girls (Giddens 255). In terms of employment, the prevailing stereotype has a big impact wherein males do the physical labor and females are on remedial works (Williams Student’s Presentation slide 12). The women employment nowadays is different from the traditional one as more women are able to do the jobs of men but in terms of economics, certain level of discrimination still exists as some gender-biased occupations are still present. The Glass ceiling blocks the opportunity for women in getting the possible peak of their career while glass escalator exists in men to be promoted to the highest positions available. Also harassment is still a problem at workplace (Teacher’s Presentation slide 8). Perhaps it is impossible for now to remove the gender exclusive jobs though it is already proven that job opportunities at present are relatively less biased as compared to that in the early part of history. Some men even choose to pursue careers that are chosen by most women like “nursing, elementary school teaching, librarian and social work,” (Williams Students’ Presentation slide 11). In politics, female advancement occurs the recent decades like more women participate actively in political leadership like in the USA where most of women are part of the Democratic Party. Despite the advancement, female equality is still far from being completely achieved since the female voting population does not recognize their power once they all unite for the common cause and also political leadership is still dominated by males. Gender inequality has lessened through the efforts of the women to fight for their rights in the past years but inequality is still present. It is deeply rooted in the history that most societies are patriarchal which means they are dominated by men (Teacher’s Presentation slide 6). The patriarchy was very much tested and illustrated in the study of Nancy Lesko on the high school football team as it has been regarded as the most popular sport in the school and most patronized extracurricular activity. Lesko compared the members of the football team with the other members of other club activities and check what makes the football team regarded as the most superior. She interviewed Woody Rockne, the coach of the football team and a PE teacher in Texas. He shared his views that high school football allows its members to develop into a privileged people through the concepts of pain, weak, discipline and success (Lesko Students’ Presentation 24). The dominating principle at that school is that of patriarchy or male dominance. The findings of Lesko align with the views of Giddens. The patriarchy exists in gender socialization as affected by peers, family, education and mass media (Lesko Students’ Presentation 26). The last part is about the movements and social theories that pertain to women empowerment. There were major separations among the feminist approaches as they are divided mainly into three: liberal feminism, radical feminism and black feminism. Liberal feminism focuses on sex discrimination. They make efforts for the reforms of the inequalities by knowing the factors and providing equal opportunities. On the other hand, radical feminism watches the responsibility of men toward women exploitation. Radical feminism greatly criticizes the existence of patriarchy as the main responsible for women oppression. Black feminism is a specialized social theory as it focuses on black and non-white women. The approach believes that color, sex and class interact as they all affect the discrimination (Teacher’s Presentation slides 15-16). Works Cited Giddens, Anthony, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P. Applebaum and Deborah Carr. Essentials of Sociology. W.W. Norton & Company, 2007 Students’ Presentation. Gender Inequality: Chapter 9. 2011. Microsoft PowerPoint file. Teacher’s Presentation. Gender Inequality: Chapter 9. 2011. Microsoft PowerPoint file. Read More