Persistent Gender Inequality

Persistent Gender Inequality

Various factors are used to classify a group of people as a minority, and one of these factors is gender. Accordingly, gender considers both social and biological components of a person to make it convenient to sort out and organize people. Overall, people have used physical and biological traits, like sex organs, to assign individuals into two sexes, male and female. These positions are then used as the basis for gender norms, personality traits, or societal expectations of a person. Gender norms have always varied from time to time and place to place; however, the commonality in all gender norms is that there is a direct relationship between inequality and gender (Healey et al., 2018). Notably, men have always had the advantage in that they tend to possess more power, prestige, and property, among other things, than women. Further statistics show a huge difference between women and men based on variables like political representation, education, wage gap, employment, and health (Healey et al., 2018).

Gender inequality has persisted in human history as long as humans have existed, though there have been decades of efforts to eradicate it. From social protests, legislation, policy initiatives, NGO activities, and educational reforms, gender inequalities still seem to persist. A recent example of this persistence has been demonstrated by the #MeToo movement, which brought to light how sex is used as a power tool in various areas of institutions. Some of the reasons that have been given for the persistence of gender inequality comprise capitalism, religious conviction, patriarchy, misogyny, and male self-interest (Healey et al., 2018).

Numerous strategies have been implemented for centuries to eradicate gender inequality without much success. However, strategies aiming to change people’s cultures would be highly successful. Gender and culture are intrinsically linked, and culture can either obstruct (oppress) or enable (liberate) people (European Institute of Gender Equality, 2017). Fortunately, culture is not sacred, and value judgments can be made in regard to aspects that are beneficial or harmful to society, in this case, gender inequality.

Suppose gender inequality became outdated; women’s roles would drastically change in the next twenty years. First, there would be more women in all kinds of positions in power, from presidents, governors, and CEOs, to name a few. Further, there would be an increase in women in male-dominated fields like law, medicine, and engineering. Notably, there would also be an increase in the number of men in women-dominated fields because norms and societal expectations would not be an issue.

References

European Institute of Gender Equality (EIGE), (2017). Culture. Accessed from. https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/policy-areas/culture

Healey, J. F., Stepnick, A., & Eileen, O. (2018). Race, ethnicity, gender, and class: The sociology of group conflict and change. Sage Publications.

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Persistent Gender Inequality

Discuss the persistent gender inequality. What are some useful approaches to addressing these problems? If gender inequality becomes a thing of the past, how would women’s roles change in the next 20 years?