Argument Synthesis Essay on Gender Inequality

Introduction

Gender inequality is a sensitive issue that needs urgent redress from leaders because it remains grounded in people's cultural, social, economic, and political systems. In the present-day society, for instance, the promotion of patriarchy in the various aspects continues to play a central role in women subjugation. In essence, female gender still lacks a wide range of basic rights, compared to their male counterparts. Recent and past reports have since indicated that women's experiences with poor pay at the workplace, sexual harassment, rape, domestic physical abuse, and poor representation in leadership positions are a common practice across the globe, with developing economies taking the lead. However, men and boys continue to suffer in silence because feminists have dominated the activism stage, denying others the opportunity to address men's equality problems. In response, Carthy Young and Adi Robertson utilize their recent art challenge people develop a holistic approach to addressing different dimensions of inequalities between female and male society members. All responsible stakeholders, including leaders, can achieve the much-needed gender equality by advocating the introduction of an all-inclusive conversation that creates a fair, change-driven negotiation and campaign ground for both men and women.

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Young and Robertson employ different approaches to writing, but their essays revolve around alternative ways that should be adopted and integrated into the feminist movements to realize equal rights. In her article, "Sorry, Emma Watson, but HeForShe is Rotten for Men," Young bases her arguments on Watson's U.N. speech. She starts by hailing the very components of the infamous speech, referring to it a unique formal invitation to all men to join in the fight against gender inequality because they also suffer from sexism. Presenting a smorgasbord of evidence, Young strongly believes that the HeForShe Campaign is timely because feminists cannot affect change without the participation and genuine input from the other half, men. According to Young (1), inasmuch as women lack some of the basic rights, feminism has ignored mass violence and forceful recruitment into life-threatening wars that often single out males.

Also, feminist-oriented laws have contributed to a wide range of men's problems, including discriminatory rulings involving child custody and the creation of a society that does value role of fathers as parents. Regarding the rise in high-profile sexual assault incidents, girls have so far received more publicity, sparking outrage than the victimized boys. Most importantly, Young has certain reservations with Watson's HeForShe, arguing that it perpetuates the cultural notion that women are incapable and a victimized gender. She wants leaders to note that the campaign fails to counter the feminist-approved topics, which promote the misconception that men are guilty of women's tribulations. As such, Young proposes "she and he for us."

In "Is Trump's America, The Handmaid's Tale Matters More Than Ever," Robertson attempts to prove that the gender inequalities witnessed under President Trump's administration is analogous to the mythical dystopian future portrayed in Margaret Atwood's novel. Referring to the story, he reports that the Christian economic and totalitarian authority of Gilead took a central role in promoting gender inequality through the creation of social classes, with women becoming the main victims (Robertson 1). In the novel, they are denied the very basic human rights: work, ownership of property, education, and handling money because the Gileadan government confiscated their bank accounts (Atwood 23). They are brutally subjugated, subjected to child-bearing servitude, and forced into ritualized rape. Robertson aligns these to the today's inequalities directed at women, such as treating their jobs as an afterthought, using religion to justify their subordination to men, sexually harassing and assaulting them, and ensuring they remain voiceless by not ascending political positions.

Although the tale feels outdated, Robertson argues that Americans and other people would undoubtedly condemn Atwood's work, viewing its role in pointing misogyny as distracting, misandry, silly, and anti-religious because they can neither be trusted in naming the obvious nor recognizing dystopia. Moreover, he contends that people have since been conditioned to believe that achieving equality by ensuring equal opportunities and power will lead to a matriarchal nightmare. Therefore, he Robertson wants leaders and individuals to stop living in illusion and pretense that they are almost achieving gender equality when 50% of the country's population comprises less-empowered women.

Conclusion

Overall, leaders in developing and developed nations have a fundamental role to play in gender equality. In particular, they are tasked with the responsibility of formulating and implementing change-driven economic, social, religious, and political policies. Referring to the arguments presented by Young and Robertson, leaders should acknowledge and appreciate the fact that the present-day's mainstream feminism tend to attribute all the women's problems or misfortunes in society to male power and dominion. According to Young (1), for instance, they have refused to effectively challenge and eliminate such double standards by regarding domestic violence as well as sexual assaults as byproducts of patriarchal systems. Likewise, leaders should know understand that their societies grudgingly tolerate women, viewing them as second-class humans whose rights are an afterthought (Bayer 38). To demonstrate transformational leadership, they should design and implement gender policies, which place great emphasis on the alleviation of consistent underrepresentation and subjugation of women. Second, they prioritize establishing service centers for abused women and men alike. In essence, the distribution of these and related services should not be discriminative against either gender. They should further lead conversations that address feminist-approved topics, particularly gender stereotypes that deny men the best possible opportunity to express their feelings on controversial concerns such as biased sexual harassment policies, selective punishment in the face of gender violence, and wrongful accusation of race. Ultimately, leaders must focus on the "she and he for us-oriented" policies to attain gender equality in the long-run.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1986.

Bayeh, Endalcachew. The Role of Empowering Women and Achieving Gender Equality to the Sustainable Development of Ethiopia. Pacific Science Review, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016, pp. 37-42.

Robertson, Adi. In Trump's America, The Handmaid's Tale Matters More Than Ever. The Verge, Nov. 9, 2016. https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/20/7424951/does-the-handmaids-tale-hold-up-dystopia-feminism-fiction

Young, Cathy. Sorry, Emma Watson, but HeForShe is Rotten for Men. 2014. Time, Sep. 26, 2014. http://time.com/3432838/emma-watson-feminism-men-women/