Paper Example on Gender Inequality in the Society

Introduction

Foremost, gender discrimination or inequality is unfair treatment between female and male based on various gender roles. It is also the idea as well as the situation that shows that men and women are not equal. Gender roles are some of the reasons why there is gender inequality in the society. Arguably, gender inequality can be empirically and socially supported by the society. Women are treated as lesser human beings than men because of gender inequality. The paper seeks to explore instances of gender inequality at the workplace, at home, how it affects lives and how it can be solved.

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Gender inequality has manifested itself in the workplace in various ways. For instance, deaths in the workplace are high for males while the low for women. Men are deemed to experience injuries than women because they are assigned more risky work due to their masculine characteristics. Income disparities in workplaces are based on gender. Salaries of males are relatively more than that of women. The income gap is due to numerous factors such as difference education choices, the difference in job position, type of job, differences in the experience of work and difficulty involved in the work. Lutz (118) admits that education differences bring about the income inequality because men are stereotyped to do courses that lead to high income earning careers than women. The skills and knowledge of employees make an employer to prefer a particular gender depending on the work involved. Gender inequality in the workplace is inevitable because a certain gender cannot perform some duties. This is the reason why most workplaces are faced with gender inequalities.

Profession and career are depended on the level of education of an individual. During the early stages of the 20th century, gender inequality brought by difference in the level of education was high because men were supported by the society to learn skills and knowledge in school while their female counterparts engaged in household chores. There is also gender inequality in the division of prestigious courses in universities. For instance, law, medicines, engineering dentistry courses were selected for men while other art courses made for females. This explains the gender inequality in the workplace because most of the institutions have more males than female gender. Before the introduction of birth control pills, women could not engage in professional careers since they used to start family institution immediately after teenage life. Berk (131) opines that during the start of 21st century, gender pay difference is drastically decreasing because more females are undertaking medicine courses that were previously made for men. Between 1999 and 2008, female doctors in the United States were paid $170 million less than males. This could only be explained by use gender inequality phenomenon because they worked regular hours per day.

Further, gender inequality is not only depicted in workplaces but also at our homes. Biological characteristics immensely impact gender roles. For example, society is characterized by gender inequality in relationships. In the past, gender inequality in marriage relationship was very high, but with social advancement in the community, the incidence has reduced. Men and women in the community are have divided along gender lines thus building gender inequality. Men view women as lesser human beings and therefore treat them inhumanly. Gender-based violence in families is mostly directed to women because they are stereotyped to be inferior beings in the society. Nevertheless, women are deemed to have low intelligent which makes males to make major decisions for the family. The gender inequality is also evident in marriage relationship whereby women are forced by their male counterparts to take care of children. Intelligence is viewed as a gender inequality because individuals base it on masculine and feminine characteristics.

Nevertheless, gender inequality is evident at home where individuals attempt to equalize household work. Arguably, traditional gender roles are widespread in the American societies. Women are known to put their education goals aside first to raise their children while their male counterparts are busy studying their prestigious courses. Most household chores are divided along gender traits. For instance, women are supposed to cook and take care of the family while males are charged with providing for the family. In modern society, gender inequality is diminishing because of the cultural civilization. Research shows that contemporary society has ensured gender equality whereby there is no division of labor along gender traits. Gender inequality is encouraged by how competent an individual is in doing certain work. For instance, women tend to cook and perform a household chore because they are responsible. Gender role has drastically changed due to modernization and civilization. During the 21st century, gender equality is not rampant because gender roles have transformed.

Beneria, Lourdes, Gunseli Berik, and Maria (129) argues that property inheritance among families is based on gender which brings about gender inequality. Ancestral property is divided among males of the family, but the women are neglected because of their gender. Community laws have encouraged gender inequality because most of them are gender biased and they favor the males. For instance, females cannot inherit any property from her parents but its rule that male should have a share of his parents wealth. Besides, males are given preferential treatment than their female counterparts thus bring out the idea of gender inequality at homes and families.

However, gender inequality greatly affects lives of people in the society. Gender inequality has adverse effects on the general population, like for example, the number of boys and girls babies are unequal. Gender inequality has encouraged people to view newborn boys as more important than newborn girls. Consequently, the feature adversely affects the general population of a given country. Additionally, the phenomenon of gender inequality, which reduces the number of baby girls, will bring a shortage of brides during marriage age. A severe imbalance of gender is a challenge to the society because the population will decrease to lack of marriage partners. Gender inequality, which conversely encourages gender imbalance breeds immorality since individuals, will practice gay marriage and lesbianism.

Nicolson (231) asserts that gender inequality leads to education problems because most females were illiterate in the 18th and 19th centuries. Gender inequality makes girl child to be discriminated from accessing education while the boy child is provided with all the privileges. Contemporary sociologists argue that increase in female education boost economy of a country because they ensure poverty reduction. Nevertheless, it improves living standards of individuals which consequently reduces domestic violence in families. Lower education brought by gender inequality breed poverty among individuals thus negatively affecting the general economy of a country. Most developing countries tend to support gender inequality, which mostly negatively affects the females. The economics of a state is adversely affected by gender inequality because the lower the education levels, the higher the unemployment rates and therefore government spends a lot of funds to the unemployed population. This reduces the rate of development of a country because investment money is spent on curbing poverty. The vast discrepancy in education resulting from gender inequality is associated with low economic growth. Gender inequality affects the income of people in the workplace. The wages of a man is much higher than that of a female despite working for same hours and days. Importantly, gender inequality inhibits women from seeking a job from specific industries because they are deemed to have job vacancies for men.

Nonetheless, the problem of gender inequality can be solved through numerous ways. For instance, ensuring that all children in the society are educated so that they can compete favorably in the job market thus solving the gender inequality in the workplace. Lindsey (227) hold that changing the attitude of people who stereotype a specific gender to be inferior to the other would solve gender inequality in the society. Sensitizing the community to treat everybody with equal measure without discrimination will eradicate the rampant gender inequality. Ideally, education should be considered to be a fundamental need to every child in the society regardless of his or her gender. Females can also be helped to develop more confidence in their studies to secure the prestigious job opportunities stereotyped to be for men.

Conclusion

In conclusion, gender inequality is a challenge facing the contemporary world, and therefore measures should be taken to salvage the situation. There are various instances of gender inequality in the society which need to be addressed to ensure the economic and social development of a country. Education will serve better in eradicating gender inequality in our modern society.

Works Cited

Beneria, Lourdes, Gunseli Berik, and Maria Floro. Gender, development, and globalization: economics as if all people mattered. Routledge, 2015.

Berk, Sarah Fenstermaker. The gender factory: The apportionment of work in American households. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

Lindsey, Linda L. Gender roles: A sociological perspective. Routledge, 2015.

Lutz, Helma, ed. Migration and domestic work: A European perspective on a global theme. Routledge, 2016.

Nicolson, Paula. Gender, power, and organization: a psychological perspective on life at work. Routledge, 2015.