In imperial China, women assumed a relatively subordinate position to men. In Chinese, if you want to refer both boys and girls simultaneously, you have to use the Chinese character of ‘he’ instead of choosing ‘she’ as the pronoun. Have you notice this indicates gender inequality? Gender inequality or also known as gender stratification, is the unequal distribution of a society’s wealth, power, and privilege between females and males. It is erroneous, impenetrable and abhorrent.
It’s not just simply a single identity but one can have multiple identities that determine their privileges and social experiences. Just thinking gender “neglects race and class; thus, it is an incomplete framework for understanding social inequality” (West and Fenstermarker, pg.9). One who suffers from oppression at the intersection of those three identities is more oppressed, but oppression is not simply ranked. Gender, race, and class are all connected and operate together that determine a person’s social experiences and access to resources. For example, women experience oppression but it discounts the different social experiences of a rich White woman versus a poor Black woman.
These stereotypes have been defining what men and women should do and how they should behave. They were also determining the characteristics that each gender is considered to have, in the society’s eyes. The major problem why these stereotypes and hierarchies are still holding on, is the fact that people, men and women, do not have their actual beliefs and expectations and they just accept the way that the society formed and teaches them to believe about genders and this creates an even more intense discrimination. If people were forming their own beliefs and judgements about genders and accept females and males, both as equal, there would be less discrimination (The Guardian, 2013). Gender inequality at the workplace can be easily noticed through examples of events that happen when it comes to employability or even at work time.
Gender Equality Gender equality – a brief introduction Human rights are for all human beings, men as well as women. This means that women are entitled to the same human rights as men. However, all over the world women have historically often been discriminated against in many ways, due to the fact that they are born as female and not male. Even though there have been some improvements, unfortunately, this kind of discrimination still exist in our societies. When trying to explain gender equality, it is good to start with a definition of the words sex and gender: Sex: Biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women.
Gender is also used to organize relationships between man and women in social life. This social stratification and division of roles have formed the ideology of gender inequality especially in class based and hierarchical societies. For Instance,
The term ‘Gender’ in short refers to socially constructed definition of men and women. In other words to a simple definition of one’s sexuality based on masculinity and femininity. It determines the functions and roles attribute to men and women. In the dilemma of gender discourse it has unequal treatments, perception or opportunities based on gender which refers to gender inequality or gender based discriminations. Today it has a huge challenge and concerns to address the issue of gender inequality or gender based discrimination.
(Longwe, 2002). There is a common accession that gender inequality results from socially formed perceptions and expectations of males and females as belonging to the two different biological sexes (Meinzen-Dick, 2011; UN Women and OHCHR, 2013). These perceptions have largely outlined and comprised the respective statuses of males and females, defining their roles, opportunities and privileges in society. These Societal rules, roles, expectations and privileges are set and upheld by men and internalized by women through socialization. The extent of the situation is such that men determine who owns what and who uses what in the society.
IV. Literature Review and Research Gap There are a great number of literatures, both in empirical and theoretical terms, existing around the topic of gender inequality in non-traditional professions as well as gender development and empowerment in the workplace in general. This is arguably, because sex segregation in the workplace is a broad global issue, the levels and results of which are differentiated on the unique experiences from different countries and type of economies. Hence, studies regarding this have so far produced mixed outcomes that are difficult to generalize. According to Elson and Evers in 1996, there are three dimensions of inequality “Macro, Meso and Micro” (Fontana, 2003, p.1).
Although there is a difference in the nature of subordination by women, the characteristics of gender inequality still remain the same. For example, all cases are characterized by men controlling the sexuality and reproductive power of the women. This kind of control has been evolving over the years leading to its legitimization by several social practices, ideologies across different societies, the media, the law, religions, several institutions such as the family, and the society in
I believe that gender inequality is one of the most serious topics that is taken under consideration in this modern day society. According to Wikipedia the definition of gender inequality is the unequal way society is treating each other based on their gender (1). Men and women face gender inequality every single day, but most are in the shadows of how badly this affects both genders and not just women. Each country faces many different variations of gender inequality from social expectations to domestic abuse. Some cases may be more recognized compared to others but that does not mean it is not just as important, but it is just not as publicized.