The Role Of Gender Inequality In Today's Society

Gender inequality is a societal issue that has prevailed in our societies throughout the history of mankind. As societies were developed the roles and functions of the population were established. The male population became the providers and the females were seen as caregivers. With these roles came privileges, males were allowed all liberties and females were seen as properties, their thoughts or opinions were ridiculed and seen as meaningless and of no intellectual value. As the century’s passed the males became more powerful in their roles while the female population remained marginalized with change being achieved at a very slow rate. In today’s society females have empowered themselves and have shifted away from the traditional gender roles, however females continue to remain less privileged than the male population.

Gender inequality toward females is still present in our educational systems today. Michelle Stanwort (1983) examines the educational system in a study conducted on an ‘A’ level six form class. Her findings suggested that in that class the attitudes displayed by

They tend to be less paid than men. They are more likely to have part time jobs or occupy the jobs with low status. These inequities are explained in the labor market as stemming from the woman’s role in the family. Sociologist Talcott Parson argued that women are naturally suited to the expressive role of children, whereas men are suited for the instrumental role of competing in the labor market. This implied that women will give up or interrupt their careers in order to care for their children. The human capital theory also suggest that women’s lack of commitment to paid jobs is the cause of the disadvantage they suffer ,this theory suggest that females choose to take part time jobs so as to combine work and raising children. Anne Witt argues however that even when women work continuously in their careers they are still paid