Since the beginning of history, women have not had the same rights as men. Although this has increasingly gotten better over the years to the point where some would say that feminism is not needed anymore, there are still many areas of life in which women face inequality compared to men. These discriminations that women encounter are closely related to the theories of the social construction of gender, race, and disability. These theories suggest that any woman can come across greater inequities if she is not only a woman, but of a minority race or disabled in any way.
There has been much discussion among scholars in many different disciplines as to why women are always seen as lesser than men. MacKinnon suggests two different approaches: difference and sameness. The philosophy underlying the difference approach is that sex is differences between humans, while the sameness principle tries to grant women access to the same privileges men receive (MacKinnon 244). These approaches allow for women to be looked at in two different manners. MacKinnon further explains:
Under the sameness standard, women are measured according to our correspondence with man, our equality judged by our proximity to his measure. Under the difference standard, we are measured according to our lack of correspondence with him, our womanhood judged by our distance from his measure. Gender neutrality is thus simply the male standard, and the special protection rule is simply the female standard, but not to be deceived: masculinity, or maleness, is the referent for both. (245)
This notion of the male being the ideal gender in society is prevalent in many areas of life. MacKinnon contends that in medical school the male body is the only bod...
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...the cultures of the world in terms of traditional stereotypes. Therefore, feminism is still needed to open the eyes of those that are blind to these occurrences, in the hope that one day we will all be social equals in every area of our lives.
Works Cited
Hernandez-Truyol, Berta Esperanza. “Latinas – Everywhere Alien: Culture, Gender, and Sex.” Critical Race Feminism: A Reader. 2nd ed. Adrien Katherine Wing. New York, New York University Press, 2003. 57-69. Print.
MacKinnon, Catharine. “Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination.” Theorizing Feminisms: A Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Hackett and Sally Haslanger. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 244-255. Print.
Wendell, Susan. “The Social Construction of Disability.” Theorizing Feminisms: A Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Hackett and Sally Haslanger. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 23-30. Print.
Thornton, Margaret. "Feminism And The Changing State: The Case Of Sex Discrimination." Australian Feminist Studies 21.50 (2006): 151-172. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 May
Gender roles are a staple construct of human civilization, designating the behaviors and lifestyles that society expects out of its participants, with gender as the defining characteristic. Historically, females have been at the forefront of the conversation, with feminism regarded as the principal solution to the well-established issue of gender inequality. However, this is foolish. To truly mend the gender inequalities forged by thousands of years of human interaction, both genders have to be acknowledged. Both males and females are equally constrained by gender roles, however the effects of this constraint are in differing fields. There are studies showing that females are at a disadvantage economically, in the workplace, while other studies
In the past there were many biases against women and their lack of abilities compared to men. Although the male perspective has changed over the past few centuries, there are many feminists who still fight for ...
Gender has been broadly used within the humanities and social sciences as both a means to categories dissimilarities, and as a logical concept to give details differences. In both the humanities and social sciences. Disability studies has appeared partly as a result of challenges to give details gendered experience of disability and partly as a challenge to contemporary feminist theory on gender which fails to take description of disability. Disabled people have frequently been standing for as without gender, as asexual creatures, as freaks of nature, hideous, the ‘Other’ to the social norm. In this way it may be taking for granted that for disabled people gender has little bearing. However, the image of disability may be make physically powerful by gender - for women a sense of intensified passivity and helplessness, for men a dishonesties masculinity make by put into effected dependence. Moreover these images have real consequences in terms of
‘Women and men are different. Equal treatment of men and women does not result in equal outcomes.’ (Corsten Report, 16: 2007) According to Covington and Bloom (2003) numerous feminist writers have demonstrated and documented the patriarchal nature of our society and the variety of ways in which the patriarchal values serve masculine needs. ‘Despite claims to the contrary, masculinist epistemologies are built upon values that promote masculine needs and desires, making all others invisible’ (Kaschak, 11: 1992).
From this view, social equality means that likes should be treated alike and differences should be treated differently. It is this underlying assumption that gives rise to the “pregnancy” exception. According to Catherine MacKinnon’s difference approach, the present standard is that “similarly situated” people should be treated the same, but, where there is a biological difference—like the ability to become pregnant”—there is no similar situation and, therefore, no necessity for similar treatment. This approach denies the reality that sex-based biological differences are related to gender. Catherine MacKinnon also describes her “inequality approach” which concerns gender discrimination as a systematic construct that defines women as inferior to men and that “cumulatively disadvantages women for their differences from men, as well as ignores their
Through investigations of writers as diverse as Silvia Federici, and Angela Davis, Maria Mies, and Sharon Hays, Judith Butler, and Steven Gregory we have come to understand that confronting the categorization of gender differences is a complex and nuanced project. Whether one is an ontologist, exploring the metaphysical nature of gender differences (that may or may not lead down the road of essentialism) or a phenomenologist exploring how exactly it is that one “does” gender—to the extent that there even exists a concept called gender—one must employ a varied and multipartite approach. Writers such as Federici, Mies, and Davis sketched out a framework of the history of gender roles for us. From what Federici calls a time of primitive consumption through feudalism, to the time of slavery and rapid industrialization and, indeed, through our current technological revolution, we have seen the basic gender differences between the sexes evolve over time. To be sure, our notions of what is expected from both women and men have changed since prehistoric times, and they continue to evolve. Sharon Hays in the chapter “Pyramids of Innequality” of her book Flat Broke with Children: Women in the Age of Welfare Reform shows us how, in the United States, poverty and access to the social safety net have been raced and gendered. She provides a springboard for further investigation.
Rampton, M. (2008). The Three Waves of Feminism . Retrieved from The Magazine of Pacific University.
By using theories of popular ideology as base material, the same errors committed by early generations of male scholars will be repeated. This is a critical barrier to defining gender inequality. Perhaps the fact that gender inequality, like other forms of inequality, creates two competing sets of myths has been continuously overlooked. One myth that shows men’s advantage, the other one that reflects women’s. Making opposite claims about what is considered true or just, and yet share some particular
... history, it is proven that gender changes along with social, political, and cultural change. Despite all, many women continue to face other kinds of discrimination. Women continue to experience sexism, the idea of traditional gender roles. Women are still thought to be more involved in taking care of their children and the household. Women often face unconscious stereotypes in the workplace as well. In some cases, women have a less change of obtaining better, and higher paying jobs. Women often don’t get promoted to higher positions in office, despite their qualifications and experiences. Female candidates running for public office experience forms of sexism as well. The variations and adaptions of society are evidence that reinforce the idea that gender is formed under social construction rather than the essence from biology alone.
Arianna Stassinopoulos wrote in the 1973 book The Female Woman: "It would be futile to attempt to fit women into a masculine pattern of attitudes, skills and abilities and disastrous to force them to suppress their specifically female characteristics and abilities by keeping up the pretense that there are no differences between the sexes" (Microsoft Bookshelf). In her statement we see a cultural feminist response to the dominant liberal feminism of the 1970s.
Women have been treated unequally since the beginning of time. Just recently have things began to change for the better for women and the future of our society. The increase in women’s equality rights will take time, but some day women and men will be treated equally. This cannot happen until each of us is able to look at a person and just see another individual, not a male or a female, white or black, rich or poor… a person as just a person.
Society has females and males alike typecasted into roles which have basic characteristics that are the reverse of each other. Although this has begun to change over the past thirty years, typically the man was seen as superior to the female. This superior image is one that today, is slowly on its way to being reduced to one of complete equality between the two genders.
West, Candace, and Sarah Fenstermaker. Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Social Inequality, Power and Resistance. New York; London: Routledge, 2002.
Even though society has distorted the ideals feminism was founded upon, some of the remaining true roots still hold true. While women are gaining equal opportunities in society, they need to not diminish the importance of working together with men to form a functional society. The widespread idea of quotas needs to be analyzed. People should be accepted into college or hired for a job because they are the most qualified, not because of their sex. Society has demented feminism as a harmful dogma because it has been an excuse, almost a cop-out by women who do not want to work for their acceptance. Both men and women need to realize the necessity that exists for each other to make society work.