Brenda J. Allen's Article On Gender Matters

In the book Difference Matters, Brenda J Allen, begins writing about how gender matters in society. One of the main topics that she talks about is how in today’s society the male gender is the more predominate gender. As the reader, she has brought to mind many new ways to view how males earn more money then females, how we classify jobs as masculine or feminine, and also how society excepts males’ vs females to act and preform in the work force.

Allen starts off writing about how men tend to have a bigger salary then do women. She says that man also tend to hold more authority positions then women do. Women most of the time took jobs the were unpaid positions. Females were expected to be wives and mothers to their children while taking care of the house. While women rarely left the house men were expected to make all the money and be

the “hero” of the house. When women were finally allowed to get jobs, the fields that they got hired into become less valued because women were holding the positions. Allen says that in “the 1970’s women earned 59 percent of what men were paid (pg.48).” Also, “in 1999 women earned 72 cents when men earned a dollar (pg.49).” The amount of money that people made also depended on what race you were. Allen says that “black men earned 74.5 percent of white men’s salaries, and black women earned 95.3 percent of black men’s salaries (pg.49).”
She then goes on to write about how there were studies done showing that “femininity traits include expressive- nurturing behavior such as understanding, compassion, and affection. Masculinity traits encompass instrumental- active attitudes and behavior, including independence, confidence, and assertiveness (pg.45).” Allen says that “men typically are not encouraged to teach elementary school because society feminizes the role of elementary school teachers with substitute mothers (pg.51).” Instead, “men generally dominate in the authority positions in schools (pg.51).”
The last main topic that she touches on is that in todays world people expect man and women to act certain ways in the work force. There are some jobs “that controlling one’s emotions is almost essential (pg.59).” Allen gives examples of this the one is “a flight attendant is required to smile politely even when the passengers are surly, and a bill collector who must be stern and unpleasant even though he or she might feel great pity or sympathy for the debtor (pg.60).” With this being said, “people tend to expect women to be nicer and friendlier and to smile more then men (pg.60).”
While reading Allen’s chapter on gender matters, I caught myself agreeing with her on a lot of the topics.

When it comes to salaries, I don’t think it should matter what race and or gender one is. Employers should set a salary and leave it at that and not change it depending who they hire for the job. If they wanted to give one more money than others, then they should do it by seniority, that way its fair and not undermining females. The other topic that I agreed with her is how society categorizes traits as feminine and masculine. Just because one is nurturing, loving, and kind doesn’t mean that that person is a female or feminine, they very well could be a male. The same can be said for people that are independent, confidant, and assertive, it doesn’t make them male or masculine a female could have those traits. The last topic that I agree with Allen on is how in todays world men and women are said to act certain ways in the work force. I don’t think that it should matter what job one holds he or she should be able to express their emotions the way they feel is right as long as they do it in a respectful

way.