Gender Discrimination In The Great Gatsby

America’s Gender Discrimination
Throughout the semester, we have read four books, The Field, I’ the Divine, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Great Gatsby. All of these had something in common, the presence of gender inequality.
Gender inequality is vivid in all of the mentioned books, however, in A Raisin in the Sun, it clearly shows up. The author uses Beneatha as a character who had a dream of becoming a doctor, which was a male dominant profession at that time. She was impeded by her brother, who was against the idea of seeing her straying off the traditional education.
In this paper I will answer the question, Is gender inequality still a problem in today’s modern America? Through my research, I have concluded that gender discrimination is still a

problem in today’s society.
Nowadays, gender inequality is a topic of great importance which is discussed nationwide. American women claim for equality in political, social and economic divisions.
Women always lived in misery due to male dominance. Through their fight and perseverance, they earned many different rights over the years, such as the right to vote. However, there is still a huge difference among men and women, and it is causing an imbalance in our society.
In America, most political offices are held by men. Women hold a few of them, but never the top ones. Indeed, women had never become the head of state.
Women today hold only 18.5 percent of congressional seats, and they comprise 20 percent of the U.S. senators. They hold only 24.2 percent of state legislature seats. Only 10 percent of the governors are women and only 12 percent of the mayors of the hundred largest American cities are women (huffspot.com).
By diminishing women activity in our nation’s politics, we end up losing social and economic improvements. It is proven that women are totally competent, allowing them to take on the pressure and responsibilities of a politic office job. In fact, in America, more women graduate from higher and better ranked institutions than men.
It is fairly well known that women today outnumber men in American colleges. In 2003, there were 1.35 females for every male who graduated from a four-year college and 1.3 females for every male undergraduate. That contrasts with 1960, when there were 1.6 males for every female graduating from a U.S. four-year college and 1.55 males for every female undergraduate (nber.com).
Recent events, such as the primary elections, show how much hate is being subjected towards women that are trying to improve the nation.

A perfect example of this is the candidate for presidency, Donald Trump. He attacked the candidate, Hillary Clinton, by making a false accusation about her.
Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card (Donald Trump).
Due to this kind of hate and persecution towards them, women lose their courage and popularity to be the preference to run and hold political offices.
Additionally, the outstanding difference among male and female chief executive officers (CEOs) managing companies is a big issue.
Just four percent of S&P 500 CEOs are women. Only 19 percent of those companies' board members are women. Yet even among the discouraging stats about the number of women in corporate leadership roles, this one stands out: Exactly one of the 87 new CEOs named to lead the largest public companies in the United States in 2015 was a woman (washingtonpost.com).
The low rate of women managing companies is due to different factors such as sexual harassment, and the excess of personal and social

pressures.
In America, there are fewer female CEOs than there are males due to sexual harassment. Attractive women will always be harassed by men, putting them in awkward situations. Also, unattractive women will be ignored, causing them to lose hope, affecting the company’s environment.
Guys are still checking out the girls in the office. I see their body language noticeably change whenever a pretty female employee enters the room. Words, thoughts and important points are missed because of a new perfume or a low cut blouse. It works the other way too. The less attractive female employees are also frequently ignored…for the opposite reason (forbes.com).
Moreover, men and women share mostly the same problems, however women have more responsibilities to care for, such as kids.
But let’s admit it, when little Johnny gets sick at school who’s the first person that’s usually called? When a child is up at night coughing, which parent is staying up with her? When the plumber has to make an emergency morning visit, who’s generally staying at home to deal with it? It’s usually mom (forbes.com).
Women get paid less than man. No matter what job they get, even if it is the same job as men, they get paid less.
On average, full-time working women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns (whitehouse.gov).
By lowering women’s earnings, it becomes harder for them to take care of their families. As a result, poverty rates increase.
A report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that if women were paid fairly, single women’s income would rise by 13.4 percent, single mothers would earn 17 percent more, and married women’s income would increase by 6 percent. These wage increases would reduce levels of poverty for single mothers by over 50 percent. This would greatly increase the ability of women from all economic backgrounds to provide basic support to their families, including food, education, and child care (americanprogress.org).
It is a fact that students get in lots of debt as they get their degrees. By working hard after they graduate, students make a tremendous effort to pay off everything they have in debt. However, for women its harder because they have more education but receive less income.
According to a CAPAF report, a woman with a bachelor’s degree or higher can lose $713,000 over the span of a 40-year career (americanprogress.org).
Some people argue that gender inequality isn’t an issue anymore because of the variety of rights women have gained over the time. Most people believe that after earning the right to vote, women turned equal to men. However, recent researches show the difference among men and women in society.
The disparity in pay between men and women, indicate that, despite perceptions of progress in recent years, there is still a long way to go in the march toward equality in the workplace (Brooks)
Another opposing argument is that some of the most successful people in America are women, such as Oprah, Beyoncé, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama. This is not true because the majority of women have little opportunity to become successful.
One-in-five women reported they have fewer opportunities for career advancement than men at their current organizations (accountinweb.com).
According to Covert, the more successful women get, the higher is the discrimination.
The higher women rise, the more likely they are to experience discrimination: those at the top are 45 percent more likely to report it than those at the bottom (Covert).
Also, some people say that gender inequality isn’t an issue today because women can get any job they want. This is not true. Most companies choose by hiring men since they are free of responsibilities such as taking care of kids and many others.
As with childcare, women are disproportionately responsible for caring for the elderly, including parents, spouses, and other relatives. Many workers also are responsible for caring for family members with disabilities (kmblegal.com)
Overall, gender inequality is still lucid in our nation. Women are prone to discrimination no matter their jobs, personality, or background. By holding less politic offices, rarely being hired for the top jobs, and having a much lower income, women will always be in disadvantage in comparison to men. People need to come together as a society to understand that, by equally treating men and women, our nation will improve, and become an example for the world.