Gender Inequality In The United States

A master status that crosses all aspects of life, every social class, every race and in every society in the world is gender. A pervasive inequality seen across the globe is a disparity in available access to property, power and prestige known as gender stratification. (Henslin, 2014, p. 288) Sex is a biological characteristic that separates gender. Primary and secondary sex characteristics such as genitalia and changes through puberty are determined by sex. Sex differs from gender in that gender roles are typically learned from what society deems as behaviors and roles that are acceptable for each sex.

Gender inequality is found in all societies in history. Each society typically assigns specific tasks or behaviors to each sex, although those assignments are not always the same in every society. This sex typing is not absolute across any society, one society may attribute a specific job as a “male” job, while a different society will attribute that same job as a “female” job. Sex typed work was researched in 324 societies around the world by Anthropologist George Murdock. (Henslin, 2014, p. 297)

Females have always been considered a minority group despite outnumbering males. Gerda Lerner learned in her research that

separations between sexes “always favors men-as-a-group” (Henslin, 2014, p. 294). It was also noted that there has never been a single matriarchal society where women had power over men.
In the Most Industrialized Countries, including the US, the gender gap has been narrowed significantly.

Women have gained more equality. In the United States, laws were passed giving women equal rights as men, such as the right to vote, affirmative action to gain education and employment and anti-discrimination laws making it illegal to discriminate based on gender or sex. Despite much progress that has been made and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 that made it illegal to pay men more than women for the same job performed, there is still a wage gap between women and men, with women only earning 78% of what men earned in 2013. ("Wage Gap," 2015, para. 2) Many people are continuing to fight the gender wage gap and ensure that women are paid

equally.
Unfortunately in other societies, especially in the Least Industrialized Societies, women are still faced with rampant discrimination and poor treatment. There are many factors including religious beliefs, lack of education and long held traditions that are impeding progress for these women. Some severe gender stratification include forced marriages, women not being allowed in public without a male escort and female circumcision. The latter is a horrific act forced on young girls that forever maims them physically and emotionally. As more countries become more industrialized and global stratification opens up the rest of the world to those that have been sheltered from it, hopefully more strides can be taken to bring an end to gender inequality for women worldwide.