Gender Roles

How does our history perceive women as of today? Why were women looked down to in the workplace? Our society as of today, has been struggling to handle with difficulties dealing with stereotyping and equal rights to women due to the men wanting controllability over the women.

The majority of impacts that concerns most women are job opportunities for women in the workplace and stereotypical surroundings that come with being a female in the labor force are still evident in the 21st century. Women, who our society perceives as the weaker sex, have been in a struggle to be recognized and accepted and to be given the same rights that have been given to men.

II. History

In History women were given domestic duties such as gathering, raising their children, and taking care of their families. Men were the patriarch of the home and their work is more valued in society. All though the women take on many roles such as the mother, care taker, and cook, the male takes the credit in supporting his family. This gap continued on to the work place and remained there for many decades (cite book). Throughout the 20th century, hiring, promotion, and salaries have been the three main factors that separate the men from the women in the work place . In hiring, the men are more guaranteed a

position then women are, but in the last 10 to 15 years, women have slowly changed to close the gaps. Currently, In the U.S., female workers are still paid only 77¢ for every dollar their male colleagues make . An ordinary 4.2 percent of leading executive officers at Fortune 500 companies are women. This number does not improve today. There are still fewer women in leadership positions although this number does increase a small percentage every year .
Gender inequality in the workplace has effects women in many of different ways in history. Women receive lower pay for the same job with equivalent qualifications, are often passed up for promotion, and/or do not get hired for a position over men. Women are also more exposed to sexual harassment which may make them feel like they need to be tough to assert aptitude, especially in a male- dominated work places. All though instances are still evident in today’s work place, our government has made laws to close the gender gap. Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 specifies that it is illegal for an employer to refuse to employ someone, or to terminate an employee, or to differentiate about wages, because of the individual’s gender . In 1963, the passing of Equal Pay Act essentially prohibits wage discrimination based on gender for employees in the same organization performing the same work under the same conditions. These are a few laws put into place to close the inequality gap .
III. Gender inequality in the Household
Gender roles are learned at a young age.

Girls and boys tend to find themselves fitting into where they should be in their family. In the past women were given domestic work that was done for the well-being in their household. This work was done without pay. Men did more physical work, additional leadership roles, and were paid for this physical labor and women didn’t not get the same benefits. This “status quo” defined women’s “place” for any years. Because women were seen beneath men in their homes, this mind set translated into the work place. Although the exact time and instance that cause gender inequality is uncertain, it is believed that this is where gender inequality truly began

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IV. Stereotypes
Women are confronted with stereotypes on a daily basis. Working women are confronted with stereotypes on hourly basis, Such as name calling in a man’s work position. For example in reference to the Northern Country the women who worked in mining where called names, sexually harassed, mistreated. This is an example of inequality in the work place. Women have often been viewed as incapable of doing work that traditionally has been done by men, such as jobs involving physical labor and managerial skills. Research has shown that people tend to classify jobs as appropriate for either men or women. In one survey, participants were asked to identify the characteristics that identified women . Sixty percent of participants said “sex” and often it was the first thing mentioned. Because of the misconception that women can only do certain types of jobs, women are more likely to be put in jobs that have traditionally been done by women and these jobs tend to be lower paid. Research and experience have shown that women can be penalized in the workplace for appearing insufficiently “feminine” . For example, in one recent study participants rated women wearing makeup as more likeable, competent, and trustworthy than women without makeup . The stereotypes described hinder women’s advancement in the workplace. They have contributed to female being positioned in lower-paid and “traditionally female positions.” Between women and men this immobile salary gap has been a contributing factor.
V. Conclusion
Women are fighting and have become more defensive in gaining equality between genders but the role that is being played by genders are important. Life as we know it has changed drastically and keeps evolving no matter what gender we are. Females have just as many rights as men, but some men in our society don’t believe that females should have equal rights as them.