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Consequences and causes of gender inequality
The impact of gender inequality
The impact of gender inequality
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Since the beginning of time, women have always been seen as things purely for the pleasure and benefit of men. Women have always been objectified. Objectification is seeing and treating a person as if they did not have thoughts and feelings, as if they had the status of an object.{1} Only in recent years have they begun to be seen as individuals of equal intelligence and ability. You may think, ”Women have had equal rights for a while. I do not see how this is a problem.” It may not seem like women were given their rights recently, but in our history, women have been treated objectively for thousands of years, even dating back to biblical times. Still, even when women have the same rights, opportunities, and responsibility as men, women can be found almost everywhere being treated as though they were incompetent and lesser human beings.{4}
Gender roles designate that women are not as able as men are. People who were raised during anytime before about 1980 were probably raised to believe that women were there to do housework and have kids, not to have a job and be successful. Now that the children who were brought up during these times are adults, they are bringing their objectifying views with them. They don’t see a problem with it, as it was so common before the United States and some other countries began to see how women were equal to men. These people will see treating others this way as okay, as it has been accepted for so long and it is what they were taught.
Some men aren’t taught to act this way. Their treatment of women can often times be contributed to their feelings. Attraction and lust are two completely normal feelings for a person to have. When taken too far or too strongly, these feelings can spiral out of control...
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... (January 1, 1981). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. Paper AAI8201394. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8201394 15.)Kalyanaraman, Sriram, PhD, Ichael Redding, and Jason Steele. "SEXUAL SUGGESTIVENESS IN ONLINE ADS: EFFECTS OF OBJECTIFICATION ON OPPOSITE GENDERS." (2000): n. pag. Web. 18 Apr. 2014. .
16.)Utt, Jamie. "Navigating The Difference Between The Appreciation of Beauty and Sexual Objectification." Everyday Feminism 18 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. .
17.)"Pay Equity & Discrimination." — IWPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
18.)"Know Your Rights at Work: Workplace Sexual Harassment." AAUW. American Association of University Women, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Gender roles are how you act, say or do that shows if you 're a man or woman. According to society a man has to be strong, independent, a leader, and so. A woman has to be dependent, know how to cook, and submissive. These stereotypes seem unfair and sexist. A women can be strong, independent, and bring home the money and it wouldn’t make her man she would still be a woman. A man can be shy, have feelings, and insecure and that wouldn’t make him a girl. In the 1920s gender roles had a big impact on everyday life. Men would go out and work whereas the women would stay home and look after the kids, clean the house and cook dinner. As a child they would be taught where their place in society was. It wasn’t until later on that gender roles shifted. In today’s society a woman can go to work and the man can stay home and look after the kids and it is perfectly normal. In fact 20% of women make $5,000 more than their spouse. That shows that women now have more opportunities and that gender roles have evolved. There are still gender roles in some parts of the world. Gender roles won’t vanish completely but they will
As modern society has begun to create complete equality between gender and race, women were still seen as second best, below their fellow man. As women of today, like the females of ancient times, still don’t have as much power as men, they’re blamed for wrong doings and untrustworthy, and their bodies are used as currency by men or are taken advantage off. Hopefully as the future progresses, these issues will be resolved and won’t continue for generations to come.
Many ancient laws and beliefs show that women from all around the world have always been considered inferior to men. However, as time went on, ideas of equality circulated around and women started to demand equality. Many women fought for equality and succeeded in bringing some rights. However, full equality for women has yet to be fulfilled. This issue is important because many women believe that the rights of a person should not be infringed no matter what their gender is, and by not giving them equality, their rights are being limited. During the periods 1840 to 1968, total equality for women did not become a reality due to inadequate political representation, economic discrepancy, and commercial objectification.
Dating back to ancient times, the role of women has never reached true equality with men. We can trace this inequality back to as early as the great Athenian society, where life as we know it today started taking form. On the other side of the inequality, throughout the ancient history of the world, the roles and positions that women have had have improved over time. We can see this tracing time from Athens, to Sparta, the Roman Republic, it's Empire and the rise of Christianity. Although some of theses societies lived parallel in time, each one shows a difference in the way they treat women. Each one did not treat women the same, but the end result compared to the beginning is positive for women.
The TV and Film Industry’s Portrayal of Women has drastically affected many of their lives, much too often women compare themselves to the female images they see on television, film, and advertisings; at both the conscious and subconscious level, these media images of women lower self-esteem and affect behavior at every age and stage of life. We know they are unrealistic, yet they apply so much pressure on women to conform, and influence how we live, love, work and play. This gender role that society has generally considered appropriate for women is wrong. It makes so many of us women want to buy materials we don’t need, with the money we don’t have only to impress people we don’t know. So many teenage girls are unwarily developing eating disorders and dieting without realizing that they don’t need to live up to the ridiculous standards that society has set for us. It’s difficult to be who you want to be without having someone look at you a certain way when it’s all around us, the constant pressure put on us to be like all women on television, commercials, movies and advertisements, these industries’ powerful influence on society has given everyone around us the wrong idea of what “should” and “should not” be. A woman should be able to express herself and feel free to do what she wants with no judgment.
Throughout history and even today women are regarded as inconsequential. They are chattels or servants, a person without rights. In some present instances, women are struggling to show that they do have rights and can make a contribution to society if given the chance.
Writings by Simone de Beauvoir, Karen Horney, and Margaret Mead document that, in the past, women have been oppressed or repressed in many ways. For instance, they were not allowed to vote until 1920. Women could not hold high positions in the workplace, and they were not paid the same amount of money for the same jobs. Women have not been allowed to have any say-so in the financial or political issues of the family and the economy. Women have been treated unfairly partly because they have been raised to believe they were supposed to be the ones to stay at home, do the chores, and take care of the children. It has been traditional since ancient times in most cultures that the man was in charge of a family's household, and it was traditional for the woman to obey the man. Therefore, if a woman was told to clean the house, tend to the children, and have dinner waiting on the table, she was expected to do this with no objections. Today there is less emphasis on the woman to be the sole house worker. She is often working outside the home, and in any case, there is cultural pressure, in the United States at least, for women to object to the traditional role in full and demand a more balanced distribu...
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.
Women, in the past decades, have undergone a revolution. They have earned the right to vote and the right to be a man’s equal under the law. They have confronted the obsolete values of male superiority. They have even manage to destabilize the firm belief that only men could be in power. Despite these accomplishments, women have also made a point that we are not equal, simply, men aren’t superior to any women.
Women are considered the goddesses of the world; but it is also true that they are not treated as it. It is human nature to try and separate and sort ourselves out into groups or is it a human characteristics. Women have been being ill-treated for many years and used just as things to fulfil the wishes of men. Considering women as goddesses is not enough to give them full women empowerment in the world. In previous time in history women held no value compared to men; their only purpose was to stay home, take care of the children and fulfill their husband wishes. In the 19th century women were expected to have certain roles to fit into and create a “normal” society.
Objectification theory has been proposed as a standard for understanding the effects of living in a culture that sexually objectifies women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Objectification occurs when a person’s body is treated like a separate entity and is evaluated on its own merit, without consideration for the rest of the person. When an individual is sexually objectified, they are treated like an object that exists only for the pleasure of others and objectification theory asserts that women are uniquely subject to these types of experiences, especially in Western culture. Self-objectification (SO) leads the individual to create a third person perspective in their minds that they use to compare their physical selves to and in turn causes them to see themselves as an object instead of a whole person. SO also creates a form of self-consciousness, causing a habitual and vigilant self-monitoring of outward appearance.
America has made great advances in women’s rights over the last few decades. Women are prominent in the work place, living independently, and even running for office. However, this has not always been the case, during the course of history, women have been subjected to slavery, denied the right to vote, and have been viewed as property. Throughout all of human history women have been mistreated by men.
According to Oxford Dictionary, gender role is defined as “set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture”. Gender role created an expectation of how each individual should act, talk, dress etc., based on their biological sex. Over many years, the issue of gender equality has tried to be eradicated but till now this issue still exists. Women, specifically are looked down upon in our society, while men are seen more powerful. Some individuals will argue that women are better off taking the traditional role and being inferior towards men. In this society, there are few women who have proven and destroyed views and perception of all females
From the beginning of time, females have played a powerful role in the shaping of this world. They have stood by idly and watched as this country moved on without them, and yet they have demanded equal rights as the nation rolls along. Through the years the common belief has been that women could not perform as well as men in anything, but over the years that belief has been proven wrong time and time again. So as time marches on, women have clawed and fought their way up the ladder to gain much needed equal respect from the opposite sex. However, after many years of pain and suffering, the battle for equal rights has not yet been won. Since women have fought for a long time and proven their importance in society, they deserve the same rights as men.
There was a time in the world when women were without basic rights and required the power to make decisions about their own lifestyle. They weren’t educated to the same standard as men. They weren’t allowed to work, they weren’t even allowed to inherit property. Everything belonged to their husband or family. There were no women in the police force or government and women weren’t even allowed to vote. Men’s power over women often cost their lives , the physical power is obvious. But there is also emotional power. Yet, after many years, women and men are still not equal. Women and girls should be able to lead a free, equal and self-determining life in every corner of the world just like men do so.