Words: 1133
We live in a society today that says we do not discriminate, that we learned from the past and are above that now. It is heavily taught in schools at a young age that discrimination was a thing of the past, that no one will be treated differently because of who they are. Some preach this idea so fiercely, yet there are untold numbers of circumstances in which people of all kinds are set apart and alienated from others, and the people that preach against it refuse to see it even when it is right under their nose.
We are currently living in the delusion that discrimination does not exist, when in fact it happens every day and in many ways. The struggle for gender equality has been around for as long as the separation of genders has. No person wants to be denied any kind of rights or privileges because they are either male or female. Under the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, people of every gender are to be treated under the same conditions, but this is only legally. A woman is able to be the CEO of a company according to the law, yet due to he glass ceiling, only 15 CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies are women.
An instance of the glass ceiling is that a man is 15 percent more likely to be promoted over a woman, even having the exact same qualifications. It’s not that this prejudice is intentional, but by nature, male executives tend to promote their own (Gilgoff 1). Even when women are able to obtain the same employment as men, they are still treated unjustly. In 40 percent of American families with children, women are the primary earners, yet they continue to earn only 77 cents to a man’s dollar. What does this say about our society?
It literally says that we value one person’s work and/or opinion over another, and that is even more erroneous than the delusion that discrimination does not exist. In the work Of Mice and Men, Curley’s wife embodies gender inequality. She is a blatant instance of this for the reason that she is immediately judged as a temptress because of her gender. For example, every time Curlers wife comes around all the men, they begin to taunt and verbally abuse her for no reason. At one point, a man on the ranch accusingly says, m{0U gotta husban’.
You got no call fooln’ around with other guys, causin’ rouble,” when all she was doing was talking to him because she was lonely (Steinbeck 77). The fact that the character was female even deemed her so insignificant that it prevented her from having a real name in the story, when even Whit, a man who appeared once in the book, was given a name. Gender roles have crept into our societal entertainment, as well. Think for a moment about the shows that you have watched lately. How many Of them show the female characters only as peripherals to males, never really shown as individuals, only existing in relation to the male characters?
How often is the female showcased? It might be quite often, but it is usually in a negative light. These shows are incredibly influential in everyday life, so how long before this “harmless entertainment” subtly causes our society to shift opinions and think “maybe gender stereotyping is not that bad”? In 2013, the show Scandal, surrounding around White House politics, had a scene in which a congress woman who was running for President was being interviewed. In this interview, it was stated that the person she was running against had said she lacked the experience to run the country.
She responded with, “It’s not about experience, it’s about gender. He’s saying I don’t have the balls to be president and he means that literally. It’s offensive. It’s offensive to me and to all the women whose votes he’s asking for,” as well as, “You called me a ‘real- life Cinderella story’ because it reminds people that I’m a woman without using the word. For you it’s an angle, get that and I’m sure you think it’s innocuous, but it’s not,” (Noah). How long before even more people speak out against these stereotypes and gender roles against women?
Fortunately, he support for gender equality is fought for by many influential people, such as Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey, David Schwimmer, Annie Lennox, Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Julia Gillard and many others. Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia at the time, made what is widely regarded as The Misogyny Speech in response to the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. She stated, “The Leader of the Opposition says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynists are not appropriate for high office. Well hope the Leader of the Opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing ut his resignation.
Because if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in Australia, he doesn’t need a motion, he needs a mirror,” (Gillard). Our society is full of hypocrites. We say that stereotyping is wrong, but then turn around and do it every day, whether we realize it or not. A Time magazine article from 2014 describes Amy Chua’s beliefs that being Asian makes a person superior when it comes to succeeding in America. This is paired along with the idea that the condescension has settled upon those of Hispanic origin, as well as African-Americans and even whites.
While that latter statement is completely true, it can be taken even further by saying that within all of these races and origins, women are still paid less than their male counterparts across the board (USDL 4). The fight against gender stereotypes is not just for women. Men can be just as oppressed, objectified and treated unequally as women, yet somehow they are often overlooked. While women are told that they should be nurses rather than doctors, and teachers rather than professors, men are told the opposite.
Male nursing is very rare; only eight ercent of licensed nurses are male, and those who chose to pursue it are often ridiculed. Likewise, the phrases “be a man” and “man up” have become an enormous part Of society. This enforces the idea that men must be strong and unemotional to succeed, as well as the idea that women are weak. In the mid20th century during World War II, most prison and death camps were separated by gender. As stated in Night, guards would yell, “Men to the left! Women to the right! ” (Wiesel 83). Perhaps this was to protect the women, but how was this fair to men?