Demolition of Gender Inequality – Kristina Mak

In our Sociology class, we’ve discussed the different types of sociological theories. One that I believe ties into my blog topic, gender inequality or inequality alone, is the Social Conflict theory. This was the theory Karl Marx came up with to analyze inequality within society. “Society is made up of subgroups that are in ruthless competition for scarce resources.” (McIntyre, 44) The Social Conflict theory marks society as being unequal and a struggle over resources. In my blog, I will be discussing the inequality between men and women, and the stereotypes of women society lives by.

For many years, there has been a massive equality gap between men and women that are still present in today’s society. At a point in history, women did not have rights; women couldn’t vote, were oppressed by their husbands and society, and stayed home to perform household duties. The main obligations of women in early society included things like cooking, cleaning, and caring for children in the home. Today, women aren’t held to those standards, but the underlying stereotype remains.

The stereotypes women are associated with are quite embarrassing and demeaning. For example, women should be in the kitchen making their husband or boyfriend a “sandwich”, women are “weak”, that women are awful drivers, or maybe even something as silly as women don’t “poop”. In today’s society, different stereotypes have been added to the list.

Another issue with the gender gap  between men and women are that women are expected to act and dress a certain way, whereas men don’t have that responsibility. If women are getting ready for a “girls night out” and choose to show a little skin, have a few drinks, and dance with a guy they think is cute, she would be considered as what society labels as a “whore”. They are expected to stay at home and doing something more appropriate and “lady-like” but are viewed as sex objects to men and society. In the article “A Leg Up For Women? Stereotypes of Female Sexuality in American Culture through an Analysis of Iconic Film Stills of Women’s Legs”, the author discusses how women are portrayed in films. “It is in this famous shot that Benjamin utters the legendary line: “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me. Aren’t you?” (Smith, 2) Women are shown as seductive and tempting.

Women are judged for things men like to do as a weekend routine.

Something society will probably never modify and what humans, especially women, will never understand is the gender pay gap. For as long as women had the right to work paying jobs, their income was always less significant than men. According to the article “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap”, in the year of 2015, researchers show that women are making twenty percent less than what men are making while working full time jobs (Miller, The Simple Truth). Inequality within the workplace is a big concern, mainly if a woman is doing the same job a man is doing and is still making a significant amount less. Referring back to the Social Conflict theory, Marx states that society is unequal. This relates to the gender pay gap because although women can have the same occupation as a man, and maybe even doing a better job at it, she will still be making less because she is a woman.

Gender inequality has haltered the growth of society. They impact the way women think, see, and act. If stereotypes of keeping women as “housewives”, women can’t go out, or shouldn’t be making the same income as men continues, females will subconsciously believe that is normal not to strive for more than what society throws at them. Society will always have unrealistic expectations for women in this modern era and it continuously impacts the growth of women all over the world, which is why we should demolish gender inequality and stereotypes.