Gender Inequality
The fact that gender can play a role in how things are laid out in your life is something that is frequently thought about. Today, we refer to people who think that a woman’s place is in the kitchen as narrow-minded. Our grandparents grew up in a era where a woman’s place was to care for her husband and home. Men were known as the breadwinners and held a position of power. However, the concept of power is poorly analyzed and understood. In standard introductory sociology textbooks it is often ignored altogether. In analyses of gender inequality, concepts such as "male dominance," "male power," and "patriarchy" are seldom worked through or properly explicated. Even the positions of power in our government have been held by males in the past. Slowly, women are now also filling those positions and roles. A female in the past was expected to take care of the household and look after the children. This is clearly still seen in every day life. Even at an early stage in life girls tend play with dolls -- nursing and looking after them as if they were their children. In schools girls are given extra curricular activities like home-sciences and cheerleading, where they learn about cooking and household activities. And even most household products advertised are geared towards a female audience. Working mothers are faced with many dilemmas. If a mother were to leave the workforce to bear her child and come back after, she faced the risk of falling behind and being deprived of perks such as bonuses and promotions. This makes it hard for a woman to get back up in the job ladder. When returning to work you have to find childcare. Will people now look at this working mother as denying her child the love and care he or she deserves? Society has placed such specific roles for a man and woman that we find ourselves trying to attain an unachievable goal. Men deal with pressure to be the
Gender Inequality Page 3
bread winner and provide completely for a...