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10.10: Gender Inequality

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    5943
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    Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles.[1] Gender systems are often dichotomous and hierarchical; gender binary systems may reflect the inequalities that manifest in numerous dimensions of daily life. Gender inequality stems from distinctions, whether empirically grounded or socially constructed.

    Gender Roles in Parenting and Marriage

    Sigmund Freud suggested that biology determines gender identity through identification with either the mother or father. While some might agree with Freud, others argue that the development of the gendered self is not completely determined by biology, but rather the interactions that one has with the primary caregiver(s).

    According to the non-Freudian view, gender roles develop through internalization and identification during childhood. From birth, parents interact differently with children depending on their sex, and through this interaction parents can instill different values or traits in their children on the basis of what is normative for their sex. This internalization of gender norms can be seen through the example of which types of toys parents typically give to their children (“feminine” toys such as dolls often reinforce interaction, nurturing, and closeness, “masculine” toys such as cars or fake guns often reinforce independence, competitiveness, and aggression).[1] Education also plays an integral role in the creation of gender norms.[32]

    In Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, Meg Meeker emphasizes the importance of opposite-gender parental roles. She claims “fathers, more than anyone else, set the course for a daughter’s life.”[33]

    Gender roles permeate throughout life and help to structure parenting and marriage, especially in relation to work in and outside the home.

    Gender Inequality in Relationships

    Gender equality in relationships has been growing over the years but for the majority of relationships, the power lies with the male.[34] Even now men and women present themselves as divided along gender lines. A study done by Szymanowicz and Furnham, looked at the cultural stereotypes of intelligence in men and women, showing the gender inequality in self-presentation.[35] This study showed that females thought if they revealed their intelligence to a potential partner, then it would diminish their chance with him. Men however would much more readily discuss their own intelligence with a potential partner. Also, women are aware of people’s negative reactions to IQ, so they limit its disclosure to only trusted friends. Females would disclose IQ more often than men with the expectation that a true friend would respond in a positive way. Intelligence continues to be viewed as a more masculine trait, than feminine trait. The article suggested that men might think women with a high IQ would lack traits that were desirable in a mate such as warmth, nurturance, sensitivity, or kindness. Another discovery was that females thought that friends should be told about one’s IQ more so than males. However, males expressed doubts about the test’s reliability and the importance of IQ in real life more so than women. The inequality is highlighted when a couple starts to decide who is in charge of family issues and who is primarily responsible for earning income. For example, in Londa Schiebinger’s book, “Has Feminism Changed Science?”, she claims that “Married men with families on average earn more money, live longer, and progress faster in their careers,” while “for a working woman, a family is a liability, extra baggage threatening to drag down her career.”[36] Furthermore, statistics had shown that “only 17 percent of the women who are full professors of engineering have children, while 82 percent of the men do.”[37]

    Attempts in Equalizing Household Work

    Despite the increase in women in the labor force since the mid-1900s, traditional gender roles are still prevalent in American society. Women may be expected to put their educational and career goals on hold in order to raise children, while their husbands work. However, women who choose to work as well as fulfill a perceived gender role of cleaning the house and taking care of the children. Despite the fact that different households may divide chores more evenly, there is evidence that supports that women have retained the primary caregiver role within familial life despite contributions economically. This evidence suggest that women who work outside the home often put an extra 18 hours a week doing household or childcare related chores as opposed to men who average 12 minutes a day in childcare activities.[38] One study by van Hooff showed that modern couples, do not necessarily purposefully divide things like household chores along gender lines, but instead may rationalize it and make excuses.[34] One excuse used is that women are more competent at household chores and have more motivation to do them. Another is that some say the demands of the males’ jobs is higher.

    Gender Inequalities in Relation to Technology

    One survey showed that men rate their technological skills in activities such as basic computer functions and online participatory communication higher than women. However, it should be noted that this study was a self-reporting study, where men evaluate themselves on their own perceived capabilities. It thus is not data based on actual ability, but merely perceived ability, as participants’ ability was not assessed. Additionally, this study is inevitably subject to the significant bias associated with self-reported data.[39]

    Structural Marginalization

    Gender inequalities often stem from social structures that have institutionalized conceptions of gender differences.

    Marginalization occurs on an individual level when someone feels as if they are on the fringes or margins of their respective society. This is a social process and displays how current policies in place can affect people. For example, media advertisements display young girls with easy bake ovens (promoting being a housewife) as well as with dolls that they can feed and change the diaper of (promoting being a mother).

    Gender Stereotypes

    Cultural stereotypes are engrained in both men and women and these stereotypes are a possible explanation for gender inequality and the resulting gendered wage disparity. Women have traditionally been viewed as being caring and nurturing and are designated to occupations which require such skills. While these skills are culturally valued, they were typically associated with domesticity, so occupations requiring these same skills are not economically valued. Men have traditionally been viewed as the breadwinner or the worker, so jobs held by men have been historically economically valued and occupations predominated by men continue to be economically valued and earn higher wages.[9]

    Biological Fertilization Stereotypes

    Bonnie Spanier coined the term hereditary inequality.[40] Her opinion is that some scientific publications depict human fertilization such that sperms seem to actively compete for the “passive” egg, even though in reality it is complicated (e.g. the egg has specific active membrane proteins that select sperm etc.)

    Sexism and Discrimination

    Gender inequality can further be understood through the mechanisms of sexism. Discrimination takes place in this manner as men and women are subject to prejudicial treatment on the basis of gender alone. Sexism occurs when men and women are framed within two dimensions of social cognition.

    Discrimination also plays out with networking and in preferential treatment within the economic market. Men typically occupy positions of power within the job economy. Due to taste or preference for other men because they share similar characteristics, men in these positions of power are more likely to hire or promote other men, thus discriminating against women.[9]

    Notes and References:
    1. a b c Wood, Julia. Gendered Lives. 6th. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2005.
    2. Maughan R J, Watson J S, Weir J (1983). “Strength and cross-sectional area of human skeletal muscle”. The Journal of Physiology 338 (1): 37–49. PMC: 1197179. PMID 6875963.
    3. Frontera, Hughes, Lutz, Evans (1991). “A cross-sectional study of muscle strength and mass in 45- to 78-yr-old men and women”. J Appl Physiol 71 (2): 644–50. PMID 1938738.
    4. Samaras, Thomas (2007). Human body size and the laws of scaling. New York: Nova Science. pp. 33–61. ISBN 1-60021-408-8. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
    5. “Life expectancy at birth, Country Comparison to the World”.CIA World Factbook. US Central Intelligence Agency. n.d. Retrieved 12 Jan 2011.
    6. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5016a4.htm
    7. a b Burstein, Paul. “Equal Employment Opportunity: Labor Market Discrimination and Public Policy.” Edison, NJ: Aldine Transaction, 1994.
    8. Jacobs, Jerry. Gender Inequality at Work. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1995.
    9. a b c d e Massey, Douglas. “Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System.” NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007.
    10. a b Cotter, David, Joan Hermsen, and Reeve Vanneman. The American People Census 2000: Gender Inequality at Work. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2000.
    11. Hurst, Charles, E. Social Inequality. 6th. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007.
    12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2009. Report 1025, June 2010.
    13. CONSAD research corp. (12 January 2009). “An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women” (PDF). Retrieved 30 October 2015.
    14. Cotter, David, Joan Hermsen, Seth Ovadia and Reeve Vanneman. “Social Forces: The Glass Ceiling Effect.” Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
    15. Sherri Grasmuck and Rosario Espinal. “Market Success or Female Autonomy?” Sage Publications, Inc, 2000.
    16. Women ‘earn less than men across the globe’, Vedior, 4 March 2008
    17. Goldin, Claudia, and Lawrence F. Katz. “On The Pill: Changing the course of women’s education.” The Milken Institute Review, Second Quarter 2001: p3.
    18. Goldin, Claudia and Lawrence F. Katz. “The Power Of The Pill: Contraceptives And Women’s Career And Marriage Decisions,” Journal of Political Economy, 2002, v110 (4,Aug),p731.
    19. [1] Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
    20. Goldin, Claudia (2006). “The Quiet Revolution That Transformed Women’s Employment, Education, And Family”.American Economic Review 96 (2): 13.
    21. Corinne; et al. (2012). “Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students”. PNAS 109: 16474–16479.doi:10.1073/pnas.1211286109. PMID 22988126.
    22. Williams, Wendy; Stephen, Ceci (28 April 2015). “National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track”. PNAS 112 (17): 5360–5365.doi:10.1073/pnas.1418878112. PMC: 4418903.PMID 25870272. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
    23. Hekman, David R.; Aquino, Karl; Owens, Brad P.; Mitchell, Terence R.; Schilpzand, Pauline; Leavitt, Keith. (2009) “An Examination of Whether and How Racial and Gender Biases Influence Customer Satisfaction”. Academy of Management Journal.
    24. Bakalar, Nicholas (2009) “A Customer Bias in Favor of White Men.” New York Times, June 23, 2009.
    25. Vedantam, Shankar (2009) “Caveat for Employers.”Washington Post, June 1, 2009.
    26. Jackson, Derrick (2009) “Subtle, and stubborn, race bias.”Boston Globe, July 6, 2009.
    27. National Public Radio. Lake Effect
    28. Dweck, Carol S. (2009). Prejudice: How It Develops and How It Can Be Undone. Switzerland: Karger. doi:10.1159/000242351
    29. Clark, Kenneth B. and Clark, Mamie P. (1947). “Racial identification and preference among negro children.” In E. L. Hartley (Ed.) Readings in Social Psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
    30. Lo Sasso, Anthony T.; Richards, Michael R.; Chou, Chiu-Fang; Gerber, Susan E. (2011). “The $16,819 Pay Gap For Newly Trained Physicians: The Unexplained Trend Of Men Earning More Than Women”. Health Affairs 30 (2): 193–201.doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0597. Overall, new women physicians earned $151,600 in 1999 versus $173,400 for men—a 12.5 percent salary difference. The gender difference grew to nearly 17 percent in 2008 ($174,000 versus $209,300).
    31. “Yerkes – Yerkes Researchers Find Sex Differences in Monkey Toy Preferences Similar to Humans”. Yerkes.emory.edu. 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2013-05-14.
    32. Vianello, Mino, and Renata Siemienska. Gender Inequality: A Comparative Study of Discrimination and Participation. Newbury Park, California: SAGE Publications Ltd., 1990.
    33. Meeker, Meg (2006). Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know. Ballantine Books. p. 9.ISBN 978-0-345-49939-4.
    34. a b van Hooff, Jenny H. (March 2011). “Rationalising inequality: heterosexual couples’ explanations and justifications for the division of housework along traditionally gendered lines”. Journal of Gender Studies 20 (1): 19–30.doi:10.1080/09589236.2011.542016.
    35. Szymanowicz, Agata; Adrian Furnham (March 2011). “Do intelligent women stay single? Cultural stereotypes concerning the intellectual abilities of men and women”. Journal of Gender Studies 20 (1): 43–54. doi:10.1080/09589236.2011.542019.
    36. Schiebinger, Londa. Has Feminism Changed Science. p. 92.
    37. Schiebinger, Londa. Has Feminism Changed Science. p. 96.
    38. Friedman, Ellen, and Jennifer Marshall. Issues of Gender. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. , 2004.
    39. Eszter Hargittai, What Causes Variation in Contributing to Participatory Web Sites?
    40. Schiebinger, London (2001). Has Feminism Changed Science. United States of America: Harvard University Press.ISBN 0674005449.

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