Gender Inequality

I will be addressing the problem of inequality in the work place.

      More specifically, I will be addressing the problem of gender inequality. Gender inequality is by far the most talked about inequality that continues to exist in the workforce. Though women have made drastic strides in tightening the gender gap in recent years, the inequality faced is still immensely apparent.


      As a women in the work force, I have been directly affected by this inequality. I primarily worked in the restaurant industry and for two of the jobs I worked, women were not allowed to work in the kitchen. In fact, the closest we were able to get to the kitchen was cutting vegetables or packaging the left over food in tupperware. This was also apparent when I worked in the pizza industry and only men were able to deliver pizzas. Those of whom made more money on behalf of tips. Women, on the other hand, were demoted to answering phones and working the cashier. When asking my manager why women couldn't work in the kitchen or as drivers, his answer was "They're men; they can handle it."


      The largest factor the plays a role in this is living in a patriarchal society. A patriarchal society is the rule of the man in society i.e. it pushes the fact that there is something inherently better about men. Although this has clearly been disproven, people have used this in order to act superior to women in the work place with things such as overall treatment and wages. For example, according to the U.S. Central Bureau, women are being paid about 80% of what men are for no reason other than the fact that they are women. (AAUW, 4) This problem, as the Bureau shows, worsens as you add in factors such as race and age. Therefore, if there were two women in direct competition for a job with the same qualifications and one women was white and younger than 45, while the other was Hispanic and over 55, the white women, would almost certain


      I believe the solution starts from childhood. More specifically, from school. Teachers, as well as the texts the students read need to put a bigger emphasis on women succeeding just as much as men in society. Therefore, the message I believe in essential to get across to these students is that women can do whatever men can. As WeForum exclaims, we need to teach women that they can be “future breadwinners”. (Trachsel, 1) Often, in grade schools, the Great Man myth is apparent. Kids are taught most about the great men that have moved history along, rather than any of the women that may have helped. This creates a sense that men are the only ones that can affect history, meanwhile discouraging women.


       The form of this could be many things in school, but I think a good message that could get across to students is in form of Ted Talks. This is due to the fact that TED talks are publicized all over the world, easy to access, as well as usually using a person who has been directly affected by the circumstances. I also chose a TED talk because commonly, and I can speak from experience, these are shown in the classroom. Students preparing for the work life can see this video and go into the working world with knowledge of how they should be treated, and what they can do if treated with any sense of inequality in their work place. The talk will also inform them how to treat others in their work place. i.e. it targets the idea of the youth being the future and how we can make a difference by teaching them differently. In a Forbes article, Dan Schawbel exemplifies why the United States cannot ‘ignore millennials’. He states that “by 2025 (millennials) will become 75 percent of the global workforce.” This being said, teaching millennials to treat all employees equal will directly impact the near future. (Schawbel,1)


      For example, there could be someone to talk about how they were discriminated at their place of work and will thus provide a sense of ethos and provide pathos for the audiences to connect with and emphasize for. This approach would tailor to the youth and thus would make a stand on working on equality in the work place from the ground up. It’s hard to change something that is already in place, but changing people, who have not already been conformed to the inequality that work places commonly face would be beneficial.



I included this picture of what I felt seemed like an accurate representation of how the work place works between men and women. The picture shows the ease men feel while getting to the top of the mountain by taking the escalator, or more accurately, the ease of getting ahead in their careers. The women, on the other hand, are shown going through an excruciating process of hiking up the mountain, in order to get to the same place as men. Therefore, showing how women have to go through many more obstacles in order to obtain the exact same reward as men, who do not have to go through these different obstacles.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think that inequality such as this one that has persisted for such a long time could ever be fully fixed? Why do you think so?




2. Do you think another message could work better to broach the problem in schools?




3. Did you ever feel this sense of the Great Man myth persisting in school? Give an example.

Citations:

AAUW. The Simple Truth (About The Gender Pay Gap). AAUW, 2017.

Schawbel, Dan. "Why You Can't Ignore Millennials." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 04 Sept. 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

Trachsel, Helena. "Six ways to fix gender inequality at work." World Economic Forum. N.p., 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.