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It is only recently that sociology has begun to explore the topic of gender. Before this, inequalities within society were based primarily on factors such as social class and status. This paper will discuss gender itself: what makes us who we are and how we are represented. It will also explore discrimination towards women throughout history, focusing mainly on women and the right to vote, inequalities between males and females in the work place and how gender is represented in the media.
The term 'gender' was coined by John Money in 1955: "Gender is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself/herself as having the status of a boy or man, girl or woman, respectively" (Coleman and Money, 1991, 13). In...show more content...
This perhaps explains why so many women changed their name to that of a male to be able to get their work published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For example, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brönte published their work under the names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

Studies have also been carried out into whether or not there are differences between male and female brain size and whether this affects how we relate to each other in terms of gender. Simon Baron–Cohen believes that male brains are wired towards systematic understanding and females are wired towards empathy. In addition he says that this is not necessarily always the case but the majority are wired in this way: "Both sexes have their strengths and weaknesses. Neither sex is superior overall." (Baron–Cohen, S. 2003).
It is also thought that much of the gender inequality in today's society can be put down to social and biological construction of our characteristics. Stereotypically, men are seen as the "strong" gender and women as the "weak". In reality, women fail to make full use of their bodies potential and with a greater awareness of getting hurt, are less likely to take part in a dangerous activity. "Men more often move out toward a ball in flight...women tend to wait for it and then react to its approach" (Young, I. 2010, 207).
Women have always been seen as a lower social class than males and are therefore identified as having limited privileges and rights compared to men.

Gender inequality or gender stratification is the unequal spreading of society's wealth, power, and privilege between females and males. Whenever this issue is approached, evidence is provided that majority of women popularity are taken for granted and frowned upon as if women cannot do what men can do. This is proof that the oppressor vs. the oppressed is present throughout history; even in religious communities, some can date back to God's creation. For example, it is written in the Bible, "To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for you husband, and he will rule over you." (Genesis 3:16).
The search for equality between men and women fuels a...show more content...
Free time for women was not supposed to be spent socializing but doing other things related to the maintenance of the family, from sewing socks to laundry. Largely due to these traditional expectations for women prior to the nineteenth century, very few women had the same opportunities for education as men. Indeed, educating women was often seen as subversive, a possible perversion of the correct social order. Women were also entirely shut out of political activity. Women were not allowed to vote, they were barely considered people at all. (History)
While significant achievements for women's rights have been made, women continue to fight for equality today. Here are six fact facts about gender inequality in the United States: 1. In 2015, women make 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man. (White House)2. For every dollar made by a father with children under the age of 18, mothers earn 74.7 cents. (Department of Labor)3. African–American women earn 64 cents and Latina women earn 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man. (White House) 4. Women currently hold 23 (4.6 percent of) CEO positions at S&P 500 companies. (Catalyst)5. By 2018, there will be 1.4 million open technology jobs in the U.S. and, at the current rate of students graduating with degrees in computer science, only 61 percent of those openings will be filled – and women will fill just 29 percent. (Microsoft Research)6. 26 percent of people employed in

In today's world, when you look around there are so many different types of people. Different races, different backgrounds, and also different stories. We live in a world of a diverse group of people. Some would think living in such a diverse world we would form a common ground and maybe unite together to be "equal" but that is far from true. No I'm not talking about the inequality of people based off of race or background, the grouping of sex is the issue here. From the beginning of time till now, cultural practices have formed these boundaries. There has always been a separation of males and females and the way they are raised and taught even to what occupations they take on. Over time these became a set of gender boundaries. I believe...show more content...
Lorber focuses on the biological differences between male and female. She goes into detail about how women are separated or treated differently from men just because of a biological difference. In comparison, Tannen discusses the behavior and language of males and females in a classroom setting, discussing how males take on different types of questions and public speaking differently than females. She discusses how males and females learn to participate in different ways. Between the two authors, there is one point that serves for the basis of my argument and that would be the inequality that both genders face due to these gender boundaries. For example, in Lorber's essay, she formulates a issues called the Bathroom Problem. This is a perfect example of how society tries to make both sexes equal when in reality, they are not. In this Bathroom Problem, we give both males and females the same amount of bathroom facilities. But as Lorber states on page 732, "[A]lthough an equal number of bathrooms seems fair, equality would mean more women's bathrooms or allowing women to use men's bathrooms for a certain amount of time." (732). If you want both sexes to be equal, then help both sexes out by giving them the supplies or facilities that they need. This point also ties into Tannen's argument about how both male and female students participate

Through the media and the work of researchers, we get to know more and more on the issue of gender inequality in different areas of our society. However, although significant progress has been made during the twentieth century, in an attempt to equalize the rights of women and men, they still do not seem to be met daily. Having a job is considered important for men and women, although the centrality of work is organized completely differently by gender. This form of inequality persists in all areas such as: participation in decision making and the exercise of power, in private and social life, in promotion and in professional careers. My study would be carried on how these disadvantages faced by girls and women are a major source of...show more content...
This is further explained by Nicole Mosconi in her book "Women and Knowledge" the society, the school and the sexual division of knowledge. These elements of analysis of inequalities between girls and boys at school could help understand that, stereotypes are still present in our society which leads to discrimination against women at the professional level.
From the labor market view, Julie Lowell in a document titled "Women face discrimination in the workplace" supports the evidence that despite the greater academic success of girls; they are under–represented by receiving less pay compare to men. And the term "glass ceiling", which appeared in 1986 in the Wall Street Journal, describes this pay discrepancy and the inability of women to achieve full economic and professional equality with men. Glass ceiling refers to the various obstacles faced by women in gaining access to higher positions in the professional hierarchy, it expresses the discriminatory aspect of the employment of women.

Gender inequality remains a serious issue and is entity in every single given society.
Yet, even with a general consensus that women should be on a equal level with men, many countries around the world still see gender inequalities perpetuate in their country. It is seen through households, occupation, products, commercials, etc. Gender inequality is not actually gender differences but the behaviors that arise as a result of the different position men and women employ (Conley 2017). It is us humans who create this inequality it is our responsibility to fix it. By providing a way to solve this problem we can turn to sociology and use tools to provide us some solutions. Without sociological foundations one cannot comprehend the world, like the creation of gender inequalities that we as humans have created through interactions and how it manifest in our country. First and foremost, sociology in simple terms is the systematic study of society through social interactions, culture and institutions. All three of these is what our society is built and established upon. Institutions are establish order comprising rule bound and standard large group divided by rules and norms (Conley 2017; 33). Inside institutions comes culture, is the sum of the social categories and concepts we recognize in addition to our beliefs, behaviors, and practices (Conley 2017; 78). Deep inside a culture there are interactions, a micro–level theory in which shared meanings, orientation, and assumptions

In the 21st century, many people believe that we have overcome the obstacle of gender inequality and evolved into a society of fairness and righteousness. As many know, females can be just as proficient and qualified as males at any task. Though some efforts to off–set this gender imbalance is in place, it is still commonly acknowledged that many careers are stated to be a male job such as lawyers, and female jobs such as secretaries. Gender inequality is a visible fact in our society and in this essay, I hypothesize that gender inequality still exists as a result of factors such as post–secondary education differences of the two genders, role of females in families, female objectification, career choice differences of the two genders, and...show more content...
This negative trend demonstrates that many females have slowly adapted to the stereotypes of the society and accepted their assigned roles in the labour force and in their family unintentionally.
Conventionally, females played a very insignificant role in the paid work force of a society as many times they were expected to be home taking care of their family. Their roles at home can often include grocery shopping, meeting all the needs of her children and husband. As time moved on, our society became more accepted of sharing housework between the couples, but even so, the traditionally more feminine housework such as cooking, caring for sick children, and shopping for the entire family are mostly done by the females of the house. It is argued in a research journal Work and Occupations (Witkowski & Leicht, 1995) that in an average North American family, females take on roughly three–quarters of the housework. Even though we are in a democratic society, parenting roles in the household are assigned based on gender rather than in a democratic fashion (Winslow–Bowe, 2009). Because of the many responsibilities and obligations that are associated with the female gender, their career paths are eventually affected for the worse. According to Statistics Canada (2001), for every dollar a man earns, a single woman earns 93 cents and a married woman earns 69 cents. These statistics

Whoever said men and women are equal must be blind. Women have always taken a back seat to men in American society. This occurrence is not only found in the United States, but in other countries as well. It's safe to say that the Declaration of Independence started it, and it has continued to the present. There is one set of standards that apply to men, and another set of standards that apply to women. This is evident in the home, workplace, and society in general.
The problem of men and women not being equal can be traced back to the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal. There was no mention of women being equal, only men. At the time of the...show more content...
We are indeed raised differently, but does the fact that a boy is given a blue room and a girl is given a pink room mean that a girl is being clichéd or stereotyped? Now that the sexist roles that belittle woman have vanished; the ones that presently exist are the ones that are true. "Males are better in math while females are better in English. Women master language skills better than men, while men are better at organizing objects". Gender roles are present but they are not helpful to either sex. Women are portrayed as physically weaker, and men as the stronger more physically capable. It is not so much an evil conspiracy by "the man" but an observation of an obvious fact.
Traditional gender role outlook has reflected male dominance and viewpoint. For example, like most American boys they are trained to dread doing anything "like a girl." Men were said to grow into the assumption that women were valueless, natural prey. It may be true that women are physically weaker, not because nature intended them to be but because women are discouraged from building muscles resembling a man's figure. "In many cultures women are taught to depend on others, not themselves, for protection from bodily harm. Women are not taught to defend themselves". This trend demonstrates the fear that men have in that a woman is dangerous with too much power.
Traditional gender roles for the