Who Runs the World? Girls?

“Who runs the world? Girls!” is the famous song written by Beyoncé but is this statement really true? In our sociology class we talked about gender and how there is so much inequality in today’s society. Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles as well as biologically through chromosomes, brain structure, and hormonal differences. Gender inequality happens in many parts of our lives. Women are treated unequal economically, socially, and politically. According to the Huffington Post in almost every state in the United States, women are more likely than men to have a college degree, yet women also have higher poverty rates and lower earnings than men. Why is this you may ask? Women tend to be in job fields that tend to generally have low wages. But women who do decide to go into the higher paying fields tend to still make less than men. For some odd reason women have the same exact job description as their male counterparts make 77 cents to every dollar than the men.

            Women, well mothers, who actually work for a living have two jobs. The first being their place of employment and the second being the housework. Society has set standards that say women are to cook, clean, and take care of the kids.  This is a disadvantage to women who are trying to have a higher status in the workplace because certain jobs require their employees  be available at any place and anytime, and women cannot dismiss their “duties of motherhood.” This job is supposed to be done by both parents not just the mother. Studies show that there is an increase in the contribution of men to housework and childcare over the years but it still does not even reach what women are contributing. It is not the responsibility of the mother to be the parent but for both parents to play an equal part in their children’s lives.

            Gender inequality is very prominent in the political world. Not once in United States history has there been a female president. It was not too long ago that women got their right to hold multiple positions in the U.S. government. Women currently hold 104 out of 535 seats in the 144^th United Stated Congress. This is only 19.4% compared to the 80.6% held by men. This is very disturbing. It is not saying that women are not wanting or trying hard enough to get into office it is saying that people are not electing them. Some people will only vote for a man even if they see that the female candidate is way more qualified for the position. I am not sure if this is because people want to keep tradition or if it’s that they believe that if women ran the world there would just be a bunch of countries talking about each other behind their backs and not speaking to each other. 

http://www.summer.harvard.edu/blog-news-events/gender-inequality-women-workplace

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariel-smilowitz/for-us-women-inequality-takes-many-forms_b_7064348.html

http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/documents/cong.pdf