Gender and Inequality, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Urban Sociology

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Gender and Inequality June 20, 2018

Throughout many decades this social problem has plagued, stigmatized and is widespread in American society, gender inequality. It is a problem that has had a negative impact in many of our sub-systems of America, the family and in the workplace. Gender equality does not imply that women and men are the same, but that they have equal value and should be rendered equal treatment. Therefore, since a significant amount of gender inequality occurs in the workplace, especially in the United States, where women continue to make less than men for the same work will cause income disparity, and frequently results in women, especially single mothers attempting to raise their families, and the outcome usually thrusts the single mother into a lower socioeconomic class. This paper will illustrate the effect of gender inequalities, awareness of this issue relating to gender inequalities in the workplace and provide a probable solution that will promote equality in the workplace though education and dialogue.

As a newly formed social advocacy agency, GEN-EQA purpose is to advise and assist employers in promoting and improving gender equality in the workplace. To achieve this purpose, GEN-EQA will provide workshops that identify discriminatory practice in the hiring process based on gender, our goal is to promote equal pay for work of equal or comparable value, and provide open access to all occupations and industries, including leadership roles, regardless of gender. Achieving gender equality is an important factor at GEN-EQA not only because it is fair and the right thing to do but because it is also linked to our country’s overall economic performance.

Gender inequality refers to disparities among individuals based solely on their gender rather than objective differences in skills, abilities, or other characteristics. (Definitions, 2018) Gender inequalities may be noticeable, not receiving the same pay for the same job or indirect, not being given the same exact opportunities for advancement. Gender roles are not given at

Peter Mühlau the author of Gender Inequality and Job Quality in Europe performed a research studied on whether the quality of work and employment differs between men and women and how these gender differences are shaped by how society views 'gender equality.' Mühlau compared the jobs of men and women across a variety of measures of job quality in 26 countries. His key findings were, job quality was gendered related and one of the most common stereotypes was, “women do not need equal pay because they are married.” The husband is often thought of as the breadwinner and the wife’s salary is often seen as simply a supplement to the husband’s salary and is thus justified to be a lower amount. According to a study that studied gender differences in appointment to leadership positions in schools in three diverse educational sectors in Israel, with a multinomial logistic regressions method was performed based on sample size of 10,733 Israeli high school teachers in two Jewish educational sectors and one Arab educational sector. Their main findings indicated that gender had an independent influence various leadership positions in the schools and that gender inequality is context bound and should be analyzed furthered. Other explanations for the gender gap in the promotion to different positions in school was associated with the social and organizational contexts in which gender differences were examined. (Addi- Raccah, 2002) It is generally assumed women in America are better off than women in other countries. In some respects, that is true, but there is still quite a bit of gender inequality in this country. In a previous article printed in The Washington Post, I like how it summarized equal pay for women in the workforce. "The American women is stuck in a proverbial waiting room, but the number on her ticket, the length of her stay, largely depends on where she lives and to who she was born." In other words, the status of women in this country is incredibly complex, and as a

result, there is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution to achieving gender equality. (Smilowitz,

What would constitute true gender integration in the workplace? It would exist if men and women were distributed across jobs equally, if they worked together doing the same jobs, if they were rewarded equally for equivalent work, and if the concerns of women as well as men were incorporated into the workplace. This is an ideal that seems far from our grasp. Why is it so difficult to attain? It was examined that many barriers in the way of attaining genuine integration and, at the same time, charted the progress that has been made toward her goal. (Miller-Loessi, 1992) However, Mintz and Krykowski examined issues explaining changes in ranked authority among men and women inside and across groups of race and culture in two time periods, finding that the processes leading to authority within the workplace operate differently by gender than by race or ethnicity. In utilizing the demand-side factor, the percentage of women in an occupation, assist in explaining how authority differs between men and women in most groups. Supply-side factors, and, in white-black comparisons, occupational location, contribute to differences by race and ethnicity within genders. As we have prospered through time, inequality is gradually less obvious. Many people do not realize that although things are improving with time, inequality is still prominent in our society. The people that are failing to realize that there still is inequality are the privileged ones. They rise well above the poverty line, and usually live relatively economically sound lives. They are the people who are supplied with our society's benefits. On the other hand, the people that are in quest of social change, and constantly bring attention to issues of equal rights and privileges, are often the people that do not have those benefits.

Despite the advances that women have made over the years towards equality with men, the simple fact is that this utopian condition still has not been achieved. Although laws have been enacted to ensure equality in the workplace and the education system continues to attempt to teach everyone that there are no inherent differences between the genders regarding intellectual capacities, most people still view women and men differently and make assumptions about gender roles and abilities based on physiological differences. For this reason, despite their greater numbers, women continue to endure discrimination and gender stratification.

References Addi-Raccah, A., & Ayalon, H. (2002). Gender inequality in leadership positions of teachers. British Journal of Sociology of Education , 23 (2), 157-177. Retrieved from http:// www.jstor.org.hssu.idm.oclc.org/stable/ Definitions.net. (2018, June 9). Retrieved from https://www.definitions.net/ Miller-Loessi, K. (1992). Toward gender integration in the workplace: Issues at multiple levels. Sociological Perspectives , 35 (1), 1-15. doi:10.2307/ Mintz, B., & Krymkowski, D. (2010). The ethnic, race, and gender gaps in the workplace authority: Changes over time in the united states. The Sociological Quarterly , 51 (1), 20-45. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.hssu.idm.oclc.org/stable/ Mühlau, P. (2011). Gender inequality and job quality in europe. Management Revue , 22 (2), 114-131. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.hssu.idm.oclc.org/stable/ Smilowitz, A. (2017, December 6). For u.s. women, inequality takes many forms. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariel-smilowitz/for-us-women-inequality-takes- many-forms_b_7064348.html