Gender Inequality

Institutionalized sexism may sound like an archaic idea in the contemporary world, though it is hardly a relic of the past. Out of all 535 members of congress in the United States, only 98 are women. According to the Global Gender Gap, Yemen, followed by Chad and Pakistan, has the most sexism towards women than any other country in the world, and Iceland, followed by Norway and Finland, have the least (The Global Gender Gap, 2011).

Gender discrimination amplifies many problems such as wage discrimination and unequal access to social programs. In the United States, it is estimated that women make only 3/4^th of the money a man makes for the same exact work. This means that for every dollar a man makes, his female counterpart will make about $0.75 for doing the same exact work (Forbes, 2013). Furthermore, some people cite the eugenics, or the study a certain “science, “as proof that gender inequality is not such an unfair thing.

The problem with eugenics is that is not credible and offers inept and unsupported ideologies to promote biases and stereotypes. For example, eugenics supports the idea that all women are naturally born weaker than men (which is not true), so they, as a collective whole that comprises a little over 50% of the human species, are unfit for working. According to Pew Research, “75% of women of the ages 18-32 believe that United Sates needs to do more to bring about gender equality in the workplace.”

Gender inequality is certainly not an exclusive problem. For instance, age, racial, and religious discrimination are also still very present in our contemporary societies. But to trivialize the problem of gender inequality, and the impacts it left on millions of men and women in the world would be to deny the history and plight of those who have suffered.

Lindsey S.