Talk:The Problem That Has No Name (Group 7)

Is there any other examples to show that although gender inequality is slowly improving with women being able to participate more in the workforce, it has not really changed? For example I stated in my excerpt about poor third world countries and how women still lack access to more education and jobs because the culture still preserves the ideology that women should only stay at home and do housework while men work to support the family.

I agree that gender inequality is slowly improving in the workforce; however, I would say that women's mere access to and participation in the workforce does not suffice. We are only taking one first step towards reaching gender equality in the workforce. What gets forgotten and overlooked is the subtle sexism that occurs in the workforce. I can think of some examples where the use of sexual stereotypes still prevails. If you were a woman, this could be said to you..."You're really good at [doing x] for a woman" or "Tim will help you with your boxes" or "can you bake for our staff meeting next week?"

Oftentimes these little subtle actions are displayed beyond all our consciousness. Women just naturally accept it, thank the complimenter, and internalize it. Men just naturally, often never from a malicious place, act on what it is they feel the need to contribute. It is a continuous process, thus making true and full gender equality in the workforce a challenging one to achieve.

This reminds me of Dorothy Smith's discussion on how Sociologists impose, through a privileged and determinate perspective, "sociological versions" on what they are studying. We can take this idea to look at how men create "sociological versions of women" that they impose on the women.

I agree with Barbara that gender inequality is so normalized in society that often times the subtlety of actions feeding into this inequality goes unnoticed and becomes internalized. Sexism in the workforce is extremely common and yet this inequality is brushed off more than it should be. Friedan's description of suburban wives and women in general during the 50s was quite interesting and we can see how society came to be one in which women's femininity was all they were credited for. Women who questioned their lives, asking "is this all?", felt as though they had a problem and that something was wrong with themselves. Although the progression of women today is significant, there still remains the stigma that single women without children must be selfish or unhappy. Women who decide to pursue successful careers in the workforce and those who delay marriage and childbearing are discredited for pushing the boundaries and standing up against what society so heavily imposes upon them.

A lot of men from the rural parts of China still hold this perspective. Although China currently has a rapid economic growth and better quality of public education than before, gender inequality is still an issue that need to be considered. The relations of power and dominance are closely related to the masculinity due to the history of the domination of women in the patriarchal society. Femininity has not been a dominant player in the gender relationship. In most underdeveloped rural areas, women are still often viewed as homemakers and their ideal role is to do all the unpaid work like child care and housework. They obey the orders from their husbands. Their parents constantly perpetuate such view because they believe that it is the normative expectation of women. Men also tend to place themselves vis-a-vis the privileged gender position that the traditional culture places them in. However, the stereotypical gender roles are not common in the urban parts of China, especially in the tier-one cities. The level of education and economic condition might be influential factors for the difference between the rural and urban areas.

I agree that the level of education and economic condition are influential factors for gender inequality. However, the problem of male dominance is so deeply rooted in some people's mind that there is no possible way for them to change. For example, I know some people who would choose to buy their daughters' clothes and make-ups using their family saving's money instead of providing education or professional skills, because they think that the only thing that their daughters need to do to is to live good lives and marry a rich husband. To me, this is so ridiculous, because I was taught that men and women should always be equal. However, what if the inequality is in favour of women because only women can choose to play the role of "housewives" and men cannot.

In our western society, we can all agree that gender inequality is improving, we are having more women participating in the workforce. We see more women attending universities and receiving high degrees and finding professional jobs, so I believe that gender inequality in Canada and the States are improving very good. Although women still go through the wage-gap, gets more part-time jobs, and low paid job, gender inequality is going through changes, we have more men trying to become caregivers and take care of their children while women attend the workforce. So overall, I am optimistic that gender inequality can improve to be better. With this being said, gender inequality in the third world countries are lacking with improvement, there is still big differences between men and women in the workforce, women are still doing the housework and not having professional jobs. Men are still the breadwinners in most countries especially in the Middle East, women are encouraged to stay home and become good mothers and keep the tradition going while men are in the workforce. In poor third world countries, women are not able to attend school because of their culture and their traditional families. Nonetheless, I believe that gender inequality around the world is not improving, but it is slowly improving as more women are attending schools, receiving degrees in universities and participating in the workforce.

I agree with the points you make Ashti. Regarding what you said about men adopting more caregiver roles, a modern day example of this can be found in how Sweden has implemented paternity-leave legislation that requires 60 days out of 480 days of paid parental leave to be taken by the father. This provides men with the ability to stay home with their families without worrying about paying the bills, and allows men and women to share in the responsibilities of child care. I believe it is definitely a step towards gender inequality as it takes away the notion that only women are in charge of caregiving and that men should continue to work during this period instead of staying home to help. It definitely contrasts Friedan's ideas about women staying home, as men are now in a position where they can stay at home as well. Despite this, I believe that there are still existing perceptions of women staying home and not working, both from women and men. I know of women today who aim to be housewives, showing the relevance of Friedan's writings even in today's evolving culture.

To offer an additional perspective of how there is still much room for improvement I would argue that women are still taking on an overwhelming amount in and outside of the household, despite being equally as involved in the workforce as men. Although much of the household labour has been outsourced to housekeepers and eating outside of the home, a lot of the burden of ensuring these errands are completed is placed upon the women and expected to be fulfilled and managed by her. They are taking on roles within all aspects of their lives, with caring for children, husbands and potentially elderly parents, maintaining household cleanliness and chores and attending work in order to provide towards the income. I would argue that although there has been more equality between the genders, women are taking on even more so than they previously did in times when women were expected only to be the homemaker. Therefore this problem with no name seems to only have been furthered within the advancing society.

I agree with Sarah's point that there is still room for improvement because there are still some big disparities between men and women but I think we should also acknowledge all the changes that have happened since the 1950s, Europe comes to mind more than any other continent to me due to the fact that there are more women there actually pursuing professional careers unlike any other continents. Also I think the world really should take a look at the Scandinavian countries where the family tasks are not only very equally shared within a relationship, but the governments are actually advertising and setting measures in vigour (in Sweden, dads have a parental leave of 90 days) so the men are as active and involved in the family as the women are. Now even though changes have been made it is still very obvious that in most part of the world the balance of tasks between men and women is not there yet and thus we have to continue with the changes slowly implemented within the society since the mid 1900s.

An additional example of the continued gender inequality within our society is the different expectations and perception between men and women in politics. Women in politics, no matter their positions, are always seen as a woman first before anything else. No matter how successful a woman is within politics, if they are single/without children/don't fit the image of a "perfect family", they are seen as a failure. Women are always constantly berated with questions and the media focusing on their hair and wardrobe, instead of their policies. We even saw this happen recently during the US election when we compare the differences between how the media and public viewed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton's marital relationships. No one cared that Trump has multiple kids from multiple failed marriages, yet the fact that Clinton stuck with her husband after he cheated was seen as a major flaw. Clinton had to constantly deal with this inequality, whether it was being criticized for how much her haircut supposedly cost or speculations about the statements that her outfits represented. Its save to say that in our current society, even with all the progress we have made, there is no way a women politician could have even remotely had the possibility of having a successful political career if she had the same marital situation as Trump does, let alone be president. This gender inequality within politics is only further proof of the progress we still have to make for a more equal society.

This reminds me of a book that I read not too long ago by Anne-Marie Slaughter. In her book she talks about having to juggle children as well as having a career. She talks about having to give up her government position in Washington in order to take care of her child. She says that people automatically assume that her parenting or her commitment to her work was not up to par because she had to do both. Many women are choosing to step down from positions of power because of family commitments. These same societal pressures that women face in regards to a career and a family, do not apply to men. There is no social expectation that men will have to leave work after awhile for childbearing or just leave work to take care of children. This shows the inequality and struggle that many women still face when trying to have a career as well as a family.

Although gender inequality is improving in the workplace, I think a good example which shows that these improvements still have a long way to go is how top or C-level positions within companies are still generally occupied by more men than women. This observation can be applied to major Hollywood studios as there are only 3 women to ever solo-direct a live-action film with a budget over $100 million. As one of the largest film studios in America, Disney has only ever hired 2 women to direct blockbusters in its history which clearly says something about the systematic discrimination within the film industry. Moreover, it is frequent that inexperienced male directors are hired for major films whereas female directors are perceived to lack the proper capabilities to helm these big projects. The fact that these issues are less discussed in popular discourse illustrates the necessity for a close examination of the degree that gender inequality has been "improving" in the workplace.

I agree that gender inequality has improved but has not completely disappeared yet. There are many examples of this in todays world. Although women are more involved in the workforce they are earning less per every dollar. Women are also not as involved as men are in the STEM fields. Other examples relate to the household; in the household there is still not an equal division of labour and many women are working outside of the home and inside the home. There is still a lot which needs improvement in regards to gender inequality.