Women's Ideal Role in Society

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.