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Hernandez Melissa
Professor Ditch
English13A
September 23, 2014
Gender Discrimination
Gender discrimination can affect women in many aspects and favors men. In the article,
Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meaning of Gender, Aaron Devor talks about
Learning to be properly gendered members of society only begins with the establishment of
gender identity. (Devor 35) It states as we grow, we develop what our gender is and how
society sees it as. In the second article, Rethinking Womens Biology, Ruth Hubbard talks
about the argument that womens biology is a social construct. A common theme I noticed was
between the two essays was that they both talk about gender discrimination. In Hubbards article,
she provides examples about how women are physically and mentally different than males. My
thoughts to why the author wrote about gender discrimination for their theme was to explain that
society gives males and females a label for how they portray themselves. The reason why theres
discrimination between the two is because of how females are raised, how society sees females
compared to males, and the way we are. Gender discrimination ties into me when I wanted to
join the military.
Gender discrimination is the theme of the two articles, Rethinking Womens Biology
and Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meaning of Gender. In the two articles, they
both elaborate that there is a distinct gender inequality. Hubbards article argues about how
womens biology is a social construct. Hubbard writes an example in her article stating When

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women tried to get access to higher education, scientists initially claimed we could not be
educated because our brains are too small They granted that we could be educated the same as
men but questioned whether we should be, whether it was good for us.(Hubbard 46) Thats an
example of gender inequality because its questioning if females have the potential to be
educated the same as men. Devor writes in his article, Gender roles are result of systematic
power imbalances based on gender discrimination. (Devor 43) Hubbard and Devor wrote about
gender discrimination to inform their audience that people specifically women are put into a
category because their normally compared to men.
Gender discrimination affects women in society. Theres an unfair imbalance between
males and females. Males have much more superiority than females. Males are prone to be
higher than females. Theres an inequality between genders because males have a better
opportunity in workplaces, education, in sports, and in everyday life. It affects society negatively
because it causes an imbalance for females, making them seem like they dont have the ability to
do what men can do. Gender discrimination can also affect a person physically and mentally.
The gender discrimination is aimed more at females because they believe males are more capable
of doing things like playing sport, hard workers, and educated more than females. Many people
fail to notice that they could possibly be doing gender discrimination by the way they speak
about a gender. Gender discrimination towards females can affects society negatively.
Gender discrimination is a stereotype of social roles based on gender. In Hubbards
article she writes, Our concept of ourselves is socially constructed and political because our
societys interpretation of what is and is not normal and natural affects what we do. (Hubbard
47) In her article Hubbard provides an example stating what men do is called work and what
females do is interpreted as the natural manifestation of our biology. This is related to gender

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discrimination because its saying what men do is considered working and what females do isnt.
In Devors article he writes, Persons who perform the activities considered appropriate for
another gender will be expected to perform them poorly: if they succeed adequately, or even
well, at their endeavors, they may be rewarded with ridicule or scorn for blurring the gender
dividing line. (Devor 40) This can be a gender discrimination towards sports because its saying
if males are better at a certain sport females should perform poorly. These two examples from
both articles are examples of gender discrimination.
While reading these two articles about gender discrimination I realized gender
discrimination has played a role in my life when I wanted to join the military. During my senior
year of high school I was interested in joining the Marines. Many people told me I didnt have
the ability to join because I was a petite female. That didnt stop me I went to training twice a
week to get my strength up to go to boot camp. When I first started to realize there was gender
discrimination was when my sergeant started processing the males to go to boot camp before
females. I was with the program for over a year and never got processed to get my shipping date,
when incoming males who were with the program for a matter of months were already waiting to
be shipped out. That was only the beginning of when I started feeling gender discrimination.
At the beginning of my thought of being a Marine I wanted to join active duty which is
full time, as time went by I switched to wanting to be reserved to be able to be a full time student
and still earn the title of being a Marine. My sergeant had told me if I wanted to be reserved I
would have to wait a longer time to leave and my job opportunities would be limited. I thought
that wasnt fair because a male who wants to enter the military as reserved can enter any job they
want and females cant. At that point, I began to feel as if the military favors males over females.
Gender discrimination affected me when I wanted to join the military because males seem to

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have more priority than females. Even though I gave it my all it still wasnt enough. Gender
discrimination can affect anyone like how it affected mine.
Although gender discrimination was a part of my life when I wanted to join the military, I
feel that there should be equality between males and females. Gender discrimination affected my
life negatively because it lowered my hopes on being a Marine to the point where I just gave up
and dedicated my time to only school because it seemed impossible for me. While reading
Hubbards and Devors articles an instant thought I received was why does there need to be
gender discrimination? Why cant it be normal to be able to do the same things and not
discriminate about gender? Gender discrimination will always be negative rather than positive
but it shouldnt stop you from doing what you want.
The common theme of the two articles Rethinking Womens Biology by Ruth Hubbard
and Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meaning of Gender by Aaron Devor is gender
discrimination. In writing about gender discrimination both authors demonstrate that there is an
inequality between genders. Hubbard and Devor writes to inform their audience that gender
discrimination affects a women negatively and favors men. Gender discrimination is aimed more
at females and can affect womens in society. It affects women negatively in the work place,
education, and in sports. Males have much more superiority over females that females work go
unnoticed. Although gender discrimination affected me when I wanted to join the military, I
believe there should be fairness between genders. In conclusion, neither gender should be treated
less because of their sex. Society should allow females to have the same equal opportunities as
males.

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Work Cited:
Devor, Aaron. (1989) Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender.
(pp 35-43)

Hubbard, Ruth. (1990) Rethinking Womens Biology (pp 46-51) by Rutgers University Press.