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Sean Lee

Professor Beadle

ENGL 114A

April 1, 2017

Gender Roles Within the World Today

Does it seem unfair that a certain group may be treated less grateful than another group?

Well, the unwanted treatment happens today and can be seen in many different situations.

However, the situation I will be discussing will be gender roles and how society has expectations

for it. Based on research I have done, I believe resolving this unequal treatment by educating

more about gender not having any expectations could stop the inequality. Along with the

research, I was able to find some visual texts that help me prove that gender inequality is present

in the world and needs to come to an end. Gender inequality goes around the world and needs to

more educated about.

The articles stated that gender inequality still occurs in todays society. Society compares

and treats them unequally by stating that one gender is considered more exceptional than the

other. One difference that the book, Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader by Rachael

Groner and John OHara, mentioned was the difference in pay the genders where one receives

more than the other. It is still surprising that to this day there are differences in pay even though

the works may be working the same position. Another difference the book talks about was

society assuming one gender is capable of a task while the other is not capable. It was

specifically mentioned that genders are judged for inadequate performance, or pressured to

something in order to satisfy an exception. (pg. 4) Gender inequality should not exist to this

day, based on what the authors have written.

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Another main point the authors were making is trying to educate the readers more about

gender. It is important to educate readers, because gender is all around us in our daily lives such

as work environments. People of all genders will be in same working areas so it should be

familiarized that the conditions are comforting. Like explained before, genders should not

assume what they can or cannot do. For example, people should not judge one persons working

ability based on their gender. There should be no comparison of what may seem one gender

capable of performing a task better than the other. The author is stating that everyone should be

treated the same because people all live in the same world and each their own specialty.

A source that helps the previous idea, the book, Doing Justice, Doing Gender: Women in

Legal and Criminal Justice Occupations, by Susan Ehrlich Martin and Nancy C. Jurik, helps

support the idea of one genders, females in this sense, working ability in our society. The book

stated that even though most of the work force is a male-dominated area, females have been

doing as well as men, maybe even better. For example, the field that the authors mentioned that

females have been working in is law, policing, and corrections jobs; then stated how they were

doing just as well as their male employees. To show that the females were efficient enough to

work in these environments, the authors mentioned examples of outstanding works, such as a

historic event of women be able to become policewomen. Not only were historic moments

mentioned by the authors, but they also bring up sources like demographics on how women in

these work environments have been beginning to grow. This source is a great one because it

proves that gender does not play a role in the work force. It has examples such as historical

events and has proven statistics between the two genders.

There is a visual text that may be along the same idea of one gender possibly be better

than the other. In a Verizon Wireless commercial, it showed a little girl throughout her life being
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told what not to do. This visual text did not seem to be anything about gender until towards the

end of the video. In the end, there was a scene where the girl was working on a project with a

power tool and it seemed dangerous so her dad told her to give the tool to her brother. It was

only in that part where it showed gender inequality. It is not fair to judge ones performance

based on gender. This visual text helped showed that society judges an ability just based on

gender.

Since gender is a part of society so it is important to be educated about it. Everyone in

society, as myself, all experience the roles of gender no matter which gender one might be. One

experience is genders being expected to act a role when it is not necessary, for example, dressing

to impress the other gender, which many people have through, like myself. Additionally, in the

article, Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber, it seemed that the

social institution organizes society based on gender. In the social institution, all genders are in

the same environment and may end up working for each other. This shows that any gender can

be in a high position and be ahead of everyone. For that, being educated is important because

gender plays a huge role in society.

Another expectation that gender faces actually do not happen to only females. In the

book, Gender, Masculinities and Lifelong Learning edited by Marion Bowl, Robert Tobias,

Jennifer Leahy, Graeme Ferguson and Jeffrey Gage, had stated that men also are expected to live

and act in a way in society. Though their main idea was that some men may go through hardship

during their lifetime. An example of boys going through hardship was exemplified by facts about

them learning to becoming men, or father like figures in the future, or presenting how some boys

can face differences in education. This book was able to show that men can go through problems

just as females.
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Though males may have had gender role issues in society, I feel women go through more

trouble than the men, which is why I emphasize educating people about gender. As mentioned

previously, there will always seem to be an expectation from the genders. In another visual text, I

was able to find an expected role that society has on the gender. In the movie, Cinderella, it was

shown a gender role from Cinderella, herself. It is understandable that because Cinderella was

poor and an orphan, but I do not believe making her cooking and cleaning endlessly for her

family was fair. That seems pretty stereotypical because in society, we assume that females are

expected to take those roles. I believe making her do other chores, such as what is considered a

manly one would have made it not so stereotypical.

Gender has gone through so much in the past and has changed throughout time. In the

past, women almost had no rights. Back then, they were all housewives where they would cook

for their family, take care of the children, and perform house work. It can be proven from these

old historical times that may have influenced to the stereotypes of gender in society today. From

those, the stereotypes of women having to cook, stay home and take care of children, and doing

house chores have gotten into our society and has been difficult to show that it is not that way

today. While on the other end, men have the same, basic role. With this fact, it is proven that the

gender role and expectation is unequal.

Gender inequality has been seen through our society and it is time to be educated about it.

Gender inequality is visible today through jobs, like not having an equal of pay, or being

assumed that a task cannot be performed based on the which gender one may be. Not only was

that an issue, but having expectations based on which gender one is. It seems there was a role

needed to be played when in this society such as dress apparel and task expectations. To follow
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up and resolve the inequality, it is extremely important to be educated about it so there are no

longer problems within the world.

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Work Cited

- Groner, Rachel, and John F. OHara. Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. Print
- Martin, Susan Ehrlich., and Nancy C. Jurik. Doing Justice, Doing Gender. London:
SAGE, 2006. Print.
- VerizonWireless. "Verizon Commercial 2014 | Inspire Her Mind | Verizon
Wireless." YouTube. YouTube, 02 June 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2017.
- Bowl, Marion. Gender, Masculinities and Lifelong Learning. London: Routledge, 2012.
Print.
- Cinderella. Disney, 2012.