Wolsky 1

Nathaniel Wolsky

Ms.Lawler

AVID 11

Period 0

28 April 2017

The Never Ending Fight

Gender inequality has been a major discussion topic throughout the the world.

The start of gender inequality in the American society can be linked back to Abigail

Adams in the 1770s. She reminded her husband John Adams dont forget the ladies

before he left to write the Constitution. Many factors are taken into consideration when

discussing where gender inequality comes from. Some would argue that it is a religious

issue while others say it has to do with the education system. But all the problems in

gender inequality root from today's society.

Nowadays society basically dictates what everyone thinks. They just go along

with what everyone else is thinking and conform. People follow this exact trend when it

comes to gender inequality. In a commercial made by Always they ask a multitude of

people, of all ages and both men and women, to perform certain actions like a girl.

Some of those tasks involved things like throwing,running and fighting. The responses

from each individual only varied between the younger girls and the rest of the test
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subjects. When asked to perform a task like a girl most of the participants did so in a

way that society dubs girly. Societal conformity took over these people and dictated

how they thought. The only participant that performed the tasks differently were young

girls. They went against what society said is the norm and did the tasks how they were

supposed to be done. Not in a feminist way, just how they believed the right way was

(Always). A similar test was conducted on the show Mythbusters. In their experiment

they were trying to prove that there is no such thing as throwing like a girl. They had

both men and women throw a ball at a target and measured the velocity of each throw.

After the first test men had a higher overall velocity compared to women. But the next

test they conducted had a bit of a twist to it, each participant had to use their non-

dominate hand instead. Looking at the results they came to a very interesting

conclusion. Both men and women had a decrease in velocity and accuracy very

drastically (Mythbusters). Doing the experiment with the non dominant throwing arm

proved that it doesnt matter if your are a male or a female, everyone has a difficult

throwing with their off hand. It also proves that throwing like a girl is just something

society has taught to people. Performing this experiment took the societal training out of

the equation which made everyone the same in the aspect in throwing the ball.

Not only is gender inequality a problem with adults but it is being taught to

children too. It is being shown everywhere like toys, TV shows and even colors. Gender

inequality starts right as we are born. Baby girls are wrapped in pink blankets and given

pink hats while boys are wrapped in blue and given blue hats. As for TV and toys they

have a target audience. Certain toys like Barbies, Bratz, and many others are more
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targeted to little girls. The same can be said for boys too, there are things like GI Joe,

Legos, and Nerf are all meant for young boys. That is not to say that if little Johnny

wants to play with his sister's Barbies then he totally can and vis versa. These

companies make their product so that it will appeal to whatever audience they want to

buy their product. They use societies dictations as a mean of income flow. This gender

expectation doesnt end there either, it carries into their adult life and the workplace.

In today's business world most companies have a male CEO. Now that doesnt

mean that women can not become CEO but it is quite a rare occurrence and there are a

few reasons why that happens. One of being that women are just flat out drama. Men

are more laid back and dont have as much drama with each other. This is to show that

women are a bad choice to be CEO because they will just cause too many problems

in the workplace. Women also have to deal with the societal expectations of looking

good everyday.Dont deny it- a females looks are held to a much higher level of

scrutiny than a mans. A guy can pull any one of his two or three suits out of a closet

and throw it on top of the same shirt he wore the previous day (and probably the same

undershirt too). Most women in the workplace spend hours putting themselves

together.(Marks) They are expected to dress to the tee no matter what is going on in

their personal lives. Men are given a pass most of the time if they dont look amazing

but the same can not be said for women in the workplace.

The discussion point of gender inequality has been around since the beginning of

the United States of America. While some will argue that religion and education is to
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blame, the real source of gender inequality is society. It has the power to influence how

anyone thinks and comprehends certain things. So the next time there is a discussion

about gender inequality, dont forget the ladies.

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Works Cited

Marks, Gene. "Why Most Women will never become CEO." 31 Oct. 2011: n. pag. Print

.Dallow , Allice , dir.Mythbusters. Discovery. N.d. Television

Tampax commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs web. 2014.