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Patsy Alcocer

AVID 11/ Period 0

Mrs.Lawler

28 April 2017

The Gender Inequality in the Depths of Societal Norms

This country claims to offer equal rights to every individual, but in some cases its necessary

to stop and question if that really is the case. Equality may seem debatable due to the gender

inequality that has found a way to receive more attention than it has before. Gender inequality

has always been an issue that women have tried to put an end to and they started in 1848 with

the Seneca Falls Convention initiated in New York all the way until present day when there

recently was a womens march in Washington D.C. The Seneca Falls Convention was the very

first convention held to advocate for womens rights. The most important factor is that they go

to petition for their rights through the use of a document. Then, during World War I, the women

realized their value and potential to serve in jobs that were once believed to only suit men.

Then, the 19th amendment declared women the right to vote and it was a step closer in

obtaining rights. This has had an effect even in present day where we still have women, and

men, marching down, protesting, the rights entitled to them. The 2017 Womens March was

done in effort to prove that human rights were womens rights and that they werent giving up

until some changes were made. It is evident that there have been different historical and

important events that have helped shape the lives of women in this world. As a result, gender

inequality is mainly influenced by society in accordance with commercials, factual

demographics, and public articles.

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First of all, there were a variety of commercials that depicted the topic of gender inequality

and some that portrayed what it looked like to have gender inequality in our modern society.

The first commercial was where there were two girls who created a project called Roominate.

Their main motive to create something like this was to influence both, girls and boys, to

purchase the toy and motivate themselves to become engineers in the future. However, there

was some controversy that troubled the public, since they believed that the company and the

producers were being biased towards girls since the packaging was made to mainly satisfy

them. It was covered in bright pink and purple colors and a girl was portrayed on the front

(Roominate). It evident that the process of developing the project was intentionally created to

empower young girls. Many women find it necessary to generate programs, organizations, or

products that could help women become successful because not all women seem to receive the

same kind of opportunities that males do. This forces women to have to take it a step further and

enhance their own objectives into the world today. Additionally, there was another commercial

that was sponsored by the brand Always. In this clip, the many children were asked to imitate

different actions that girls do on a regular basis. For example one of the activities they had them

do was run like a girl (Always). At the beginning the children would run the way society

seems to depict this weak image of girls. In a way, they were all trying to imitate the

stereotypical interpretations that society deems correct for girls. These stereotypes only serve to

create boundaries between the two genders and produce limits to the equality that they truly

deserve. In order to reduce or completely shut down the negative perspective that part of society

has on girls, the newer generations are the ones who must take action because they build the

future. Its unjust to have girls looked down on and seen as incapable individuals who cant
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perform the same actions as any other male could. It is possible that there are women out in the

world that could possibly complete tasks even better than men, but they never seem to get

recognized by the people because its unusual to have a woman be more outgoing than men

because people have always followed the traditional societal norms.

Furthermore, there is a demographic that displays the grand differences between men and

women and how their personal daily lives come to differ. It also displayed the differences

between families with one child with families with two or more children and how that impacts

the gender roles that seem to exist in society. The infographic showed us various factors that

tend to change depending on whether its a male or female that is being talked about. For

example, when work is the component that is in focus, it is clear that at noon, 30% of men are

working (American Time Use Survey) whereas for women its only 23 percent. There is a

higher percentage of men who are working when they are compared to women working during

the same hour. As a result, societal expectations havent changed and are continuing to remain

as the traditional roles that both individuals play in society. It still remains that, there arent as

many women working as there are men because in some locations men continue to be the

breadwinners and follow the typical household roles. Additionally, men and women were

compared once again but under the household activities section during noon time. The

demographic depicted that at noon, 8% of men are doing household activities and at noon,

16% of women are doing household activities (American Time Use Survey). The amount of

women performing household tasks are double the amount of men listed. This comes to show

the traditional values that are still being integrated into families in modern society. It has always

been common to find the woman in the house completing all the chores and cleaning, whereas
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the man has to go out and work all day. Since women have a higher percentage of staying stuck

at home, they cant experience and expand some job opportunities in order to be successful for

themselves in life. This is essential in order for them to not always have to rely on their husband

to maintain them and bring home all the money. Individuals tend to conform to standards

because theyre afraid to feel a sense of disapproval from society. However, this will eventually

all build up and affect the women one way or another.

Ultimately, there are articles that circle around this topic and try to deliberate the idea of

gender inequality and how it seems to affect women in the long run. First, there was an article

by Gene Marks, entitled Why Most Women will Never become CEO, that talked about the

impact that women receive since they are rarely, almost never, positioned to become CEO of a

company. With this article, it helped the audience acknowledge that women are still not justly

treated the way they should be only because they are women, a sex misjudged as inferior to

men. Its incredibly shocking, yet something were used to hearing about, when a woman

declares that she feels uncomfortable at her workplace. This type of commotion is something

that unfortunately exists in a co-ed environment. For instance, its confound that men can make

mistakes like this and get off with a warning. Women are held to a much higher standard

(Marks). Although women might make the same remarks as men, they are still prone to

receiving harsher consequences that could eventually result in being fired. The reason why this

occurs more often than it should is because most of the time the men are praised for such

actions. They are thought of as funny and comedic when they make fun of or imitate a woman

from the office. These types of harassments are some of the reasons why women choose to quit

their jobs and never become stabilized enough in one position to be able to become CEO of the
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company. Moreover, in the opinionated editorial, Culture and Religion Should Not Justify

Gender Inequality, Comfort Mabuza describes the lifestyle that women and men share in

Swaziland, Africa. One of the customs that they hold true and keep in practice is that of a

woman having to ...be in seclusion and mourning for a period of at least two years (Mabuza).

On the other hand, men only have to remain distant from society for a short period of time, most

likely a month. Here, the author makes his claim that injustices are still occurring in some parts

of the world and women are being forced to face cruel effects due to their loss of a husband, and

it wasnt always their fault. Individuals in our society are trying to shed light upon these

governments that are still holding women back from their complete rights of freedom because

its an issue that cant go unexplained. Its crucial to be able to expose these types of situations

in order to have people take a stand, and make their voice heard to make things right.

In essence, gender inequality seems to still be a problem in our world today, where

stereotypes are a common factor that individuals live by and remain true to those expectations

that society deems reasonable. Overall, society still seems to be the leading component of this

gender inequality since there are a multitude of commercials, infographics, and articles that base

themselves on this specific topic. All of the information that is given off by these resources

sheds a light on the role that society plays in this big picture, and how its the leading factor that

must be blamed since not a lot has improved. Its certainly a topic up for debate that can have

the capability of processing pros and cons to discuss. Since, these ideas prove that gender

inequality continues in our lives, it is now up to future generations to try and mend this problem

that has seemed to grab everyones attention and grow a sense of concern.
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Works Cited

AlwaysBrand. "Always #LikeAGirl." YouTube. YouTube, 26 June 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

Carter, Shan, Amanda Cox, Kevin Quealy, and Amy Schoenfeld. How Different Groups Spend

Their Day. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

Mabuza, Comfort. "Culture and Religion Should Not Justify Gender Inequality." Africa News

Service. AllAfrica, 06 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

Marks, Gene. "Why Most Women Will Never Become CEO." Forbes Magazine 31 Oct. 2011:

n. pag. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

Roominate- Shark Tank Update. Perf. Alice Brooks and Bettina Chen. Youtube.com. ABC

Television Network, 17 Oct. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2017.