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Ruben Alcala

Professor Granillo

English 101

29 October 2018

Men Work and Women Work Why Are they Still Unequal

For many years gender equality has always been a hot topic surrounding the American

workplace. It is widely known that in American history there was a significant wage gap between

male and female genders in the workplace, but as centuries past the gender wage gap diminished.

today our Society has never been closer to having an equal gender pay then it ever has been in its

history, but on the other hand there still is a small percentage of difference in pay not because

they are women or men but because of the gender roles that our society gives to both genders.

Altho one may argue that it has more to do the fact that our society stereotypes men and women

in the workplace altogether as different because of the way they think, talk, and act. both

arguments are agreeable in their own way, ultimately it seems more compelling to think that the

difference of inequality between men and women in the workplace has more to do with the

gender roles assigned to them by our society on how to go about living their lives. Gender roles

in society not only affect the way we think but also have a major impact in the workplace of any

job.

Gender roles have to do with the idea that because of your sexuality you are assumed to

fit the characteristics of that sex and must cater to the societal norm of that sex, an example is

like men working physical labor jobs and women work in office or house maintenance jobs. A

reason why gender roles are a factor of why inequality in the workplace exists is that women are

expected to take care of families more than men are because they are women. In this particular
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case one article states, “If women put many more hours into these household activities than men,

this greatly disadvantages women in the workplace. It is unrealistic to expect gender equality if

workplaces demand that women be available all the time” (Harvard). This quote further argues

that Women are more at a disadvantage because of the gender roles and that it should be an

expectation for them to take care of the family but in turn also negatively impacts them in the

workplace. Many people would compare gender roles to stereotyping, but both are unique in

there own way, stereotyping is just a little different depending on how one sees it.

Stereotyping is looked at as an oversimplified image or idea of a person. This relates to

the difference between men and women because often times the stereotypes tend to exaggerate

the differences of both genders. According to this article, it states “stereotypes also work

to keep the sexes apart. In other words, we tend to perceive men and women as much more

different than they actually are” (Elessar) What Elessar is trying to argue is that because of the

stereotypes we think both men and women are different in the way they think act and talk in the

workplace. this is significant because it further divides the argument that there is no equality in

the workplace for both genders. On the other hand what really does make an impact more on the

inequality is gender roles. This has to do with the fact that woman are actually taken out of work

physically and making a difference when looking at statistics. Stereotyping is significantly less

impactful and is less important than gender roles in terms of actually making a change in the way

women and men are treated.

In short, both men and women are still unequal in the workplace and women still have

some type of consequence for there gender roles. there still is a small percentage of difference in

pay not because they are women or men but because of the gender roles that our society gives to

both genders. Altho one may argue that it has more to do the fact that our society stereotypes
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men and women in the workplace altogether as different because of the way they think, talk, and

act. both arguments are agreeable in their own way, ultimately it seems more compelling to think

that the difference of inequality between men and women in the workplace has more to do with

the gender roles assigned to them by our society on how to carry out their duties. The only way

to change will happen is only if we were to teach the new generation of younger adults

importance of gender equality and Implement laws that make it so men to also have an obligation

to help maintain a family.

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Works Cited

“Gender Inequality and Women in the workplace”, Harvard University, May 31 2018,

Elesser, Kim, “Gender Difference at Work, We Are Not That Different”, Taylor Press

Publishing, August 15 2015.