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Topic:
The Causes of Gender Disparity and its Prevalence in the Workplace Today
Essay Instructions:
Instructions for Choosing a Topic for your Paper: There are two ways you can approach this assignment. You can start by picking a theory that you find interesting and then finding a real-world example to which it can be applied. Alternatively, you can start by choosing an event or issue that you would like to write about and then finding a theory that is applicable to it. You can choose any current event or issue as long as you can find citable sources that provide information on this event or issue. You will need to find at least three credible sources for information about the real-world topic. If you are having difficulty thinking of a topic, I recommend looking at social media, major newspapers (such as The New York Times or LA Times) and other news sources to find inspiration and information for your paper. 3 topics you can choose to write about 1. Elections (Use Miliband’s article) 2. Government Policies (Use Miliband’s article) 3.Gender Differences and Inequality (Use Lober and Bourdieu’s articles)
Essay Sample Content Preview:
Paradoxes of the Gender and Workplace Inequality
Institution
Date
Introduction
The problem of gender differences and inequalities has been on the forefront of social debates for so long. Currently, gender inequality plays out in corporate structures and workplaces in general. Most women play a subservient role to their men, and the society has been tuned in a way that allows women to be men's subordinate when it comes to major economic activities, childbearing, critical social and political decisions among others. To help understand gender difference better, Lorber has come up with a theory known as paradoxes of the gender. Lorber argues that gender inequality is not an individual issue but rather a phenomenon that is intensely entrenched in the tenets of societies. That gender bias is built on organizations like marriage, families, workplace, political arena and religious organizations and other social institutions and starts right at birth through gender categorization. The current gender inequality debate is at the workplace. Unfair treatment of females regarding pay, promotion, and accommodation during pregnancy. This paper uses Lorber's theory to discuss the causes of gender disparity and its prevalence in the workplace today.
Paradoxes of gender by Judith Lorber
Feminism theory is grounded in the belief that men and women should be treated equally, politically, economically and socially. Lorber a feminist theorist claim that most people talk about gender the same way fish would talk about water. She argues that gender is so entrenched in the societal system that it would be problematic to question its assumptions and presumptions. She claims that gender is a human creation and that it is practiced on a daily basis. That everyday life of people is punctuated by gender acts that are sometimes subtle and not easy to note. That person only becomes comfortable after successfully placing the other in their gender status. Failure to successfully put other people in their rightful gender creates a feeling of social dislocation. Other than men and women, other gender constructs should be given prominences include transvestite, the person who dresses in clothes of the opposite gender, a transsexual, a person whose sex has been changed surgically. To construct their gender accurately, transvestite and transsexual walks, talks and dresses in the manner of the desired gender.
Feminist theorists thus apply their intellectual tools to building knowledge about the oppression of women. They intend to use that knowledge to inform strategies for resisting subordination of women and improving women’s lives. Feminists are mainly concerned with understanding how specific events results from gender oppression, how structures of gender differences subordinate women as women, and how the society can have a clear understanding of oppressive situations. One of the outstanding feminists discussed in this paper is Judith Lorber.
According to Lorber (1994), gender construction starts from sex assignment on what their genitals look like tat the time of birth. That the society determines the child's gender by dressing them either as boys or as girls. Parents mostly do this to avoid the question whether their babies are boys or girls. Lorber claims that the sex categories that children are subjected to through naming, dressing, and use of other gender markers are a society way of gendering the children. As soon as the child's gender is evident, they will be treated as per the particular gender thus creating early room for inequalities that are gender oriented.
As the children grow, their association becomes oriented on their sex categories thus adolescent boys behave differently from their girl's counterparts. Another way in which the society perpetuates gender inequality is through gender as a social institution. Lorber claim that human being uses gender to organize themselves (Lorber, 1994). People assign responsibilities predictably, they depend on the predictable division of labor, designated allocation of scarce resources and universal values and how they are systematically transmitted to new members, assigning roles to children who cannot do much on their own. Such are the society way of manipulating gender and sowing the seeds of gender inequality from an initial stage at birth.
Lorber demystifies the belief that gender and sex are equivalent; she claims that gender is a social construction that does not flow from the genitalia and reproduction organs. Physiological differences like skin color, sex, stage of development and size are crude markers that should not be used to determine ascribed social status. But rather the social status is constructed through emulation, teaching, learning, and enforcement. The contribution of hormones, genes, and biological evolution to social institutions are qualitatively transformed by social practices and should not be used to determine gender (Lorber, 1994). She further argues that social construction forms the building blocks of gender thus cannot be equated to biological and physiological differences. The emergence of transvestite, transsexuals, and other gender constructs means that gender is breachable and should not be tied to the biological substratum. It can be deduced from the odd gender or the third gender that individuals learn to be either men or women. Lorber posits that men who dress like women to perform on stage or for pleasure do so by learning from women magazines on how to achieve femininity convincingly.
Gender Differences and Inequality
Gender differences and variation forms the biggest part of feminism debate in the current century. While the society has long believed that gende...
Institution
Date
Introduction
The problem of gender differences and inequalities has been on the forefront of social debates for so long. Currently, gender inequality plays out in corporate structures and workplaces in general. Most women play a subservient role to their men, and the society has been tuned in a way that allows women to be men's subordinate when it comes to major economic activities, childbearing, critical social and political decisions among others. To help understand gender difference better, Lorber has come up with a theory known as paradoxes of the gender. Lorber argues that gender inequality is not an individual issue but rather a phenomenon that is intensely entrenched in the tenets of societies. That gender bias is built on organizations like marriage, families, workplace, political arena and religious organizations and other social institutions and starts right at birth through gender categorization. The current gender inequality debate is at the workplace. Unfair treatment of females regarding pay, promotion, and accommodation during pregnancy. This paper uses Lorber's theory to discuss the causes of gender disparity and its prevalence in the workplace today.
Paradoxes of gender by Judith Lorber
Feminism theory is grounded in the belief that men and women should be treated equally, politically, economically and socially. Lorber a feminist theorist claim that most people talk about gender the same way fish would talk about water. She argues that gender is so entrenched in the societal system that it would be problematic to question its assumptions and presumptions. She claims that gender is a human creation and that it is practiced on a daily basis. That everyday life of people is punctuated by gender acts that are sometimes subtle and not easy to note. That person only becomes comfortable after successfully placing the other in their gender status. Failure to successfully put other people in their rightful gender creates a feeling of social dislocation. Other than men and women, other gender constructs should be given prominences include transvestite, the person who dresses in clothes of the opposite gender, a transsexual, a person whose sex has been changed surgically. To construct their gender accurately, transvestite and transsexual walks, talks and dresses in the manner of the desired gender.
Feminist theorists thus apply their intellectual tools to building knowledge about the oppression of women. They intend to use that knowledge to inform strategies for resisting subordination of women and improving women’s lives. Feminists are mainly concerned with understanding how specific events results from gender oppression, how structures of gender differences subordinate women as women, and how the society can have a clear understanding of oppressive situations. One of the outstanding feminists discussed in this paper is Judith Lorber.
According to Lorber (1994), gender construction starts from sex assignment on what their genitals look like tat the time of birth. That the society determines the child's gender by dressing them either as boys or as girls. Parents mostly do this to avoid the question whether their babies are boys or girls. Lorber claims that the sex categories that children are subjected to through naming, dressing, and use of other gender markers are a society way of gendering the children. As soon as the child's gender is evident, they will be treated as per the particular gender thus creating early room for inequalities that are gender oriented.
As the children grow, their association becomes oriented on their sex categories thus adolescent boys behave differently from their girl's counterparts. Another way in which the society perpetuates gender inequality is through gender as a social institution. Lorber claim that human being uses gender to organize themselves (Lorber, 1994). People assign responsibilities predictably, they depend on the predictable division of labor, designated allocation of scarce resources and universal values and how they are systematically transmitted to new members, assigning roles to children who cannot do much on their own. Such are the society way of manipulating gender and sowing the seeds of gender inequality from an initial stage at birth.
Lorber demystifies the belief that gender and sex are equivalent; she claims that gender is a social construction that does not flow from the genitalia and reproduction organs. Physiological differences like skin color, sex, stage of development and size are crude markers that should not be used to determine ascribed social status. But rather the social status is constructed through emulation, teaching, learning, and enforcement. The contribution of hormones, genes, and biological evolution to social institutions are qualitatively transformed by social practices and should not be used to determine gender (Lorber, 1994). She further argues that social construction forms the building blocks of gender thus cannot be equated to biological and physiological differences. The emergence of transvestite, transsexuals, and other gender constructs means that gender is breachable and should not be tied to the biological substratum. It can be deduced from the odd gender or the third gender that individuals learn to be either men or women. Lorber posits that men who dress like women to perform on stage or for pleasure do so by learning from women magazines on how to achieve femininity convincingly.
Gender Differences and Inequality
Gender differences and variation forms the biggest part of feminism debate in the current century. While the society has long believed that gende...
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