Gender Inequality

Gender Inequality.

What is Gender equality.

Feminists have studied unequal gender relations in domestic situations and other “private” spheres of life. Gender inequality as an example is if there are insufficient resources to satisfy everybody, humans then compete to obtain access to the resources. For example, if there are insufficient food or housing for everybody then equality can develop between the people who are more successful and those who are less successful in gaining the resources. In recent years new forms of feminism have emerged which cut across the earlier strands Barker (1997).   

FEMINIST EXPLANATION ON LANGUAGE.

fEMINISTS OVER TIME have carried out research into stereo-types in gender and language, some interactions are pointing out and challenging many malestream assumptions which are taken for granted (favouring men over women). these are built into the structure of how we describe, see and think about the world. we see this in various everyday words such as mankind (to discuss humanity), chairman and man-made.

SOCIALISATION.

There are many feminist views on socialization, all have a different degree of importance to socialization in the development of gender inequalities. The liberal feminists place most stress on socialization, but some writers from other feminist perspectives also highlight the way in which socialization can contribute to the creation of inequalities between men and women. Ann Oakley (1974) argued that there are distinctive gender roles for women and men, these derive from the culture instead of biology. Gender roles are all different from one society to another. They seem to maintain a male dominance and female subservience. These kinds of roles are learnt through socialization in childhood, and shape the behavior of adults. 

FEMINIST EXPLANATION ON BIOLOGY.

DURKHEIM BACK IN 1952 SUGGESTED THAT MEN ARE PRODUCTS OF SOCIETY BUT WOMEN ARE TO A FAR GREATER EXTENT PRODUCTS OF NATURE. THIS MEANING THAT WOMEN AND MEN LEAD TO DIFFERENT BASES OF IDENTITIES, INCLINATIONS, AND TASTES. SOCIOLOGISTS TODAY DO NOT HOWEVER ACCEPT THIS CONCLUSION. BIOLOGY IS THE NATURE ASPECTS OF LIFE AND WOMEN CAN CARRY CHILDREN BUT PREGNANCY…  A COMMON AND NATURAL PHENONMENON, IS TREATED IN SIMILAR WAYS TO AN “ILLNESS” , LADEN WITH RISKS AND DANGERS. FEMINISTS ARGUE THAT WOMEN HAVE LOST CONTROL OVER THE PROCESS AND THAT THEIR OPINIONS AND KNOWLEDGE ARE DEEMED IRRELEVANT BY MALE “EXPERTS” WHO OVERSEE REPRODUCTIVE PROCESSES. (OAKLEY 1984).

Oakley (1974) claims that processes like manipulation of a child’s self-image from parents or the canalization of boys and girls towards different objects and activities do contribute to the reproduction of differences in behavior between the females and males. Sociologists Glenys Lobban (1974) and Lesley Best (1993) claims that “sex role socialization continues in school through the stereotypical portrayal of girls and boys in reading schemes”. Other feminists have blamed the media in perpetuating gender equalities through the “norm” of how men and women should look.  

 REFERENCE PAGE

Barker, R, (1997) Political Ideas in Modern Britain (London and New York: Routledge).

Best, L. (1993) “Dragons, dinner, ladies and ferrets”: Sex roles in children’s books”, Sociology Review, February.

Brewer, R.M. (1993) “Theorizing Race, Class and Gender: The New Scholarship of Black Feminist Intellectuals and Black Women’s Labor’, in S.M. James and A.P.A. Busia (eds), Theorizing Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women (New York: Routledge).

Durkheim, E. (1952[1897]) Suicide: A study in Sociology (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).

Oakley, A. (1974a) Housewife (London: Allen Lane).

Oakley, A. (1984) The Captured Womb: A History of the Medical Care of Pregnant Women (Oxford: Blackwell).

Lobban, G. (1974) “Data report on British reading schemes”, Times Educational Supplement, 1 March.

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