The Rules of Gender: A Discussion on Women's roles in Modern Society
Women constitute over half of the global population today. Their contributions socially, economically, culturally, and politically are great yet, their efforts have been recognized at a much lower proportion than those of men. Over the past thirty years, the legal status of the woman has undoubtedly improved but effective equality is far from being realty. Woman are still marginalized in political and public positions, paid less for work of equal value, find themselves victims of poverty and unemployment more often then men, and frequently subject to physical and mental abuse. Today a seat at the boardroom table does not guarantee that a woman will earn as much as her male counterpart. At many companies, the biggest paychecks go to men. That is because men hold more than 90 percent of the so-called line position, with direct responsibly for corporate profits. A company may have female vice presidents in charge of the legal department, corporate communications or human resource!s but a men still is more likely to be chief financial officer. In 1998, the San Francisco Chronicle published and article stating; "The nation's highest paid female corporate executives earn 68 cents to every dollar earned by the highest paid men, accordi
Women menstruate, procreate, and lactate. "As noted earlier, sexual roles are passed down from the society to the individual early in an individual development. Would a woman behave in what we identify as in a feminine manner if she was not given the cultural feedback of her society? This can obviously be asked about men also. Is this merely a reflection of the fact that women must use a greater amount of time, which would be used as work time for men, in procreation and child rearing? Granted that amount of time is much less in the present time, it still is an issue, in days of old, the woman was the vessel for the creation of human offspring while man contributed genetic material, offered protection, and provisions. Given that women do not need to dedicate as much of their time to child rearing, one would think she would b!e compensated in a much more equal manner. On a broader level, because socialization in America is not free from sex or race bias, we continue to wrestle with stereotypes about women, including stereotypes about what kind of work is appropriate for women and the importance of their jobs. " This brings us to the age-old dilemma, genetics verses socialization. Women, who comprise half the world's population, do two thirds of the world's work, earn one tenth of the world's income and own one hundredth of the world's property. " These biological functions demand a certain amount of time dedicated to the further of the species. Shade states in his article; "There are certain biological 'givens' that constitute sex differences. " He goes on by saying; " Every society has a sex gender-system, a set of arrangements by which the biological raw material of human sex and procreation is shaped by human, social intervention. ng to the Catalyst, a New York nonprofit that works to advance women in business. This is reminiscent of the chicken and the egg paradox.
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