Gender equality in workplace not fully achieved
Fortunately, some age-old prejudices have been largely overcome. Engineering, for example, was accepted as a profession exclusively for men.
After years of change and progression, some gender-based prejudices were overcome. Women are welcomed into the engineering field without any objection based on gender roles, and many industries work to diversify occupations dominated by men.
Amanda Vu
However, the battle for gender equality is not over and progress still needs to be made. Greater progress can be made with protests and lobbying.
Laws are enforced in response to protests and lobbying for equal rights. It was persistent protests by crowds of women that resulted in the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, for example.
But justice can only be as far-reaching as a piece of paper can allow. In individual minds, prejudices continue to exist, and they come with consequences.
Prejudices based on gender bring forth favoritism in the workplace. When the term “childcare” is mentioned, people automatically think of a female babysitter — instead of a male caregiver — caring for children the way a mother would her own.
From my own experience working at an assisted living home for the mentally disabled, tasks such as cooking and laundry are often assigned to female workers — regardless of the ratio of male to female workers.
This does not mean men are incapable of cooking delicious meals or too incompetent to operate a laundry machine. Men are expected, due to gender roles, to keep their hands off emasculating chores and focus on physically demanding work to demonstrate their strength. On the other hand, women are expected to keep away from physically demanding work since they are believed to be “fragile.”
Keeping half of the workforce locked into archaic notions of gender. A study published by the National Academy of Sciences showed men are more likely to be hired for a math position than women. Not giving women the opportunity to contribute runs the risk of ignoring some of the great things they can accomplish. The world would have never known the power of radioactivity if not for the hard work by Marie Curie.
The power of women is also underestimated at the ballot box. When it comes to elections, voters tend to cast their ballots in favor of male politicians. In the U.S., only 18.5 percent of the seats in Congress are held by women. While other countries worldwide, such as South Korea and Switzerland, have elected women to the highest political offices. As a result of this and other economic factors, the U.S. ranks 20th out of 142 other countries when it comes to gender equality, according to a 2014 report by the World Economic Forum.
Gender equality should be encouraged and enforced everywhere, including in the workplace. This is not to put male workers out of jobs, but to ensure competition is fair and every person is guaranteed a chance to advance toward success regardless of gender. If a woman wants to make a difference in the world through hard work, she should not be discouraged from following her dream.
Hundreds of years ago, girls stayed home to learn the skills of sewing and cooking, while boys went to school to learn how to read and write. As of 2014, the roles of men and women are converging. Great strides have been made in the area of gender equality, but that does not mean the struggle for true equality is over — especially im the modern workplace.
Amanda Vu can be reached at [email protected]