Sex Inequality

Shorter 1

Ryan Shorter

Professor Denise Toland

English 101

10 May 2017

Sex Inequality

        For many years humanity has been treating each other differently because of a certain gender or what some people might identify themselves as. We like to think that man should be doing manly things lifting and working, while woman on the other hand should be staying at home watching the kids, cleaning, and cooking. Throughout history we were set to believe these types of things to the point where it is basically a traditional habit. Nowadays gender discrimination can occur everywhere, in a workplace, restaurant, and even one’s home.

        When it comes to discrimination in a workplace, it effects both man and woman. For example, when it comes to a female working in a store, they may ask a customer if they need help with finding something and get declined, but when a male coworker gets ask the same question, if they need help finding something the customer would tell them they do need help. In fact, as stated by Dubbelt et al he explained “men are expected to possess characteristics that represent competence at the work floor, whereas women are expected to possess characteristics that help them care for others” (Dubbelt 7). Due to these persistent stereotypes men have a higher status within society than women. Workplace discrimination mostly effects woman, but that’s does not change the fact that man is not treated unequally also.  For instance, a manager telling a male coworker to lift heavy boxes when he is already busy doing something else and there is a female coworker taking a break. One of the major problem when it comes to discrimination with workplaces is the wages and how woman are affected by it. “There is no propensity in the lack of a minimum wage for companies and industries to offer unvarying minimum wage levels. Women are likely to be positioned in industries where payments are low and may not profit to the same degree from the distributing of payments in industries where these are considerable” (Mihalia 4). The type of treatment women deal with in just for looking for a decent job with fair pay is unacceptable. A work approach or practice that applies to everybody, paying little mind to sex, can be unlawful on the off chance that it negatively affects the work of individuals of a specific sex and is not work related or important to the operation of the business.

        Furthermore, as far as discrimination goes it is everywhere such as in sports, both male and female are affected in the athletic environment. We see in at home when we watch sports on the television, in the sport of tennis we have women wearing skirts while men are wearing shorts. Also in football we have male athletes wearing their usual shoulder pads helmets and pants, while they made a league call lingerie football where women bodies are exposed for the sexual arousal of your and average men and just to get ratings. Having a men’s league and women’s league in basketball because we are perceived to believe that man are stronger then woman and that is why they cannot play the same sport together. “Sports associated with power, aggression, and physical contact are considered masculine, while sports focusing on aesthetics, agility, and beauty are perceived as more feminine” (Samariniotis 5). Even with coaching, why do we not see a female coaching a basketball team of an all-male team? We think it may make the coach uncomfortable because that is exactly we were to believe. We think women would not handle to be put in the same shoes as man. “Women therefore must choose between displaying either feminine or masculine traits, which may create an environment in which acting in one manner may break from traditional gender expectations” (Samarintoris 2). Man and woman must break the barrier to avoid the typical gender stereotyping that we face today.

        In addition, in our health care system inequality is occurring with our nurses, doctors, and surgeons. According to Adrienne Bruce (2015), author of Perceptions of gender-based discrimination during surgical training and practice, he stated “in surgery, compared to other fields of medicine, women receive less personal support and career advancement, as well as markedly lower salaries, despite practice settings, work hours, and years out of training. In fact, the percent of female leaders in academic surgery remains the lowest of all of the academic medicine departments (15). Because of perceived barriers, female resident and physician attrition rates remain significantly higher than male colleagues' rate both in surgery and within other specialties, including internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and anesthesiology” (Bruce 4). These women who are surgeons and also operate on men have the same training hours and preparing to advance in their career yet they are being paid less than man who probably worked less, the percent of female pioneers in scholarly surgery remains the most reduced of the majority of the scholastic prescription offices. Transgender people were or are discriminated against if they want to have a sex change operation done on them. Surgeons might tell themselves how much of and disgrace it is to for men to become a woman or vice versa. Especially if there are religious surgeons who believe it is an abomination to their religion.  As reported by Josh Cornfield, he stated in his text of a “transgendered man sued a Roman Catholic hospital in New Jersey on Thursday after he says it cited religion in refusing to allow his surgeon to perform a hysterectomy procedure he said was medically necessary as part of his gender transition” (Cornfield 1).

        Moreover, as big as our educational system is, male and female students are being discriminated inside it whether it is elementary, middle school, high school, and even college. Teens should not feel the need to drop out of school or a class because they feel that they are being treated differently based on their specific sex. “Gender is among the important factors that explain differences in pupils' achievement in school. Together with other factors, such as social class, ethnicity and migration issues, it influences the performance in different school courses and in the overall accessibility to education. For instance, men who tend to have a lower performance in schools are those especially from socially disadvantaged groups; and the drop-out rate among boys is increasing. One of the reasons for boys' underachievement may be the predominant concept of masculinity related to disengagement in school and enforced by the socio-economic status” (Tomulentiu 7). Men are being discriminated against in schools basically because teachers do not think that they are smarter than females. From personal experience I had a teacher who dislikes male students just because he thinks that they are obnoxious or just don’t ever want to learn compared to girls. There would be a new student coming to my school with a good educational background from his past schools and will still be discriminated against by the teacher just because he is a guy. There is more to it when it comes to gender discrimination in schools, such as transgendered people. Transgendered individuals being discriminated against has gotten worst over time, they cannot do certain things that others who do not identify themselves as a transsexual can. A transgendered man by the name of Seamus Johnston is a transgendered man who has been treated unequally at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. According to Westrick et al (2015) Transgender Students: Are They a Protected Class? He explained “Johnston was informed by the university that he could no longer use the men's locker room, upon which Johnston agreed to use a unisex locker room typically reserved for referees. Soon after, the defendants informed the plaintiff that he would be permitted to use the men's locker room if his student records were changed from female to male, which required the provision of a court order or new birth certificate that reflects the plaintiff's current gender. Johnston began reusing the men's locker rooms regardless, and in October and November of 2011 received two separate citations for disorderly conduct based on his use of the men's locker room. Additionally, the defendants banned Johnston from using the sports center, an athletic building on campus, and required his attendance at a disciplinary hearing” (Westrick et al 4). That man should have the right to use the men’s restroom if he wants to, him or no one should have to receive a violation because they want to feel comfortable using the restroom.