How Gender Plays a Role in Today’s Society

In today’s blog post, we will be looking at the theory of feminism and how it applies in today’s society. Feminism theory is aim to understand that gender in society has inequality. According to Healey in the Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class textbook, “efforts toward social change and gender equality are often referred to in the modern context as feminism … feminism itself are ideas and movements that have sought gender equality.” (Healey, 2019 pg. 394). In today’s society we still see unequal rights between males and females. Males are still dominating the work force’s leadership position and are still being paid far more than females. Reasoning behind this is because our ancestors have left us this thought hundreds of years ago, that men are naturally better leaders and naturally more intelligent. While women are meant for supporting roles.

Many movements have started with the back thought of feminism, such as the women’s movements which is also known as the stage of waves to fight for equal rights and equal pay. The women’s movements came in series of three waves. The first wave was the beginning of the fight which started in the mid 1800’s. In the website History Fight for the Vote, states that in 1848, a group of abolitionist activists mostly women, but some men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women’s right… that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. With this being said it, took nearly seventy years just to pass the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. The second wave began in the 1960’s when women felt that their only role were to take care of house chores such as cleaning, cooking, and taking care of their kids. Not only did this push women towards another protest but the fact is that they felt as they were just property of men. According to Healey, “the concept of “marital rape” was still an oxymoron- husbands did not need consent from their wives” (Healey, 2019 pg. 405). This clearly showed that men believed women were simply their property. During this wave many women wanted to become independent and get certain jobs where only men were allowed. From 1963-1968 many actions were taken to ensure that women would be able to become economically independent. The third wave was the fight for women of color. Although some believe the first two waves were for every women others believed that women of color did not get a loud enough voice. Many women of color wanted the ability to become stay-at-home mothers to care for their child but were denied due to the Jim Crow Law. In the article “Black Feminism and Third-Wave Women’s Rap: A Content Analysis, 1996-2003”, it states that young black feminism from its white counterpart by highlighting young black feminists’ sense of connection to their foremothers’ struggles and their efforts to redefine black womanhood. Many women of color believed that the first two waves were mainly meant for white women.

As seen in the video, in 2018 males are still being paid more than females within the same sports. The video shows two surfers, a male and female, who both won a surfing tournament, yet the female was paid only four thousand while the male was paid eight thousand. People were outraged because women who put in the same amount of work were getting paid far less than men. Keep in mind that the surf competition was held at the same beach on the same day. More information about the amount of anger people have against this surfing competition can be found at https://nehandaradio.com/2018/06/28/surf-competition-accused-of-sexism-over-prize-money/ . Surf competition accused of ‘sexism’ over prize money- Nehanda Rad… Organizers of the junior surf competition is South Africa have been accused of sexism after discrepancies in the prize money awarded to the male and female winners.

Not only do men get paid more than women, but they also get better positions in their job field. In the past many people believed women were meant for only supporting roles and we still have not been able to get past this statement left behind from our ancestors. In the article “A Study of Current Make Educational Leaders, Their Careers and Next Steps” states that the dominance of a masculine stereotype continues to be associated with educational leadership roles. Not only do cooperate continuously have males as their leader, but also within the education system. Not only in high paying jobs do we see males dominate in leadership but also in sports, such as head coaches. More information about this can be found at https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2018/10/03/study-white-men-still-dominate-leadership-positions-in-fbs/38035399/. USA Today Study: White men still dominate leadership positions in FBS A diversity study finds that white men still “overwhelmingly” fill leadership positions at top-level college sports programs and conferences.

In conclusion we, as a society, need to give more thought at what our ancestors have carved into our minds that males are naturally better suited for leadership positions. Recent studies have found that in many cases females are actually better suit for the job, yet the males are given the position. Once we can see that males and females are equally fitted for the job we can finally be able to say that it’s okay if females want to become firefighters and males to become nurses. Not every job should gender specific. If we can cross this hurdle of gender inequality, we can help children not be afraid to go after their dream jobs.

Reference List

Chard, R. (2013). Pollak Library – Loading Your Proxied Resources. Retrieved 17 April 2020, from https://journals-sagepub-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/doi/full/10.1177/0892020613498522

Chepp, V. (2015). Pollak Library – Loading Your Proxied Resources. Retrieved 17 April 2020, from https://www-tandfonline-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/doi/full/10.1080/03007766.2014.936187

Healey, Joseph F., Andi Stepnick, and Eileen OBrien. 2019. Race, Ethnicity, Gender, & Class:the Sociology of Group Conflict and                                                                Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

(2020). Retrieved 17 April 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage

In today’s blog post, we will be looking at the theory of White Privilege and how it still applies in today’s society. In the article “White privilege in the lives of Muslim converts in Britain” states that White privilege which I define as receiving benefits and advantages, or increased opportunities and decreased restrictions due to being racialize as white in a context where whiteness is considered as superior to non-whiteness (Moosavi, 2014). In today’s society we still see white privilege everywhere, an example would be how a black man would be arrested for possession of marijuana and spend time in jail, while a white man would be slapped on the wrist and be given a warning or ticket. People in our society would call the police on a black man if they look suspicious, yet if a white man does the exact same thing people would ignore it and assume there is nothing going on. One of the reasons behind this is purely discrimination over something so simple as the difference in skin pigment.

As you can see in the video, many people do not notice the amount of racism they have in them. Although people did state that the race of the actors had nothing to do with the way they acted is completely nonsense. People immediately stopped the black actor and called the police on him. While the white actor only had a problem once after an hour or so pretending to steal the bike. If this does not convince you that white privilege is an actual thing, than this case will. Two similar rape cases with one white male accuser and one black male accuser. In a article “Brock Turner Gets Months in Jail- A Black Student Got 5 Years for a Rape He Didn’t Commit” states that in 2015 a 20 year old white male Stanford swimmer was found sexually assaulting an unconscious women behind a frat house which led to him receiving a six month sentence with the possibility of serving three months for good behavior. While a black high school football player who was accused of rape when he was 16 years old received more than five years in prison and another five years on parole for being a sex offender, before his accuser admitted to fabricating the allegations (Noman, 2016). Keep in mind Turner was twenty-two years old while the black male was only sixteen, the black man was trailed as an adult for the same felony crime as Turner. With this being said there was solid proof of the white male raping an unconscious women and was served the least amount of jail time for rape (he only served three months in jail) while the case for the black male had no proof other than the lying “victim” was automatically charged and served five years in prison as a teenager.

Not only do white privilege get off easy with the law, they also get the better end of the stick in workplaces. According to the article, “The historical origins of ethnic (white) privilege in US organizations” states that privileged social position of white workers that evolved over time ensured future generations would inherit a racialized social status in society and in the workplace. In other words, the domination of whites in the upper levels of organizations would come to be viewed as natural (Nkomo, Akram, 2014). Not only do whites have advantages but gender plays a role as well. With this being said people normally see CEO as white males. White males are mainly given leadership position because of the advantage the stereotype in which they are simply better at leading. Whites have been dominating the upper levels of organizations, for instance almost every United States president was a White men (other than President Obama). Every single United States president was all men. According to Healey in the Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class textbook “stereotypical ideas about gender that existed at the time and, which remain to some degree today (e.g., men are “naturally better” leaders or “naturally more intelligent” compared with women) (Healey, 2019 pg. 191).” With this being said we as a society have not yet overcome this statement our ancestors left us hundreds of years ago. Which is the main cause of men dominating the leadership positions while women are seen as supporters for the men. Growing up people would mention that boys are supposed to grow up becoming doctors while girls are supposed to become nurses.

Another example of white privilege is within the healthcare system. According to some research, “Minorities are facing possible ‘double jeopardy’ when it comes to their health: getting both less effective treatment and more treatment that has little value to them. Finds that blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to get so called low-value health care (Mangan, 2017)”. With this being said there have been studies that prove white privilege still exist in the healthcare system. White people have been getting top doctors and top patient care while non-whites have been getting terrible treatments, which is back by many years of research. The researchers also states that non-whites patients who have dementia have been inappropriately receiving feeding tubes, compared to white patients (Mangan, 2017). It is proven that non-white patients have been getting medical treatment that is potentially harmful in many cases and treatment that is unnecessary and economically inefficient. It seems as if doctors are using minorities as “test subjects” to certain sickness before giving whites the treatment.

In conclusion, our society have yet to move forward the discrimination our ancestors have left behind. Everywhere we go there will always be white privilege until we as a society come together and see pass skin pigment.

Reference List

Healey, Joseph F., Andi Stepnick, and Eileen OBrien. 2019. Race, Ethnicity, Gender, & Class:the Sociology of Group Conflict and Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Mangan, D. (2020). Minorities more likely than whites to get ‘low-value’ health care. Retrieved 6 March 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/05/minorities-more-likely-than-whites-to-get-low-value-health-care.html

Moosavi, L. (2014). White privilege in the lives of Muslim converts in Britain. Ethnic And Racial Studies, 38(11), 1918-1933. doi:https://doi-org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1080/01419870.2014.952751

Nkomo, S. M., & Ariss, A. A. (2014). The historical origins of ethnic (white) privilege in US organizations. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 29(4), 389-404. doi:http://dx.doi.org.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/10.1108/JMP-06-2012-0178

Noman, N. (2020). Brock Turner Gets Months in Jail — A Black Student Got 5 Years for a Rape He Didn’t Commit. Retrieved 5 March 2020, from https://www.mic.com/articles/145788/brock-turner-gets-months-in-jail-a-black-student-got-5-years-for-a-rape-he-didn-t-commit

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