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Ciara Johnson
Mrs. Davis
Composition II
9 November 2015
Gender Equality

Men, and women should be equal. Women should have just as much right to a job title as
men. Men think women should stay home to take care of the children while they work to provide
for the family. Women could make a difference if enough stood up for equality.
However, if men and women worked together, they could accomplish many things.
Gender equality has always been an issue. Lyndsay Katauskas stated, It really should not be
about either or. Women can have both. The climate in the corporate world is changing, and the
ones that are coming out of victors are the ones who acknowledge the unique gender differences,
embrace the idiosyncrasies, and create harmony in their workforce (Katauskas). Men do not
believe that women should be able to be managers of business. Instead, men think women should
stay home and raise their children, cook, and clean while the husband works at a job. It would be
exhausting to do the same thing every single day when you could be doing more. Women are
worth much more than just being a housewife. Some women work just as hard if not harder than
some men in school, and are still treated as though they would not qualify. Cathy Young stated,
Feminist responses have ranged from bafflement to vitriol or mockery to arguments that these
women dont know what feminism is (Young). Any time women have tried to stand up for
equality they have been downgraded by men. For instance, in an article I read about Emma
Watson trying to stand up for equality, she was manipulated by a man who was threatening to

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expose a few nude photos of her. When that man threatened her with that it only proved how
serious gender inequality truly is, and what some men think of us.
For instance, when I think of gender inequality I think of Hillary Clinton, and Sara Palin.
Almost every day Hillary has to deal with people belittling her because she is trying to become
our first woman president. Sara has a hard time finishing anything she is trying to say because a
lot of people are interrupting her with remarks telling her to iron their shirt. Some people do not
want Hillary to be president because she is a woman. It would be very hard to run for a political
office and be a woman because of all the people trying to tear you down. They think that women
could not handle the stress, and being able to control our emotional hormones. Jane Porter said,
But, awareness is the first step in making a change. Recognizing those patterns, men in
leadership positions can take a more active role in sponsoring women (Porter). Women are
capable of doing almost everything a man can do, if not more.
No doubt, for a very long time there has been a battle between men, and women about
equality. The first womens rights convention was in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. In August
26, 1920 the nineteenth Amendment was signed which granted women the right to vote. They
started out with only 61 votes from women and around 30 votes from men. The number in votes
grew dramatically by the next convention. On June 10, 1963 Congress passed the Equal Pay Act.
Its purpose was to ensure men, and women were being payed equally. The reason I brought these
significant events to light is because on each of these days a difference was made for women. All
it took was for one person to stand up for what they believed in.
However, now days most things on television, and the internet are advertising half naked
pictures of women, or exposing women as nondependent. In most movies, there is usually a
woman falling apart emotionally, and is in need for a man to help her. In reality, some women

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who are left to take care of their children have to work, and be a mom by themselves. Jennifer
Newsom said, The film has an amazing and diverse group of women, ranging from actresses to
politicians to CEOs to directors, women of color, queer women, and activists and media critics.
It does not only stress the campaign for having more womens voices within the mainstream
discourse of America, but for people of color and LBGT groups, noting the different challenges
that each faces and how important it is to have these perspectives (Newsom). Magazines are
pretty much telling other girls what they need to look like. When men are exposed to those
images for a long time he begins to believe that only women that look like that are attractive.
Women should be happy with the body they were given. Instead we are constantly trying to
change our appearance to fit in with society.
Whereas, some jobs that would be difficult for women to be accepted in would be police,
and firefighters. That is mainly known as a mans job because of the risks they go through on a
day to day basis. Firefighters do a lot of heavy lifting. Police sometimes have to be tough, and
throw someone to the ground if necessary. It is harder for women to those things, but if they want
to try then they should be given the chance.
For example, any time women bring up gender equality, men accuse them of only trying
to get out their job as being a mother. That is not the case. Women are smart also. After high
school we are given the option to continue our education or not. William Bielby, and James
Baron said, Whatever it causes, job segregation by sex is the principal source of gender
differences in labor market outcomes, and policies to remedy gender inequality differ in their
assumptions about the extent, sources, and effects of the sexual division of labor (Bielby and
Baron). Most people choose to continue their education even if that means getting a small
degree. It seems like recently in the last couple years more women are trying to get harder

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degrees, and proving that they can do the job. Women deserve to be able to use their brain, and
get a job that requires them to do a lot of thinking. Mary Brinton stated, Rather than telling
women to be more confident and ambitious, I think that it is more important to talk about how
workplaces need to adapt to the whole person, both women and men. This way everyone can
strike a better balance between working and spending time with family, friends, and their
community ("Brinton). I am not saying that women should not stay home to take care of their
kids, but that is why they make maternity leave at jobs. It gives you an opportunity to take care
of your newborn child for a few weeks then return back to work. Because money has become an
issue lately being able to work as much as you can to provide for your family is hard.
Undoubtedly, women are not taken seriously. Some men laugh at the thought of us trying
to maintain a job. Without a degree most women usually work full time in a fast food restaurant,
or waitress somewhere. They are only making minimum wage. If they are waitressing they get
tips and are only paid around two dollars. Men on the other hand usually go work in the oil field
if they do not go to college, and are paid around $70,000 a year. That is a huge difference. I am
not saying that those men do not work hard enough to deserve that money. I understand they
work a lot of overtime, and are sometimes working in terrible weather conditions. It just seems a
lot harder for a woman to bring that kind of money home every year without getting a degree.
Hanna Papanek said, In this paper, I discuss some of the aspects of American Womens
vicarious achievement through their husbands jobs in a special combination of roles which I
call the two-person single career. This combination of formal and informal institutional
demands which is placed on both members of a married couple of whom only the man is
employed by the institution is particularly prevalent in middle-class occupations in the United

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States but is not restricted to them, or indeed to the United States (Papanek). Women should be
given the opportunity to make that kind of money if necessary.
Obviously, it is hard for a woman to feel in control when so many are against her. The
institute for womens policy research made a great point when saying, Women are almost half
of the workforce. They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families. They
receive more college and graduate degrees than men (IWPR). For instance, if a woman were to
become a manager of a business and a time came when she had to make an executive decision,
she would most likely be questioned about decision later on. The womens policy research also
stated, Yet, on average, women continue to earn considerably less than men. In 2014, female
full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21
percent. Women, on average, earn less than men in virtually every single occupation for which
there is sufficient earnings data for both men and women to calculate an earnings ratio (IWPR).
Men have a hard time giving women control. Women are more likely to think things through
before making the decision. A man will most likely just act on how he feels at the moment. Some
men do make great managers. They have had a lot of experience, and are highly qualified at
being managers, but it is time to start letting women take action.
For instance, a Turkish president made a speech about how women are not equal to men.
In his speech mentioned how women are running away from motherhood, and they do not
understand the importance of being a mother. BBC News stated, You cannot put women and
men on an equal footing (News). He seems to think that women need equal respect instead of
equality. He said that women cannot do all the same work that men can do.
Furthermore, some of the women that are against equality are completely for staying
home, and being a mother. Instead of wanting to be equal to men, they want to remain in the

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dark. Mars Venus Coaching talks about how men are the leaders, and women play a different
roll. The different hormone levels are what make men such great leaders. Men handle stress
better than women. Matt Walsh said, We both have inherent worth and dignity, but you might be
better than me in every other measurable way. We are not equal. We are not the same (Walsh).
Matt also stated, Men and women are not equal. They are not the same. Theres really no
avoiding this fact, so Modern Liberators have instead set out to convince everyone that the
inherent differences between men and women are meaningless and entirely superficial (Walsh).
Finally, men, and women should be equal. The ongoing argument about gender equality
will most likely remain for quite some time. Although many have stood for equality, it is going to
take much more than that to convince everyone. Women should have a choice to either be a stay
at home mother, or have a career. It would make such a difference if everyone was for gender
equality. Gender equality is important, and should be taken seriously. Women deserve to have the
same amount of rights as men.

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Works Cited
Brinton, Mary. "Gender Inequality & Women in the Workplace." Harvard Summer
School. 2013. Web. <www.summer.harvard.edu>.
Bielby, William T. and N James Baron. "Men and Women at Work: Sex Segregation
and Statistical Discrimination." Chicago Journals. 759-799. <www.jstor.org>.
IWPR. "Pay Equality and Discrimination." Institute for Women's Policy Research.
<www.iwpr.org>.
Katauskas, Lyndsay. "Men and Women are not equal." Mars Venus Coaching. (2015).
<www.yourtango.com>.
Miss Representation. Dir. Marie Wilson. 2011. <www.missrepresentation.org>.
News, BBC. "Turkey President Erdogan: Women are not equal to men." BBC News.
(2014). <www.bbc.com>.
Papanek, Hanna. "Men, Women, and Work: Reflections on the Two-Person Career."
Chicago Journals. 852-872. <www.jstor.org>.
Porter, Jane. "Yes, Gender Equality is a Men's Issue." Strong Women Lead. (2014).
<www.fastcompany.com>.
Walsh, Matt. "Men & Women Are Not Equal." Absolute Truths. (2013).
<www.themattwalshblog.com>.
Young, Cathy. "Women Against Feminism: Some women want equality without
anger." Boston Globe. (2014). <www.bostonglobe.com>.