Are Women Actually Equal To Men?

While sitting in sociology class (I have come to realize that this class makes me think about things more than I ever have before) we were talking about gender roles and socialization in society. Don't worry, you don't have to know anything about socialization to understand what I'm about to rant about. So we were sitting in class talking about gender roles in our society and people were arguing that the roles of men and women have changed so that women were equal with men in our society. I couldn’t help but argue with their views. I promise I’m not saying that women’s roles in society haven’t increased in reputation; there is no doubt in my mind that women have made big advancements in society. My argument is that women are still perceived as inferior to men.

Even from when children are first born, boys and girls are treated differently from one another. Boys are automatically associated with blue and girls are associated with pink. If a couple walks down their street with a boy dressed in pink, I’m sure that people who stop to see the baby will be extremely perplexed and even think of the couple as weird. This is because the couple would be breaking the social norm that blue is for boys and pink is for girls. Even as the kids continue to grow they are treated differently. The games boys and girls play are different. Have you ever heard of a group of boys playing house? Not likely, because girls are supposed to be playing house and other games that focus on group work, nurturing, and communication. Society expects girls to act this way. Boys are supposed to play cops and robbers or superheroes. Games that involve competition and fighting bad guys, games that have a winner and a looser, are reserved for boys.

Besides the fact that boys and girls are raised differently, in adulthood I believe that women are still treated as inferior to men. I think two things that advocate for this view are salaries and jokes. Women get paid less than men do for doing the same work. What sense does that make? If two people do the same thing, it would be logical to assume that they receive the same compensation for their work. But that just isn’t the case. Getting paid less for the same job is just reinforcing the fact that women are inferior to men. Another way women are reminded they are inferior to men is in the popular jokes in our society and culture. People constantly joke about women not being able to drive like men, that women only belong in the kitchen, or women, especially blonde women, are less intelligent than men. It is the consistency and normality of these jokes that is the problem. The fact that people don’t see anything wrong with them proves that our society truly believes women are inferior to men, because if it didn’t the majority of people would take offense to these jokes, even if they were told to men. We have become desensitized to the issue of gender in our society because of the role that these types of jokes play. They enable degrading comments about women to become a normalcy in our society.

Another way to look at the inequality between men and women would be through sports. There’s a reason that women professional sports’ ticket sales are so much lower than male professional sports’ ticket sales. People don’t have an interest in women’s sports, furthermore reinforcing the fact that men are superior to women. The WNBA doesn’t even get all of its games televised. In fact, during the summer, which is the offseason for the NBA and the in-season for the WNBA, the NBA still gets more coverage than the WNBA on ESPN. How is that possible? The NBA doesn’t even have any games going on. Just out of curiosity, I asked 10 people that were passing by me in my dorm if they knew when the WBNA season was in season. 1 out of 10 actually knew. The other responses? A mix of “I have absolutely no idea”, “come on, nobody actually watches that”, and “why are you asking me about a women’s sport”. One of the people I asked actually told me an interesting statistic, I’m not sure if it’s true, but he told me that around 80% of people would rather receive 5 dollars than have their WNBA team win the finals. Now, this could be entirely false, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true.

Are women actually equal to men? I believe that society reinforces everyday that they still have yet to reach this feat. Is their standing in society getting better? Yes it is. But if society’s norms towards women continue the way they are now, it may be some time before women are actually considered fully equal to men.