Closing the Ambition Gap

Closing the Ambition Gap

I was raised by a single mother and I watched the world view her differently because of her gender. It is no secret that society sees women as lesser than their male counterparts, and they are often feeling stuck in the workplace. Men often intimidate women, which causes women to not succeed in the work force. Women should be confident, courageous, and willing to make big steps. Until society accepts and encourages women as equals, we will be living in what is designed to be a man’s world.

So what exactly is a man’s world? The Huffington Post has an article on just that and it states some interesting facts. Soraya Chemaly from the Huffington Post writes, “Until roughly 2003, all crash test dummies were male forms. Safety standards didn’t actually create safer driving environments for the vast majority of women — it actually put them at greater risk” (Chemaly). Even though studies showed that women were being put at a greater risk, car manufacturers did not feel the need change until 2003. Later in the article it reveals, “heart disease is currently the ‘number one killer’ of women in the United States.”(Chemaly). Even though this is common knowledge in the United States the article continues to say “the newest artificial hearts can save 86% of men, but only 20% of women.”(Chemaly). These facts show that there is a problem if everyday things we use are designed for a male’s safety and health over a female's safety and health, until simple things like that are changed we will live in a world designed for men.

Most modern workplaces are designed for men by men. For women, it can often be a struggle to get their foot in the door and find a career. Women are often judged by performance while men are often judged on potential. This instantly discourages women and can often destroy confidence. Caryl Rivers and Rosalind C. Barnett, of the Chicago Tribune wrote, “Women in high positions in male-dominated fields, such as tech, suffer harsher penalties than men when they slip up” (Rivers and Barnett). I urge everyone to show women the same respect you how a man, no matter what their title is.

Modern society often portrays women taking a secondary position compared to a leadership role. We see this is movies, TV shows, and especially video games. In movies, the only time we see women take a leadership role is when movies are specifically directed towards women. There are too few great examples of women in leadership roles like Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Lawrence. TV Shows are similar to movies in the way that the few shows that have leading women, are directed specifically towards women. The worst out of these examples is video games. Video games often exclude women from the game completely. When there are females in the game, they are often seen as sex symbols or they are viewed as oddities compared to the other characters. We can help this by not letting the media influence the way we see real society, I propose we all step back and realize gender does not determine what we can or cannot do in our lives

Some may say women and men receive equal opportunities and treatment but actions speak louder words. CollegeTimes wrote an article that says, “Women earned less than men in 99% of all occupations.

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