Discuss the Nature Of, and Explanations For, Gender Inequalities in Society.

Gender inequality discusses how differences between males and females contribute to, or cause, social and cultural differences.

Society has grown to have differences between men and women with greater emphasis of inequality on women.

There is evidence to suggest that women generally tend not to work in skilled jobs in the construction and engineering sectors and few men working in secretarial positions (1996 Labour Force Survey) does this mean that men are more skilled than women. Early research and theorists assumed than inequalities were biologically determined and as a result this natural ability could not be changed. Female employment has tended to increase over the years and they form 44% of all wage earners, (A-level Sociology, 1995). Also, the passing of the legislation act in the 1990s ensured that an improvement, although not equality, in earnings for women. We, now, also tend to see women increasingly holding positions of importance (e.g. a female monarch and a recent female Prime Minister). Despite this women do tend to occupy the less well paid jobs with opportunities of a lesser degree to that of men, which is shown by the fact that few employers have amenities to facilitate female employees with young children.

The department of education released figures showing how women in paid employment had increased from barely 40% in 1971 to well over 55% in 2001.

But why has female employment actually increased? From after the 2nd World War there was high demand for labour to rebuild Britain. Here, women entered factories and tended to remain there. During the 60's birth rates were falling and so women could return to work early. Slowly demand for entertainment and leisure also increased and women took up this opportunity as additional income to satisfy there needs. As a result the number of women entering the labor force increased.

Some of the economic cases are due to increased demand during economic causes and cheap dispensable labor in recession. Social factors discuss how feminism has grown together with attitude of equality.

These in tandem include the effect of higher divorce rates, single-parent families, and better living standards. However, although female workers have increased it hasn't been on terms with equality with men. Examples of this are prejudice, discrimination and criticism which, ultimately has arisen from 'male dominance'.

Although it is illegal to do so men still prefer to employ men, due to beliefs that "women are less capable" and that women "are too busy looking after children to participate fully in the labor market". (Contemporary British Society, 2001). Despite this women employment is still steadily increasing due to early retirements among older men and high rates of unemployment among younger men.

Education is another field where there is gender inequality. For many years girls have had, and are steadily increasing the gap between themselves and boys, better levels of grade attainment at school and further education. Reasons for this could be the educational reforms in the UK since the latter 1980s, which may have helped girls improve their performances. Or even as a result of increased equal opportunities policies in schools.

Studies into equal opportunities resulted in findings that little interest is shown to equal opportunities at schools by governors and inspectors. Also, schools generally perceive changes in gender differences with positive results for gender equity. One important factor that was revealed during this study is that gender difference in schools is related to other aspects of gender inequality, directly, or indirectly, depending on arguments. The most important of these is the segregation of the labor market and inequalities in household labor dividing. And later going onto the fact that women gear themselves towards careers where access for women and bringing up children is facilitated. Riddell & Gaskell (1992) write how gender inequality is embedded in everyday practice. Girls tend to be pulled more to domestic chores than young men, ultimately, making greater contributions to housework and tend to engage in disposable income-based activities such as leisure, than young men.

The bottom-line, so to say, in the education sectors argues that girls' formal achievement continues to improve. However, it does not explain why men continue to have greater earnings than women do, which is an important point to consider.

It must, though, be taken into account that so-called 'woman problems' are given priority at schools and colleges, and not enough enough time or effort is given to realize 'male problems'. This leaves the males beleaguered. Also, males leaving schools have been greatly affected in terms of employment because the manufacturing industry is slowly becoming exhausted (where more males tend to work) and being replaced with service sector employment in retailing and/or care taking occupations. So in some ways it may be argued that women's roles in society may have been affected boys more than girls'. This, however, is too definite a statement to argue because there are many more points to consider.

In some aspects boys are stereotyped by teachers, rather than girls, as 'trouble-makers' in classes. This often leads to discrimination of boys and evaluations by the teachers as problems with 'family backgrounds' or 'bad school records' etc.

Often teachers will also motivate or de-motivate individuals when they are choosing a subject saying they are "likely to fail", "the subject is not for them" or "they are not the type", even though their strengths may lie with that particular subject(s) or that field. An example of this is that if a girl is choosing Physics or Electronics at A-level a teacher may say "you do not want to do this, the chances are you will fail because it is very hard". Similarly, if a boy is going to choose Performing Arts the teacher may advise them that "that is a girls' subject you don't want to do that".

Gender

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