David Swain

POLS 1100
Jamie Nelson
Civil Rights and Liberties
Gender Discrimination
For as long as society has been around, discrimination against specific groups has
existed. Discrimination comes in many shapes and forms, much of which has been legally
eradicated even if not socially. Although, there is one form of discrimination that still remains
even within the legal world, and that is the gender discrimination. From the early days of our
history, to the way the government has interfered, even to modern day life, women have been
discriminated against both in our government, and in our society. However, even though women
have experienced many forms of discrimination, men are not free from being discriminated
against either, although the discrimination they receive is completely over smaller social issues
instead of larger legal and social ones.

Imagine not being able to buy property, or vote, or even get an education. This is
something that women have had to face. In the early 1800s women basically had no control over
their own lives. Seen mainly as servants to their husbands, they lived almost as slaves, devoting
their whole life to their partner living with no real freedoms. If a women chose to be single, she
was punished by the law by having to pay extra taxes and not being able to buy property, get a
job, or even get an education. Most of these problems arose from the government but was upheld
by society.The government made laws prohibiting women from being able to be held to the same
legal standard as men. Even if the wife were to kill someone, the husband was the one who was

held responsible in the court for representing her and dealing with it. So even if a women wanted
to have a job or own property, she really couldnt because she was legally not allowed to.
The legal system wasnt solely responsible for the way women were treated though, as
society played a huge role in it. From the time women were born, they were told they have to
find a husband, have kids, and stay home to cater to the husbands needs. It would be hard to try
to fight for more rights when thinking your place was at home was all you ever knew. So women
had to break out of the belief that they were mens property before any change could be made.
Even with women realising that they were their own beings and not someone's property, they still
face the battle of going against not only the government, but the way that men and the rest of
society saw women.
It took a little bit of time but in the late 1800s the Declaration of Sentiments was
released. This was a document that was largely similar to the Declaration of Independence
(almost word for word) but instead stated that women were not someones properties, and they
were entitled to their own freedom and liberty. This was the first official move women took to
gain some sort of equal grounding.
Not much progress was made after that document was released until the 1920s when
women gained the right to vote everywhere due to the 19th amendment. This began a long
process of women gradually getting more and more freedom. Once WW2 happened, most of
them men were out fighting the war leaving the women to take their jobs. After this, it allowed
having women in the workforce to be a much more common occurrence. Many women, now
seeing what they were capable of, stayed in the workforce long after the war. Although there
were still a number of women who preferred being stay at home moms and went back to doing
that. Overall, no matter what the woman wanted to do, this gave them the opportunity to choose.

Even with gender discriminations being a large social issue, the root of the bias has
stemmed from the government interference and lack of interference. As a result this has made the
fight for equal rights among genders, a right rather than a liberty. In order for this issue to change
for the better the government needed, and still needs to act. If the government had allowed both
women and men equal rights in the 1800s, the fight for equality between them would have been
almost over. Due to the government keeping them unequal, this has required a social change
before the legal side could change. In order for genders to be truly equal, this movement required
government action, something that liberties dont really need. Even today there are still injustices
that the legal system overlooks causing the discrimination against genders to continue.

Unfortunately, this movement hasnt come to an end yet. As of today, women are still
able to be paid less than men. Utah is one of the worst to do this as it pays women about 70 cents
for every dollar a man makes. Many reasons have been speculated about why this is the case
such as, women choosing lower paying jobs, not having as much as experience, or because they
choose more part time jobs. The council of economic advisers has said, On Equal Pay Day,
however, we focus on a stubborn and troubling fact: Despite womens gains a large gender pay
gap still exists. In 2013, the median woman working fulltime all year earned 78 percent of what
the median man working full-time all year earned. Phrased differently, she earned 78 cents for
every dollar he did. So even with factors of hours and jobs being the same, this wage gap exists.
This is able to continue as its the specific states and companies that control pay so they are able
to choose to discriminate. This would be able to change if the government stepped in to take
action.
Besides the legal issue of discrimination in our day and age, the social issues are just as,
if not more prominent. Get back to the kitchen, Make me a sandwich, Feminazi, Slut, all

of these derogatory terms and phrases are a common place in our society against women. In
many places (especially Utah) it is seen as weird or different when women choose to go into the
workforce rather than be a stay at home mom. Many people, especially men, still see womens
place as in the kitchen rather than choosing to do what they want to do.
Women have finally been given legal rights to jobs, yet as a society we still shame people
when they choose to use those rights. Another very troubling problem is people who identify as
Feminists are often called Feminazis. The whole feminist movement is to be able to gain
complete equality between men and women, but people will take it and make a joke of it.
Although there are those radicals, which you can find in any group, who take feminism to the
next level and use it as a platform to hate men, feminism is a movement for equality but is
frowned upon in our society.
One of the biggest problems is the way society portrays women in the media. The only
times you can find a women in the media is either a side character, a villain, dumb, or simply a
woman whose whole life revolves around a man. In almost all of these cases the woman isnt
wearing very many clothes. Our society thrives on the sexualization of women so much so that
you cant even see a Carls Jr commercial without seeing a women showing off her body in a
bikini. Even with mostly equality in the legal field, the inequality in the women are treated in
media is massive. Even with society showing off women as virtually, pieces of meat meant to
please men, women are very often called sluts and whores in the real world. So women have to
follow very strict guidelines in order to not be too conservative, but also not be too revealing. On
the other hand, men have almost no standards. In media you can find guys of every shape and
size who are the main characters, or heroes, and they are always fully clothed. It is very common
to see a woman catcalled while walking down the street but you would never see a man being

catcalled. So in addition to discrimination in the workforce, women also face discrimination in

the media revolving solely around their looks and the way society values them.

In contrast to all of this, men are not free from discrimination either. By legal standings
men have almost no restrictions although, in cases of pregnancies, men lose most of their rights.
It is an extreme uphill battle to try and get the custody of a child if you are a man. You face many
roadblocks and problems simply for being a man when dealing with custody. Most of the other
issues men face are things such as society seeing their place in the workfield rather than as a stay
at home parent. Men can be ridiculed for letting the wife be the money maker rather than them.
So most of the problems they face are society looking down on the for switching gender roles.
So, even though men face discrimination, womens hardships have gone on for hundreds of years
and continue to go on very severely.

Overall, from the early days of our history, to the way the government has interfered,
even to modern day life, women have been discriminated against both in our government, and in
our society. However, men are not free from being discriminated against either, although the
discrimination they receive is completely over smaller social issues instead of larger legal and
social ones. So understanding that the fight for gender equality is ongoing can help us to become
more informed about the inequaliteies in our lives and help put an end to it.

Citations

Blau, Francine, and Lawrence Kahn. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and
Explanations." (2016): n. pag. Web.

"Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls: Stanton and Anthony Papers
Online." Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, Seneca Falls: Stanton and Anthony Papers
Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

"Gender Discrimination - History." - Women, Rights, Vote, and Sex. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr.
2016.

"The Problem." Women's Media Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

"The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Spring 2016)." AAUW: Empowering Women
Since 1881. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.