Gender Inequality

Four themes characterize feminist theorizing of gender inequality.

First
, men and women are situated in society not only differently but also unequally.
Specifically, women get less of material resources, social status, power, and
opportunities for self-actualization than do men who share their social location - be
it a location based on class race, occupation, ethnicity, religion, education,
nationality, or any other socially significant factor.
second,
this inequality results from the organization of society, not from any significant
biological or personality differences between men and women.
Third,
although individual human beings may vary somewhat from each other in their
profile of potentials and traits, no significant pattern of natural variation
distinguishes the sexes. Instead, all human beings are characterized by a deep need
for freedom to seek self-actualization and by a fundamental malleability that leads
them to adapt to the constraints or opportunities of the situations in which they find
themselves. To say that there is gender inequality, then, is to claim that women are
situationally less empowered than men to realize they need they share with men for
self-actualization.
Fourth,
all inequality theories assume that both men and women and men will respond
fairly easily and naturally to more egalitarian social structures and situations. They
affirm, in other words, that it is possible to change the situation (Ritzer, 2000).
Gender and Power
Gender refers to the different ways men and women play in society, and to the
relative power they wield. While gender is expressed differently in different
societies, in no society do men and women perform equal roles or hold equal
positions of power.
Power is a basic fabric of society and.is possessed in varying degrees by social
actors in diverse social categories. Power becomes abusive and exploitative only
when independence and individuality of one person or group of people becomes so
dominant that freedom for the other is compromised. Women and children have
often been on the abusive side of power. Some causes that are often referred to are:
the greater physical strength that men tend to have creates the imbalance of power
between men and women resulting from social structures and historical practices in
regard to finances, education, roles of authority and decision making; the abuse of
power by men and the failure of cultural pressures to prevent such abuse; and a
distorted view of sexuality and the objectification of the female.
Max Weber in his "Essays in Sociology", defined power as the likelihood a person
may achieve personal ends despite possible resistance from others. Since this
definition views power as potentially coercive, Weber also considered ways in which
power can be achieved through justice. Authority, he contended, is power which

people determine to be legitimate rather than coercive. As a group, women are at a

distinct disadvantage when considering both power and authority.
Several factors act as determinants of the amount of power a person holds or can
use in his or her relations with others: status resources, experience, and selfconfidence. Males and females traditionally have had differing amounts of power at
their disposal. By virtue of the male's greater ascribed status in society, men have
more legitimate power (based on rank or position) than do women.
The serious social issue today is the relative inequities in social power between men
and women. The issue of women's power, relative to men, is not merely academic.
Gender differences in power have real consequences for women. For example,
although women have made significant gains in the workplace, with more women
working than in the past and women possessing approximately a third of all
management positions, women continue to experience wage discrimination, be
excluded from the most powerful executive positions, advance more slowly in their
careers, and experience fewer benefits from obtaining education or work
experience, and are included in fewer networks and exert less authority (Colwill;
Lyness & .Thompson,1997) than men in similar positions. A number of researchers
have linked career advancement and access to benefits and resources within
organizations to an effective use of power. An understandmg of women's power,
relative to men, is therefore essential to overcoming women's disadvantage in the
workplace and other domains (http://www.findarticles.com/particles/mi m0341 is 1
55/ai 54831711).

Gender and Education

The past decade has witnessed a significant increase in the importance accorded to
education, with both "instrumental" as well as "intrinsic" arguments made for
increasing financial investment and policy attention to education provision.
Investing in education is seen as one of the fundamental ways in which nation
states and their citizens can move toward long-term development goals and
improve both social and economic standards of living. The education of women is
seen as providing the key to securing intergenerational transfers of knowledge, and
providing the substance of long-term gender equality and social change.
Although significant gains have been made in women's education as a result of
global advocacy, more often than not the gains are fragile, vulnerable to changes in
economic and social environments, and lagging behind in male rates of enrolment
and achievement. Achievements are particularly visible in the primary education
sector, whereas gaps are still large in the secondary and tertiary sectors.
(unrisd.org/unrisd/website/nsf)
Schools also reinforce gendered social roles. Researchers have
documented the differential treatment accorded males and females in the
classrooms that reinforces a sense of inferiority and lack of initiative

among female students. (Sadker and Sadker, 1988). Boys are far more
likely than girls to be given specific information that guides improvement
of their performance. (Boggiano and Barrett, 1991).