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Katherinne Erazo Trujillo

Professor Beadle
English 115
03 October 2016

Gender Inequality
Dating back in history there has always been the predisposition that men are far more
valuable than women. According to Merriam-Webster gender is defined as being labeled as male
or female, and though there are minimal differences between men and women, society views
them as complete opposites, dichotomy. In Composing

Gender the articles touch upon ideas and

information revolving around the topic of gender. Amongst these articles some share the
common idea that there is an existence of inequality between the different genders, as men being
superior to women. This idea of gender inequality is shown in the articles Night to His Day:
The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber and Rethinking Womens Biology by
Ruth Hubbard. The authors present this idea to prove and show how the different genders and
everything associated with that gender is constructed by society to be different. The idea of
gender inequality can then be applied to our own lives because as members of society through
this idea, gender inequality, we are labelled accordingly to our gender and based on those gender
schemas one gender is set to the advantage of the other.
Lorbers article Night to His Day:The Social Construction of Gender presents the
idea of inequality through showing how society depends on there being a division/difference
between the genders. An example of this division is As part of stratification system, gender

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ranks men above women of the same race and class (Lorber 28). Lorber states that the need for
society to have difference sets a division between men and women, categorizing men to be above
women. This idea of ranking men above women through a stratification system shows the
ideology that society views men as being more valuable than women, that relates back to history.
Through this stratification system the idea of gender inequality is shown through the fact that it
places men at a higher power than women, as the stratification system works as a social
structural system. Lorber then goes on to say ...the devalued genders have less power, prestige,
and economic rewards than the valued genders (29). In mentioning devalued genders Lorber
particularly aims at women, and explains that through the differences imposed by society women
have less of what society values most, money,power,etc., while men obtain/possess these values.
Women having less power then correlates back to the stratification system the places people with
higher power and value, men, above others, women.
Hubbards article Rethinking a Womens Biology presents the idea of inequality by
stating that there is discrimination against women. Hubbard presents this idea of inequality by
explaining how a woman is devalued and discriminated because of her characteristics, but yet a
man is praised for his or not mentioned at all. This is shown in No one has suggested that men
are just walking testicles, but again and again women have been looked on as though they were
walking ovaries and wombs (Hubbard 46). For men and other members of society women are
seen as tools. Women are seen as tools/ objects to satisfy the needs of men and to continue
reproducing for the sake of others. This shows inequality because of how society sees that a
womans only value comes from her reproductive organs and ability to have children whereas
men are more valued in other aspects. Hubbard even mentions that the scientific community

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constructs a womans being around her reproductive organs. Another example is Womens
work histories are often obscured by the fact that work has been defined so that it excludes much
of their daily work load (Hubbard 50). Women are discriminated by society as society degrades
the work women do to simply being tasks that they must perform. For their work to be label as
actual work society views that they must be paid for it to be work or just dont refer to it as work.
This is clearly points out an inequality that exist between the genders as the work man does is
recognized and considered work while the womens domestic work is seen as basic task they are
set to do based on their gender.
The idea of inequality can then be applied to our lives since we either belong to one
gender or another. Based on how society labels us men are set to the advantage of women
pointing out a clear inequality. An example of this is shown in Today we call the women in
Rubenss paintings fat and consider Twiggy anorexic...But there is more pressure on women to
look right,...(Hubbard 48). Society looks down more upon women than men on what their
ideal body shape should be, and this sets men at an advantage as they have less pressure to fit
society views. This is an example of inequality as women are the ones who are constantly judged
based on their appearance and what they do as they face more pressure to act in what society
views as appropriate. As a member of society I have experienced this firsthand been labeled as to
short or to skinny. The need to meet societal expectations also affects the behavior of women as
they act according on what they need to accomplish, while men dont worry or worry much less
of meeting these expectations. Another example that sets men to an advantage is But when it
comes to carrying loads, playing baseball, and wrestling and other contact sports girls are
expected to participate much less than boys are (Hubbard 49). As Hubbard says a girls is seen

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to have less sports ability than boys. This then shows that because of inequality men are to
advantage of women because they are seen to be stronger than women and have more ability.
The inequality between genders shows that there are clear advantages for men over
women, however some may argue that women have greater advantages than men. This is shown
in In poorer groups that have fewer resources(such as working-class African Americans in the
United States) women and men are more nearly equal, and the women even outstrip the men in
education and occupational status(Almquist 1987)(Lorber 29). In some parts of society women
are shown to be at an advantage over men, but does that really set them at an advantage? No,
although there may be more equality and women are even set to a certain advantage Lorber
mentions that this occurs in lower class communities. Women are allowed to have some kind of
power/ advantage over men at the bottom of the social structure, that quite simply does not
promote equality. Equality is not promoted for the genders as there still is some form of
inequality present such as being low income people. Lorber also mentions that there are almost
equal concluding that there still existence of some type of inequality between the genders,
showing men as being greater than women.
The idea of inequality between genders shows that in every aspect of society men are
superior to women, that ,we, as members of society can also observe and notice that men are
placed at an advantage over women. Society justifies inequality and pushes for there to be
division between the genders. However, this is the twenty first century and society has to push
forward to establish equality for all genders as this will potentially resolve conflict between
members of society. It time for society to leave concepts of the past in the past and set all
genders as equal.

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Works Cited
Hubbard, Ruth.Rethinking Womens Biology.Composing Gender, edited by Rachel Groner
and John F. OHara, Bedford,2014,pp.46-52.
Lorber, Judith.Night to His Day:The Social Construction of Gender.Composing Gender,
edited by Rachel Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford,2014,pp.19-33.