Gender refers to the responsibilities, duties, and requirements that are associated with it, independent of biological sex.
Social gender inequality happens when the responsibilities and expectations that society places on genders are unequal. According to the sexist work separation idea, while private or personal space belongs to women, public space belongs to men. From the past to the present, man is considered ideal and superior. According to the Hemogenic manhood belief, which is the reason for the social gender inequality to continue, man manages, man earns, man is educated, and man resolves \ handles.
As it happened in the past, gender inequality in the present becomes ordinary without our awareness. Elders taught these to us by dictating when we were little, and, unfortunately, we have resumed them as if they were a custom, putting newborns into strict patterns. We believe that not only kids but also colors have decided patterns.
When a baby is born, if it’s a girl, we buy pink clothes, dolls, and kitchen toys, whereas if it’s a boy, we prefer to buy blue clothes, cars, and sword-like toys. By doing this, boys are still being imposed to a strong and severe profile together with such an idea as following ¨a man doesn’t do house chores
A man does not wear a pink shirt
You do not buy dolls for a boy
You do not buy a car for a girl
We all probably heard these kinds of words almost everywhere in our lives.
It’s not enough to just talk about toys and colors. We see gender inequality most acutely in the workplace and in professional roles. Often, jobs associated with femininity, such as hairdressing and teaching, are offered to girls, while boys are directed towards fields like engineering and software programming, etc.
People want female doctors to examine their wives and children; however, the very same people hinder girls’ education right by saying, girls are to look after the house, not to be educated, and they are opposing men to become chiefs by saying ~youre job is not to cook ~.
Even after receiving an education and acquiring a profession, women often face invisible barriers in the workplace. This is referred to in the literature as the “glass ceiling.” In other words, women can advance to a certain point, but invisible barriers prevent them from reaching higher-level positions. For example, a woman might be a teacher, but it might be difficult for her to become a school principal; a woman might be a doctor, but various prejudices might prevent her from reaching the position of chief physician.
This shows that social gender inequality is pervasive in occupational choices; it is also related to and affects career development.
As it’s clear in these examples, we burden ourselves with this inequality, pressed into molds from birth to older ages, because of the perception of “as always” from the people around us.
Even though the gender inequality mainly targets women in general, on the other side of the mirror, there is also inequality against men. Stereotyped phrases the society attributed to men since birth, such as, man doesn’t cry, men dosnt don’t do housework, man doesn’t care about the baby, … cause men to suppress their emotions and cage themselves into these stereotypes.
Gender inequality prevents both genders from freely realizing their potential and causes women and men to lose self-confidence for different reasons by hiding behind these stereotypical roles.
You can’t step into the same river twice; as the world constantly changes, societies must inevitably adapt. Despite this, the persistence of these rigid gender stereotypes, passed down from the past, limits us and keeps us in the background.
Today, the efforts of women and the power of men alone are not enough. For a stronger and better society, we need to create arrangements where women are not left behind, men can freely express their feelings, and neither is subjected to inequality.
Questioning and transforming boundaries of social gender inequity has become a necessity for us.
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