As this blog comes to an end, I want to look at one more topic that is relevant, to all of us, through the lens of gender inequality. This topic is social media.

On one platform or another, almost everyone has some sort of social media presence. Whether it be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, or Pinterest our names and some part of ourselves are represented on the Internet. There is not only a difference between the number of men vs. women on each platform but there is also a difference between the way each gender is treated on social media.

Before we go into the differential treatment by gender, let’s look at the disparity between the percent of each gender on each platform. As evidenced by the infographic below, on the whole more women use social media than men. More women are on Facebook, tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter with men only dominating the Linked in category.

Image Courtesy of HuffingtonPost.com

Although more women have an online presence, they are less influential on social media. Of the top 100 influential Twitter users in Britain, only 17 were on the list and only one made the Top 10. Influence was measured with consideration to user’s audience size, engagement of the user with the audience, and ‘authority.’ Further, the response to women versus men voicing their opinion on social media influences each gender’s respective attitude towards posting. Women often receive backlash and negative comments for sharing their opinions which leads to relative female silence on social media.

This reluctance to post for women on social media platforms stems from the negative, sometimes abusive responses they get solely on the basis of their gender. To prove this point, Journalist and Designer Martin Belam did an experiment by running a spoof Twitter account. When the account was portrayed as a female user, it received more abusive and negative responses in comparison to when it was portrayed as a male user. Why do people feel that it is acceptable to attack women on social media?

Women deal with many forms of harassment on social media including pornography, email harassment, cyber-stalking, and flaming. The most common issue and form of harassment is flaming. Flaming is the use of a highly aggressive language pattern. Slut shaming is an example of flaming that is frequently seen on social media accounts.

Speaking of slut-shaming, there is a disparity between the perception of provocative pictures based on which gender is doing the posting. Women are criticized for posting these kinds of pictures and the comments will often be brutal. The pictures will sometimes get removed, either because of people reporting it or the cruelty of the comments. Meanwhile, men who post nude or provocative pictures get lots of support in the comments. When younger generations see this behavior on social media, they believe it is acceptable to treat women this way. It creates a never-ending cycle that goes from generation to generation. A cycle that needs to be broken.

According to Susan Herring, a researcher who studies gender differences in gender use, women are often ignored, trivialized or criticized by men who “have a tendency to forget that that there is an actual human being at the receiving end of one’s emotional outbursts.” While this statement may be true, it does not excuse the behavior of those men or anyone who is disrespectful on social media. This is something that needs to change. Women need to feel safe and accepted on social media because their opinions are valid, their pictures are beautiful, and their voices deserve to be heard.

To make change, we need action. We need to break the cycle, mentioned earlier, of younger generations treating thinking it is okay to treat women without respect on social media.

Things like #askmemore start the conversation but they make minimal meaningful impact. The #askmemore campaign was created by the Representation Project in 2014 in relation to Hollywood events. Its purpose was to call out reporters who often focus more on a woman’s appearance and ask them questions pertaining to fashion, babies, and make-up. On the other hand, men are asked about their work, the creative process, and the fellow nominees in their field.

Image Courtesy of SocietySocial.com

Once theses campaigns are over, the cause is forgotten. Social media has the ability to create change. Look at the #metoo movement. It has led to sweeping change for victims and perpetrators of sexual assault. That is AMAZING. However, something needs to happen that creates change within social media. What the “something” is, is the million-dollar question. I wish I could say there was a simple answer. Instead, I suggest advocating for yourself on social media and supporting other women on social media because small steps can make the biggest impact.

I was not planning on writing this post on this particular topic until I was standing at THON during the final four. I was standing with my arms around the people beside me swaying from side-to-side as we watched the video of all of the Four Diamonds children who were taken too soon. I noticed that all of the girls around me, myself included, had tears streaming down their faces with no regard for who noticed. On the other hand, all of the boys were choking back their tears and trying to not let their emotions get the best of them. Therefore, I want to look at gender inequality on the basis of emotional expression.

Why is that men feel the need to hide their emotions? Not just their tears, but at times their happiness as well. If emotion were on a scale of 1-10, society makes it seem that men should only ever range from a 4-8. Men should never hit the low of sadness or the high of happiness.

On the other hand, women are expected to be emotional. Society expects that women will range from a 1 through a 10 on the perceived scale of emotion.

It is discriminatory for society to assume that men should be strong, tough, and un-emotional. Yet, it is also discriminatory for society to assume the women are too emotional, sensitive, and fragile. The gender inequality flows both ways in this situation.

There is biological evidence to support this notion of emotional inequality. Studies have shown that women, in comparison to men, experience stronger and more frequent negative emotions. Women are more prone to negative stimuli and will elicit a stronger response to negative stimuli. Contrastingly, men are more susceptible to stimuli that are perceived to be threatening or erotic. Although there are a large number of studies that confirm gender differences in emotional experience, the differences are smaller than expected. This insinuates that much of the difference then comes from societal pressures and expectations.

At a young age, boys and girls are equal on the scale of emotional expressivity. They both hold onto to their parent’s hands in crowded places, sleep with stuffed animals, and give their friends hugs. Around second grade, all of this starts to change. Boys are taught not to be “sissies”, to “take it like a man”, and that “real men don’t cry.” Once this change occurs, there are several emotions that take on a different meaning for men and women.

Image Courtesy of Youtube

Anger
Anger is seen as a manly emotion and obviously women do feel anger too, but it is taboo for them to express this. Women often mask their anger with sadness. For example, if a woman is upset with her boyfriend for not returning her calls she may say that she is sad about the situation when in actuality she is angry with him. She feels the need to not express such a harsh emotion for fear of judgement.

Aggression
Aggression is another emotion that is viewed as appropriate for a man but not a woman. If men are angry about something and need a way to let out their emotion and they punch a wall or kick something it is not viewed as harshly or negatively as a woman in the same situation.

Fearful
Fear factor is something that a woman can have, but not a man. During a scary movie, it is normal and almost expected for a woman to grab onto a friend or boyfriend’s hand at certain points. Meanwhile, if a man were to do this he would likely be called “gay” or “weak” by one of his friends.

These are just a few examples of how specific emotions are meant to be expressed by one gender exclusively. As I have been writing this post, I have come to the realization that it is amazing how much influence societal pressures have on the way that we act and react. This seems like an obvious statement, but I think it is something that we are so accustomed to that we fail to realize it at times. It reminds me of the Margaret Mead Gender Study.

Image Courtesy of Common Direction

In the study, there were three groups where gender roles were very diverse. The Tchambuli had a genuine reversal of Western culture roles, with the woman being the dominant, managing partner. The Arapesh had equality for males and females with the ideal that they are both cooperative, unaggressive, and responsive to the needs and demands of others. The Mundugumor ideal was undisciplined, very violent males and females. All of these are very different from Western society.

It is amazing to see how different gender roles can be based on how society expects them to be. Can you image what it would be like if the US adopted a Arapesh view?

That is to have children or not to have children. This is a question that most people ask themselves at some point in their lives. Most people feel strongly about having children, one way or the other, but there are a lot of other factors involved.

One may wonder how the topic of whether or not to have children is related to gender inequality. However, the choice itself, the aftereffect, and societal perceptions about having children are all different based on your gender. For women, this question generally has greater consequences although some may say it has greater rewards as well.

To make the most obvious point possible, women are the only ones who can biologically bear children. As previously stated this is painstakingly obvious but important to consider when making the choice to have or not to have children. A woman must decide if she wants to put herself through the process of pregnancy. Although everyone hopes for an easy pregnancy, reality is that there are a lot of side-effects. These side-effects can include pain, fatigue, and nausea. Those are the physical side-effects of pregnancy but there are plenty of mental and emotional ones as well.

Image Courtesy of ABC News

Further, during pregnancy it is inevitable that women will gain weight. They must decide whether they are willing to give up their bodies for pregnancy and nursing. There is no guarantee that a women’s body will ever return to the way it was pre-pregnancy. The woman also has no idea whether her husband or partner, if they are in the picture, will love their new body. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is important to women in relationships.

Another factor for women to consider, is that the man can either not be in the picture or walk away at any point. If a couple is dating and they break-up during the pregnancy, the woman is still carrying the child. So then, the woman will likely go on and give birth. In most situations like these, the woman will then become a single mother. While the mother can go to court for child support from the father, this can a time-consuming and expensive process. Therefore, a lot of women in this situation spend that time working to financially support the child and  take care of the child.

Those are three different factors that women, for the most part, must consider before they even decide to have children. There are some women who know that they want to have children and do not care about any of these things, but most are at least affected by these things.

After one decides to have children and gives birth, they deal with the aftereffect. Most women with white-collar jobs will get sixty days of maternity leave so they have time off and a guarantee to get their job back. On the other hand, most women working blue-collar jobs will not get maternity leave so if they have a child they may not have their job. A child is a huge financial responsibility so not having a job would be detrimental.

Image Courtesy of New Kids Center

Then there is societal perception. Women are more subject to these societal views than men. When women begin to get into their late 20’s and early 30’s, they are constantly asked when they are having children. It is expected that all women should have and want to have children at some point in their lives. So, when women are passing through the prime child bearing period and are not pregnant or have children society thinks that something is wrong with them.

On the other hand, men are applauded for being bachelors into their 50’s and do not feel any pressure to have children. Since men are not the ones carrying the baby, they are able to have children at much later ages. Society does not judge unhealthy men, nearly as harshly, for being unhealthy and having children in comparison to how they judge women.

Further, women are often seen as selfish for not wanting to have children. Society judges women who do not want to be bound by the responsibility of a child. Yet, there is nothing wrong with that. If women want to grow within their careers or personally by travelling instead of having children, they should be able to do that without the influence of society.

Obviously, having children is a very personal decision. However, these decisions are different based along the lines of gender. I would like to think that some of these difficulties women face will be alleviated by the time I am ready to have children. However, realistically I do not think this will happen because our society discriminates on biological differences and this is the greatest example of a biological difference.

Grey hair, wrinkles, sagging skin. All three of these physical attributes are stereotypical signs of aging. Therefore, they are things that our society deathly wants to avoid. Nobody wants to look old. Women, especially, do not want to be seen as looking old or being old. Another one of those topics divided along the line of gender.

I was inspired to write about gender inequality and aging from a headline that I saw right after the Golden Globe Awards. On Facebook, an article popped up in my newsfeed titled “Jessica Biel Gloriously Let Her Gray Roots Show at the Golden Globes, and WeAre Here For It.” The article went on to talk about Jessica’s “ethereal updo” that upon careful analysis contained her grey roots. The article spectated that it could be a subtle move to complement women wearing all-black to protest sexual harassment in Hollywood. Whether that is true or not, the fact remains that aging for men and women, especially, in the public eye is divided along the lines of gender.

Image Courtesy of Popsugar.com

There are a variety of biological differences in men vs. women when it comes to aging. For example, women have shown less age-associated cognitive decline than men. While these differences are contributing factors, I want to focus on the societal perception of aging on the lines of gender.

First, I want to talk about grey hair. From the title of the article about Jessica Biel’s grey hair, it is obvious that seeing grey hair on women, especially ones in the public eye, is very rare. Women are expected to spend large sums of money to color their hair and cover-up any signs of aging. On the other hand, men with grey hair are all over Hollywood. Not only that, but their grey is considered masculine and sexy. Look at George Clooney and Richard Gere and Anderson Cooper, they are “silver foxes” or handsome grey-haired men.

Image Courtesy of Executive Style 

For men, aging and a “touch of grey” comes with the qualities of maturity, dignity, and wisdom. His visual signs of aging are accepted and also appreciated by society. On the other hand, women, who have just as much wisdom, dignity, and maturity, are seen as getting old when they show signs of aging. Clearly, getting old is not a societally desirable feat.

Commercials and advertisements for beauty and hair products very effectively demonstrate the inequality of aging. Women are encouraged to use Botox fillers, creams for wrinkles, and a host of other youth-oriented products to look more attractive. Further, there are many more weight loss programs geared towards women to ensure that they maintain a desirable physique as they get older. Although unfair, it is reality that an aging woman is considered less desirable than an aging man.

The job market also changes by gender as aging occurs. Based on my last blog about the job market, it is true that older women have a more difficult time getting hired than older men and they receive less compensation for their work that older men. This is true in both traditional job markets like banking and law as well is in Hollywood and Broadway. There are a few exceptions like Meryl Streep and Bette Middle, but it is the more norm for women to experience more difficulty than men.

Then there is the question of relationships as one ages. Divorce is very common already and becoming more popular. With the rate of divorce increasing, many men and women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s are single. It is societally acceptable for a divorced man in his mid-50s to go after and date women in their 40s. Yet, if a mid-50s woman were to date a man in his 40s she would be considered a cougar, an older woman who goes after younger men. Why is the societal standard different for men and women in the age of their romantic partner?

For that question, I have no concrete answer. It is true that there are more women in general and more women living to older ages. Therefore, more women than men are single at the end of life but that does not change the disparity of societal perception about age of a partner.

There is not clear answer as to why there are gender differences in aging for men and women. Although it is somewhat sad that there needs to be articles celebrating a woman’s visible grey roots at an awards show, it emphasizes that there is progress being made towards the issue. When women in Hollywood do something, the rest of society tends to follow. Now that Jessica Biel showed her grey roots on the red carpet, women may be willing to show theirs at the grocery store. It is one small step but a lot of small steps eventually equate to big, societal change. Only time will tell if the barriers of this inequality are being broken down and rewritten

“Women…Like Men, Only Cheaper.” Sayings like these and bumper stickers like the one below, may seem catchy or funny but in actuality they represent the truth. The truth is men and women are not equal.

Image by Peace Resource Project 

One of the most prominent areas where men and women are not equal is in the job market. This gender inequality includes ability to obtain positions, eligibility for promotions, and of course salary. For so long, women have been silent but in recent years women have been speaking up for their rights.

Women are often discriminated against in the hiring process. Since women are the childbearing ones, companies will discriminate on them for the potential that they may get pregnant and go on maternity leave. Many companies do not want to pay workers on maternity leave, so they do not hire women. Essentially, women are sometimes punished because of their anatomical ability to bring successive generations into the world, a necessary process for the continuation of society. That is clearly a very logical conclusion by companies. Furthermore, women have historically been the ones to take on child-care roles. So, this is another factor inhibiting companies from hiring women.

Women are discriminated against for their ability to bear children and their “traditional” place in society as the ones to raise them. Yet, it would make more sense if companies offered paid maternity leave and paid child care days. Women should not have to decide between seeing their child’s school performance or getting paid for working. Other countries have paid maternity, paid child care days, and more paid sick days than does the United States. These countries have more equality between men and women, are happier countries overall, and are as, if not more successful than American companies.

It is more difficult for women to get promotions in comparison to men. A contributing factor to this is the current domination of men at the top levels of most job sectors. Young men can more easily relate to older men at the top of the ladder in comparison to how women can relate to them. When young men are able to build these relationships, they are more likely to receive a helping hand in climbing the corporate ladder. With this helping hand, men have a much easier time getting to the top of the ladder.

There are a few fields dominated by women. Two of the main ones are teaching and nursing, both of which are rather underpaid in comparison to other sectors. So, in the fields where women can relate to the people at the top, the pay is not great.

It is proven that women only earn seventy-eight cents per every dollar that a man earns. For the exact same work, women will receive twenty-two cents less. Why are women worth one cent, much less twenty-two in comparison to a man? We are not. We just happen to live in a society that has instilled in us the belief that women are worth less than men.

The pay gap in the United States as a whole is men making $51,640 and women making $41,554, so women are making 80% of what men are making. This is for the country as a whole, but there are numbers by the state too. Women receive the least pay gap discrimination in New York (89%), California (88%), Florida (87%), and Washington DC (86%). However, women in Montana (73%), West Virginia (72%), Utah (70%), and Louisiana (70%) suffer to a greater degree.

These numbers generally come from white women who are under fifty in the workplace, yet there is even greater discrimination against minority and older women. Minority and older women have even more difficult times obtaining jobs in the first place and being promoted. Moreover, the gender gap is greater for minority and older women too. For example, Hispanic of Latina women only earn 54% of what a white man does while Black of African-American women earn 63% of what a man does. In addition, between 20-24 years old the pay gap women make 94% of what men do but between 55-64 years old the pay gap increases to 74%.

Image by aauw.org

The gender gap in salary in the United States is significantly lower than it is in other countries, not that this justifies the situation by any means. However, there has been minimal improvement since the 1990’s and the gap will not be rectified until about 2058. This is not acceptable. Women should not have had to wait this long and women should not have to wait thirty-eight more years for this situation to be fixed. We need to fight for change and we need to fight now. We cannot allow our daughters to enter in a society where they do not receive the same opportunities and compensation in the job market based on their anatomy alone.

Dating and relationships are one area where gender inequality has always been around. There a variety of stereotypes about the roles that men and women should play in relationships. Over time, some of these stereotypes have begun to change but they have not been eliminated.

Before we delve into the current state of dating, I want to cover what dating used to be like in the 1900’s. For starters, a man was supposed to ask the woman out on a date. He would then pick her up by knocking on the door and then drive them to their destination. On the date, the woman would act lady-like and proper by getting something like a salad. The man would order something to showcase his masculinity, like a steak or burger, and then pay for the meal. Almost all of the responsibility for the date was on the man.

Image Courtesy of Kezia Noble

In recent years, things have taken a turn. Now, women are beginning to take on a more active role in dating. Often times, the man and the woman will meet at the date location rather than the man picking up the woman. Also, a lot of times women will offer to split the bill or pay half of the time. However, the reason that women often pick up the tab stems from gender inequality. A lot of times when women offer to pay for dates they do so that they do not know their date anything. Essentially, women do not want to feel obligated to have sex or provide sexual favors for a man because he pays for dinner on their date.

While women paying for dinner, seems like a step towards their independence in dating culture it really comes from a negative place. There is a societal standard that has been instilled into women insinuating that they owe a man something because he takes them on a date. This is a blatant example of gender inequality because women do not owe themselves or their bodies to anyone for anything.

If a couple is able to get past these dating stereotypes, things begin to change in the dynamic of the relationship but the man still typically plays a dominant role. It is more common to see the husband driving with the wife in the passenger seat. It is more common to see the husband pay for dinner even though the credit card is from a joint account. It is more common for the husband to do heavy lifting activities. It is more common that the wife cooks dinner for the entire family. It is more common that the wife takes care of lighter tasks around the home like grocery shopping. It is more common that the wife takes the children to appointments. So, men still hold the masculine role while the women hold the feminine role.

Most of the time,people do not even deal with these stereotypes because they ignore dating and take part in the hook-up culture. Thanks to apps like Tinder, men and women are always on the prowl for singles of their age. They will swipe right or left, depending on the picture. Men will set up dates with multiple women in a short period of time. They do not care about the women as individuals, they care about getting the woman into bed with them. Men will even compete with one another to get with the hottest women or will try to one-up each other. This demeans women. Women may not know about all of the other dates but it still diminishes their worth.

Image Courtesy of Tinder.com

While this post seems negatively skewed towards men in dating and hook-up culture, these are generally representative of the facts and testimonies online. Yet, there are other factors involved in the marriage and dating situation as well. Now, many men and women are pushing off marriage, children, and settling down. Therefore, women are more open to the hook-up culture as well and society’s culture is changing as well. Men can no longer rely on finding a wife who will stay-at-home all day and take care of the house, the laundry, and the children. But, women can also no longer rely on finding a man who will have a job that supports the entire family and takes on the typical roles of a man in relationship. Norms are no longer the same for both genders, so expectations of both genders need to change.

Marriage, dating, and hook-up culture are all relevant topics in our society that contribute to gender inequality. Unless, men begin to respect women there will always be inequality in this area. There needs to a shift in perception about respect in relationships for these things to change.

One of the most prominent areas in which gender inequality exists is in sports. Throughout history, sports have been an area for which men can excel while women are either excluded or not given equal opportunity. Recently, US Soccer has been in the media for the discrepancies between compensation for the men’s and women’s teams.

Before we delve into the recent issues that have recently captured the media, I’m going to provide some background on the two teams.

The United States Men’s National Soccer Team played its first FIFA recognized international match in 1916 against Sweden. Since 1916, the team has appeared in ten World Cups with their best finish being third place during the inaugural tournament in 1930. They have failed to qualify for ten world cups, including the 2018 tournament. In terms of rankings, the USMNT have been ranked #4 as their highest, #36 as their lowest, and are currently at #25.

Image Courtesy of USA Today

On the other hand, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team did not get its start until 1985 when they defeated Italy in an international friendly. Since 1985, the team has had seven World Cup appearances with three wins coming in 1991, 1999, and 2015. They have qualified in every World Cup since its inception, with their worst finish being third place. In terms of rankings, the USWNT have been ranked #1 as their highest, #2 as their lowest, and are currently  #1.

Image Courtesy of US Soccer

Based on the numbers alone, the women’s team has clearly had a superior performance to the men’s team. The women have always been ranked higher than the men and the women have always performed better in the World Cup than the men. So, it would be fair to assume that the women are paid more for their superior play. However, this is far from the case. The opposite is true, as the men receive greater compensation.

For the World Cup, the men’s team receives compensation for qualifier games, being on the roster, qualification, per game, first round, second round advancement, third place, second place, and winning. The USMNT would not know about the championship bonus because they have never gotten that far in the tournament. On the other hand, the women’s team only receives compensation for being on the roster, fourth place, third place, second place, and winning. Essentially, the women’s team needs to perform well to earn money while the men’s team just has to get their name on the roster. Maybe that is why the women’s team has won three tournaments while the men’s teams have failed to qualify for many.

This discrepancy holds true for friendly matches as well. In friendlies, the men’s team receives compensation for wins, ties and losses. The women’s team only receives compensation for wins.

There are several other factors to be considered too, including revenue generation and ratings. Before the women’s World Cup win in 2015, their revenue generation was less than that of the men. However, since then the women have brought in $6.6 million dollars while the men have only brought in $2 million. Yet the women still had to and continue to fight for fair pay. 

Although this specific case deals with US Soccer, there are growing gender wage gaps in professional basketball and professional golf championships as well. Some of this is due to the fact that ratings and revenue are generally higher in men’s sports. However, the preference for men’s sports stems from a history of gender inequality in sports, as women were not able to get into the game until much later. Therefore, a negative spiral is created. This negative spiral results from women’s teams receiving inadequate funding thus less women turning pro thus less development of women’s professional leagues. Without the development of high quality professional leagues that can afford to pay their players with salaries that cover the cost of living, women’s sport will never reach their full potential in terms of talent or popularity.  

While this seems like an issue that only impacts the players, it has wider ranging impacts. One of the most significant impacts is on the young girls who look to the players as role models. For example, two young girls I babysit idolize Alex Morgan, a forward on the USWNT. Both of the girls play soccer and aspire to be professionals, as many of us do at a young age. However, girls are not encouraged to be professional athletes because there are not many stable professional leagues. This is something that needs to change. Female athletes inspire girls across the country to be active and competitive and strong, three qualities that women have been shamed for in the past. We need to start using sports as a platform to create gender equality. We need to celebrate female athletes. We need to celebrate success of both genders in athletic endeavors. Creating societal change takes time, but each person can help make a difference. Each person can make an effort to tune into the WNBA or the NWSL or a USWNT game and see the talent that female athletes have to show the world.