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Vincent Lee
Professor Jon Beadle
English 115
September 14th, 2015
Discrimination in Gender
Equality doesnt exist in the nation that tries to embrace it. In the United States and all
over the world, men being treated as superior over women is a norm. This is seen in the
workforce, schools, or even in children. Gender equality has been a controversial issue since the
founding the United States, but only until a century ago has it become a large ideal, yet we still
have a long way to go. Gay, lesbian, bisexuals, and transgenders are also tied into gender issue
since they may classify themselves as a different sex. Just this year, the title Mx was added
into the Oxford dictionary which is used for those who wish to not reveal their gender. Genders
judge and separate each other by using social norms as excuses, like how men should be the
man of the house and how women should be polite and learn how to cook. Of course, there
will always be natural differences other than different reproductive attributes like how men are
naturally more physically fit than women. Discrimination between men and women will always
be an issue until a world where everyone accepts each gender as equals or a genderless world is
created overall.
At some point in everybodys lives, social pressures will reach them eventually. In Judith
Lorbers Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender, Lorber talks about how
women are paid less than men on the same jobs and how they are still expected to be in charge
with domestic labor (30). She also talks about how men are dominant in leadership positions
especially in the government, military, law, religion, and sports. This is seen with the presidents

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of the United States since there was never a woman who was elected president because it has
been looked down upon for a woman to become a president for generations. For sports, just until
July of this year has a women ever started coaching in the NFL and it was a huge controversial
issue because it was groundbreaking for a woman to take that role. People are not used to seeing
women taking leadership roles because we grew up thinking that its taboo for women to take
those positions. In Women, Men, and Society by Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran, they
focused on how parents make sure that their children are following their gender roles with the
things they buy them or the way they treat them. Boys are given toys that represent sports,
vehicles, and military while girls are given dolls (77). The boys are more physically active than
the girls, especially when the girls are wearing womanly-like clothing that impedes with their
movement. I remember when I was in elementary school, when it was time for recess, all the
boys would run around and play games like basketball, tag, etc, but there were very few girls
who did so. The girls mostly sat down or walked and hung out with other girls. When they did do
physical activities and the boys would perform better, they would always blame it on the fact that
we were boys and that we were supposed to be better than them. When it came to academics, the
girls did better and the boys would blame their scores on the fact that they were girls. We were
raised thinking that it was okay to separate one another, even if it meant limiting our own
strengths.
Some may say that men and women are biologically the same and that men excel in
physical activities more than women because of social pressures, however this is proven to not
be true as seen in sports. In Ruth Hubbards, Rethinking Womens Biology, Hubbard explained
how men are stronger than women when it comes to upper body strength because in society, men
carry more things than women, but men and women are more equal when it comes to lower body

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strength because both genders practically do the same thing. However, in my experience, this has
proven to not be true. I swam competitively for three seasons in my high school which is roughly
4 months each with two hour practices on weekdays. Half of the team consisted of club
swimmers whove been training since they were in elementary school. In club swim, you train 4
hours a day, including holidays. However, after three or four seasons of swim, the boys who were
not in club swim surpassed most of the girls in club swim according to their fastest times. In
most of the sports in the olympics, most people can say that men compete better than women
regardless of how much training theyve had. This shows that naturally, men excel in physical
activities more than women. There will always be natural differences between men and women
and physical attributes will always be one.
Its a natural thing for men and women to separate themselves. In Aaron Devors
Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, Devor explains how children
group themselves by their own gender. In one study, they discovered that children distinguish
gender by looking at gender role information which includes hair style and the way they dress.
Only a few percentage used primary or secondary sex characteristics to identify gender (37). This
shows that separation starts at a young age. Its also natural for men and women to follow the
stronger person of their gender. Back in Lorbers Night to His Day, in a carefully nonsexist
elementary school, one feminist couple found that the boys and girls followed gender norms,
even when sexism was supposed to almost be nonexistent. They found that the girls wore
makeup and the boys did not. They noticed that the boys were following the dominant male in
the class and that boy said that he would never wear make up, and so the boys followed him. The
girls followed the dominant female, which was the teacher who wore make up. Even in the most

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confined places, children will alway find a way to separate themselves from the other gender, its
just a matter of how they separate themselves that leads to discrimination.
We may one day live in a world where gender doesnt play a critical role in our everyday
lives. In Are We Facing a Genderless Future, by Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert, they talk
about how people from all over the world are having their sex changes to be accepted. Many
universities including Penn and Michigan and Harvard, gender neutral housing and more unisex
bathrooms are being implemented. Today, gays and lesbians are being more accepted than ever.
Just this year, gay marriage became legal in all states due to a supreme court case. However,
even if they are being accepted, that doesnt change the fact that most parents want to have
biological grandparents and they will try to make that happen by raising their children to not be
gay or lesbian as seen in Emily W. Kanes No Way My Boys Are Going to Be Like That:
Parents Responses to Childrens Gender Nonconformity. Parents purposely give their children
toys that go with their gender in hopes that their children will not turn out to be gay. If their
children do turn out to be gay, they will feel like they failed as parents even though sexuality is a
biological factor, not an environmental one.
Segregation will always be involved when it comes to gender in society because of the
environmental and biological factors that we deal with on a daily basis. Some of these ways
include parents raising their children to follow their gender, infants naturally distinguish genders,
men commonly excel more than women in most physical activities, and its difficult for some to
accept women in leadership roles. Its the conservative mind set that we all grew up with that
keep genders from accepting each other as equals.

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Works Cited
Curran, Daniel. "Women, Men, and Society." Composing Gender. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's,
2014. 76-84. Web.
Devor, Aaron. "Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender." Composing
Gender. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 35-43. Web.
Hubbard, Ruth. "Rethinking Womens Biology." Composing Gender. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2014. 46-52. Web.
Kane, Emily. "No Way My Boys Are Going to Be Like That: Parents Responses to Childrens
Gender Nonconformity." Composing Gender. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 91-97.
Web.
Kantrowitz, Barbara, and Pat Wingert. "Are We Facing a Genderless Future." Composing
Gender. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 68-71. Web.
Lorber, Judith. "Night To His Day: The Social Construction of Gender." Composing Gender.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 19-30. Web.