Introduction:
Our study was conducted due to our curiosity of our communal prevalence of gender inequality. We had taken notice of the large impact such discrimination had made on the gender communities, so we wanted to not only look into the affects and importance of this phenomenon, but also its role in our own community. Gender inequality affects the lives of millions of those who are subject to it in ways politically, economically, and socially. The social norms for each gender has created many gaps in certain parts of society leaving the genders unequal. Our research was conducted to uncover how influential this inequality is on every scale. We researched many articles and studies to draw conclusions on the national and global scale of this discrimination. We also conducted our own survey in our local area to determine the communal gender inequality.
Methods:
This survey consisted of a series of 32 questions relating to the topic "Communal Gender Inequality".
This Survey was done through the survey database Qualtrics, and posted by all members of the group. Everyone posted it on major social media platforms for responses. Overall we received 64 participants ranging in age from 18 to 74, of all sexes, ethnicities, and relationship statues. To take this survey you did not have to be a student at the College of Coastal Georgia. When taking the survey there were multiple choice answers along with fill in the blanks.
All group members promoted this survey on their own social media accounts. They also reached out to fellow students and friends so they could relay the message to others. This allows for numerous people to take it from all different backgrounds and communities.
The primary source used for this research study was a thoroughly conducted and examined survey. This survey provided an official report with data from the overall reports. The secondary sources we used were peer reviewed, scholarly research articles that all group members found.
The information we collected was from a total of 64 participants. Over the majority of participants were females (41- female, 4-male, 1 non-bionary). 30% of the participants were aged 18-24, 4% were 25-34, 26% were aged 35-44, 21% ranged from 45-54, 10% were 55-64, and lastly 6% were aged 64-74. No one over the age of 75 responded to our survey.
86% of the participants that took the survey were white/caucasion, 2.1% were black or African american, 2.1% were Hispanic or Latino, 2.1% were Native American or Native Indian, 2.1% were Asian, and 4.3% identified as another race/ethnicity.
The table below shows the results of the question “What gender do you identify as”.
Results:
When asked what gender inequality means to you 36%, which was the majority said unequal pay. While the rest chose different societal duties (24%), schooling admission gap (9%), or job acquiring inequality (25%). We were looking for that answer to be the majority being that is what our whole project is about. The feedback from that survey question backed up our topic.
Data collected from social media friends asking if they were a victim of gender inequality and where it took place, 60% said that gender inequality took place at work. Which also backs up our research topic. The rest of the people said it took place at school (6.4%), home (8.5%), or the public (19%). 6% of responses said it took place in other settings. This shows a lot considering there is a majority agreement that the work place is the most gender discriminating setting of society. We can infer that not only is there gender inequality in the hiring and treatment of women in the workplace, but we can also look into the gender wage gap and how that has significance on the belief of the unequalness of the workplace. This inspired further research into the gender wage gap which is stated further in the discussion.
The people were asked which gender they would say experiences the most gender inequality, 63% said that females experience the most. The rest picked males (3%), non binary (5%), trans men (8%), trans women (10%), and 6% said they don't think any genders experience inequality. This finding was not necessarily surprising, but we based our studies off the gender inequality of women because we believed they were the most discriminated against, and it is reinforcing to see that others believe so as well.
When asked how you would describe the servility of gender inequality in today's society, the majority (51%) said that inequality was mildly severe. The rest said that gender inequality was not severe (8%), severe (20%), very severe (6%) extremely severe (4%).
The response to the question " Do you think the severity of gender inequality has gotten worse or better over the past few decades?" We were intrigued by the results of this question. Most people (44%) said that it was getting better while 33% said it was getting worse, and 22% said that it has not changed over the past few decades. Although more has come out and been public about gender inequality in recent years leading some to believe it has gotten worse, there is proof of progression in the case of gender inequality over the past few decades. A highly referred to analysis called “The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations'' by Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn looked at the general trend of the gender wage gap over the past few decades. Overall the study found that the gender wage gap itself has been on a steady decline over the past few decades. This is because in 1975 women made about 60% of what men made for the same jobs while today they make close to 80% (Blau, Kahn: Figure 1, Pg.792). This does show hope for the future termination of the gender wage gap.
Discussion:
Overall, our survey uncovered the fact that there is gender belief of inequality in our community. This is significant because it shows that many different people have either been a victim to gender inequality or witnessed gender inequality in their life, which is a saddening fact. As the years went on the topic of gender inequality had gotten bigger, and our survey was published, so we as a group could get a better understanding about it.
Gender Inequality Nationwide:
Through these last years, the topic of gender inequality has become more widespread throughout our nation. Throughout our research it shows that many women have had to deal with inequality in their everyday lives. From our survey, it showed that 63% of the participants agree that females experience the most inequality. Gender inequality has persisted in this country and many women have had to live in a society where it is an everyday occurrence.
The author Cecila Ridgeway tackles this topic in her book by saying, “A system of gender inequality like this has persisted in the United States despite major transformation in the way that gender, at any given time, has been entwined with the economic and social organization of American Society” (Ridgeway pg.1). The issue that she is expressing is that society has continued with gender inequality despite the major changes that it has been through. Our data shows that 78% of the participants agreed that men experience the least gender inequality. In our society a gender hierarchy was built that advantages men over women.
Despite the gains and advantages women achieve they are still being treated at a disadvantage because of their gender. The persitiant wage gap and sexual harassment towards women are all just everyday reminders that they live in a world with gender inequality. When we asked our participants where they think gender inequality is most prominent, 60% said the workplace. A study shows that, “Women often receive lower pay for the same or comparable work, and they are frequently blocked in their chances for advancement, especially to do positions” (Lorber pg.4). As women try to advance in their careers they are often reminded that they will not achieve a certain title due to their gender. This can also affect men in their workplace; "We found that state effects of gender inequality on pay were mixed, with pay generally rising with state liberalism on the one hand. On the other hand, working for a female boss significantly reduced wages” (Ruppanner, Maume vol. 56). Another study conducted by a different group also expressed the same idea, “For instance, men earn 81 times more on average than women in the USA basketball league. Moreover, men receive 50% of their total league’s revenue whereas women only receive 33%.” (Moawad pg.30). When these facts are published it is a constant reminder to women that even if they work their hardest they are constantly being suppressed.
Gender Inequality Outside the US:
One of the places we explored gender inequality was Pakistan. In Pakistan women are treated poorly and face discrimination everywhere. They are also not allowed to make life decisions on their own. The IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science states, “The discriminatory attitude towards women as inferior is observed even before their birth... She has no right to take independent decisions that influence her life tremendously. Someone else makes decisions on her behalf regarding education, marriage, or giving birth to a child, not by herself" (Inayat Pg.17). This is signifies the innate discrimination which takes place and affects women since they were born.
After researching gender inequality it is not only an issue in the United States it is prominent all over the world. One of our main studies we did was focusing on inequality in different parts of the world. Inequality is more than just a pay gap and affects women’s views on society. The article “Gender Inequality in Education and Economic Growth: Case Study of Pakistan" by Imran Chaudhry states, “The equality status of women and men has become an important and burning issue at a political and social level.”(Chaudhry pg.81). This is evidence that gender inequality appears outside the US and is apparent in other parts the world deeming this a global issue.
Gender Inequality in our Community:
When we looked beyond our own surroundings for most of our research, we found the prevalence of gender inequality to be quite apparent in many aspects of society. How much of this applies to our own community? This was the question which inspired our study.
Researching certain articles which take samples from thousands of people from various places can somewhat generalize the conversation of a certain topic. Such examples of this can be shown in articles such as "Five Faces of Oppression" by Iris Young. In her article she states, "In the United States a shamefully large proportion of the population is marginal; old people and increasingly people who are not very old but get laid off from their jobs and cannot find new work; young people, especially Black or Latino, who cannot find first or second jobs; many single mothers and their children; other people involuntarily unemployed; many mentally and physically disabled people; Americans Indians, especially those on reservations" (Young pg. 18). The broadening of stating a fact about the United States shows many studies such as this look at things on a national scale. We wanted to see how well these facts aligned with our own community. The basic notion we drew from our research was that gender inequality is indeed apparent. It is apparent in the household with certain gender roles. It is apparent in society with certain expectations and norms for each gender. It is also apparent in economical environments such as the workplace where women are not treated, paid, or given the same opportunities as men. There is a lot of agreeance that women do receive more systematic oppression than men which can be disheartening considering that over 50% of the population is comprised of identifying women. How could such a large population be systematically oppressed?
This was an odd observation by us which gave the realization to the true weight that this subject holds. There is the question of how many of those women truly feel oppressed on a daily basis. Typical studies may have bias with women who do feel oppressed being the only ones who participate in studies asking their opinion. This is why we felt the need to take primary research on typical, communal people who are taking a random survey and may be any gender. Most of our participants (89%) were female which gave the turnout of 30% who felt they had experienced gender inequality. Consider that 8% of respondents were male and could have contributed to the 70% who were not victims.
Although 30% may not seem like a stunning percentage of those who feel they are oppressed, it still needs to be taken in consideration because according to our survey, about 65% of oppression based on gender is towards women. This shows that there is indeed a good sum of those who feel that a group which makes up over 50% of the population is generally oppressed which is the stunning percentage. That is not a minority but a majority who receives prejudice.
We then need to look into where we feel this discrimination is most apparent for the sake of bringing this to an end. 60% of the people who took our survey said gender inequality is most apparent in the workplace which is a good place to consider and understand why this is.
Gender Inequality in the Workplace:
Our study shows that women are unequal in the workplace when it comes to pay or just by how they are treated. After constructing a survey and posting it on social media platforms asking followers to complete the survey, we found out that most women feel inferior when it comes to men in the workplace. The article "Women at Work Equality Versus Inequality: Barriers For Advancing in the Workplace" by M.P Michailidis states, “...several barriers that were identified, preventing women from advancement such as stereotypes, conflicting work and family obligations, lack of women role models and low levels of self-confidence” (Michailidis pg.52). This shows many social effects which prevent women from entering the workforce. Certain societal norms have larger impacts on a woman's drive to become an influential aspect of the economy.
When we received our feedback from the survey it backed up our statement that women are the ones that experience the most inequality. 61% of the people that completed the survey reported that they were a victim of inequality in the workplace and 38% said that inequality was unequal pay. Another study titled "Selective Incivility, Trust and General Well-Being: A Study of Women at the Workplace" by Rawat Preeti stated, “Women have fewer opportunities for economic participation than men, less access to basic and higher education, greater health and safety risks, and less political representation" (Preeti pg.303). Not only do women have less drive to be in the workforce, but even when they do want to be part of more professional employers, they have hardships in the process of receiving qualification which is another roadblock on the path of workforce equality.
Statistics show that about 46.8 percent of women in the US are part of the labor force (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics para.1). This means that a good proportion of women have overcome the social norms of women out of the workforce, and have received proper qualification for a career. However, certain studies show that even though they do have a career, gender inequality in the workplace affects the efficiency of their doings. In the article, "Managerial Aspiration: Do Gender and Gender Role Identity Make a Difference in the Chinese Context?" the author states, “When they perceive themselves to exhibit feminine traits, they are more likely to hold lower management aspirations" (Ruijuan Zhang, Shaoping Qiu, Larry M. pg.4). This shows that the want for further position in a workplace is inhibited by the treatment of women which can only mean that how they are treated based on their gender affects their performance as an employee. This is also seen in the article, "Incentives to Move up: Effects of Pay Gaps between Levels on Employee Performance” by Wei Chi. Chi states, "Our findings suggest that pay gaps, even after controlling for the actual pay amount, matter for employee performance”(Chi pg.250). This also proves that gender inequality affects the efficiency of the duties of women.
It is important now to see how this domino effect from inequality to poor employee performance has an effect on the economy as a whole. Luckily a study called “Dynamic Effects of U.S. Budget Deficit and Labor Productivity-Real Wage Gap on Us Stock Market Performance" by Matiur and Muhammand Rahman found that, "...real budget deficit and labor productivity- real wage gap have long-run implications for US stock market performance with no significant short-run influences”(Rahman, Matiur and Muhammand pg.65). This is concerning considering that a societal prejudice has such a dramatic influence on the integrity of the economy.
Behind all the accusations of the workplace being the most discriminating when it comes to gender really boils down to one source. The gender wage gap. This gives much reason to the overwhelming opinion that the workplace is most discriminating by those who took our survey. Many have had speculation on the actual prevalence and existence of the gender wage gap, and convincing evidence has shown that it is indeed a thing. In her book "The Gender Wage Gap", Melissa Higgins explains that, "The wage gap is computed by averaging what all women, working full time, earn in one year compared with all men, working full time, earn in one year. In 2015, the figure commonly used was 78 cents. In other words, for every dollar a man made, a woman made 78 cents” (Higgins pg. 26). This gives a good look into the true amount of difference between the apparent worth of a man's work above a woman's. Other studies can agree with this statistic such as “Full-Time and Part-Time Work and the Gender Wage Gap" by Luiza Antonie where she states, "In aggregation, the overall gender wage gap is about 30%..." (Antonie pg. 1). Overall, we can see that there is an obvious difference in the pay of man and woman which is nothing less than gender discrimination in the workforce.
After going through the feedback from the survey we were happy to see that the survey provided us all the information that we had predicted we would receive. We had predicted that women were the gender that experienced the most inequality. We had also predicted the reason for inequality was the unequal pay between men and women.
Conclusion:
One limitation we ran into with our survey is that when the person would go to fill it out they would skip some questions making it harder to get accurate data. A second limitation we had was posting our survey on social media and not getting that much feedback in the amount of time we had it posted. The third limitation we experienced was with the covid pandemic we were not able to hand out flyers to expand our research and gain more feedback. Our research can still be continued as each person has different views on gender inequality.
Overall, we can conclude that there is gender inequality in our community, nation, and globe. Our studies were focused on the effects, prevalence, and existence of gender inequality on many different scales. We looked and recorded from studies which focused on the problem of gender inequality in society throughout the world and more specifically in the US. We found that it is very prevalent and effective which led to our want to see its relation in our own community. We conducted our survey and found most people agree on the existence of gender inequality, and some had even been victims. We were surprised to uncover the scale to which such a majority group in the world could be such a target for prejudice. We looked into the certain aspects of society which is most prominent with gender inequality and found the workplace is most commonly noted for its discrimination which was backed up by those who took our survey which 60% agreed the workplace is the most unequal. We can clearly state that gender inequality is apparent in all aspects of society, and is on a much larger scale than most might think.
Work cited:
Young, Iris. “Five Faces of Oppression.” Oppression, Privilege, and Resistance: Theoretical Perspectives on Racism, Sexism, and Heterosexism. 2004, p. 39-65. Accessed 23 September 2020.
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Ruijuan Zhang, Shaoping Qiu, Larry M. Dooley, Tamim Choudhury. (2020) Managerial aspiration: do gender and gender role identity make a difference in the Chinese context?. Gender in Management: An International Journal ahead-of-print:ahead-of-print.
Preeti S. Rawat, Shrabani B. Bhattacharjee, Vaishali Ganesh. (2019) Selective incivility, trust and general well-being: a study of women at the workplace. Journal of Indian Business Research 12:3, pages 303-326.
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