Gender Equality in the Workforce
According to a recent study published by the Department of Sociology at NYU, the progress made towards gender equality in the United States has slowed, if not come to a stop. In the past four decades, female empowerment has been evidently on the rise. The data shows this clearly as more and more women have been getting degrees, better paying and higher positions of professions, and even diversification. However, in recent years, this progression has come to a plateau.
The progress seen in the integration of women in the workforce is one of the main issues. In the past, we’ve pushed for the increase in women attaining education with degrees; however, now we are noticing an increase in occupational segregation. There are pronounced gender differences in professional choices. Men continue to overpower the business and science degrees, whereas women typically pursue degrees and professions related to the arts and humanities topics. This can be traced back to children’s interests and roles from a very young age. Typically boys are given building blocks, and girls are given dolls. This gendered choice that has been replicated from generation to generation of new parents is arguably the starting point of many gendered decisions that will be continued by the child. Although Legos and Barbies may seem a little far-fetched for why someone might want to go into a STEM career rather than teaching, the data shows an increasingly segregated occupational force, hinting towards how we socialize our children based on their socially constructed gender.
We continue to socialize our children into gender norms that affect their overall success later on. Our little girls are growing up to stay in their ‘own lane’ of arts and humanities rather than venture into more scientific or business oriented skill sets and vice versa for our boys. Careers are vital to society’s functionality; however, this lack of young girls’ access to the STEM and business fields is exactly what we should work to conquer from a young age.
Starting at the root of the problem, we should introduce our children to different toys, skill sets, and hobbies to allow a more liberated and less socially constructed group of choices later on. Enroll your daughters in a coding course, encourage them at the annual science fair, teach your sons emotional maturity, and express the arts. It’s as simple as that. Simply enabling and encouraging the disruption of these gender norms will create a whole new wave progression towards gender equality.
At this point in our progression, we have succeeded at bringing women to the workforce and in higher education; however, we continue to see the disparity of pay and occupational segregation, among other consequences of our patriarchal society. By disrupting restrictive gender norms, we disrupt occupational segregation, and eventually, the wage gap and glass ceiling will crumble. The restrictive nature of gender norms that we start from such a young age is precisely the reasoning for these gendered disparities within the workforce; thus, the end to the generational continuation of such gender norms ends the generational continuation of this glass ceiling for women across the globe.
Gender equality is not an easy task to tackle; however, some simple self-reflection is always a good start. Ask yourself what; are ways you continue to perpetuate restrictive and sexist norms or boundaries that you were able to altogether avoid due to your privilege. What are the ways that you can change to represent living diversity? How can you better yourself to lead by example? Now think bigger. How can you translate these new habits and rhetorical choices into your profession? You don’t know how many lives your reflection and preferences can impact, but isn’t it rewarding enough to just better yourself? To make a change in this world, you need to start from within.
Isabelle C. Jean
