Gender InequalityIn Western society, traditional male and female roles are not only substa

Gender Inequality

In Western society, traditional male and female roles are not only substantially different, but also highly unequal. As we have seen, the male is given the dominant position. In a sense he is the star actor, whereas the female often plays only a supporting role. Psychologically, the male is trained to play the role of decision maker, whereas the female is encouraged to be submissive and obedient. This same gender inequality is reflected in our basic institutions. In education, employment, and politics, women clearly are treated as inferiors.

Education

In the past, women faced open discrimination in almost every aspect of our educational system. Far more boys than girls were enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and most of the best colleges did not admit women at all. Changing cultural expectations and new antidiscrimination laws broke down most of these barriers, and great progress has been made. Today, more females than males graduate from high school and from college.

Yet men still maintain some important educational advantages. For one thing, men receive over 60 percent of professional degrees and doctorates. There are also important differences in the majors women and men pursue. More females are in the liberal arts and humanities, while more men major in such fields as science, mathematics, and engineering, which are most likely to lead directly to high-paying career. Although the reasons for these differences are not entirely clear, several factors appear to be important. It seems that traditional gender role stereotypes no longer stop females from pursuing an education, but women are discouraged from going into academic areas that are overwhelmingly dominated by males. For example, one recent study shows that the lack of female role models among faculty members in mathematics, science, and engineering subtly conveys the message to young women that those fields are not for them. Women's preference for a more general liberal education may also reflect the fact that women expect to carry more child-rearing responsibilities than their male counterparts. As a result, they may shy away from majors leading to demanding careers that would interfere with those responsibilities.

Employment

Women's role in the work force has undergone a remarkable change. Fifty years ago, fewer than a quarter of all adult women in the United States worked outside the home. Today, that figure has more than doubled, and the number of working women continues to increase. In the next decade, six of every ten new workers in the United States are expected to be women. Although the gap between men's and women's pay has narrowed in recent years, it continues to be a large one. In 1975 women earned only about 60 percent as much as men, but by 1992, that figure was around 75 percent. Unfortunately, the reason the gap has closed is due more to a decline in men's earnings than to an increase in women's pay. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute concluded that over two-thirds of that improvement was caused by the drop in men's wages and only a third by increasing women's wages.

Many women receive smaller paychecks than men because they enter lower-paying occupations and hold lower-ranking jobs within their field. Yet there are substantial differences in pay even among men and women who do the same type of work. Women in sales earn only 56 percent as much as salesmen, and women professionals about 72 percent as much as their male counterparts. A Business Week survey found that the starting salaries of male graduates of the best MBA programs in the United States are 12 percent higher than the starting salaries of female graduates. Even when workers break out of the traditional occupational stereotypes, women still come up short. Although 94 percent of all registered nurses are female, male nurses earn about 10 percent more than

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C．NG