Argumentative Essay On Gender Roles In Society

Historically, women have been considered an oppressed minority group, with patterns of inequality constantly running rampant across the globe, shaping important aspects of society such as the media, politics, education, and family life. Sexism is built into the structure of society and therefore, men, in general, have greater opportunities and are given more resources than women are. This gender stratification affects how society functions in many aspects, including economically. Society’s differing levels of economic development around the world affect how women are viewed and what opportunities they could potentially have. Factors such as traditional values, lack of access to technology, lack of resources, and rigid gender roles affect women’s social standing in different ways. Gender has great control of how society functions, with the patriarchy controlling how men and women think they should behave. Through socialization, throughout our lives, rigid gender roles are pushed on to us and definitions of what it means to be masculine and feminine are ingrained into our brains. Our society defines men as being dominant, strong and powerful and defines women as being weak, …show more content…
With their less-advanced technology, these types of societies assign roles based on physical characteristics, rather than on brain power, creating a sex-based division of labor. Since men biologically have greater strength and size, they are generally the ones who do the hard labor such as hunting or farming, while women bear children, so most of their tasks are based in the home such as cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. By being forced into these different roles, it creates a natural power-dynamic between genders with men on top, being viewed as more respected, since they have the access to professions that make money which, in turn, gives them more power and puts them above