Close The Gender Gap Essay

Imagine you had a daughter and she had been in a relationship with a guy for a while. Imagine this guy walks up to you and asks if he can marry your daughter. A lot of things probably go through your mind at this point, like if he makes a decent living, if he is responsible, and if he treats your daughter well. The answers to these questions may very well determine your response, but it was not always that way. There was a time where marriage was more of an exchange of property from the patriarch of the family to a different man so that he may be the patriarch of his own family one day.
A scholar said “But patriarchy is still with us—“us”, for purposes of this paper, being the USA in the early twenty-first century—in many spheres of life” (Ortner). Ortner is absolutely right; many households still do operate as a patriarchy. Not always is it in the same form as it was back in the peak of its existence, but a case is definitely able to be made that the father is the head of the …show more content…
Around the world, most countries are attempting to close the gender gap. In 2013, the United States of America ranked 23rd in the world in it’s ability to close the gender gap (Healey). With that being said, it is apparent that we have a long way to go as we strive for complete gender equality. I bet that it is easy for a woman to feel inferior to a man when we have to ask her father if we can marry her before we can even ask her.
Gender role stereotypes are perhaps another problem at hand. A study performed showed that “After physical attractiveness, gender role incongruence was the greatest factor that determined interest in a profile.” (Chappetta and Barlh). People in America still adhere to gender role stereotypes in some places. As long as they keep letting these stereotypes be true about them, then demeaning things like this are going to continue to