gender bias reflection essay

Essay on Gender Bias

Students are often asked to write an essay on Gender Bias in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Gender Bias

Understanding gender bias.

Gender bias refers to the unequal treatment of people based on their gender. It can be seen in various areas like workplaces, schools, or homes. It is a significant issue that needs to be addressed.

Effects of Gender Bias

Gender bias can lead to discrimination and limit opportunities. It can affect a person’s self-esteem and potential. It can also perpetuate stereotypes, leading to unfair expectations.

Combating Gender Bias

To combat gender bias, we need to promote equality and fairness. Education about gender bias is crucial, as well as encouraging respect for all genders.

250 Words Essay on Gender Bias

Introduction.

Gender bias, a deeply entrenched social evil, permeates every layer of society. It is a prejudiced view or preferential treatment based on one’s gender, often favoring men over women. This essay explores the origins, manifestations, and implications of gender bias.

Origins of Gender Bias

Gender bias has roots in patriarchal societies where males were the primary authority figures. This bias is not merely a cultural artifact; it is often subtly propagated through language, education, and media, reinforcing stereotypical gender roles.

Manifestations of Gender Bias

Gender bias manifests in various forms, such as wage disparity, limited opportunities for women in leadership, and societal expectations about gender roles. In STEM fields, for example, women are often underrepresented, a phenomenon attributed to deep-seated biases.

Implications of Gender Bias

The implications of gender bias are far-reaching. It not only restricts individual growth but also hampers societal progress. By limiting opportunities based on gender, we lose out on the potential contributions of half the population.

To redress gender bias, we must challenge and change our societal norms and personal prejudices. Education plays a crucial role in this transformation, promoting gender equality and empowering everyone to contribute their skills and talents without bias. In the end, overcoming gender bias is not just about fairness; it’s about unlocking the full potential of human society.

500 Words Essay on Gender Bias

Gender bias is a deeply rooted issue in societies worldwide, manifesting in various forms, from subtle to blatant. It refers to the unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender and often stems from traditional stereotypes and societal norms. This essay delves into the complexities of gender bias, its implications, and potential solutions.

Gender bias is often a product of cultural conditioning and institutionalized stereotypes. It can be explicit, such as discriminatory laws, or implicit, manifesting as unconscious bias. Gender bias is not restricted to any one gender; it affects all genders, leading to a skewed perception of abilities and roles.

The implications of gender bias are far-reaching and pervasive, affecting various aspects of life. In the workplace, it can lead to unequal pay or opportunities, contributing to the gender wage gap. In education, it can limit access to resources or opportunities for certain genders, shaping career paths and future prospects. It also influences societal expectations, dictating ‘appropriate’ behaviors and roles for different genders.

Gender Bias in Media and Popular Culture

Media and popular culture play a significant role in perpetuating gender bias. The portrayal of genders in movies, advertisements, and literature often reinforces stereotypes, shaping public perception. For instance, the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles in films may lead to the belief that women are less capable leaders.

Addressing Gender Bias

Addressing gender bias requires a multifaceted approach. Education is a powerful tool in this regard. By promoting gender equality and challenging stereotypes in educational settings, we can foster more equitable attitudes.

Moreover, policies should be implemented to ensure equal opportunities and fair treatment for all genders in workplaces, schools, and other institutions. For instance, implementing transparent salary structures can help address the gender wage gap.

Lastly, individuals can play a significant role in challenging gender bias. By becoming aware of our own biases and actively seeking to challenge them, we can contribute to a more equitable society.

Gender bias is a complex issue deeply ingrained in societal structures and attitudes. It impacts various aspects of life, from career opportunities to societal expectations. Addressing it requires a concerted effort from individuals, institutions, and society at large. Through education, policy changes, and personal commitment, we can challenge and overcome gender bias, paving the way for a more equitable society.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Gender Stereotypes
• Essay on Gender Equality in India
• Essay on Gender Equality

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

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Blog Justice Digital

https://mojdigital.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/08/breaking-gender-stereotypes-a-personal-reflection/

Breaking Gender Stereotypes: A Personal Reflection

This International Women’s Day, I wanted to reflect on the power of role models to increase inclusion and inspire change in the workplace.  

When he was five, my son asked me if men were ever allowed to be doctors. His question came from the world he knew - he had only ever seen or heard about women doctors. His aunt is a doctor, his granny a senior nurse, and of course Miss Rabbit in his favourite show, Peppa Pig, is a doctor, among her many other and varied professions. 

I grew up in a family where traditional gender roles were ignored. My mum was the main earner whilst my dad stayed at home to look after the kids.  It never once occurred to me that being a woman would limit my potential or my dreams. My mum was a daily role model of a strong, inspiring woman with a series of very senior jobs. She showed resilience, capability, and confidence. I saw first-hand that a woman could be a mum and have the career she wanted at the same time. 

What I didn’t see at the time of course were the barriers that she and her generation, as well as the women before her, were forced to overcome to get to that position. Or indeed how difficult it was to succeed in a still very male-dominated environment. Gender discrimination, limited job opportunities, unequal pay, and pervasive sexual harassment were harsh realities for women in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Thankfully, pioneering women persisted in their pursuit of equality and paved the way for future generations like mine to challenge traditional gender roles and advocate for workplace fairness and a seat at the table. I stand on the shoulders of these giants - the courageous women like my mum who defied societal norms, shattered glass ceilings, and fought tirelessly for gender equality. Their unwavering determination and resilience has paved the way for me and countless others to succeed without the constraints of gender stereotypes.  

But despite my young son thinking that only women can be doctors, the battle isn’t yet won.

Gender equality is not just a female fight  

It’s up to everyone as a collective to drive progress. Today, in 2024, despite advancements in gender equality, women continue to face obstacles such as the gender pay gap, under-representation in leadership roles, and workplace harassment. 

The McKinsey’s 2002 report on Women in the Workplace showed that when managers actively advocate for gender diversity and provide support and mentorship to female employees, gender disparities in the workplace are significantly reduced. Supportive managers play a crucial role in dismantling barriers and biases. 

We also need to actively push for more diversity in our teams, especially in management roles. To increase inclusivity of course but also because diverse voices and views make a better Civil Service able to serve our communities more effectively. To do this, we need to increase awareness and educate our colleagues about the unique challenges faced by women from different cultures, ethnicities, and sexualities in the workplace. This means proactive not passive allyship – speak out against bias, advocate for opportunities, and become mentors and sponsors.

Let's normalise diversity  

In Justice Digital, we strive to build an inclusive talent pipeline. We want a workplace culture where women feel valued, respected, and supported, to reduce the prevalence and likelihood of microaggressions and biases. That means standing up to poor behaviour, advocating for flexible working, and promoting the benefits of feminine, people-focused, leadership. 

Since August of last year, we've welcomed 92 incredible women to Justice Digital, and we're eager to see this number continue to rise! We have also recently signed up to the Talent Tech Charter which aims to help organisations look at the different lenses of diversity and how these lenses impact strategies like recruitment, retention, and creating an inclusive culture.    

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we pay tribute to the resilience and perseverance of women who have blazed trails for progress and have allowed us to feel we have a place (and a voice) at the table. Let us all play our part in advocating for an inclusive and equitable workplace that embraces diversity and empowers all women.

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Essay on Gender Discrimination

• Updated on  
• Jul 14, 2022

One of the challenges present in today’s society is gender discrimination. Gender discrimination is when someone is treated unequally based on their gender. Gender discrimination is not just present in the workplace but in schools, colleges and communities as well. As per the Civil Rights Act of 1964,  gender discrimination is illegal in India. This is also an important and common essay topic in schools and competitive exams such as IELTS , TOEFL , SAT , UPSC , etc. Let’s explore some samples of essay on gender discrimination and tips for writing an impactful essay.

Tips for Writing an Impactful Essay

If you want to write a scoring and deep impact essay, here are some tips for writing a perfect informative essay:

• The most important and first step is to write an introduction and background information about and related to the topic
• Then you are also required to use the formal style of writing and avoid using slang language
• To make an essay more impactful, write dates, quotations, and names to provide a better understanding
• You can use jargon wherever it is necessary as it sometimes makes an essay complicated
• To make an essay more creative, you can also add information in bulleted points wherever possible
• Always remember to add a conclusion where you need to summarise crucial points
• Once you are done read through the lines and check spelling and grammar mistakes before submission

Essay on Gender Discrimination in 200 Words

One of the important aspects of a democratic society is the elimination of gender discrimination. The root cause of this vigorous disease is the stereotypical society itself. When a child is born, the discrimination begins; if the child is male, he is given a car, bat and ball with blue, and red colour clothes, whereas when a child is female, she is given barbie dolls with pink clothes. We all are raised with a mentality that boys are good at sports and messy, but girls are not good at sports and are well organised. This discriminatory mentality has a deeper impact when girls are told not to work while boys are allowed to do much work. This categorising males and females into different categories discriminating based on gender are known as gender discrimination. Further, this discriminatory behaviour in society leads to hatred, injustice and much more. This gender discrimination is evident in every woman’s life at the workplace, in educational institutions, in sports, etc., where young girls and women are deprived of their rights and undervalued. This major issue prevailing in society can be solved only by providing equality to women and giving them all rights as given to men.

Essay on Gender Discrimination in 300 Words 

Gender Discrimination, as the term signifies, is discrimination or discriminatory behaviour based on gender. The stereotypical mindset of people in the past has led to the discrimination that women face today. According to Kahle Wolfe, in 2015, women earned 83% of the income paid to men by working the same hours. Almost all women are not only discriminated against based on their salaries but also on their looks.

Further, most women are allowed to follow a certain dress code depending upon the work field and the dress women wear also decides their future career.

This dominant male society teaches males that women are weak and innocent. Thus women are mostly victims and are targeted in crimes. For example, In a large portion of the globe, women are blamed for rapes despite being victims because of their clothes. This society also portrays women as weaker and not eligible enough to take a stand for themselves, leading to the major destruction of women’s personalities as men are taught to let women down. This mindset of people nowadays is a major social justice issue leading to gender discrimination in society.

Further, gender-based discrimination is evident across the globe in a plethora of things, including sports, education, health and law. Every 1 out of 3 women in the world is abused in various forms at some point in their lives by men. This social evil is present in most parts of the world; in India, women are burnt to death if they are incapable of affording financial requirements; in Egypt, women are killed by society if they are sensed doing something unclean in or out of their families, whereas in South Africa baby girls are abandoned or killed as they are considered as burden for the family. Thus gender discrimination can be only eliminated from society by educating people about giving equal rights and respect to every gender.

Top Universities for Gender Studies Abroad

UK, Canada and USA are the top three countries to study gender studies abroad. Here’s the list of top universities you can consider if you planning to pursue gender studies course abroad: 

We hope this blog has helped you in structuring a terrific essay on gender discrimination. Planning to ace your IELTS, get expert tips from coaches at Leverage Live by Leverage Edu .

Sonal is a creative, enthusiastic writer and editor who has worked extensively for the Study Abroad domain. She splits her time between shooting fun insta reels and learning new tools for content marketing. If she is missing from her desk, you can find her with a group of people cracking silly jokes or petting neighbourhood dogs.

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5 Powerful Essays Advocating for Gender Equality

Gender equality – which becomes reality when all genders are treated fairly and allowed equal opportunities –  is a complicated human rights issue for every country in the world. Recent statistics are sobering. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 108 years to achieve gender parity . The biggest gaps are found in political empowerment and economics. Also, there are currently just six countries that give women and men equal legal work rights. Generally, women are only given ¾ of the rights given to men. To learn more about how gender equality is measured, how it affects both women and men, and what can be done, here are five essays making a fair point.

Take a free course on Gender Equality offered by top universities!

“Countries With Less Gender Equity Have More Women In STEM — Huh?” – Adam Mastroianni and Dakota McCoy

This essay from two Harvard PhD candidates (Mastroianni in psychology and McCoy in biology) takes a closer look at a recent study that showed that in countries with lower gender equity, more women are in STEM. The study’s researchers suggested that this is because women are actually especially interested in STEM fields, and because they are given more choice in Western countries, they go with different careers. Mastroianni and McCoy disagree.

They argue the research actually shows that cultural attitudes and discrimination are impacting women’s interests, and that bias and discrimination is present even in countries with better gender equality. The problem may lie in the Gender Gap Index (GGI), which tracks factors like wage disparity and government representation. To learn why there’s more women in STEM from countries with less gender equality, a more nuanced and complex approach is needed.

“Men’s health is better, too, in countries with more gender equality” – Liz Plank

When it comes to discussions about gender equality, it isn’t uncommon for someone in the room to say, “What about the men?” Achieving gender equality has been difficult because of the underlying belief that giving women more rights and freedom somehow takes rights away from men. The reality, however, is that gender equality is good for everyone. In Liz Plank’s essay, which is an adaption from her book For the Love of Men: A Vision for Mindful Masculinity, she explores how in Iceland, the #1 ranked country for gender equality, men live longer. Plank lays out the research for why this is, revealing that men who hold “traditional” ideas about masculinity are more likely to die by suicide and suffer worse health. Anxiety about being the only financial provider plays a big role in this, so in countries where women are allowed education and equal earning power, men don’t shoulder the burden alone.

Liz Plank is an author and award-winning journalist with Vox, where she works as a senior producer and political correspondent. In 2015, Forbes named her one of their “30 Under 30” in the Media category. She’s focused on feminist issues throughout her career.

“China’s #MeToo Moment” –  Jiayang Fan

Some of the most visible examples of gender inequality and discrimination comes from “Me Too” stories. Women are coming forward in huge numbers relating how they’ve been harassed and abused by men who have power over them. Most of the time, established systems protect these men from accountability. In this article from Jiayang Fan, a New Yorker staff writer, we get a look at what’s happening in China.

The essay opens with a story from a PhD student inspired by the United States’ Me Too movement to open up about her experience with an academic adviser. Her story led to more accusations against the adviser, and he was eventually dismissed. This is a rare victory, because as Fan says, China employs a more rigid system of patriarchy and hierarchy. There aren’t clear definitions or laws surrounding sexual harassment. Activists are charting unfamiliar territory, which this essay explores.

“Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever.” – Ellie Mae O’Hagan

Freelance journalist Ellie Mae O’Hagan (whose book The New Normal is scheduled for a May 2020 release) is discouraged that gender equality is so many years away. She argues that it’s because the global system of power at its core is broken.  Even when women are in power, which is proportionally rare on a global scale, they deal with a system built by the patriarchy. O’Hagan’s essay lays out ideas for how to fix what’s fundamentally flawed, so gender equality can become a reality.

Ideas include investing in welfare; reducing gender-based violence (which is mostly men committing violence against women); and strengthening trade unions and improving work conditions. With a system that’s not designed to put women down, the world can finally achieve gender equality.

“Invisibility of Race in Gender Pay Gap Discussions” – Bonnie Chu

The gender pay gap has been a pressing issue for many years in the United States, but most discussions miss the factor of race. In this concise essay, Senior Contributor Bonnie Chu examines the reality, writing that within the gender pay gap, there’s other gaps when it comes to black, Native American, and Latina women. Asian-American women, on the other hand, are paid 85 cents for every dollar. This data is extremely important and should be present in discussions about the gender pay gap. It reminds us that when it comes to gender equality, there’s other factors at play, like racism.

Bonnie Chu is a gender equality advocate and a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur. She’s the founder and CEO of Lensational, which empowers women through photography, and the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

A global story

This piece is part of 19A: The Brookings Gender Equality Series . In this essay series, Brookings scholars, public officials, and other subject-area experts examine the current state of gender equality 100 years after the 19th Amendment was adopted to the U.S. Constitution and propose recommendations to cull the prevalence of gender-based discrimination in the United States and around the world.

The year 2020 will stand out in the history books. It will always be remembered as the year the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the globe and brought death, illness, isolation, and economic hardship. It will also be noted as the year when the death of George Floyd and the words “I can’t breathe” ignited in the United States and many other parts of the world a period of reckoning with racism, inequality, and the unresolved burdens of history.

The history books will also record that 2020 marked 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment in America, intended to guarantee a vote for all women, not denied or abridged on the basis of sex.

This is an important milestone and the continuing movement for gender equality owes much to the history of suffrage and the brave women (and men) who fought for a fairer world. Yet just celebrating what was achieved is not enough when we have so much more to do. Instead, this anniversary should be a galvanizing moment when we better inform ourselves about the past and emerge more determined to achieve a future of gender equality.

Australia’s role in the suffrage movement

In looking back, one thing that should strike us is how international the movement for suffrage was though the era was so much less globalized than our own.

For example, how many Americans know that 25 years before the passing of the 19th Amendment in America, my home of South Australia was one of the first polities in the world to give men and women the same rights to participate in their democracies? South Australia led Australia and became a global leader in legislating universal suffrage and candidate eligibility over 125 years ago.

This extraordinary achievement was not an easy one. There were three unsuccessful attempts to gain equal voting rights for women in South Australia, in the face of relentless opposition. But South Australia’s suffragists—including the Women’s Suffrage League and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, as well as remarkable women like Catherine Helen Spence, Mary Lee, and Elizabeth Webb Nicholls—did not get dispirited but instead continued to campaign, persuade, and cajole. They gathered a petition of 11,600 signatures, stuck it together page by page so that it measured around 400 feet in length, and presented it to Parliament.

The Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Bill was finally introduced on July 4, 1894, leading to heated debate both within the houses of Parliament, and outside in society and the media. Demonstrating that some things in Parliament never change, campaigner Mary Lee observed as the bill proceeded to committee stage “that those who had the least to say took the longest time to say it.” 1

The Bill finally passed on December 18, 1894, by 31 votes to 14 in front of a large crowd of women.

In 1897, Catherine Helen Spence became the first woman to stand as a political candidate in South Australia.

South Australia’s victory led the way for the rest of the colonies, in the process of coming together to create a federated Australia, to fight for voting rights for women across the entire nation. Women’s suffrage was in effect made a precondition to federation in 1901, with South Australia insisting on retaining the progress that had already been made. 2 South Australian Muriel Matters, and Vida Goldstein—a woman from the Australian state of Victoria—are just two of the many who fought to ensure that when Australia became a nation, the right of women to vote and stand for Parliament was included.

Australia’s remarkable progressiveness was either envied, or feared, by the rest of the world. Sociologists and journalists traveled to Australia to see if the worst fears of the critics of suffrage would be realised.

In 1902, Vida Goldstein was invited to meet President Theodore Roosevelt—the first Australian to ever meet a U.S. president in the White House. With more political rights than any American woman, Goldstein was a fascinating visitor. In fact, President Roosevelt told Goldstein: “I’ve got my eye on you down in Australia.” 3

Goldstein embarked on many other journeys around the world in the name of suffrage, and ran five times for Parliament, emphasising “the necessity of women putting women into Parliament to secure the reforms they required.” 4

Muriel Matters went on to join the suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. In 1908 she became the first woman to speak in the British House of Commons in London—not by invitation, but by chaining herself to the grille that obscured women’s views of proceedings in the Houses of Parliament. After effectively cutting her off the grille, she was dragged out of the gallery by force, still shouting and advocating for votes for women. The U.K. finally adopted women’s suffrage in 1928.

These Australian women, and the many more who tirelessly fought for women’s rights, are still extraordinary by today’s standards, but were all the more remarkable for leading the rest of the world.

A shared history of exclusion

Of course, no history of women’s suffrage is complete without acknowledging those who were excluded. These early movements for gender equality were overwhelmingly the remit of privileged white women. Racially discriminatory exclusivity during the early days of suffrage is a legacy Australia shares with the United States.

South Australian Aboriginal women were given the right to vote under the colonial laws of 1894, but they were often not informed of this right or supported to enroll—and sometimes were actively discouraged from participating.

They were later further discriminated against by direct legal bar by the 1902 Commonwealth Franchise Act, whereby Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were excluded from voting in federal elections—a right not given until 1962.

Any celebration of women’s suffrage must acknowledge such past injustices front and center. Australia is not alone in the world in grappling with a history of discrimination and exclusion.

The best historical celebrations do not present a triumphalist version of the past or convey a sense that the fight for equality is finished. By reflecting on our full history, these celebrations allow us to come together, find new energy, and be inspired to take the cause forward in a more inclusive way.

The way forward

In the century or more since winning women’s franchise around the world, we have made great strides toward gender equality for women in parliamentary politics. Targets and quotas are working. In Australia, we already have evidence that affirmative action targets change the diversity of governments. Since the Australian Labor Party (ALP) passed its first affirmative action resolution in 1994, the party has seen the number of women in its national parliamentary team skyrocket from around 14% to 50% in recent years.

Instead of trying to “fix” women—whether by training or otherwise—the ALP worked on fixing the structures that prevent women getting preselected, elected, and having fair opportunities to be leaders.

There is also clear evidence of the benefits of having more women in leadership roles. A recent report from Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership (GIWL) at King’s College London, shows that where women are able to exercise political leadership, it benefits not just women and girls, but the whole of society.

But even though we know how to get more women into parliament and the positive difference they make, progress toward equality is far too slow. The World Economic Forum tells us that if we keep progressing as we are, the global political empowerment gender gap—measuring the presence of women across Parliament, ministries, and heads of states across the world— will only close in another 95 years . This is simply too long to wait and, unfortunately, not all barriers are diminishing. The level of abuse and threatening language leveled at high-profile women in the public domain and on social media is a more recent but now ubiquitous problem, which is both alarming and unacceptable.

Across the world, we must dismantle the continuing legal and social barriers that prevent women fully participating in economic, political, and community life.

Education continues to be one such barrier in many nations. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women. With COVID-19-related school closures happening in developing countries, there is a real risk that progress on girls’ education is lost. When Ebola hit, the evidence shows that the most marginalized girls never made it back to school and rates of child marriage, teen pregnancy. and child labor soared. The Global Partnership for Education, which I chair, is currently hard at work trying to ensure that this history does not repeat.

Ensuring educational equality is a necessary but not sufficient condition for gender equality. In order to change the landscape to remove the barriers that prevent women coming through for leadership—and having their leadership fairly evaluated rather than through the prism of gender—we need a radical shift in structures and away from stereotypes. Good intentions will not be enough to achieve the profound wave of change required. We need hard-headed empirical research about what works. In my life and writings post-politics and through my work at the GIWL, sharing and generating this evidence is front and center of the work I do now.

GIWL work, undertaken in partnership with IPSOS Mori, demonstrates that the public knows more needs to be done. For example, this global polling shows the community thinks it is harder for women to get ahead. Specifically, they say men are less likely than women to need intelligence and hard work to get ahead in their careers.

Other research demonstrates that the myth of the “ideal worker,” one who works excessive hours, is damaging for women’s careers. We also know from research that even in families where each adult works full time, domestic and caring labor is disproportionately done by women. 5

In order to change the landscape to remove the barriers that prevent women coming through for leadership—and having their leadership fairly evaluated rather than through the prism of gender—we need a radical shift in structures and away from stereotypes.

Other more subtle barriers, like unconscious bias and cultural stereotypes, continue to hold women back. We need to start implementing policies that prevent people from being marginalized and stop interpreting overconfidence or charisma as indicative of leadership potential. The evidence shows that it is possible for organizations to adjust their definitions and methods of identifying merit so they can spot, measure, understand, and support different leadership styles.

Taking the lessons learned from our shared history and the lives of the extraordinary women across the world, we know evidence needs to be combined with activism to truly move forward toward a fairer world. We are in a battle for both hearts and minds.

Why this year matters

We are also at an inflection point. Will 2020 will be remembered as the year that a global recession disproportionately destroyed women’s jobs, while women who form the majority of the workforce in health care and social services were at risk of contracting the coronavirus? Will it be remembered as a time of escalating domestic violence and corporations cutting back on their investments in diversity programs?

Or is there a more positive vision of the future that we can seize through concerted advocacy and action? A future where societies re-evaluate which work truly matters and determine to better reward carers. A time when men and women forced into lockdowns re-negotiated how they approach the division of domestic labor. Will the pandemic be viewed as the crisis that, through forcing new ways of virtual working, ultimately led to more balance between employment and family life, and career advancement based on merit and outcomes, not presentism and the old boys’ network?

This history is not yet written. We still have an opportunity to make it happen. Surely the women who led the way 100 years ago can inspire us to seize this moment and create that better, more gender equal future.

• December 7,1894: Welcome home meeting for Catherine Helen Spence at the Café de Paris. [ Register , Dec, 19, 1894 ]
• Clare Wright, You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World , (Text Publishing, 2018).
• Janette M. Bomford, That Dangerous and Persuasive Woman, (Melbourne University Press, 1993)
• Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender: The Real Science Behind Sex Differences, (Icon Books, 2010)

This piece is part of 19A: The Brookings Gender Equality Series.  Learn more about the series and read published work »

About the Author

Julia gillard, distinguished fellow – global economy and development, center for universal education.

Gillard is a distinguished fellow with the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. She is the Inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London. Gillard also serves as Chair of the Global Partnership for Education, which is dedicated to expanding access to quality education worldwide and is patron of CAMFED, the Campaign for Female Education.

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What does gender equality look like today?

Date: Wednesday, 6 October 2021

Progress towards gender equality is looking bleak. But it doesn’t need to.

A new global analysis of progress on gender equality and women’s rights shows women and girls remain disproportionately affected by the socioeconomic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, struggling with disproportionately high job and livelihood losses, education disruptions and increased burdens of unpaid care work. Women’s health services, poorly funded even before the pandemic, faced major disruptions, undermining women’s sexual and reproductive health. And despite women’s central role in responding to COVID-19, including as front-line health workers, they are still largely bypassed for leadership positions they deserve.

UN Women’s latest report, together with UN DESA, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2021 presents the latest data on gender equality across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The report highlights the progress made since 2015 but also the continued alarm over the COVID-19 pandemic, its immediate effect on women’s well-being and the threat it poses to future generations.

We’re breaking down some of the findings from the report, and calling for the action needed to accelerate progress.

The pandemic is making matters worse

One and a half years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, the toll on the poorest and most vulnerable people remains devastating and disproportionate. The combined impact of conflict, extreme weather events and COVID-19 has deprived women and girls of even basic needs such as food security. Without urgent action to stem rising poverty, hunger and inequality, especially in countries affected by conflict and other acute forms of crisis, millions will continue to suffer.

A global goal by global goal reality check:

Goal 1. Poverty

In 2021, extreme poverty is on the rise and progress towards its elimination has reversed. An estimated 435 million women and girls globally are living in extreme poverty.

And yet we can change this .

Over 150 million women and girls could emerge from poverty by 2030 if governments implement a comprehensive strategy to improve access to education and family planning, achieve equal wages and extend social transfers.

Goal 2. Zero hunger

The global gender gap in food security has risen dramatically during the pandemic, with more women and girls going hungry. Women’s food insecurity levels were 10 per cent higher than men’s in 2020, compared with 6 per cent higher in 2019.

This trend can be reversed , including by supporting women small-scale producers, who typically earn far less than men, through increased funding, training and land rights reforms.

Goal 3. Good health and well-being

Disruptions in essential health services due to COVID-19 are taking a tragic toll on women and girls. In the first year of the pandemic, there were an estimated 1.4 million additional unintended pregnancies in lower and middle-income countries.

We need to do better .

Response to the pandemic must include prioritizing sexual and reproductive health services, ensuring they continue to operate safely now and after the pandemic is long over. In addition, more support is needed to ensure life-saving personal protection equipment, tests, oxygen and especially vaccines are available in rich and poor countries alike as well as to vulnerable population within countries.

Goal 4. Quality education

A year and a half into the pandemic, schools remain partially or fully closed in 42 per cent of the world’s countries and territories. School closures spell lost opportunities for girls and an increased risk of violence, exploitation and early marriage .

Governments can do more to protect girls education .

Measures focused specifically on supporting girls returning to school are urgently needed, including measures focused on girls from marginalized communities who are most at risk.

Goal 5. Gender equality

The pandemic has tested and even reversed progress in expanding women’s rights and opportunities. Reports of violence against women and girls, a “shadow” pandemic to COVID-19, are increasing in many parts of the world. COVID-19 is also intensifying women’s workload at home, forcing many to leave the labour force altogether.

Building forward differently and better will hinge on placing women and girls at the centre of all aspects of response and recovery, including through gender-responsive laws, policies and budgeting.

Goal 6. Clean water and sanitation

In 2018, nearly 2.3 billion people lived in water-stressed countries. Without safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and menstrual hygiene facilities, women and girls find it harder to lead safe, productive and healthy lives.

Change is possible .

Involve those most impacted in water management processes, including women. Women’s voices are often missing in water management processes. 

Goal 7. Affordable and clean energy

Increased demand for clean energy and low-carbon solutions is driving an unprecedented transformation of the energy sector. But women are being left out. Women hold only 32 per cent of renewable energy jobs.

We can do better .

Expose girls early on to STEM education, provide training and support to women entering the energy field, close the pay gap and increase women’s leadership in the energy sector.

Goal 8. Decent work and economic growth

The number of employed women declined by 54 million in 2020 and 45 million women left the labour market altogether. Women have suffered steeper job losses than men, along with increased unpaid care burdens at home.

We must do more to support women in the workforce .

Guarantee decent work for all, introduce labour laws/reforms, removing legal barriers for married women entering the workforce, support access to affordable/quality childcare.

Goal 9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure

The COVID-19 crisis has spurred striking achievements in medical research and innovation. Women’s contribution has been profound. But still only a little over a third of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics field are female.

We can take action today.

 Quotas mandating that a proportion of research grants are awarded to women-led teams or teams that include women is one concrete way to support women researchers. 

Goal 10. Reduced inequalities

Limited progress for women is being eroded by the pandemic. Women facing multiple forms of discrimination, including women and girls with disabilities, migrant women, women discriminated against because of their race/ethnicity are especially affected.

Commit to end racism and discrimination in all its forms, invest in inclusive, universal, gender responsive social protection systems that support all women. 

Goal 11. Sustainable cities and communities

Globally, more than 1 billion people live in informal settlements and slums. Women and girls, often overrepresented in these densely populated areas, suffer from lack of access to basic water and sanitation, health care and transportation.

The needs of urban poor women must be prioritized .

Increase the provision of durable and adequate housing and equitable access to land; included women in urban planning and development processes.

Goal 12. Sustainable consumption and production; Goal 13. Climate action; Goal 14. Life below water; and Goal 15. Life on land

Women activists, scientists and researchers are working hard to solve the climate crisis but often without the same platforms as men to share their knowledge and skills. Only 29 per cent of featured speakers at international ocean science conferences are women.

 And yet we can change this .

Ensure women activists, scientists and researchers have equal voice, representation and access to forums where these issues are being discussed and debated. 

Goal 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

The lack of women in decision-making limits the reach and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergency recovery efforts. In conflict-affected countries, 18.9 per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women, much lower than the global average of 25.6 per cent.

This is unacceptable .

It's time for women to have an equal share of power and decision-making at all levels.

Goal 17. Global partnerships for the goals

There are just 9 years left to achieve the Global Goals by 2030, and gender equality cuts across all 17 of them. With COVID-19 slowing progress on women's rights, the time to act is now.

Looking ahead

As it stands today, only one indicator under the global goal for gender equality (SDG5) is ‘close to target’: proportion of seats held by women in local government. In other areas critical to women’s empowerment, equality in time spent on unpaid care and domestic work and decision making regarding sexual and reproductive health the world is far from target. Without a bold commitment to accelerate progress, the global community will fail to achieve gender equality. Building forward differently and better will require placing women and girls at the centre of all aspects of response and recovery, including through gender-responsive laws, policies and budgeting.

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Gender Sensitivity and Its Relation to Gender Equality

• Reference work entry
• First Online: 01 January 2021
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• Juana Figueroa Vélez 6 &
• Susana Vélez Ochoa 6  

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

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Figueroa Vélez, J., Vélez Ochoa, S. (2021). Gender Sensitivity and Its Relation to Gender Equality. In: Leal Filho, W., Marisa Azul, A., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95687-9_46

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Introduction from Professor Sarah Sharples, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

I am delighted that this week’s EDI guest blog is written by Francesca Vinci School of Economics, who reflects on three powerful lectures on gender inequality delivered at the School by Professor Johanna Rickne of the Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm University.

The debate on gender inequality has gained ever-growing attention in recent years, and this is true in academia, as well as industry and politics. Questions about what can be done to improve the representation of women in education as well as the work force are topical. As part of its efforts to contribute to this movement, the School of Economics had the pleasure to host three lectures on gender inequality, held by Professor Johanna Rickne  (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University and University of Nottingham).  She shared insights from her own research and her expertise in the field, focusing on gender quotas, couple formation and harassment.

In the first lecture, she talked about the findings from research she conducted to assess the impact of the introduction of gender quotas in the local election process in Sweden. Prior to the change in policy, candidate lists on ballot papers were strongly influenced by party leaders and consistently had men ranking higher than women by a large margin, despite having access to information on individual’s competence, developed through years of participation in party activities.

The policy forced parties to modify the way they were forming candidate lists, by introducing a zipper quota, i.e. forcing them to alternate by gender throughout the list.  Johanna and her co-authors found that the introduction of the quotas increased the overall competence of politicians elected, by increasing the quality of men selected, without affecting women’s. The authors interpret the results as evidence that mediocre men were pushed out because of the intervention and highlight that the previous status quo was the result of mediocre leaders choosing other mediocre individuals to increase the chances of their own survival.

In the first lecture, she talked about the findings from research she conducted to assess the impact of the introduction of gender quotas in the local election process in Sweden. Prior to the change in policy, candidate lists on ballot papers were strongly influenced by party leaders and consistently had men ranking higher than women by a large margin, despite having access to information on individual’s competence, developed through years of participation in party activities. The policy forced parties to modify the way they were forming candidate lists, by introducing a zipper quota, i.e. forcing them to alternate by gender throughout the list.  Johanna and her co-authors found that the introduction of the quotas increased the overall competence of politicians elected, by increasing the quality of men selected, without affecting women’s. The authors interpret the results as evidence that mediocre men were pushed out because of the intervention and highlight that the previous status quo was the result of mediocre leaders choosing other mediocre individuals to increase the chances of their own survival.

In the second lecture, she discussed couple formation and women’s careers, focusing on the link between promotion to top jobs for women and the probability of divorce. She analysed Swedish data for local elections and found that women getting top jobs became more likely to divorce, whilst the result did not hold for men. Further analysis uncovered that the findings were driven by couple formation in which men were older, earned more to start with and had taken less parental leave, controlling for the couple’s ex-ante differences in background and earning potential. Johanna and her team interpreted these results as the result of a divergence in the expectations formed before the promotion within the couple. Although it is hard to draw definitive conclusions on something as intangible as expectations from quantitative analysis, this research seems to suggest that, at least for some couples, the expectations about traditional gender roles are still important for the equilibrium of a marriage. The professor also noted how a different study found that single MBA female students were less likely to report their true ambition in a context where their male peers would learn about them, as if their career-driven attitude would make them less desirable.

In the third lecture, Johanna tackled the role of harassment in perpetuating gender inequality and explained how this tends to increase with the share of the opposite sex in an occupation or workplace. A woman/man entering a male/female dominated environment breaks social norms, leading to retaliation through antagonistic behaviour. Interestingly, this suggests that men and women remain attached to some sort of identity categories, to some feeling of belonging they want to defend, and that leads them to hold on to the status quo. Moreover, as men tend to concentrate on highly paid specializations and women in lower wage sectors, this phenomenon has the effect of reinforcing segregation and income inequality.

These lectures were very insightful, they certainly had the effect of spurring debate across the department, and I hope beyond. I found myself talking in the common room with fellow PhD students as well as faculty members, as we all reflected on what we had learned and how we could use such knowledge. In my opinion, everything that was discussed in the lectures shared one common thread: the strong impact of gender role perceptions, affecting both men and women. Gender quotas were needed in Sweden because women were not selected for top ranking positions in local elections due to something other than their ability. They are also being introduced in many workplaces, as there is evidence that female candidates get overlooked due to being of childbearing age, for example. Beliefs about gender roles are also likely to affect behaviour: a woman might indeed leave her job when she becomes a mum if she feels compelled to do so by her family or her peers, and not just because of economic conditions and poor policy provisions. At the same time, a man who would like to stay at home to care for his child might feel the pressure to maintain his bread-winner role instead. Many couples conform with the traditional expectation that the man will be the provider whilst the woman will be the carer and they might crumble when gender roles get reversed, maybe because dynamics within the couple are challenged. In the lectures we also learned that men and women embrace their roles and professions and reject the outsiders as if they were threatening their identity. If gender norms and stereotypes become dogmas in people’s perception, men and women will feel lost and insecure outside them. In this case, the impact of policy efforts to level the playing field and combat bias would face the counteracting effect of gender rigid expectations and beliefs, even leading to more distortions maybe.

Achieving gender equality is a common goal, and policy makers as well as institutions such as universities can steer the ship in the right direction, but I believe we all have to put some hard work into this, by challenging our own beliefs of what gender roles are, and asking ourselves whether what we think we are supposed to do is what will make us happy.

All the Single Ladies: Job Promotions and the Durability of Marriage, (Olle Folke and Johanna Rickne) forthcoming, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.

Gender Quotas and the Crisis of the Mediocre Man: Theory and Evidence from Sweden, (Johanna Rickne, Tim Besley, OllemFolke and Torsten Persson) American Economic Review 107(8): 2204-2242 (2017) 

'Acting Wife:' Marriage Market Incentives and Labor Market Investments,  (Leonardo Bursztyn, Thomas Fujiwara and Amanda Pallais) American Economic Review, 107(11): 3288-3319 (2017)

https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/article-details/businesses-rejecting-maternity-age-candidates Francesca Vinci School of Economics

Monday 28 October 2019

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

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Reflecting on gender inequality and the disparity of rights

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By Patricio Cuevas-Parra, World Vision International

Every November 20 th , the international community observes Universal Children’s Day which coincides with the anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). As a child rights advocate, I strongly believe that this day provides an opportunity to reaffirm the fundamental values of the Convention and celebrate the considerable progress that has been achieved in the development of legislation, policies and strategies to make the UNCRC a reality at national and global levels. This day also invites reflection on the complexity of the pending tasks and obligations of the signatory countries to develop clear national action plans that will ensure a progressive implementation of the UNCRC’s 42 substantive articles.

Based on my conviction that the UNCRC has contributed enormously to new ideological and philosophical conceptualisations of childhood and children’s rights under a policy framework of universality, I would argue that more of our attention should be focused on the right of non-discrimination, which underlies the principle of equality. This focus will enable the galvanisation of notable outlier initiatives into widespread and concrete legislation and practices to guarantee that children’s rights are equal for all girls and boys, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, ability, religion or any other status. However, a growing body of evidence reveals that children experience multiple grounds of discrimination and their rights are not consistently respected based on their different statuses, a clear breach of the UNCRC’s values . 

In this article, I would like to invite you to reflect on children’s gender identities, which have been widely discussed in academia, policy and practice; but, much more debate, analysis and action is needed in order to generate substantial changes within children’s rights approaches. Frequently, gender identities are simplistically addressed in child participation efforts by including the same number of girls and boys across different age groups, but not addressing any social practices or policies that perpetuate gender inequality. Hence, my interest is in understanding how children’s identities, in general, and gender identities, in particular, relate to inequalities and disparities in rights fulfilment between girls and boys and between children and adults and other sub-groups. This interest results from my many years working in, advocating for and researching children’s rights within international development contexts. Over the years, I have witnessed girls across the globe continually facing a wide variety of barriers that prevent them from realising their rights and engaging fully in decisions that affect their lives because of restrictions that can be attributed to traditional patriarchal values and structures. 

In some countries, girls are considered to have less value than boys. Girls’ freedom is often limited due to the belief that they need to take care of their honour and are responsible for preventing sexual violence, whilst boys are taught to be independent and self-efficient. Girls are expected to be quiet, polite and delicate, but boys can be energetic, playful and determined. Many girls are banned from participating equally in community activities or discouraged from attending school so they can prepare for marriage instead. In some countries, girls may receive less legal protection from acts of violence than boys. Frequently, girls are allocated fewer educational resources and are expected to carry out domestic chores and care for younger siblings. 

Despite the concerns and the calls made to member states by the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), gender stereotyping and bias continue to be under-identified and unaddressed, which has a negative impact on the achievement of gender equality. Field experiences illustrate the overemphasis on the traditional roles of females as mothers and wives, which many times are reinforced by books and images in the media that degrade their roles within society. A UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education report points out that both male and female teachers hold low opinions of the intellectual skills of female students, girls have fewer expectations of themselves in and out of school (they believe that their futures consist primarily of being wives and mothers), teachers give girls less feedback, and teachers frequently report that they enjoy teaching boys more than girls. The report also indicates that female teachers’ and girls’ low expectations are reinforced by textbooks, curricula and assessment material, in which no female figures appear, as well as a clear tendency towards the use of sexist language in schools . 

Addressing these issues requires theoretical frameworks to explore and understand the relationships between gender identity formation, recognition and rights. Much of the existing childhood literature focuses on agency and competency and less on identities and inequalities. It is also pivotal to reconcile the prominence of the UNCRC as a global framework for universal rights with the relevance of social context, culture, values and social interactions, which are determinant in shaping boys’ and girls’ identities and experiences that form their lives in any given society.  

The complexities of girls’ and boys’ lives confirm that there is not a universal conceptualisation of childhood as all human beings bring multiple identities and diverse experiences. Furthermore, I would argue that the simplification and homogenisation of children as a social group undermines the uniqueness of the identities of girls and boys as well as the way they construct and reconstruct the meaning of their lives and interactions with others, which, in many cases, could lead to discriminatory and exclusionary attitudes and practices. 

This new anniversary of the UNCRC provides us with a unique platform to discuss the challenges and gaps in empowerment, equal rights and opportunities for boys versus girls. In order to make significant changes, it is crucial to identify the gender-related challenges and avoid gender-blind policies and programmes that exacerbate the differences and do not contribute to the integration and inclusion of all children. While commemorating this day, let us reflect on these issues and think how we can challenge traditional values, beliefs, practices and policies that seriously breach the fundamental human rights of girls and boys.

About the author 

Patricio Cuevas-Parra is the Senior Global Policy Adviser for Child Participation and Rights with World Vision International where he leads strategies and programming that ensure that children and young people's participation are central to the advocacy and policy debate. He has a keen interest in looking at cutting-edge child rights advocacy tools and models to enhance children and young people’s engagement in public decision-making.

Reflections On the Gender Gap Female-to-male earnings ratios are widely reported, and also somewhat misleading. Here is the low-down.

Donna K. Ginther

Economists have been studying gender differences in earnings since the 1960s. Figure 1, calculated using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, makes the widely cited comparison between the median earnings of male and female full-time, year-round workers from 1960 to 2015. If men and women were doing the same work, one could expect the ratio of female-to-male earnings would approach 100 percent. It does not. As of 2015, median female earnings were 80 percent of median male earnings for full-time, year-round workers. This is a widely reported and somewhat misleading statistic, because it does not account for factors that are known to determine wages such as education and work experience. In this essay, I will explain an economist’s perspective on the gender gap, what we know and what remains to be determined about why women earn less than men. As an economist who studies the gender pay gap my job is to first use data to document and explain the gender pay gap. I will show that the gender gap explained by factors that influence earnings differs considerably from the 80 percent number given in Figure 1. Second, I will review what economics research tells us about the gender gap. Throughout my focus will be on the persistent gap for highly-educated women—those with a bachelor’s degree or more, because it is among the highly-educated that the gender gap is the largest.

Economic theory argues that equally productive workers will be paid the same for the same work, regardless of characteristics like gender, race, and sexual preference. However, choices men and women make prior to the labor market influence what they ultimately earn. In addition, the evolution of careers and work experience influence earnings. Non-market factors, such as the choices to marry, have children, and who cares for the children influence earnings as well.

When examining the gender gap, the economist’s goal is to make apples-to-apples comparisons. This necessitates controlling for observable factors associated with earnings. I will use the 2013 National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) to examine gender differences in salaries to demonstrate how the gender gap changes once we adjust for these factors. I limit my sample to those with bachelors, masters, and professional degrees who are prime-aged workers (ages 25-54), work full-time, and full-year. I drop those with doctorates, since many work in academic institutions, and their employment outcomes differ from those of the general population. I also drop full-time workers earning less than the minimum wage ($16,700 per year). My measure of earnings is annualized salary.

The first two bars in Figure 2 compare the overall female-to-male earnings ratio for all workers in the U.S. to those with a college degree in 2013. Whereas the gender earnings ratio is 78 percent for all workers in the U.S., for the college-educated it is 75 percent. Once I add controls for race and immigration status, the gender salary ratio narrows to 76 percent—still larger than for all U.S. workers. I now demonstrate how the female-to-male salary ratio changes using the National Survey of College Graduates, and explanations from economic theory.

Explanations for the Gender Gap

Education.   Given that I am interested in the gender gap for the highly educated, my model adds controls for highest degree (bachelors, masters, or professional) and years of work experience. The female-to-male salary ratio increases from 75 percent for the college-educated to 78 percent when accounting for highest degree. In work I have done with co-authors Steven Ceci, Shulamit Kahn, and Wendy Williams, we found that women were significantly less likely to pursue degrees in math-intensive fields. [1] Though women now receive the majority of bachelor’s degrees, 57 percent as of 2014, they do not pursue the same majors. In 2014, women made up over 50 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients in Psychology, Social Sciences (excluding economics), life sciences, and the humanities. Women obtain more than 40 percent of math and computer science bachelor’s degrees, and only 20 percent of engineering degrees.

In addition, occupations that use mathematical skills, such as computer science and engineering, pay significantly higher salaries than those that do not use mathematics. For example, in 2013, median earnings in engineering occupations were $82,000, but only 22 percent of those working in engineering occupations were women. In contrast, median earnings of non-science and engineering occupations were $61,000, and 51 percent of those employed were women.

… occupations that use mathematical skills, such as computer science and engineering, pay significantly higher salaries than those that do not use mathematics. By the time girls matriculate in college, their math courses and skills may not be sufficient to pursue majors that require significant mathematics.

Our research found that girls are more likely to stop taking math courses in middle school and high school. This is not the result of girls’ lack of ability. Over time, girls have closed the average math test score gap, but boys still are more likely to take advanced placement high school courses in math, and are more likely to have the top scores. 1 Part of this gap may be the result of risk-aversion. Until recently, the SAT penalized test-takers for guessing. Katherine Baldiga recently designed an experiment using practice questions from the SAT, and then varied the penalty for a wrong answer. When there was no penalty for guessing, women and men were equally likely to complete the test. When the penalty increased, women were significantly more likely to skip questions even after controlling for prior knowledge. Thus, women’s risk aversion may explain part of the observed test score gap in high stakes tests. [2] Competition may also influence girls’ mathematics performance. Muriel Niederle and Lise Vesterlund argue that gender differences in mathematics test scores may result from gender differences in responses to high-stakes tests. [3] By the time girls matriculate in college, their math courses and skills may not be sufficient to pursue majors that require significant mathematics.

To see how field of study influences the gender gap, I introduced controls for 31 major fields of highest degree that include the humanities, science, engineering and social science. The female-to-male salary ratio rises by nine percentage points to 87 percent in Figure 2. Thus, field of study explains over 40 percent of the gender gap among the college-educated.

Greedy Occupations and Work-Life Balance. Sociologist Lewis Coser developed the concept of “greedy institutions”:  those institutions and organizations that demand a person’s full attention, and reduce the time spent on competing roles. [4] Economists have found that hours of work demanded in some professions give rise to “greedy occupations” that disadvantage women. Claudia Goldin and her coauthors have examined these greedy occupations. [5] [6] [7] [8] Among MBAs, her studies found there are small earnings gaps at the start of working, which widen to the point that men make almost twice as much as women 15 years after completing the degree. Goldin analyzed the work requirements in these occupations, finding that these kinds of jobs do not provide flexibility in hours of work, and are associated with larger gender pay gaps. In contrast, Goldin and Lawrence Katz found a small gender gap among pharmacists where women earn 92 percent of men. She attributes this to pharmacists being substitutable for one another. In fact, Patricia Cortés and Jessica Pan have found that women are less likely to select occupations with high work hours. [9] Taken together, these results suggest that part of the gender salary gap is a very high return to working longer hours in these “greedy occupations.”

In my analysis of the NSCG, adding hours of work to salary regressions explains only one percentage point of the gender salary gap, increasing the female-to-male salary ratio to 88 percent.

Long work hours in some occupations come into direct conflict with parenting. In fact, parenthood can be considered another of Cosner’s “greedy institutions” that requires full attention and leaves little time for other activities. Women are often the primary care-givers of children, and the demands of taking care of infants and small children are time-intensive, especially if the child becomes sick (which happens more frequently if a child is in a daycare while the mother works). In addition, women’s earnings in some occupations are not large enough to compensate for the high costs of childcare.

Several studies, including my work with Madeline Zavondy and Marianne Sundström, have shown that men earn a marriage premium and women, in some cases, earn a marriage penalty. [10] [11] In both studies, our results indicate marriage makes men more productive because women specialize in household production and taking care of children. Claudia Goldin, Marianne Bertrand, and Lawrence Katz found that children were associated with a significant growth in the gender gap among MBAs. Once female MBAs have children, they work fewer hours, shift to less-demanding (and lower-paying) jobs, and some leave the labor force entirely.

… women who leave the labor force after the birth of their first child experience twice the earnings penalty as women with a high school education.

If women do leave the labor force to stay home with their children, they experience a large earnings penalty. Julie Hotchkiss, Melinda Pitts, and Marybeth Walker estimated the effect of leaving the labor market after the birth of a first child on women’s earnings. Assuming that leaving the labor force is exogenous, women who leave earn 51 percent less than women who remain. They also find that college-educated women who leave the labor force after the birth of their first child experience twice the earnings penalty as women with a high school education. [12]

In my analysis of the NSCG, I cannot control for spells that women leave the labor market because of childbirth. However, when I add marital status and children to salary regressions, the gender gap widens and the female-to-male salary ratio is now 85 percent. Since marriage and children have different effects on salaries for men and women, it is instructive to make comparisons based on these characteristics. The female-to-male salary ratio among single childless women and men women is 88 percent. The female-to-male salary ratio among married men and married women without children is 84 percent; and the female-to-male salary ratio among married men and married women with children is 87 percent. Part of the increase in the salary ratio for women with children could be attributed to positive selection: women capable of working and raising children simultaneously may be of higher overall ability, resulting in higher earnings potential.

In some cases, women leave the labor force, or work in a job that differs significantly from their field of study. Together with Joshua Rosenbloom, I have investigated women’s participation in computer science majors and careers. [13] The lack of women in computer science and information technology has gained much notice in the popular press. Computer science is also an outlier: in 1983 at the start of the PC revolution, women received over 35 percent of bachelor’s degrees in computer science. In 2014, that number had dropped below 20 percent, making computer science the only science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field where women’s representation has decreased since the 1980s. We found women were more likely to leave computer science and information technology jobs than men, and their departure was associated with having young children. In addition, we found that women computer science/information technology majors were almost twice as likely to be working in a job unrelated to their degree 10 years after they graduated. With Shulamit Kahn I have also investigated whether women were more likely to leave engineering occupations. [14] We found women were more likely than men to leave engineering occupations, and this occurred when they left the labor force entirely after having children. However, women were less likely to leave engineering than other STEM occupations.

Our final model in Figure 2 includes controls for employment sector and whether the worker is using their degree in their employment. Women are significantly more likely to work in education and the non-profit sectors, making up 68 percent of employees. These sectors also pay less, with median salaries in education being $42,000 and in non-profit being $57,000. In contrast, only 35 percent of employees in the for-profit sector are women, and median salaries are $80,000. Once I add controls for employment sector and using one’s degree, the female-to-male salary ratio climbs to 87 percent. Overall, after accounting for education, experience, field of study, hours of work, marital status and children, the female-to-male salary ratio climbs from 75 percent to 87 percent. These factors explain nearly half of the 25-percentage point gender gap.

Figure 3 shows one of the persistent puzzles in studies of the gender gap: the female-to-male salary ratio falls with years of work experience. The blue bar shows the unadjusted female-to-male salary ratio and the red bar shows the same ratio after adjusting for education, experience, major, hours of work, marriage and children, and employment sector. Both the unadjusted and adjusted female-to-male salary ratios fall with years of work experience. Some of this decrease may be women who left the labor force and then re-entered, but it remains a puzzle for those seeking to understand why women earn less than men. Behavioral economics is where we now turn to address this puzzle.

Behavioral Economics and the Gender Gap: Competition, Gender Norms, and Negotiation. As you can see from the above discussion, much of the gender gap can be explained by education, experience, major choice, family, and employment sector. However, a non-trivial gender gap remains. Behavioral economics provides additional insights; it is the study of psychology as it relates to economic decisions. Much of this research is based on experiments that are difficult to include in the gender gap estimates that I provided above. I review the evidence here.

Muriel Niederle and Lise Vesterlund ran a series of experiments where women and men were given a task of adding up numbers and then paid based on the number of correct answers. [15] They found that women were less likely to compete, and men were overconfident about the return to competition. Ernesto Reuben, Paolo Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales tested MBA students for their preferences for competition and then evaluated their earnings. They found gender differences in preferences for competition explained 10 percent of the gender gap, and that individuals who preferred competition worked in higher-paying industries nine years after their MBA. Linda Kamas and Anne Preston found competitive students were more likely to major in engineering and natural science than non-competitive students. [16] They surveyed these students after they entered the labor force and found the gender earnings gap disappears for women who are both competitive and confident. Thus, taste for competition has the potential to explain a significant proportion of the gender gap.

… much of the gender gap can be explained by education, experience, major choice, family, and employment sector. However, a non-trivial gender gap remains. Behavioral economics provides additional insights … 

Marianne Bertrand, Emir Kamenica, and Jessica Pan examined whether gender norms influence women’s earnings. [17] They found that share of household income earned by the wife drops sharply to the right of one-half, where women earned more than their husbands. They argue this empirical regularity is consistent with gendered norms that make wives averse to earning more than their husbands. They also found that within couples where a wife’s potential earnings were likely to exceed her husbands’, the wife was less likely to be in the labor force, and if she worked, she was less likely to earn up to her potential. In households where wives did earn more than their husbands, wives did more household chores, and these couples were also more likely to divorce. Thus, Bertrand and her co-authors argue that gender identity within the household influences the gender earnings gap.

Finally, Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever have written a series of books on the gender gap in negotiation. [18] This work started with Babcock’s observation that male graduate students were more likely to ask for career-enhancing opportunities than female graduate students. The estimates in Figure 3 show that there is a small initial starting salary gap that grows over time. One potential explanation could be the implications of gender differences in negotiation. Suppose both a male and female college graduate are offered a job with a starting salary of $50,000. The woman accepts the position for $50,000 and the man negotiates a higher salary of $52,500. Assume both employees are equally productive and receive a 3 percent raise each year. Over a 20-year career, the woman will receive $67,176 less in total earnings. If the man is successful at negotiating for a slightly higher wage each year, this earnings gap will grow. Babcock’s research also showed that women were penalized if they aggressively negotiated for salary or other employment outcomes in a manner resembling men’s negotiation styles. In other words, negotiation is also gendered, and women who negotiate like men do not receive their desired outcomes.

Instead, Babcock and Laschever’s second book offered negotiation strategies tailored to women consistent with gendered norms. [19] They recommend women understand their best alternative without negotiation, use data to support their case for increased salaries, and practice negotiating in large and small contexts in order to become more comfortable with the process. Andreas Liebbrandt and John List conducted a natural field experiment to examine how gender differences in negotiation influenced starting salaries. [20] They found men were more likely to negotiate than women when negotiating the employment contract was ambiguous, and the resulting gender wage gap was larger in these jobs. In contrast, the gender gap in negotiation goes away when salaries are considered negotiable.

… Babcock and Laschever’s second book offered negotiation strategies tailored to women consistent with gendered norms. They recommend women understand their best alternative without negotiation, use data to support their case for increased salaries, and practice negotiating in large and small contexts in order to become more comfortable with the process.

After controlling for factors that influence salaries and earnings, the gender gap narrows considerably but does not disappear. The data I have presented on the female-to-male salary ratio does not allow me to incorporate competitiveness or negotiation in the model. However, the larger gender gap for married women without children is consistent with the gender identity norms found by Marianne Bertrand and her colleagues.

Implicit Bias and Discrimination . Many attribute the unexplained gender gap to implicit bias or discrimination. Implicit bias occurs when attitudes or stereotypes influence our action towards certain groups in an unconscious manner. For example, my colleague, Monica Biernat, performed an experiment testing the stereotype of height for women and men. [21] In the experiment, subjects were shown pictures of women and men of equal height standing next to a table. The subjects were asked to estimate the height of the man or woman in the picture. Despite having a table in the picture that provided a frame of reference, the experimental subjects estimated that the woman was shorter than the man—a result consistent with a stereotype. Ernesto Ruben, Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales ran an experiment that indicated implicit bias against women working on a mathematics task influenced the hiring decisions even after providing self-reported ability to those making the hires. [22]

In contrast to implicit bias, discrimination is an explicit decision to treat men and women in the labor market differently. Discrimination can take two forms: explicit prejudice and statistical discrimination. Explicit prejudice by employers, employees, and customers would prevent women or men from being hired and if hired, pay them different rates. For example, customer discrimination may affect the choice of a doctor: women may prefer to receive treatment from female doctors instead of male doctors. If this is the case, Obstetrics and Gynecology practices will have more women than men. Per the Association of American Medical Colleges, in 2015 women made up 85 percent of OB/GYN residents.

Job-seekers in given occupations can use these data to understand median and mean hourly earnings as well as annual mean wages paid in their metropolitan area or state. Armed with this information, women can use data to negotiate their starting offer.

Statistical discrimination differs from prejudice, but it is related to implicit bias. Statistical discrimination occurs when the average characteristics of a group are attributed to individual members of that group. Our research showed that women have lower average SAT math scores than men. 1 Suppose a woman with higher than average math ability applies for a job that requires math, but the employer does not directly observe her skills. The employer may hire a man for the job because on average women have worse math skills than men. This would be an example of statistical discrimination.

Although there is substantial evidence of implicit bias and discrimination from experimental studies, it is very difficult to identify these effects in data that compare average differences in salaries by gender. Discrimination is much easier to prove in specific cases, but high-profile cases have resulted in mixed results for women claiming discrimination or sexual harassment. [23] [24]

Policies and Practices To Narrow the Gender Wage Gap

Given the significant impact that marriage and family have on the employment decisions of mothers, providing paid family leave for workers could narrow the gender wage gap. California, Rhode Island, Washington, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia all provide paid family leave to care for a sick family member or new child. Charles Baum and Christopher Ruhm have examined the impact of California’s paid family leave on mothers’ employment and hours of work. [25] They found paid family leave increased the probability that mothers took leave and were employed within nine-to-twelve months after the birth of a child. To the extent that paid family leave allows mothers to remain employed, it is likely that their wages will increase with continuous labor force attachment. Thus, greater access to paid family leave provides one mechanism for narrowing the gender salary gap.

The Paycheck Fairness Act has been introduced in Congress since 2005. This act “prohibits retaliation for inquiring about, discussing, or disclosing the wages of the employee or another employee in response to a complaint or charge, or in furtherance of a sex discrimination investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, or an investigation conducted by the employer.” [26] While better information on the gender salary gap may prompt some women to seek redress for differences in pay, it is unclear whether this information would actually close the gender gap given the difficulties in proving salary discrimination.

That said, women can help themselves by doing their homework on salaries and negotiation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes salary information by occupation for the nation, state, and metropolitan areas. [27] Job-seekers in given occupations can use these data to understand median and mean hourly earnings as well as annual mean wages paid in their metropolitan area or state. Armed with this information, women can use data to negotiate their starting offer.

Observable characteristics explain about half of the gender salary gap, but approximately 13 percentage points remain unexplained. Behavioral economics suggests that gendered norms, including tastes for competition and negotiation practices have potential to explain the remaining salary gap.

I also recommend that women learn more about how to negotiate. I have read both of Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever’s books on women and negotiation. When writing this essay, I went searching for my copy of Babcock and Laschever’s Ask for It , to no avail. I have lent my copy out to so many students and colleagues that I have lost track of it! Reflecting on my own experiences while reading these books, I realized I had done a reasonably good job negotiating with my employer, but not as good of a job negotiating with my husband when it came to doing work around the house. I have followed Babcock and Laschever’s advice to practice negotiating in contexts large and small, finding that much in life is negotiable. It is important for women to ask for what they need and want.

The gender salary gap is significantly more complex than a simple comparison of median earnings by gender. This essay has demonstrated the gender salary gap among the highly-educated can be explained by many factors, some starting as early as middle school mathematics courses. Different choices for college majors, attachment to the labor force, marriage, and children can influence how much women earn, and whether they remain in the labor force. Observable characteristics explain about half of the gender salary gap, but approximately 13 percentage points remain unexplained. Behavioral economics suggests that gendered norms, including tastes for competition and negotiation practices have potential to explain the remaining salary gap. Although policies such as paid parental leave show promise in closing the gender salary gap, given the uncertainty of public policy since the 2016 election, women will be best-served by understanding what they can expect to be paid in their chosen occupation where they live and negotiating for the best starting salary possible.

[1]  Stephen J. Ceci, Donna K.Ginther, Shulamit Kahn, and Wendy M. Williams, 2014. “Women in Academic Science: A Changing Landscape.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 15(3): 75-141.

[2]  Katherine A. Baldiga, 2013. Gender Differences in Willingness to Guess. Management Science . Vol. 60, Iss. 2, pp. 434 – 448.

[3]  M. Niederle and L. Vesterlund, L., 2010. Explaining the Gender Gap in Math Test Scores: The Role of Competition. Journal of Economic Perspectives . 24(2): 129-44.

[4]  Lewis Coser, 1974. Greedy Institutions: Patterns of Undivided Commitment. New York: The Free Press.

[5]  Claudia Goldin, 2014. A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter. American Economic Review 104: 1091-1119.

[6]  Claudia Goldin, LF Katz LF, 2016.  A Most Egalitarian Profession: Pharmacy and the Evolution of a Family-Friendly Occupation . Journal of Labor Economics. 34(3) :705-45.

[7] Marianne Bertrand, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence Katz, 2010. Dynamics of the Gender Gap among Young Professionals in the Corporate and Financial Sectors. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 2: 228-55.

[8]  Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz. 2011. The Cost of Workplace Flexibility for High-Powered Professionals. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , 638: 45-67.

[9]  Patricia Cortés and Jessica Pan. 2016.  Prevalence of Long Hours and Skilled Women’s Occupational Choices.  Working Paper, Boston University.

[10]  Donna K. Ginther and Madeline Zavodny. 2001. “Is the Male Marriage Premium Due to Selection?  The Effect of Shotgun Weddings on the Return to Marriage.” Journal of Population Economics 14(2): 313-328.

[11]  Donna K. Ginther and Marianne Sundström. 2009. “Does Marriage Lead to Specialization?  An Evaluation of Swedish Trends in Adult Earnings Before and After Marriage.” Working paper, University of Kansas.

[12] Hotchkiss, Julie, M. Melinda Pitts and Marybeth Walker. 2014. Impact of First-Birth Career Interruption on Earnings: Evidence from Administrative Data. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Working Paper 2014-23.

[13] Ginther, Donna K. and Joshua L. Rosenbloom. 2016. Why Do Women Leave Computer Science and Information Technology Jobs?  Working Paper, University of Kansas.

[14]  Shulamit Kahn and Donna K. Ginther. 2015. “Are Recent Cohorts of Women with Engineering Bachelors Less Likely to Stay in Engineering.” Frontiers in Psychology 6:1144.

[15] Niederle, Muriel, and Lise Vesterlund. 2007. “Do Women Shy Away From Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 122 (3): 1067–1101.

[16]  Linda Niederle and Anne Preston. 2015. Competing with Confidence: The Ticket to Labor Market Success for College-Educated Women.” Working Paper. Santa Clara University.

[17]  Marianne Bertrand, Emir Kamenica, and Jessica Pan. 2015. Gender Identity and Relative Income in the Household.  Quarterly Journal of Economics . 1-44.

[18]  Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever. 2003. Women Don’t Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation—and Positive Strategies for Change . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[19]  Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever.  2009. Ask For It:  How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want .  New York, NY:  Bantam Press.

[20] Andreas Leibbrandt & John A. List, 2015. “ Do Women Avoid Salary Negotiations? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment, ” Management Science, vol 61(9), pages 2016-2024.

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accurate stereotype.   Sex Roles , 29, 691-713.

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[23]  Jeff Elder. 2015. “Ellen Pao Loses Sex-Bias Case Against Kleiner.”  The Wall Street Journal (March 27, 2015).  http://www.wsj.com/articles/jury-backs-kleiner-perkins-in-sex-bias-case-1427491235.

[24]  Sarah Ellison. 2016. “Fox Settles with Gretchen Carlson for $20 Million and Offers an Unprecedented Apology. Vanity Fair . September 6. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/fox-news-settles-with-gretchen-carlson-for-20-million .

[25]  Charles L. Baum & Christopher J. Ruhm, 2016. “ The Effects of Paid Family Leave in California on Labor Market Outcomes, ” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management , 35(2), pages 333-356.

[26] S.2199 – Paycheck Fairness Act. Congress.gov. https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2199

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Reflection on Discrimination in Gender: Opinion Essay

• Category Social Issues
• Subcategory Diversity & Discrimination
• Topic Gender Discrimination

Discrimination is very common in daily life. It could be based on various things, for example, ethnicity, race, religion, and gender just to name a few. Discrimination can take place on massive scale, and go completely unnoticed. This means it could be happening more often than you think. In this essay i’m gonna focus mainly on gender discrimination, which is when someone is treated differently based on their gender. This topic is discussed in great depth in the article written by Juliana Menasce Horowitz. Your gender, believe it or not, has the potential to make your life a whole lot easier, or a whole lot worse. The most common areas this type of discrimination takes place is in employment, pay, and promotion.

Gender is a big factor in employment. Forty-three percent of women said they have experienced gender discrimination, but the same survey showed that only eighteen percent of men say they have experienced gender discrimination. These numbers show that a large number of both men and women are experiencing gender discrimination, but women are affected a lot more. About Forty percent of these women have experienced discrimination at work, especially elderly women. More than fifty percent of these elderly women say they have experienced discrimination in receiving promotions, getting a job, and salary. It is possible that this is caused by more attractive and younger employees snagging jobs or promotions because of their looks. The men in the survey that say they have experienced gender discrimination, mainly bring up discrimination at work. Thirty-five percent of these men experienced unfairness in the hiring process, their salary, and receiving promotions. The second most common example is, Seven percent of them say people have made speculations about them because of how they look (Juliana Menasce et al). As you can see, both men and women are experiencing high levels of discrimination, mainly at work. This is unjust, no one should be treated differently based on their looks, age, or gender.

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A major area of unfairness is salary and pay. There is a gap in wages between men and women. Men are paid more than women for doing the same job. The gap has steadily been getting smaller and smaller, women are getting more jobs and getting paid more for them. Men have also been getting paid less and less. In 2016, women’s median hourly earnings were $16.00, up from $12.48 in 1980. This is a big increase, but not when you realize it was over a 36 year time span. Men earned a median hourly wage of $19.23 in 2016, down slightly from $19.42 in 1980. The wages of men are still higher than women, even though their pay has remained consistent. Wages are declining even more sharply for young men between ages 25 to 34 than for other aged men. With the wages for women on the rise and the decrease in wages for men, this has resulted in a narrower gender wage gap. In 2016, women earned about 83 cents for every dollar earned by men. This is a whole 17% less income than men. In 1980 women earned around 64 cents for every dollar earned by men. The wage gap is still prevalent today and the reasons for that are complex. Women usually begin to make less about 10 years into their work lives due to facing challenges and trade-offs that come with balancing work and family life (Juliana Menasce et al). Women’s pay is starting to catch up to men’s pay, but they should already be paid the same. It’s been decades since knowing about the wage gap, yet it seems the gap is getting smaller at the same pace it already was. Gender discrimination is still extremely prevalent today when it comes to salary and pay.

An individual’s gender can have a really big impact on their life. A person’s gender can greatly affect how they are treated, and the course of their life. Gender discrimination is a real problem and it is everywhere. Based on your gender you can either get paid more, hired more, and be promoted more often. You can also be favorable in court, which is dangerous for the other party, and sway the judges in your favor without having any clear evidence. Gender discrimination is also extremely prevalent in education. Based on your gender, others will either value your opinion or not, and even leave you out of crucial things, such as decision making. Gender discrimination is real, not imaginary, and it is a major issue.

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Gender Bias: 15 Examples & Definition

Gender bias refers to the unequal treatment and perceptions of individuals based on their gender. Historically, it has most frequently manifested as bias against women, such as workplace bias.

Stemming from a society’s biases about gender roles, it includes stereotyping, discrimination , and unequal distribution of resources or opportunities (World Health Organization, 2019).

Gender bias can manifest in numerous ways across different societies – and, indeed, within different sectors of the same society, such as in workplaces and education (United Nations, 2010).

For instance, in the professional world, gender bias often surfaces in the form of unequal pay or opportunities for advancement. Women, in many occupations, often earn less than men for equivalent work (gender wage gap), even when controlling for variables such as experience, education, and performance. This discrepancy in earnings is a clear example of gender bias (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper, 2010).

In education, it may manifest in the assumption that boys are better at math, while girls excel in language-based skills (OECD, 2015). Such predetermination can lead to unfair treatment and can limit the academic and career possibilities for individuals based on their gender (Duckworth & Halpern, 2012).

Gender Bias Examples

1. the gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap refers to a phenomenon in many societies where women often earn less than men on an hourly or salaried basis for equivalent work (Blau & Kahn, 2017).

There is a range of possible answers for why this occurs, including the idea that men may be more assertive in insisting on raises than women to due gender socialization and gender expectations. Historically, it was also seen as being due to the assumption that men are the primary breadwinners, so should be paid more.

Despite legislation and corporate declarations of pay parity, the gap persists in many industries globally, likely due to deep-rooted biases and systemic issues.

It affects career trajectories, retirement security, and the ability of women to gain financial independence.

2. Lack of Paternity Leave

Many societies still hold onto traditional gender roles , seeing child-rearing as primarily a woman’s role while men are typically expected to provide financially, leading to an absence or lack of paternity leave policies (Rehel, 2014).

This perpetuated gender norms that absolve men from participation in child rearing, curtails the involvement of the father in a child’s early life, and may also manifest as a bias that harms single fathers and same-sex fathers.

Furthermore, it places an unfair burden on women.

Rhe absence of a gender-blind parenting leave arrangement could lead to work-life imbalance issues for families, affecting overall family dynamics and the development of the child.

See Also: Femininity Examples and Masculinity Examples

3. Job Adverts with Gendered Language

Job adverts can unknowingly perpetuate gender bias by using language that leans towards one gender (Gaucher, Friesen, & Kay, 2011).

For example, an advert mentioning phrases like “dominant force” or “competitive environment” may unintentionally be seen as inviting traditional ‘alpha’ males to a corporate environment, and deter women from applying.

This use of subtly gendered language can lead to unnecessary sorting of applicants by gender even before the interview stage.

4. Gendered Interview Questions

Gender bias often manifests in a host of non-work-related interview questions, such as marital status, childcare arrangements, or plans for maternity leave, typically asked to women candidates (Rivera & Tilcsik, 2019).

Such questions are asked by employers who may select a candidate who is less likely to have family commitments. While this may make sense to the employer, overall, it seriously disadvantages women in the workforce.

Such a mindset contributes to the gender disparity seen in both hiring and promotional decisions across industries. It reinforces discriminatory practices and constraints gender diversity in the workplace.

Interesting Study: Gender bias leading to the glass ceiling was tested in a study conducted in 2012 at the University of Yale (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012). A group of researchers created two identical CVs, but one had a woman’s name on it (Jennifer), while the other one was a man (John). The CVs were randomly sent to different university departments for assessment. The results showed that resumes were not evaluated just on the merits shown: Jennifer was considered less competent, universities were less willing to hire her as a lab manager and even the salary they would offer her was 13% less than John’s.

5. The Glass Ceiling

The ‘ glass ceiling ‘ is a metaphorical barrier that impedes women and minorities from ascending to top corporate positions, hampering their career growth (Cotter, Hermsen, Ovadia, & Vanneman, 2001).

Despite possessing the requisite qualifications and demonstrating the necessary competencies, they are tacitly restricted from advancing beyond a certain point.

Oftentimes, this is because higher-level promotions and business deals are arranged in “men’s spaces” such as after-work meetups among the men, or on the golf course.

This phenomenon perpetuates a disproportionate gender balance and lack of diversity at senior management or board levels. It often enforces the stereotype of executive roles being a ‘man’s job,’ which inadvertently sustains gender bias in corporate structures.

Crazy Fact: Until 2018, there were more CEOs named John than all of the women CEOs in America. In 2022, only 24 of the top 500 companies are run by women

6. Gender-based Harassment

This is an egregious form of gender bias, often manifesting as unwelcome verbal, non-verbal, or physical conduct based on an individual’s gender (Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007).

It creates a hostile work environment, infringes upon an individual’s dignity , and adversely impacts professional and personal life.

Gender-based harassment, including sexual harassment, often involves toxic masculinity in the workplace and targets women, intensifying gender disparities and echoing patriarchal domination.

The negligence towards harassment allegations often results in a chilling effect, deterring victims from raising their voice against such biases.

7. Gender Role Assumptions

These are preconceived ideas about roles and feminine and masculine behavior attributed to men and women based purely on their gender (Eagly & Wood, 2011).

This can result in a type of bias where men and women are expected, and socially pressured, to behave in ways aligning with their stereotyped roles.

For instance, assuming women should be nurturing and domestic and men should be assertive and career-driven, underpinning cultural biases.

Such assumptions limit the potential of individuals by forcing them into stereotypical molds and discouraging deviation.

See More Examples of Assumptions Here

8. Test Bias in Education

This refers to how a school’s tests might favor one gender over the other (Arnot, David, & Weiner, 1999), which was a big issue in research and the media in the 1990s.

For example, scholars found that, on balance, questions that were less contextualized tended to lead to higher grades for boys, while questions that were more wordy tended to lead to higher grades for girls.

Of course, this is an overall trend and not reflective of any individual’s learning styles.

At the time, it was found that the bias in test questions tended to favor boys; and subsequent changes in the wording of tests (without even changing the questions themselves), tipped the scales more toward girls.

9. Inadequate Research on Women’s Health

Traditionally, medical research has predominantly focused on men, leaving gaps in knowledge pertaining to women’s health (Mazure & Jones, 2015).

This historical male bias led to findings being generalized to women without accounting for the physiological, hormonal, and social differences that might impact health outcomes.

Key examples include autism research – where manifestations of autism in girls were historically underdiagnosed because of insufficient research – and heart health.

Such bias can have detrimental impacts on healthcare provision for women and leads to ill-informed decision-making regarding treatment options.

Addressing this bias, by including women proportionately in research studies, is imperative for promoting equitable healthcare.

10. Doctors Dismissing Women’s Concerns

There is a well-researched phenomenon where gender stereotypes about men as “brave” and women as “emotional” play out in the doctor’s office.

Doctors who have an unconscious gender bias may be more inclined to be dismissive of women’s complaints of pain, while being more responsive to men’s complaints of pain (Samulowitz et al., 2018).

This may subsequently manifest as delayed treatment of illnesses or dismissiveness of chronic illnesses.

11. Assuming the Woman is the Nurse and the Man is the Doctor

Stereotypical assumptions about job roles stem from gender bias, with the medical field often perceived as being hierarchically gendered (Bartley & Roeser, 2011).

Here, the woman is frequently relegated to a caregiver (nurse) role and the man assigned a more authoritative (doctor) role.

These assumptions diminish women’s contributions to medicine and undermines their potentials as healthcare providers.

Not only does this bias oppress women within the medical profession, but it also discourages aspiring female medical practitioners.

12. Males Discouraged from Teaching

Stereotypes positioning teaching, especially at elementary levels, as ‘women’s work’ can discourage men from entering the profession (Skelton, 2012).

Moreover, societal biases associating males working with young children with predatory behavior can deter men from considering teaching careers.

This gender bias contributes to an imbalance in the teaching profession and deprives students of beneficial exposure to diverse role models.

A more balanced representation can challenge gender norms and enhance educational experiences for students.

13. Gender Stereotypes in Textbooks

Textbooks often reinforce traditional gender roles and stereotypes , suggesting a form of academic gender bias (Blumberg, 2008).

For instance, men may be depicted as active, decisive figures in history or science texts, while women may be marginalized or depicted in more restricted roles.

These biases in educational materials subtly shape students’ perceptions of gender roles, limiting their potential and contributing to perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Counteracting such biases is vital for championing an inclusive, diversified, and egalitarian education system.

14. Disproportionate Discipline Based on Gender

School discipline practices often reflect and reinforce gender biases, with boys statistically disciplined more harshly than girls (Losen et al., 2015).

Such a bias can lead to harmful consequences, including pushing boys out of mainstream education, leading to decreased educational achievement.

At the same time, girls may face unfair discipline, too, such as their parents disciplining them for not being “ladylike” or giving them rewards and punishments that push them toward embracing a veneer of mainstream femininity.

15. Gender Bias in Student Evaluations

Students’ evaluations of professors have also demonstrated gender bias, that tends to negatively impact female professors.

One study by Mitchell and Martin (2018) found that women instructors are often viewed as less qualified compared to their male counterparts. This mirrors the idea that women are nurses and men are doctors in healthcare.

The perception stems from the assumption that female professors will be of a lower academic rank and have lesser qualifications than male professors. This might stem from gendered assumptions that men are leaders, or media-reinforced ideas about noble professors being men.

Gender bias manifests in a variety of ways. It can affect men as well as women, although due to the patriarchy that manifests historically in most societies, women tend to be more affected than men in more domains.

Arnot, M., David, M., & Weiner, G. (1999). Closing the gender gap: Postwar education and social change . Cambridge, UK: Polity.

Bartley, A., & Roeser, R. (2011). Women physicians: Choosing a career in academic medicine. Journal of Medical Education in Europe , 6(1), 13-23. doi: https://doi.org/10.1097%2FACM.0b013e31823ab4a8

Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2017). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. Journal of Economic Literature , 55(3), 789–865.

Blumberg, R. L. (2008). The invisible obstacle to educational equality: Gender bias in textbooks. Public Administration and Development , 28(4), 279–290. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-009-9086-1

Cotter, D. A., Hermsen, J. M., Ovadia, S., & Vanneman, R. (2001). The glass ceiling effect. Social Forces , 80(2), 655–681. doi: https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2001.0091

Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (2011). Social role theory. In Van Lange, P. A., Kruglanski, A. W., & Higgins, E. T. (Eds.), Handbook of Theories in Social Psychology (pp. 458-476). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

Gaucher, D., Friesen, J., & Kay, A. C. (2011). Evidence that gendered wording in job advertisements exists and sustains gender inequality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 101(1), 109–128. doi: https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0022530

Losen, D., Hodson, C., Keith II, M. A., Morrison, K., & Belway, S. (2015). Are we closing the school discipline gap? University of California. Los Angeles.

Mitchell, K. M., & Martin, J. (2018). Gender bias in student evaluations. PS: Political Science & Politics , 51(3), 648-652. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S104909651800001X

Samulowitz, A., Gremyr, I., Eriksson, E., & Hensing, G. (2018). “Brave men” and “emotional women”: A theory-guided literature review on gender bias in health care and gendered norms towards patients with chronic pain. Pain Research and Management , 2018. doi: https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/6358624

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2 thoughts on “Gender Bias: 15 Examples & Definition”

Good article. However, you did not touch on Gender bias against women in courtroom. Males rule in state of Texas! Also, due to workplace gender biases females’ Social Security benefits are proportionately lower than males (possibly having preformed same job.)

Thanks for the input, Sharon. The social security one’s a big point – women often have far less money in retirement than men, and it is often due to systemic biases.

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Machismo and Hispanic Culture

This essay about Marianismo examines its role in Hispanic culture, contrasting it with the concept of Machismo. It discusses Marianismo’s origins in Catholic and indigenous beliefs and its effects on women’s societal roles, emphasizing purity and self-sacrifice. The text critiques how these ideals perpetuate gender inequality and suggests that Marianismo’s influence is evolving with social changes. The essay calls for a reevaluation of patriarchal norms to promote gender equality and empowerment in Hispanic communities.

How it works

The discourse around Hispanic culture frequently highlights “Machismo” as a reflection of deep-seated patriarchal values. However, there is another equally vital concept often left in the shadows: Marianismo. This essay explores the rich layers of Marianismo, tracing its historical origins, its present-day expressions, and its complex effects on gender dynamics within Hispanic communities.

Originating from a blend of Catholicism, indigenous beliefs, and the remnants of colonialism in Latin America, Marianismo is closely tied to the veneration of the Virgin Mary. As a symbol of purity, selflessness, and care, the Virgin Mary sets a standard that women in many Hispanic cultures are encouraged to follow.

The principles embedded in Marianismo, such as piety, modesty, submissiveness, and maternal dedication, are intricately integrated into the societal fabric, deeply influencing women’s roles and expectations in both family and broader social settings.

At the heart of Marianismo lies the idealization of women’s virtue and purity, casting them as the custodians of their family’s honor and moral standing. This ideal dictates aspects of women’s lives including their behavior, appearance, and social interactions. Standards of modesty, sexual purity before marriage, and a strong commitment to family duties define the Marianismo paradigm. Deviating from these norms can lead to personal and familial disgrace, reinforcing the pressures placed on women.

Marianismo also emphasizes the importance of self-sacrifice and caregiving in women’s roles, promoting their primary identity as caregivers and moral guides. Women are raised to place the needs of others before their own, seeking fulfillment in caretaking roles. This often extends to assuming the majority of emotional labor and household responsibilities, with their efforts frequently overlooked and undervalued.

Yet, this exaltation of female virtues under Marianismo masks deeper issues of power imbalance and gender inequality. While it celebrates women as moral paragons, it concurrently limits their autonomy, entangling them in patriarchal norms that can marginalize and oppress. This includes dangerous inclinations towards victim-blaming and the trivialization of sexual violence, perpetuating gender imbalances and continuing cycles of disadvantage.

Importantly, Marianismo is not a fixed or unchanging ideology. It evolves, influenced by historical shifts, social changes, and individual agency. Its impact varies by class, race, and location, with urbanization, global influences, and evolving social attitudes prompting reevaluations of traditional gender roles.

In summary, Marianismo presents a dual narrative within Hispanic culture. It offers a source of identity and continuity, yet it also imposes significant challenges to gender equality and female empowerment. The path forward requires a critical examination of the patriarchal foundations supporting Marianismo. By dismantling outdated stereotypes and fostering inclusivity, society can better respect and elevate the diverse identities and capabilities of all individuals, promoting true equality.

Cite this page

Machismo And Hispanic Culture. (2024, Apr 22). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/machismo-and-hispanic-culture/

"Machismo And Hispanic Culture." PapersOwl.com , 22 Apr 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/machismo-and-hispanic-culture/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Machismo And Hispanic Culture . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/machismo-and-hispanic-culture/ [Accessed: 22 Apr. 2024]

"Machismo And Hispanic Culture." PapersOwl.com, Apr 22, 2024. Accessed April 22, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/machismo-and-hispanic-culture/

"Machismo And Hispanic Culture," PapersOwl.com , 22-Apr-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/machismo-and-hispanic-culture/. [Accessed: 22-Apr-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Machismo And Hispanic Culture . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/machismo-and-hispanic-culture/ [Accessed: 22-Apr-2024]

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