WHAT ARE WE REALLY FIGHTING FOR ?
Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender.
It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles.
When someone describes a typical woman they say things like: women should always look good, women are amazing cooks, a woman’s main priority in life is to get married, and the most insane is a woman’s only purpose is to reproduce. Men on the other hand are supposed to be very muscular and strong. They should be able to maintain and protect a household, and most importantly be hard workers. But as we all know this isn’t the case for all of us. There are a lot of us who don’t fall in these categories for example: there are women who don’t cook and men who love too, there are women who are the head of the household and men who prefer being the ones to stay at home and care for the housework, there are women who prefer dressing more masculine and males who prefer more feminine. And it is exactly these people who are fighting against inequality.
But is fighting for this gender equality worth it?
In Women, Race, Class Davis states “that throughout time women began to be ideologically redefined as the guardians of a devalued domestic life.” In response they feel that the government should pay them to do housewife work since it is equivalent to a regular labor job.
The question is if this would actually empower them in any sort of way or what they are really trying to fight for is the fact that women shouldn’t have to do this job because it’s not a women’s requirement in the first place?
If someone answered this question saying because women shouldn’t be assigned to this job in the first place then I ask the following question, if getting paid for this housework did exist and men preferred to take this role would you be fine with that or would you then see these men as less of a man? And the answer would be definitely. Because the women who hate to be categorized as a typical housewife would also judge a man because those aren’t the expectations she desires in a man, therefore, contradicting herself. For example, I have heard some women say they are looking for a man who is a hard worker, who has the ability to provide and take care of her however they the type of women who are so independent and think they can make it on their own without a man. So their goal is to be independent but also want men to do things for them like any ordinary woman? So half of the time they are against these social constructed ideas and the other half looking up to them.
On the other hand, there are those men who want a housewife but are not able to provide financially. This instability in men requires women to work. How Davis stated “The rapid expansion of female labour force means that more and more women are finding it increasingly difficult to excel as housewives according to the traditional standards.” Therefore, men want to follow these social constructed ideas or go against them only to their convenience.
At the end of the day we live up to these social constructions made for so long. I think just like women want their men to be strong and protective the men want a women who gives them that responsibility and who takes care of them and their household, but at the end of the day these social constructed ideas only work at their convenience. Society works in a way where some people will always be on top of others and if it is not men on top of women then its women on top of men and the inequality will still exist. And if it is not gender then it will be things like class and race that will be the problem. It is a never ending cycle between us humans.
