Exploration of Gender Inequality: The Analysis of Causes and Consequences of Gender Inequality

Gender inequality is a serious social problem affecting billions of people across the world. Gender inequality can be described as the systematic disadvantage of people along gender lines by restricting access to resources, opportunities, equality, and infringing social processes. Gender inequality manifests itself in various forms including (a) gender wage gap and income inequality, (b) women's underrepresentation in social and political positions, (c) limited access to reproductive rights, and (d) violence and harassment of women. However, while issues of gender inequality have persisted in modern times, the problems are not new. In the 19^th century, a social movement labeled as feminism took over Europe, Japan, and America, where women came forth to defend the rights of women. The feminist social movement argued that women were as capable as men and could also discharge various responsibilities at all levels of societal institutions including healthcare, education, and government positions. The fight for gender equality in modern times has shifted to workplaces and social institutions where women demand their voices to be heard on issues of workplace harassment, equality in promotions, and income equality. Issues surrounding gender inequality have persisted despite continued efforts from various social movements over a span of one century, therefore, there is a strong call for action to find new alternatives that could potentially provide sustainable solutions. In this paper, the issue of gender inequality will be explored in detail to establish potential solutions that can be achieved when economic resources and political influence are mobilized towards reducing gender inequality.

Historical Context

The social problem of gender inequality is rooted in historical contexts where gender and biological differences have systematically been used to disadvantage women populations. Social constructions of relations and gender norms that tethered girls and women to domestic roles and childcare allowed for uneven power relations between men and women. The power structures allowed men to hold critical positions leading to a patriarchal and hierarchical society that perpetuated continued discrimination of people along gender lines. However, at the dawn of industrialization and the increased demand for laborers in the job market the women were allowed to join the workforce. The position of women improved as they were allowed to access employment. During that period men still held important positions making them have hegemony over women who did low-skill and low-wages positions.

The 20^th century saw the rise of social movements such as the feminist movement that advocated for gender equality for women. The women’s suffrage movement focused specifically on advancing women’s right to vote. The second wave of the women’s movement focused on fairness in the workplace and equal rights for all women along legal lines. The third wave of the 20^th century’s women's movement aimed to improve the reproductive rights of women. In the contemporary 21^st century society, issues of gender inequality persist where reports of women facing discrimination such as unequal pay, underrepresentation, and difficulty accessing opportunities and employment. Also, issues such as gender-based violence and sexual harassment are among other problems that affect millions of women at all levels of society.

Causes of Gender Inequality

Historically there have been various factors that have caused and perpetuated gender inequality for millennia. The causes of gender inequality can be categorized into various broad groups including (a) historical contexts, (b) cultural norms and traditions, (c) economic factors, (d) educational disparities, (e) gender-based violence, and (f) political underrepresentation. Often the issue of gender inequality has been justified by historical contexts and gender stereotypes. In many societies, major decision-making and power positions were conserved for men while women were relegated to subordinate roles. In most situations, women were not allowed to engage in society through leadership positions with influence. Hence, their influence was confined to raising children and performing household chores.

Similarly, economic factors play a critical role in disadvantaging women. Access to resources has been used to discriminate against women in various societies. By confining women to low-paying and low-impact jobs, women’s economic power is minimized. Also, the hiring processes have been used to discredit competent women to limit their access to employment. For example, Amazon ― the tech giant ―employed a pilot artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to automate the hiring process which was later discovered to be biased against women applicants in the hiring process due to its use of historical data that more men were hired in the company in the past (Andrews & Bucher, 2022). When the bias was discovered, the company had to discontinue the use of the algorithm and develop a better hiring tool for the company. Hence, the occurrence showed that even in the contemporary modern society issues of gender bias and inequality persist even within companies with big influence.

Another cause of gender inequality is the underrepresentation of women in political positions. While women make up half of the population, there is severe underrepresentation of women in political positions. One of the reasons for such is that women are often underrepresented in political parties which makes it difficult for them to secure party nominations and prepare for elections. As a result, during decision-making processes in the formulation of social policies, women's voices are drowned and muffled. Therefore, women’s perspectives and issues rarely make it to local, national, and international levels for solution formulation. Also, societal, and cultural norms surrounding women’s gender roles make it difficult for women to receive communal support because community and society members believe that women’s position is at home and in child-rearing.

Lastly, one of the primary sources and causes of gender inequality is gender stereotyping. Gender stereotypes arise from cultural and historical gendered division of labor. The stereotypes follow from the classification of labor along biological and gendered lines (Kendall, 2018). Various cross-cultural studies have evidenced the fact that social factors such as the social perception of women have led to women being confined within private and domestic domains while their male counterparts are allowed to explore public, economic, and political domains (Kendall, 2018). Gender inequality is perpetuated through the early socialization of children into believing that male domination and female subordination are the norm. Individuals, groups, and social institutions such as families, schools, churches, businesses, and politicians socialize members of a society into accepting gender stereotypes and practicing them in the community (Kendall, 2018). Furthermore, with the advent and development of technology, socialization is done through traditional and social media platforms thus increasing the continuation of gendered stereotypes which manifest in the gendered division of labor and the suppression of dissenting voices.

Manifestations of Gender Inequality

Since the term gender is not limited to biological sex at birth, it is a complex topic that requires scholarly discourse. In this paper, the term gender will be defined as a set of social systems and structures that represent people’s life experiences (Heise et al., 2019). Therefore, due to the complexity of gender inequality, it manifests in various forms including the gender wage gap, gender-based violence, gender stereotypes, women's underrepresentation, sexual assault, and harassment, and femicide. These manifestations of gender inequality will be described in detail to develop a better understanding of how they not only affect women by society as a whole.

The Wage Pay Gap

The wage pay gap is described as the differences or disparities in the average earnings between men and women. It is a manifestation of the gendered division of paid work and gender inequality. Moreover, the wage gap is a recognized indicator of women’s economic equality and differs from one country to another. The number of women in the workforce has significantly increased over the years. For example, in the United States (US) by 1970 women comprised only 47% of the total workforce, however, the number has since increased to 56.7% as of 2015 (Kendall, 2018). In Canada, the number of women in the workplace has substantially increased from 21.6% in 1950 to 65.2% in 1983 and to 82% by 2015 (Gender Wage Gap Fact Sheet, n.d.). However, despite such improvement in the number of women in the workforce in these developed countries the wage gap still exists. Canada is ranked as the 7^th country out of 38 with the highest wage gap based on data from 2016 (Government of Canada, Statistics Canada, 2023)The data shows that in 2016, women in Canada earned an average of 69 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts (Gender Wage Gap Fact Sheet, n.d.). Hence, with such statistics, it can be argued that the problem exists even in developed countries such as the US and Canada.

To understand the issue of the gender wage gap it is critical to explore its sources. One of the reasons for the existence of this issue is that traditionally women have often been offered low-skill and low-pay jobs in comparison to their male counterparts. The gendered division of paid work has imprisoned women population to traditional gender roles that are undervalued. Similarly, domestic unpaid work such as childcare and house chores are delegated to women reducing their productivity in paid work and reducing their chances of promotions and carer advancement. Hence, women often work in part-time positions as opposed to their male counterparts who work full-time jobs which makes it easier for them to achieve higher pay and advance their economic position further pushing women to a life of vicious poverty.

Another source of the gender wage gap lies in the wage structure effect. Bruns (2019) argues that while the number of men and women in the workplace might be the same, the wage divide, and differences arise from firm-specific pay premiums between men and women (Vahter & Masso, 2019). Men effect has been described as “unobserved” because the issue is often overlooked. Therefore, despite the narrowing of the wage gap, the continued access to higher-wage firms by men has increased the relative return for men over women who are limited to low-wage firms (Bruns, 2019). Hence, even with low numbers of men in the workplace who work in high-paying positions as compared to a large number of women who work in low-wage positions perpetuates the issue of the gender wage gap.

Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a violation of human rights and a manifestation of gender inequality. It represents targeted oppression and discrimination of girls and women by patriarchal systems. Such systems continue to be pervasive due to childhood gender socialization and sustained policies that are detrimental to girls and women populations. GBV can be a manifestation of intersectionality where other factors of discrimination such as gender, race, socioeconomic status, and sexual preferences combine to compound discrimination of disadvantaged groups. Kimberle Crenshaw, an American legal scholar, and pioneer of critical race theory, coined the term intersectionality to describe factors of oppression that overlap and intersect to systematically perpetrate social justice (TED, 2016). Crenshaw described that often women’s oppression and discrimination go unnoticed due to wanting frameworks through which social issues of race, gender, and sex are observed. As a result, she stated that women who experience intersectionality of oppressive issues such as social class, race, and gender go through double or triple discrimination which further worsens their situation. In the context of GBV, women of color from disenfranchised and low-income households are the most affected by GBV incidents because they cannot seek justice and challenge their oppressors. Hence, such issues lead to the continuation of GBV cases even in developed countries for so long.

Women Underrepresentation

Gender inequality is manifested in women's underrepresentation in critical leadership positions. Specifically, women are underrepresented in male-dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and political positions. In the context of STEM fields, various factors include (a) lack of role models, (b) gender stereotypes, (c) gender biases, (d) discrimination, and (e) educational barriers. Similarly, women are underrepresented in leadership and political leadership because of various issues including institutional barriers, lack of work-life balance, cultural and societal norms, and economic barriers. As a result, due to the limited representation of women in important decision-making positions often their grievances fail to reach policy makers. Also, the low number of women representatives means that the women’s perspectives are less likely to be represented in the policy-making processes, thereby, leading to continued disenfranchisement of girls and women. For example, if women in a community are experiencing GBV and femicide, male leaders and politicians might dismiss such issues and try to water them down to reduce their seriousness. On the contrary, if women representatives hold significant positions and numbers in critical positions of authority the issue can be voiced and addressed to eliminate the threats facing girls and women.

Sexual Assault and Harassment in the Workplace

The rise in the number of women in modern workplaces has increased the number of sexual assault and harassment cases against women in the workplace. Sexual assault is defined in this paper as the unwanted or unwelcome sexual attention that makes the workplace environment hostile for its employees. While sexual assault and harassment can happen to individuals of any gender it often happens to women (Kendall, 2018). Sexual assault can also be linked to sexism where derogatory terms that are intended to subordinate one’s sex with the assumed superiority of another sex. Such descriptions show that sexual assault and harassment can take many forms and be done at various levels of an organization. For example, superior leaders in an organization may be tempted to sexually harass their juniors through intimidation and aggression to solicit sexual favors. Occurrences of sexual assault and harassment are not new and have been proven to be more common than expected. The rise of the #MeToo movement is a testament to the many women who suffer sexual assault and harassment at the workplace but fear to report it (Alaggia & Wang, 2020). Hence, the oppressors often go unpunished, making such incidents new norms in various workplaces globally.

Femicide

Femicide is described as the targeted killings of women and females fueled by gendered reasons and justifications. Stereotyping victims of femicides is often a reason why the perpetrators of such heinous acts commit them against girls and women. Researchers studying homicide cases have been motivated to study the motivation behind such murders and the relationship between the victims and the offenders. Brodie et al. (2023) detail that female victims’ homicides are prevalent when compared to male cases in South Africa where they conducted their study. However, the issue extends beyond South Africa’s boundaries and is experienced in other regions even in developed countries such as the US and Canada. Similarly, the researchers discovered that in most cases the women victims of femicides knew the perpetrators as either close friends or family members.

Cases of femicide are normalized due to the complacency of institutions to prosecute issues of GBV and the use of physical force on girls and women. The challenge is that social institutions such as families make it easier for perpetrators to continue their behavior unabated because male individuals feel they have power and dominance over girls and women in their homes. The thinking is culturally supported and strengthened due to the power imbalance between men and women which leads to a lack of accountability of aggressive and physical abuse meted against women. Also, the economic inequality and poverty experienced by women exacerbate the problem because women choose to stay in abusive relationships because they depend on the males for economic support which disadvantages them and justifies verbal and physical abuse in the minds of the oppressors. Hence, such issues go unreported and are only discovered after female populations have lost their lives.

Impacts and Consequences of Gender Inequality

Health Disparities

Gender inequality leads to health disparities due to the gendered perception of individuals from birth. When parents are told the gender of their conceived baby, they develop attitudes and perceptions of how to treat the child. Once the child is born, they are treated differently depending on their assigned sex at birth. Moreover, the parents create expectations for the children which are expressed through subtle or overt messages to the children. The expectations are reinforced by traditional norms which determine how the children should behave and interact with others. For example, boys are encouraged to be courageous and outgoing which puts them in harm, while their female peers are protected (Heise et al., 2019). Such practices continue into adulthood where male children are exposed to better education and career opportunities which improves their economic positions. As a result, the children become economically enabled making it easy for them to achieve good healthcare systems, safe housing, and good quality and healthy foods which improves their health outcomes.

Steps to Alleviate Gender Inequality

The process of reducing or eliminating the issue of gender inequality can take many forms. Due to its multifaceted nature and various articulating components, the reduction of gender inequality requires intricate interventions that are targeted at each of the causes and consequences of gender inequality. In this section, various approaches will be taken to explore potential solutions to gender inequality. Therefore, the following are possible plans of action that can be taken to alleviate the social problem given economic resources and political muscle are not an issue.

Educational Initiatives

Quality education is listed as the fourth sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Quality education is important because it allows for equality to be achieved. When children of all sexes and genders are allowed to access quality education, they have the opportunity to rewrite their families’ histories and to achieve upward social mobility. Similarly, access to quality education allows women to achieve certification, training, and skills that are relevant and necessary in their participation in economic, political, and social positions. Enabling girls and women to be well-educated increases their chances of making better decisions concerning their health and reproductive rights. Also, women understand their role in making life better for themselves by seeking to challenge traditional gender norms at the workplace and the societal levels.

Strengthening Social Institutions

The family is the smallest unit of social institutions. Therefore, strengthening families will go a long way in promoting the reduction and alleviation of gender inequalities within communities. One way to achieve such is by creating awareness of the importance of two-parent families. Two-parent families are important for children in the family and the parents because it reduces the burden of doing house chores and raising children. Active parents have a better likelihood of rearing children who have present parents who are responsible for their well-being. The same cannot be said for families with single parents because they would be overwhelmed by the activities of the home and the energy needed to raise children.

Legislation Processes

Legislation processes are important in driving positive social change. Through legislation such as those requiring all children to attend formal schooling, gender inequality would be reduced. Also, forcing children to attend school reduces issues of forced marriages among teenage girls which improves their chances of getting an education and skills that will help them in the job market. Also, government policies that support women's participation in leadership and political positions would go a long way in making women achieve representation. For example, various governments have adopted the one-third rule where women are required to hold at least one-third of political positions in a bid to improve gender parity in political parties and positions. Lastly, reforms that address issues of the intersectionality of race, gender, ethnicity, age, and class can better the experiences of marginalized groups who experienced double forms of oppression.

Economic Empowerment of Women and Marginalized Groups

Patriarchal systems can be challenged in society through supporting programs that promote the economic empowerment of women and marginalized groups. Ensuring that all people have fair access to job opportunities and career advancement is crucial to empowering women. Economic empowerment will have significant impacts on other areas of life including healthcare, education, and overall wellbeing. For example, if women are provided with funding to start and run businesses by the government, they will have better opportunities to take their children to good schools, live in good neighborhoods, and access quality healthcare. Hence, economic empowerment goes an extra mile in solving the issue of gender inequality.

Theories that Explain Issues of Gender Inequality

In the exploration of the issue of gender inequality, it is crucial to employ scholarly frameworks and theories. The intersectionality framework and the social constructionism theory can best be used to understand the social problem of gender inequality. Intersectionality is an important framework as it helps the researcher to study gender inequality from a perspective that accounts for the convergence of various overlapping forms of oppression that affect the experiences of the oppressed. The framework provides a holistic view of the problem to allow the researcher to have a complete and comprehensive understanding of the issue and how to provide sustainable solutions that assuage the social problem.

The social constructionism theory is a theoretical approach that states that peoples’ realities and knowledge are determined by social constructions and shared assumptions. It suggests that human experiences are not objective but occur subjectively depending on the individual experiencing them. Also, it explores the socially constructed norms that are developed culturally by communities through social processes and interactions. The theory is important as it provides the social context under which various experiences come to be and how they affect people.

Intersectionality of Class, Gender, Ethnicity, and Sexuality to Perpetuate Gender Inequality

Intersectionality is a concept introduced under critical race theory by Kimberle Crenshaw to describe how race, gender, class, sexuality, and ethnic factors can often overlap to disadvantage the oppressed. The framework describes how women, especially women of color experience compounded discrimination and oppression due to their minority status, race, and social class which intersect to double, triple, or quadruple oppression. In the context of gender inequality, women from minority groups who identify as gender minorities are more likely to be discriminated against and oppressed more than those who only experience one factor of discrimination.

Kimberle Crenshaw describes the issue as being largely unrecognized and unaddressed leading to little to no efforts being expensed to create solutions. It perpetuates the continuation of gender inequalities by promoting healthcare inequalities, GBV, barriers to economic opportunities, and workplace challenges for African American women. For example, if a woman of African descent immigrates to the US, they would face various challenges, including language barriers, racism, sexism, and discrimination, compounding sources of oppression for them. Hence, it can be argued that intersectionality is responsible for the increased oppression and discrimination of minority groups who experience overlapping sources of oppression.

Ways to Measure Increase or Reduction of Gender Inequality

One of the ways of measuring the success of the proposed solutions will be through tracking the number of women in social institutions such as schools, healthcare, and governments. Often women's representation in important sectors has been underwhelming. Therefore, the increase in their populations in workplaces with significant impacts would show that the interventions worked. Similarly, the success of the programs would be measured by tracking the gender wage gap to determine if it is narrowing or widening. Also, success will be measured by analyzing the number of girls and women in learning institutions and graduating cohorts.

Conclusion

Gender inequality is a pervasive issue that has persisted for millennia. The intricate interplay of factors that underpin the causes and consequences of gender inequality makes it a complex topic even for sociologists. Issues such as intersectionality make it difficult for sociologists to determine specific causes of gender inequality, making it difficult to explore the issue within black-and-white perspectives. Suggested solutions for gender inequality include economically empowering women, exploring educational initiatives, strengthening social institutions, and the implementation of legislative processes. Hence, the exploration of various alternative interventions could achieve sufficient success in reducing the impacts or consequences of the social problem.