Yo is this…

Yo, is this Gender Inequality?

Hello everyone! Welcome to my podcast of “Yo, is this Gender Inequality?” My name is Jacey Weaver and today I am going to talk to you about how gender can play a role in the workplace. So, everyone has a job, right? Are you treated differently because of your gender at your job? Are there certain jobs that men are considered great at, but women aren’t? Are there certain jobs where women are considered dominant over men? Are men considered smarter than women? The answer to these questions will be coming soon. But first, I want you to think about what the word “inequality” really means as I am still trying to understand myself why gender inequality is happening within the workplace.

Ya know most people think like hey, women are supposed to be nurses and men are supposed to do lawncare and do the “big boy” things. If you think about it, some men are farmers but that does not mean women can’t be either. There are so many jobs out there that people for sure can categorize if it’s for men or for women. To be honest, I have done this too. I thought that construction workers should be men because they are typically stronger than women. I shouldn’t think like that either as there should be an equal opportunity for both genders to thrive at a job.

Here is an explanation of my own experiences. I live on a farm and my dad is the main owner. But my sister and I have helped him with certain things since we were little. We have cleaned out grain bins, swept, wash tractors and combines. Ya know things that need to be done around the farm. But there are days when he needs my cousins, who are boys, to help him. They usually help him when it comes to putting tires on the tractors or handling motors. My dad doesn’t mean this in any way, but my cousins are stronger than me, they are boys. Sometimes I feel I shouldn’t think like that but in certain situation its true. My dad needs the strong hands for certain things and that is okay.

I had witnessed another experience where a girl was not able to work for someone because she was not strong enough like the other men that were working. I don’t know about you, but situations like this drive me nuts. Why? Why do that to someone? Just hep them! I don’t know! Okay back to the story, sorry. She had been knocking down trees and carrying the stumps to the trailer. I could tell she felt targeted as being a woman because it was hard for her to carry these large stumps. It was even very uncomfortable for me watching her struggle with this. I mean even I had trouble carrying these large stumps too, but did the men target me… nope. The men were almost to the point where they were making her cry because they were harassing her. If they could have took the time to help her and maybe show her a better way to carry the stumps, this would not have been considered gender inequality. I feel like being nicer to her would have helped the situation even more.

From my own experiences, I have more respect for the women who try and do things, but maybe can’t. I have a new perspective on the word inequality as I think it can mean many different things. Other people might not think that the situations I went through with gender inequality growing up are a big deal, but everyone has their own opinion. I do not like how some people in the workplace get harassed or are bothered by the fact that they are treated different because of their gender. Keeping your opinions to yourself is also important, but men and women should have an equal opportunity at pursuing a job. I wish I could have done something for the girl to help her out, but I was on a strict schedule too, and thought it would be better to keep my opinions to myself.

Looking through some research, so I could better understand why situations like this were happening, I had found where someone talked about a situation like mine and why there are gender differences in the workplace. The article said that the reason there are differences between men and women in the workplace is because of their social factors. This can include physical and emotional factors (Scott, 2019). This article made me realize that it does make sense that certain companies might want men over women, but don’t hire women then if you don’t want them. We don’t need to be hied then treated wrong because we are female. Am I right?

If you want to read more about gender differences in the workplace click on this link and it will take you to the article. In fact, I encourage all of you to read more in this article.

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/gender-differences-within-workplace-10512.html

Are men smarter than women? Pshhhh what kind of question is that? Okay I’m kidding. But let’s talk about another reason there might be gender inequality in the workplace. I’m trying to understand this more too so bear with me. As I was looking up another reason to why there is gender inequality in the workplace, I found a research study that shows how the smartness of men has to do with why men are hired for more complicated jobs than women. A poll found that 21% of Americans believed men were better than women in the math and science category (Johnson, 2017). Like okay? But women still should have a chance at more complex jobs, right? Apparently, the attitude category is higher on women than men and that has a factor as well (Johnson, 2017). Which like I believe that, but then again does that really need to make a giant effect on your gender for a job? I don’t really think so. Next, this becomes interesting. Another study was done that showed 78% of no differences between men and women (Johnson, 2017). So, men and women are actually more similar than we think. Like what? I don’t know about you, but this got my mind going more than anything. I was so intrigued by why they thought this, which I am going to leave to you to read that in the article. This article then talks about how women are more capable of spelling words than men are (Johnson, 2017). Okay so at this point I think there should not be that fine line between men and women in the workplace. Like come on people. Let women try to overcome something they haven’t before

I want you to read about these polls conducted if you were just as confused as I was. I promise you will understand it better.

https://hbr.org/2017/08/what-the-science-actually-says-about-gender-gaps-in-the-workplace

If you think about gender inequality in both perspectives, the question is, is this really gender inequality? Let’s go back to my personal experience about the stump and elaborate on that more. The men probably did not want her working because they just wanted to move the stumps and get them out of the way as fast as they could. In today’s world, people work just to get it done and that’s what I saw here on this day of the stump incident. Like I get it, the men just wanted to finish up and get out of there. But, for the other side of things people are really sensitive. The girl took this situation to heart, which not going to lie I probably would have too. I’m sure she just wanted help from the men instead of them making fun of her. Then men were probably thinking why did my boss even hire women to do such a job when he knows it would take longer? That’s what is wrong with this world today. People just want to get things done instead of learning or helping others.

As I talked about previously how most people categorize men and women in different jobs, I wanted to share this video with you where 2 people conduct an experiment where they ask people to match the job with the person on their poster board. To match the occupation with the face is what they called their experiment. A guy had said “This guy looks like a truck driver.” So, he matched the man with the truck. It turns out the that was wrong, and the other 9 people did not match the faces to their job correct either. The video does have the other point of view stated where 94% of males are firefighters and 90% females are nurses. They do have a point here. We can see that yes, this might be true, but it doesn’t always have to be this way. Personally, I would want to be a firefighter even though I am a woman, but that is not the profession I started with so it would be harder to switch. Now I think well, maybe I shouldn’t think like that, but people should do what makes them happy and not worry about if their gender is right for a job or not. I encourage all of you to watch this experimental video to get a just of why people might consider a certain gender with a certain job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE-vJO67xqg

Wow, that was a lot I talked about. But I can now say I understand more on why there are gender inequalities within the workplace. BUT there should not be any harassing made to someone who might be having difficulty at their job. Am I right? I think so. It all makes sense. I have come to the conclusion if you don’t think women can do a job right then don’t hire them. It’s that simple. Don’t hire women then make fun of them for not being able to do it right. These articles and video really helped me understand why there are gender inequalities within the workplace, so I encourage you to read them and watch the video to get a better understanding. Again, my name is Jacey Weaver and thank you for listening to my “Yo, is this Gender Inequality” podcast. Thank you!

Works Cited:

Johnson, S. K. (2017, August 18). What the Science Actually Says About Gender Gaps in the Workplace. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2017/08/what-the-science-actually-says-about-gender-gaps-in-the-workplace

Scott, S. (2019, February 05). Gender Differences Within the Workplace. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/gender-differences-within-workplace-10512.html

(2015, November 28). Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE-vJO67xqg

Picture:

https://twitter.com/WomensInstitute/status/1203977005596921858