Yo, Is This Sexist?
By: Amanda Burgei
I have always asked myself, why cannot men and women be treated equally? What makes men more superior than women? Ever since the beginning of time, men have been seen as superior compared to women. Men were considered stronger because they were in charge of their households and providing for their families, while women stayed at home and tended to the children. It was not until 1848 where women could own their own property, and it was not until 1920 when the 19th Amendment was established allowing women the right to vote. The rights of women have been slowly achieved through the Women’s Rights Movement. Although the inequality between men and women in today’s society is significantly less than it used to be, it is still prevalent in workplaces, sports, health, and many more places.
One may ask, why are you interested in the equality between men and women? Well the short answer is, as a woman myself, I believe that everyone deserves equal rights. It should not matter what a person’s gender, race, religious affiliation, etc. in order to receive equal rights. Although I have not had a significant personal experience of sexism, I often find myself in disbelief of the inequality present in society. As I continue, I want to highlight two incidents of inequality between men and women that I believe should be evaluated and discussed.
The first incident that I would like to discuss is the inequality between men and women in sports, specifically the unequal pay between the U.S. men’s national soccer team and the US. women’s national soccer team. According to Business Insider, in 2016, the statistics between the wages of the two team is significant. The data shows that if both teams lost all 20 games, the men’s soccer team would receive $100,000 while the women’s team would receive $72,000. If both teams win 10 out of the 20 games, the men’s soccer team would receive $181,660 while the women’s team would receive $85,500. Lastly, if the men’s soccer team won all 20 games, they would receive $263,320 while the women would only receive $99,000. This data is relevant to understand b
ecause during my junior year of high school I had a disagreement with a male friend about unequal pay between the two teams. I was on my way to soccer practice and he asked me to explain my opinions on the idea that the U.S. women’s national soccer team gets payed less than the U.S. men’s national soccer team. I responded that I believe that both teams should be payed equally because it is unfair to the female players. I was astounded with his response. He explained that it made sense that the women’s team was payed less because the men’s team was stronger and played at a faster pace than the women’s team which made it more enjoyable to watch. Before I explain my response, I would like to ask, does his response bother you like it did for me? I was baffled. How could someone say that the women’s soccer team was not as strong as the men’s soccer team after the winning three World Cups (now four World Cups)?
This incident that I experienced ties into what is discussed in this course. Aijaz Ahmad, a philosopher and literary critic, discusses the concept of creating the “One” and the “Other”. This concept portrays the idea that people are treated and viewed differently because of a person’s race, gender, class, beliefs, etc. It creates the idea that “one” group is better than the “other” group. In this case, my friend created the men’s soccer team as the “one” and the women’s soccer team as the “other”. He demonstrated this concept because he believes that one group is stronger than the other and that is the reason why one group gets payed more than the other group. However, I argue that this is certainly not true. Women are equally as strong as men and the women’s soccer team clearly demonstrates this with their four World Cup wins, many Olympic medals, and ranking number one in the world. As life moves forward, I and many members of the U.S. women’s national team encourage society to notice and fix the inequality between not just the two teams but also in other sports.
I recommend watching this short video that discusses the inequality between the U.S. women’s national soccer team and the men’s national soccer team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1gCNUgpl2Q
The other incident that I would like to discuss is the inequality between men and women in the workplace, specifically the inequality between men and women and the correlation between GPA and call backs for jobs. In addition to taking this course, I am taking a sociology course. A couple week ago the course discussed the inequalities introduced by gender. Just like the U.S. women’s national soccer team not getting equal pay, many other women also do not receive equal pay in the workplace. Although that is another topic that can be discussed later, I want to begin talking about the correlation between GPA and call backs for jobs. Natasha Quadlin, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, created a s
tudy to review the inequalities between men and women in the workplace. In her study she reviewed how GPA affected the likelihood for a person to get a call back for a job. As expected Quadlin found that for males, the likelihood for getting a call back is higher when a male applicant has an “A” average. The likelihood then decreases as the grade average moves down the scale. However, this is not the case for women applicants. Quadlin found that on average, women applicants are penalized for having an “A” average and would have a significantly better chance of getting a call back for having a “B” average. Ever since I have been in school, I been taught that your GPA and grade average will affect the rest of your life. Furthermore, my teachers would tell us that people with better GPA and grade averages would have greater success in the future. So why is having an “A” average negatively affecting women?
A couple days ago, I watched a video of Quadlin answering students’ questions about the study. She highlights that one possible reason for this is “women are often assumed to be less competent as men” (Quadlin). Furthermore, “it is a common stereotype or assumption we might have about women” (Quadlin). This supports my point because I believe that the inequalities in the workplace between men and women arise from stereotypes and assumptions about women. While applying for a job, the employers are the people making the cuts and deciding who to call back. The “employers will really vary in the extend to which they resist highly qualified women” (Quadlin). The employers who find women to be less competent as men even with a high-grade average will not hire women, and some employers who do not find women to be less competent will hire women with a high-grade average. The last point that I would like to emphasize, is Quadlin explains, “the only time when men had an advantage over men was among business majors with a B/B- average. So, women had a really high callback rate when they were mediocre business majors” (Quadlin). Mediocre, seriously? In my opinion I find it ridiculous that women need to be mediocre in order to get a call back. This is not how it is supposed to be. Women should not be penalized for having high-grade averages. Instead, they should be awarded for their hard work.
This incident also ties into the Ahmad’s concept of the “one” and the “other”. In the workplace, on average, employers are demonstrating the concept and positioning themselves as the “one” and the women applicants as the “other”. The employers are positioning themselves as the “one” because they believe that women are less competent than men and as a result are not hiring the women with an “A” average. The employers are viewing women as different because of their gender and intelligence. The common stereotypes of women also help with creating the concept of the “one” and the “other”. These stereotypes, is most cases, hurt women and their reputations because some employers see women as a threat. However, in conclusion, women are just as smart and hard working as men.
So, what is next? What is the future going to look like for the future generations to come? Well I hope that from this opinion piece, I educate readers of the inequality between men and women. I hope that these two incidents spark interest in some readers to continue to look at other examples of inequality between men and women. Then with the right information we can take action to continue to fight for equality between men and women. We can strive to limit the pay gap between men and women in sports and the workplace and hire more qualified women in the workplace. This opinion piece, is not the start of this movement, but an addition. It is time for more people to realize and fix this issue so that future generations do not have to deal with the inequalities that are present today.
Sources:
“AN ACT for the Effectual Protection of the Property of Married Women.” National Women’s History Museum, 2020, www.womenshistory.org/resources/primary-source/act-effectual-protection-property-married-women. Accessed 8 November 2020.
Quadlin, Natasha. “The Mark of a Woman’s Record: Gender and Academic Performance in Hiring – Natasha Quadlin, 2018.” SAGE Journals, 2018, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122418762291. Accessed 8 November 2020.
Quadlin, Natasha, and Eric Schoon. “Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing.” Zoom Video, 2020, osu.zoom.us/rec/share/m0CMpPBI6uFpuC5cD2bzGjKIXyP4Vkn1JqnAUQ_-FKrrOiWfbTgkUPrBTRUMc3_u.A7ZEqV3hFanf4pjS?startTime=1604082332000.
Image Sources:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fmen-women-us-soccer-player-salaries-2016-
4&psig=AOvVaw04xTtwq097mSTmw_UYbvOR&ust=1604982111574000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKDH17fO9OwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fos%2Fcreatr-images%2F2019-07%2Fe4af5330-a0de-11e9-8faf-58a797cc32de&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsports.yahoo.com%2Fuswn-ts-world-cup-title-confirms-status-as-greatest-womens-soccer-team-of-all-time-165512653.html&tbnid=uRe60LhGGEmiyM&vet=12ahUKEwj47reC1fTsAhUPyawKHZJ3AHMQMygFegUIARDXAQ..i&docid=MxvL6p0yJFNAkM&w=3738&h=2670&q=women%27s%20soccer%20team&ved=2ahUKEwj47reC1fTsAhUPyawKHZJ3AHMQMygFegUIARDXAQ
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.morningadvertiser.co.uk%2FArticle%2F2019%2F03%2F08%2FIs-sexism-more-prevalent-in-the-pub&psig=AOvVaw3J4MP8TMzpIOIc6YSo6vPe&ust=1604976512550000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjJ5fK59OwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAg