Gender Role and Equality between Man and Woman

Gender equality is the state in access to rights and opportunity is unaffected by gender. In my opinion, men and women should have equal rights and opportunity. Women do not have the same opportunities as men. Femininity and masculinity also seem to play a role in gender equality because women were barred from doing certain jobs that require them to be more masculine than feminine. Society teaches us that man and woman have different roles from a very tender age which causes an imbalance in gender equality. Women are seen as sex symbols and suffer a lot because of their gender. So are men and women equal? How does the role they play affect their equality?

I grew up in a Jamaican society where the mother would stay home and the father would get up and go to work just to make a living for him and his family. My mother wasn’t always home with us she used to have a job as well. She worked as a secretary in a middle school back in Jamaica West Indies. My mother loved what she did. One day she didn’t have a choice and she had to leave her job to take care of her four kids. My father had to work two jobs to make sure that the bills and rent were paid and most importantly that his family was well taken care of.

I watched my mother wake up every morning at 6’ o clock walking towards the kitchen to prepare my dad’s breakfast and pack his lunch for work. She was the one who cooked, cleaned, did laundry and most importantly take care of the kids. Nowadays you never really see men do any housework. As I remember I don’t recall seeing my dad cleaning, cooking, or doing laundry. After a hard day at work, my dad walks into the living room and put his foot up on the couch and watches television patiently waiting on my mother to finish cook dinner. Why is it that when my mother worked she still had to be the cook, the cleaner, and the caretaker? She never could get a break like my dad. Why is that? As we grew older my mother wanted to go back to work. She was interested in being a painter.

It pays more than a secretary and she was very good at it. She went for her interview on a Friday morning excited. As she walked into the office she was very confident that she would get the job. She had all the requirements she needed for the job. After the interview the manager said calming we will call you. She patiently waiting on the phone only to find out someone she knew went for an interview for the same job the very next day. It was one of her male friends. He got the job with very little experience. Why is it that he got the job and she didn’t? She realized because she is women they believe she couldn’t do the job. They only think men were fit for it.

I migrated from Jamaica to America and it was so much different living in America. My mother and father both had jobs. My mother is a nurse and my father is a truck driver. Gender equality was not much different. Men had all the powerful jobs like a senator, judge, lawyers, police officers, firefighters etc. Women worked as secretaries, librarians, teachers, nurses, etc. It seems like women wanted to do the jobs that men do but they were discriminated against. Women should not be treated any different than men. We shouldn’t be limited to what jobs we want to do. Women have the ability to be in powerful positions also and are capable of doing any job a man can do. In fact, we might be better than a man at his job but because we are women it doesn’t matter. Gender shouldn’t limit one’s ability.

If I remember rightly growing up I was always around my three brothers. Every morning we would wake up and get ready to walk to the park right around the corner from our house. We loved going to the park. It was a place where we felt we could be at ease and enjoy each other’s company. Their favorite sport to play was basketball. So because I’m the only girl among three boys I started to play basketball with them every chance I got and I grew to love it. So one day during my high school days I wanted to try out for the basketball team. We never had a girl basketball team. So I had no choice but to try out for the boy’s basketball team. I didn’t think it mattered if I was a girl but I thought wrong.

The coach said I was a girl and girls are not allowed to play on the boy’s basketball team. Why is it that I couldn’t play a sport that I enjoyed so much? Why is it that we don’t have a girl’s basketball team? Why is it that I am not allowed to be on the basketball team but I can be on the cheerleading team? I had so many thoughts and feelings. It’s not fair to us women that society makes it seem like we can’t do what men can do. We are often seen as sex symbols and are not taken seriously because of our gender. This still happens today in our society. For example, Hilary Clinton ran for the office of president twice one of which she was by far the better candidate and in my opinion, she lost because her gender is female.

To conclude women should not be limited to the type of jobs they want to do because of their gender. They should have equal opportunity as men. The roles women and men plays in the home and society should be equal. We should not feel like we are being discriminated against.             

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