Gender Equality is one of the issues that are widely discussed in various parts of the world as women strive to establish their rightful place in the society. For a long time, men have dominated women in almost all sectors in life. However, the gender inequality gap has narrowed over the last decades, especially due to gender movements and empowering of women. For instance, the number of women in the formal employment has significantly increased in the 20 th century. Nevertheless, gender equality is yet to be realized as male dominance still continue and women gradually move towards their traditional jobs such as taking care of children and home ( Andersen & Taylor, 2007) .
Summary of the Main Events in the Article
The article being focused on in this paper is titled “Why Gender Equality Stalled” by Coontz Stephanie. Coontz argue that the gender equality stalled between late 1990s and the present due to the structural impediments. Many Americans were not persuaded in 1963 that gender equality was necessary and women accepted superiority of men, especially in decision-making in household. However, the perception changed after women’s movement and after feminist like Betty Friedan urged women to change their personal consciousness, which resulted to a decline in gender equality gap. Nevertheless, gender equality stalled between late 1990s and early 2000s, as women started going back to their traditional jobs such as taking care of children. There was a significant increase in the number of women who preferred to work part-time and opted out of employment to take care of children at home. According to Coontz (2013), structural impediments are the main barrier to gender equality because it prevents people from acting based on their egalitarian values. Lack of family-friendly reforms also makes women to opt-out of employment, as women are likely to drop out of work when employment and family obligation collides. Structural impediments make people to behave against their values, and sociologists call this “value stretch.” Gender equality can be enhanced when society create favorable work-life policy.
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Main events in the articles closely relate to cultural diversity studies. The events explain how people perceive and practice gender role in American society. Women are cultural known to be homemakers while men are supposed to take care of the economic needs of the family. The culture of gender roles, therefore, force women to opt-out of work when there is conflict between work and family obligation while men continue to work to provide for the needs of family members. Hence, the articles illustrate cultural diversity on gender roles in American society (Coontz, 2013).
How Minority and Dominant Groups are Portrayed in the Article
The minority group in the article is women while the dominant group is men. Women are portrayed as vulnerable to changes that take place in the society while men are strong and aggressive. For instance, women are vulnerable when there is an increased demand to take care of the family or when there is work-home conflict. Men, on the other hand, are expected to play superior role in families and the society at large. Women and men are also treated differently in the workforce. Women are paid lesser wages than men and they are less likely to get jobs that are flexible. At the same time, many women in the labor market are not getting family-friendly benefits in the labor market.
However, the article portrays that both men and women are willing to embrace egalitarian lifestyle (Coontz, 2013). Both men and women subscribe to egalitarian values. Nevertheless, this is not possible due to the structural impediments and lack of suitable work-family policies. The main difference between men and women in this article is based on gender role. Women and men are expected to play different roles in the society, especially in the household. The expectation of women to take care of children and to be homemakers forces them to lag behind in the formal employment sector.
Sociological Theories
There are a number of sociological theories that can be used to explain the cultural diversity issues in the articles where women and men are expected to play different roles in family and are treated differently in the labor market. However, the two main relevant theories that can explain the cultural diversity include functionalist perspective and conflict perspective. They explain gender roles in the society and conflict in the workforce ( Lynch, 2001) .
Functionalist perspective is mainly associated by scholars like Emile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer, and Robert Merton. According to the proponents of functionalist perspective, society is a system of interconnected parts that harmoniously work together to ensure a state of balance as well as equilibrium in the whole ( Lynch, 2001) . All parts of the society are interrelated and they influence and get influenced by one another. Therefore, functionalist perspective is based on the perceptions that society can only be stable if its parts harmoniously work together.
Functionalist perspective explains gender equality and inequality in the society. Gender role is one of the cultural diversity issues in the article. Supports of functionalist perspective argue that gender roles emerge in the society due to the need to create division of labor that assist in the smooth running family, which ends up contributing to the stability of the larger society. As a result, men and women have different approaches to life that is shaped by socialization process. Men are taught to be goal oriented and to pay attention to tasks, including ensuring school relationship between family and the outside world. On the other hand, functionalists argue that women are taught express their emotions. The main argument in the functionalist perspective is that gender role is important in ensuring stability of families and society at large ( Lynch, 2001) . Women have to play the responsibility of taking care of children because of their biological role of breastfeeding and childbirth while women have to meet the need of family because of their size and strength.
Functionalist perspective argues that gender role and division of labor exist in order to ensure harmony in families. The same argument is used in the article when women opt to leave work to take care of family needs in the case of work-life conflict. Women have a biological function of childbirth and breastfeeding, which force them to leave work, even when they hold egalitarian values. Therefore, according to functionalist, gender equality has stalled because of the need to make sure smooth running of the family ( Lynch, 2001) .
Conflict perspective, on the other hand, is based on the assumption that society on the struggle for dominance between social groups ( Andersen & Taylor, 2007) . Therefore, gender equality struggle is due to the fact that men are trying to maintain their power at the expense of women. However, according to Andersen & Taylor, perspective explains that the current gender equality issues still persists because of the constant conflict between men who want to be in control and women who strive to express their quality. Importantly, proponents of conflict perspective opine that there is always a compromise when there is a conflict between dominant and minority groups. For instance, there was a comprise in the 20 th century when men allowed women to join formal employment and work for their own wages. Therefore, the gender equality stalled between late 1990s and early 2000s because women compromised when there is conflict between work and home obligations. Although men and women were competing for wages and employment opportunities, comprised in the conflict and they started going back to their traditional roles of taking care of families and homes ( 2007) .
Merton’s Four Categories of Prejudice and Discrimination
Merton explains prejudice and discrimination in the society through the use of four main categories of people. However, the timid bigot category is the one that is highly applicable to the media piece in this paper. The timid bigot category refers to people who are prejudiced but do not discriminate. The category is the most applicable because it explains the gender equality. Women are always prejudiced in the society but they do not discriminate. There is hardly any document that explains how women discriminate men. In the contrary, there are a lot of documents that show how women are prejudiced in the society. Therefore, women are timid bigot (England, 2011).
Sources Supporting the Article
One of the main tenets of the chosen article is that gender equality has stalled and women are moving back to their traditional roles. For instance, according to Coontz (2013), the percentage of women who preferred part-time jobs to take care of family increased from 48% to 60% between 1997 and 2007. England Paula supported this tenet when she argued that gender equality has stalled in many western countries and the role of men and women has hardly changed. According to England, even though the number of women going for pay job has increased, women still do a lot of household chores (England, 2011). The source by Wente Margaret also supports the main tenet of the article. She argues that the number of people who support that women should take care of homes increased from 22% to 28% between 1990s and 2010s (Wente, 2017). Therefore, there are enough sources supporting the argument that gender equality has stalled.
Effect of the Contents of Media Piece
The content of the article clearly illustrated how gender equality has stalled. It shows how women are gradually going to their traditional role due to the structural impediments and lack of policies to support women in the formal labor market. The content of the media may affect how women perceive their participation in the labor force and roles in the family. It may encourage women to leave work to take care of family needs. On the other hand, the content of the article may government and relevant authorities to formulate necessary policies and regulations that ensure flexible working hours for women in the formal employment (England, 2011).
Conclusion
Gender equality has stalled because of structural challenges that prevent women from practicing their egalitarian values. At the same time, there are no policies to support working women, especially in balancing their work-family life. Consequently, women are forced to opt out of work to attend to family needs. Therefore, there is need for a work-life policy that ensures that women continue to work while at the same time taking care of family needs and responsibility. The policy should create a flexible working hours for women. The policy should also give women an opportunity work at home, especially due to new technologies.
References
Andersen, M. L., & Taylor, H. F. (2007). Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society, Updated . Cengage Learning.
Coontz, S. (2013, February 16). “Why Gender Equality has Stalled.” The New York Times . Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/opinion/sunday/why-gender- equality-stalled.html
England, P. (2011). Why the rush for gender equality has stalled . Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/why-the-rush-for-gender-equality-has-stalled-2323
Lynch, M. P. (2001). A functionalist theory of truth. The nature of truth , 723-750.
Wente, M. (2017, May 25). Has the gender revolution stalled? The Globe and Mail . Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/has-the-gender-revolution- stalled/article35106810/
