I’ve grown up knowing in the back of my mind that gender inequality existed. I saw it in little instances, like when the boys were hesitant to play basketball with me, or when McDonald’s gave me a doll instead of a toy car. I think I brushed it off as just insignificant differences, and I didn’t really chalk it up to anything serious.
I grew up in a household that really encouraged female empowerment. Both my parents worked when I was younger. I used to hate looking at the bleachers at my sports games and seeing my nanny in a sea of moms, but my mom insisted that it was important for her to both be a mother and have a job.
Flash forward to this year at school. Since childhood, I’ve had more experience seeing gender inequality. Again, it was in little doses, being called bossy or being written off because it was my time of the month. But it could also be seen in big, concerning things, like politicians stating that my body didn’t deserve it’s own rights, or seeing that our country wasn’t ready for a woman to lead it.
I started learning about different feminist theories. I studied evolutionary theories that explained inequality due to biology. They suggested that women are defined solely by their anatomical abilities. If they are to ignore these reproductive abilities for something different, say a job, they’re ostracized in society. I started to read repeatedly, woman’s place was in the home due to her “abilities” and man’s place was in the public sphere.
And, psychology and sociology agreed. My sociology class talked all about theories of the body, what is the correct body, and how that creates inequality in the United States. The correct body is an efficient body; a body that is healthy and can move quickly and get things done. So, obviously, a pregnant body is not an efficient body, therefore it’s a catch 22. Either don’t have a baby, go against societal standards and be ostracized, or have a baby and be viewed as weaker and less than because you can’t keep up with the big boys.Again, I that think all along I had this information in the back of my head. I think that my parents did a good job of shielding the ugliness of a sexist society from me in raising me to be a powerful and strong woman. Sometimes I wish that I didn’t take these classes, because it’s hard. It’s hard to memorize terms like “benevolent sexism” and treat it like any other vocabulary term. I would look around and see a sea of girls in all my classes, with only a smattering of a boy here and there.
For most of the classes, we would all laugh and scoff together. We knew about benevolent sexism. we’ve seen the objectifying commercials, and we all discussed how the media portrayed women in politics unequally. I think we could talk about it in a lighthearted sense because we’re all in a place where we can analyze this gender equality and see it in a textbook. Reading about an old Chinese proverb “women have long hair and short intelligence,” was just reading something in a textbook.But everything I’ve learned in my classes has stuck with me. It’s made me think about how privileged I am to have been able to grow up feeling empowered by such strong female role models like my mom. It’s made me feel lucky that I have the ability to attend a private institution that brings awareness to gender inequality through these classes. It’s made me truly think about what I can do to make change. It’s made me think strongly about how I want to raise my children, how I want to influence the next generation, and how to set up a society that empowers all people.