Does society treat men and women equally?

Nowadays, establishing the equality

of women and men in our society is a matter of vital importance to human advancement.
This principle has been promoting through the contributions of feminists acting in
different social spaces around the world when great advances have been made over the
years. In fact, women should have their rights to work outside home, get equal pay for
work of equal value and also same treatment as men in political. Actually, women and
men exhibit physical difference that men are strong in physical capabilities then women.
At the same time, women are being given limited characters when it has been a cultural
belief of many countries that women must exist to be mothers and even housewives.
Therefore, women are being underestimated their talents in the society. Throughout the
history in the past centuries, women have struggled to be held equally as men on a
gender standpoint. Women should have the rights to be considered respectable in the
society. So, what is equality? Arneson (2002) use a definition of equality which means
provision of equal opportunities and prevent discrimination in race, sex, health, religion,
family structure, age, political, cultural and so on. “Women and men have been and will
always be equal in the sight of the God.”(Bahá’u’lláh , 1991). It is an imperative that the
equality already exists as a spiritual truth to be expressed in practice. Therefore, this
term paper aims to address the statement that women should have their rights to work
outside home, equal pay for same job and same treatment as men in political.

Women deserve to have their rights to build their career. Men are human so as
for women, every women has not only have their right to work outside but also to do
something they want to and build their career. Flory (2011) insisted that men and
women are equal in their abilities and interest, thus women should have the exact same
opportunity and freedom to have their career like others. In the olden days, women did
not work outside because they were meant to take care of their children and family.
Handling household chores have been the tradition work to do as a woman. However,
this tradition is no longer practical. Also, Flory (2011) mentioned that women in this
century who work outside are still able to take care of their families well. Lauer had ever
mentioned in her study that employed women are still the same to act as mother to foster
their children with that fact that women did not neglect their family. Lauer (2006) argues
that women can still carry out house chores even without aid from outsiders. Besides,
women are the important in acting as balancing agent in workforce also to contribute to
society. Quantity of female workers in workplace is so much needed in workplace in
order to balance the workforce in a company. Women who committed as housewives for
taking care their children and chores tremendously influence the quantity of female
workers. O’Rourke (2003) argues that employed women will be more likely to widen
their networking compared to full time homemakers also this can assemble the power of
well-educated women to serve as role models for the younger generation. Career builder
is not only for men instead it should be equal to both gender. Therefore, women should
also have their rights to work outside home.

Nowadays, equal pay for women and men is a central topic for all employees’
organisations. Since then, women’s right to be equal remuneration has gained increasing
international support. What is equal remuneration for work of equal value? It means
paying women and men equally for work with equal responsibility and skills whereby
women and men are performed under comparable conditions. In this practice, all
elements of payment to employees for their work including allowances, bonuses,
commissions and performance. Therefore, women should have the right to equal pay for
work of equal value. During the implementation period of the Equal Pay Act, women
were moved into male pay scales in occupation of both sexes, and thus, women’s
working rates improved relative to male occupation (Coleman, 1992). Burns and
Coleman (1991) stated that the principle of equal pay for work of equal value issues the
occupational differences component about the gender pay gap at the point in which it
occurs: When pay rates are set in occupation. This aim is to look closely at the value
placed on responsibilities, skills, effort and other job components. This is to ensure that
any pay differentials between women and men are justifiable and fair, not based on
social assumptions. Other than that, it has been a long history since the payment of
lower wage rates to women than to men in doing the same work. Efforts have been made
for many years just to secure for women with the same remuneration that men receive
when they do equal job. Based on 1971 Royal Commission of Inquiry into Equal Pay,
whose recommendations formed the basis of 1972 legislation, the Commission focused
on ‘the attractive proposition…that pay should be based on the content of the job’, and
referred to ‘equal value…objectively determined’ as required by the international
Convention 100 on Equal Remuneration (Hill, 1993). It rejected the UK’s restriction of
equal pay to ‘the same undertaking or group of undertakings’, and Australia’s exclusion
of work essentially or usually performed by women, as urged by New Zealand
employers. Although the act did not contain the term ‘equal value’, its definition of
equal pay was very similar to the language of the Commission and of the Convention on
Equal Remuneration which requires governments to ensure equal pay for men and
women for work of equal value. Therefore, women and men must be paid equal wages if
they perform substantially the same work under the Equal Pay Act.

Treatment for men in political should be also given for women. Gender does not
matter, women’s abilities are far beyond expected and outstanding. Women should be
treated equally like men. U.S. Representative Lindy Boggs who also a catholic in the
Louisiana Legislature Debate reacted to complaints from citizens in Louisiana to restore
their position on the Equal Rights Amendment. After then she had become the first
women to be elected to Congress from Louisiana. She represented women to protect the
equal rights for women (Jessica, 2014). Taking this example to further extending, Boggs
protected the right of women and taking treatment for women seriously that it should be
same like men. Since the Vienna Conference, gratification of civil and political rights
entitled for numerous women has been widening with democratization in many counties
(Elson, 2002). For instance, approval for gender equality, empowerment of women,
women’s gratification and extermination of poverty were comprised in the achievement
of all the Millennium Development Goals (Lomazzi, 2010). From these incidents,
proven the same treatment for both gender rather than different treatment grants large
contribution to political.
 This term paper argues that men were supposed to go out and earn money, while
women were supposed to stay home and take care of the kids. Men have responsibilities
to keep a family and thus their appropriate wages were higher than what they “needed”
just for themselves, while women were not expected to keep a family and therefore
“needed” less. In the past, men were traditionally expected to be breadwinners, whereby
women to bear children. Women typically left the labour force after marrying or having
children. However, in some family, men have lower job position and salary than their
wife, therefore, they choose to sacrifices and exchange the character with wife and stay
at home take care their children. But today’s women are moving into niches previously
reserved for men in the workplace, politics, business and administration. Women began
to realize that having a career and having a family was not mutually exclusive and
therefore women began to challenge the traditional female role (James, April 2015).
Mala, (2008) mentioned that working women able to make contribution that can sustain
the family financially and have become influential and successful as men. Besides that,
many women started accomplishing tertiary education at state colleges and universities.
According to the Census Bureau (2012), 685,000 men and 916,000 women graduated
from college in 2009 which means that 25 percent fewer men received college degrees
than women. At the same time, the changing world economy has less room for men who
lack of education, capability or adaptability. We can conclude that since women have
higher qualification in education compared to men, women should have secret weapons
opportunities to deploy their unique talents and rights to complete with men in
workforce to succeed in life instead staying at home.

If all rectifications discussed are implemented, have you ever think of how unfair
from the perspective of a man? Men have higher pay than women for the same job
because men themselves have higher physical capability and men sports spark more
interest in work than women. Moreover, men can perform well in their career compared
to women as men can make decision in short, more confident and high emotional
quotient. But, the feminine style of management is also a valuable property to a
company. Women prefer having collaboration and input from the entire team. Therefore,
women should not be looked as someone who is weak or indecisive by management.
This style of management tends to nurture more creativity and stronger teams. Women
as managers are more concerned, approachable, patient to their subordinate than those
men manager. These are the skills of leaderships that make women as a good manager
and leader and therefore, women should not be overlooked (Northouse, 2004). Men too
quickly to the finish line while women tend to dwell too long on exploring all the
different aspects of the problem, moving too slowly toward a plan of action. Besides
that, men are notoriously bad at picking up small details. Since both gender also have
their own weakness in different perspective, why men should deserve higher pay than
women in same job? Women should deserve equal pay as men in same job.

As expressed in the introduction to this argument, advancing the equality of men

and women cannot be conceived only in terms of bringing women into the various
arenas of the current social order. Men and women must hand to hand striving together
in other to build a new social order. Therefore, we should change our traditional mind
sets that women should not be treated inequality with men. They cannot be viewed as
homemakers and weak capability compared to men as women also had made great
contribution to our society and country. This term paper has highlighted just a few
among the most challenging to be addressed to the effort to advance toward the equality
of women and men. “Although they are different gender doesn’t mean they have to be
treated differently. Women can be builders, engineers, painters and so on. They are all
born and treated equally and that should not change. How come men get paid more than
women, how come women never get the same respect as men and how come people
assume that women cannot do the same jobs as men” (Debate, 2009). Last but not least,
women should have equal rights as men. They should have their right for a human,
rights to work outside home, rights to have equal pay for same job and also same
treatment as men in political. It is clear that more women need to be part of the
workforce to reach that goal and to get global economic engine moving again. We
should make better use of women’s talents and appreciate them because they are
problem solvers and excellent at multi-tasking.\
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2) Bahá’u’lláh, (1991). Women. The Journal of Women, 26, 3. From:

http://www.bahaiquotes.com/quotepage.php?Quotes%2FWomen

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8) James, I. S. (2015). Who Wants Power More, Men or Women? A Cross - Cultural
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9) Jessica, K. (2014). Equality and Difference: How Catholic Women in Louisiana

Reacted to the Struggle for Equal Rights.

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