Are Women Still Weaker than Men Today

The question of whether women are weaker than men has often elicited raging debates with conservationists arguing that women are certainly weaker than men. The converse is, however, true and if the 21st-century woman is to be taken as an example, women are certainly as strong as men if not stronger across all comparable platforms. The era of male dominance came to an end with the rise of the feminine power and gone are the days when men were the more dominant of the human species. As the saying goes, “what men can do, women can do better," the women of today can do almost everything men can do and as just as good.

The assumption that women are weaker than men is however so deeply rooted in the society that it is very hard to eradicate it. The extent of which this notion is engraved in society can be seen in the works of even great scientists such as Charles Darwin. Darwin put forth a theory about the racism of evolution which argued that females are biologically weaker than and less inferior to men. He argued that women were less revolutionary than men and that their only roles in the society were to please and be of service to men.

Whether Darwin’s argument does or does not hold true is still debatable. What is factual is that women are certainly equal to men. This paper discusses the issue regarding the equality of men and women across three perspectives and attempts to show why women are just as strong as men. In the essay, the strength of a woman is examined from a family perspective, work perspective, and from a society perspective.

The Strength of a Woman from a Family Perspective

In the past, women were often required to stay at home and take care of domestic matters. The roles in the society revolved around cooking, cleaning, and taking care of other small errands at home. The more important roles in the society such as seeking livelihoods for the family were left to men. Women would also not be involved in making family decisions, and most of the matters were decided on their behalf by either their fathers or husbands. It is thus safe to say that women were the weaker sex in the past.

The modern woman, however, does just about anything that men do. A majority of the women today are not contented with staying at home (except when they are on maternity leave) and seek greater roles in the society other than just that of the homemaker. They have thus also taken up jobs and are as actively involved as men are in bringing food to the table for the family.

Women today have also demanded a more proactive role in making family decisions and participate in making almost every decision that affects them at the family level. Women have achieved all these without neglecting their family duties. Women have to juggle their work and family obligations and maintain a balance of both something which men have for a long time experienced difficulty at doing. Their success at doing this serves as a testimony to their strength and ability hence we can safely conclude that women are just as strong as men are if not stronger.

The Strength of a Woman from a Work Perspective

It would be expected that men and women doing the same jobs would be paid equal salary amounts. This is however not the case, and in most instances, men are paid more than women even in scenarios where they are both doing equal amounts of work. Women on average continue to earn significantly less than men and the gender wage gap as of 2015 was 20 percent in the United States.

This means that full-time female employees made only 80 cents for each dollar that males earned. They are also not accorded equal career development opportunities that men are.

As Charles Darwin’s postulations portray, people of the female gender were thought to have less developed brains than that of men and were therefore considered to be less intelligent. Women were therefore expected not to perform well in tasks that required the application of knowledge and intelligence and such jobs were assigned to men. Contrary to this belief, women are just as intelligent as men.

The number of females who are enrolling in technical courses such as Engineering has significantly improved over the last 25 years. 18 to 20 percent of all Engineering students in the United States of America are of the female gender.

Moreover, a number of studies carried out over the recent past have also shown a relationship between the gender distribution in the management of a company and its profitability. Research conducted by the McKinsey Management Consulting company has revealed that businesses across all industries that had a majority of its board members being female significantly outperformed businesses that had no female representation. On average, companies that had a majority of its board members being female had a return on equity and operating results that were 41 percent and 56 percent more than that of companies that did not have female representation on their management boards.

Conservationists who support the notion that women are weaker than men may argue that the lack of emotional intelligence inhibits their ability to work in situations that are demanding. Their lack of emotional intelligence has made women vulnerable at the workplace and ineffectual at carrying out their work duties. The requirement of women to balance work and family duties may also prove to be a distraction thus reducing even further the effectivity of women to carry out their work duties.

Conservationists will also argue that women get pregnant and occasionally have to go on maternity leave. Their value to a company is thus lesser than that have men who do not get pregnant and do not have to go maternity leave. However, a counter-argument to this is their giving birth is an essential part of the continuity of human life forms. Women play a crucial role in ensuring that human populations do not decrease and therefore their ineffectiveness to do work due to pregnancies can be overlooked.

The Strength of a Woman from a Society Perspective

Women play a critical role in the society just as they do in the work and family perspectives. As discussed earlier, women in the past played a passive role in the society and were often not involved in making any decisions even those that affected them. All decisions were made by men be it their husbands or their fathers. Back then, it was safe to say that women were weaker than men.

Women today have demanded a more proactive role in the society and are involved in making almost every decision that affects them at the society level. It is not surprising therefore that they are going for elective posts in many countries across the globe. Most countries today have women leaders in their judicial and executive systems. The current president of South Korea, Park Geun-Hye and the former Argentinian President, Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner, for instance, were both women. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the current president of Liberia, is another great woman is credited with being Africa's first women president.

The percentage of women holding elective posts is however still small as compared to men. Men continue to dominate major positions of power and are thus still involved in making major decisions regarding the affairs of the world. The onus is thus on women to vie for more elective posts and seek powerful positions. That way, women will have a greater chance of voicing their opinions and will have a more important role in making decisions that affect them and those around them.

Conclusion

We cannot refute the fact that women in the past were weaker than men. Women were required to stay at home, take care of domestic matters, and their roles in the society revolved around cooking, cleaning, and taking care of other small errands at home. The more important functions in the society such as seeking livelihoods for the family were left to men. Women would also not be involved in making decisions, and most of the matters were decided on their behalf by either their fathers or husbands. It is thus safe to say that women were the weaker sex in the past.

The 21st Century woman is, however, different and continues to seek a more active role in the society. Women today continue to demand a more proactive role in making family and society decisions and are involved in making almost every decision that affects them. Women are nowadays seeking elective posts, and some countries such as South Korea even have women presidents. Women are also seeking work opportunities and have consistently managed to maintain a balance of both work and family duties, something which men have for a long time experienced difficulty at doing. Their success at doing this serves as a testimony to their strength and ability, hence we can safely conclude that women are just as strong as men.

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