The Problem of Criticism and Sexism Against Women

For years women have had to overcome obstacles and prejudice. However, women have made great strides, particularly in the 20th century. Through fighting and advocating, women have been able to receive the right to vote and do actual work. Women can go to school and go on to be financially independent, no longer just looking for a husband.

When it comes to different treatment in the workplace or in the classroom, it should be completely equal. Both men and women are striving to achieve the same thing- success in their careers. Men and women should have to go through the same struggle to advance their careers or to get an A on a test.

There is a difference to be made between sexism and behavioral norms between men and women. There is a difference between paying a woman substantially less for doing the same job as a man and opening the door for a woman. Paying a woman a smaller salary indicates that she is not as valuable in the work place. Opening the door for a woman shows her that the man wants to do things for her and put more effort in to building their relationship. Some women take door opening offensively, thinking the man does not feel she is capable of taking care of herself, but in reality, he does not usually mean this.

Forms of actual sexism occur everyday. Some forms of sexism I will be experiencing in the future will be in my career. I am currently studying to be a social worker, a profession where the workers are about 82% women. But according to my social work teacher, who is a full time social worker herself, although the social work profession mostly consists of women, men are more likely to get the upper level positions. This seems to be very sexist.

Another form of sexism in the workplace is the assumption that women should stick to being nurses and not advance to being doctors. Women are perceived as being nurturing and doing the dirty work. Men are perceived as being more ambitious and being in charge of the entire operation. A specific example of this was when my female friend, who works in a hospital back home as a tech, worked under the supervision of a male doctor. According to her, he has snapped his fingers at her and said, “Come here, Sweetie”, instead of addressing her by her name. It is disrespectful to their positional differences and their gender differences.

Lastly, women are still expected to run the errands or do the busy work in the workplace. Women are expected to make the coffee runs, answer the phones, set up the meetings, and clean up after everyone. The workplace is still a generally paternalistic area and it is just “normal” for women to be filling these roles and doing these chores. The workplace is beginning to even out. But it is still at the point where a woman CEO would turn heads. There are still strides to be made.

Women should not be criticized for being ambitious. If anything women should feel empowered and encouraged to succeed and achieve more academically and in the workplace. If a woman wants to go to college simply to find her husband, then that is her choice. I personally would not do that, but some women do. And they should feel free to do so. But it should not be expected that that is what women should go to college for. The women who actually want to do something with their degrees should be looked upon favorably. They are going into the real world, where sexism is still engrained into the culture. It is a hard battle to fight, but it is a worthy and ambitious one. It is easy to say how things “should” be, but the reality is that it will take time and effort to change the way our culture perceives women. The best we can do is continue to work and show our value as women.