The Influence of Media and Technology on Gender Inequality

With the emergence of technology, people have been exposed to media. The media has extended social norms, rituals, and stereotypes to universal levels, unlike the old ways where they were limited to a geographical society. According to Ellemers (2018), gender stereotyping has been evident in the media. A good example is a visual industry. In most movies and cartoons, male characters are designed to be more responsible, aggressive and powerful. Examples of such include Spiderman, Superman, Batman and Ironman among others. Such images are adopted by young generation to believe that men are stronger and more responsible, entailed to power and authority. Women characters in most films are engaged to domestic chores with piety and submissive traits. Although such imagery depicts the social settings within the society, it propagates such stereotypes across the world to generations (Kanai & Dobson, 2016).

However, the same media has played a major role in promoting gender equality. Gender parity campaigns are propagated to the world through the media. Social media has been used to expose cases which undermine equality in gender roles such as gender discrimination from work, limited education to girls and social norms that infringe equal responsibility by both genders. The media has created awareness of the need to break out of the stereotyping, rituals and social norms ‘cocoon’ and promote equal responsibility to male and female in private and public sector (Subrahmanian, 2004). Various organizations have been formed to promote the role of female gender in social, economic and cultural dimensions, with regulations been put in place to ensure that gender parity stands.

In conclusion, there is need to eliminate various social norms, stereotypes and traditional beliefs that undermine gender parity. Gender inequality has elevated gender roles to levels that undermine equal contribution to either gender. It is a common belief that male gender is powerful to the female gender. This has undermined equal contribution to the society, limiting the roles of the female gender to domestic chores. The aspect of media, interaction, and education is responsible to create a revolution to gender parity. Gender should remain a biological classification on the basis of genetics and characters. Although social gender such as dressing code, social behaviors and characters can be upheld, these should not infringe the gender responsibilities. Either gender should feel part of the society, given an opportunity to equally contribute to private and public matters pertaining social, economic and political responsibilities. Feminist campaigns should be promoted to uplift the female gender that has been dragged over centuries. However, such campaigns should be centered towards gender parity, equality, and gender integration without undermining the male gender.