Gender issues in America (original) (raw)

We've all heard it. It's been one of the most topic-topic issues of the last, what- at least 40 years.

This is something that ingrained into the deepest part of American ideology, it's something that initially allowed our struggling little FUBAR nation to survive in the first place: the woman stays home, takes care of the children, produces babies, and generally keeps the family together. Without a strong, individual social basis, undoubtedly most of the first American settlers would have drifted back to Britain or other countries. If they had little ties to the society that thrived on family values which in turn was woven deeply into American work ethic, then they wouldn't have had the attachment they felt so strongly for the land that they tried to carve out a niche of their own in.

But gradually, our little FUBAR nation became a big FUBAR nation, and we couldn't quite reconcile the issue of the fact that for the last 170 odd years, women stayed predominantly at home, making babies and keeping the social network thriving. This is, of course, acknowledging the idea that there is a clear division between the domestic social network and the public, or workplace, social network.

And with this little thread of the tapestry that wove America, a new generation of both men and women added another: the fact that with all of our talk about "equality", it's very little put into practice. Women to this day get significantly lower wages than men do for job. Women still are practically fined for wanting to have a family as well as a full time job. Many jobs will allot a woman a three month period of maternity, and then is expected to reintegrate herself fully back into her job.

Even today, girls are discouraged from entering jobs that they find interesting because those jobs are "for men". SWAT teams? Infantry? For men, because for some reason, with all our technology of today, with our massive drug industry, we can't seem to find a way to stem a little biological thing like a menstrual cycle.

This isn't to say that individual people don't try their best to actively treat men and women equally. But as a whole, our society still can't quite find the balance between our social ideals and our political ideals; our past and our future.

Could this little post make a difference in the juggernaut that is America? No. Not in the least. It's simply food for thought. This stems into a great many other issues, from domestic violence to high school sports.

Think about it.