by Elizabeth Vang
Today in society, there are many problems that surround all of us. Some examples are racism, poverty, unemployment, racism, and drug abuse. The list continues. Being a sixteen-year-old Hmong girl, there are many that I face at my age. Being a female, I notice problems within my own culture. In the Hmong society, women are valued less than men and gender roles are unbalanced. Men dominate by having the right to make decisions, are seen as more valuable, and are able to treat women as objects. For example, “Unmarried daughters were referred to as “other people’s women” since they married and became part of the husband’s family” (Owens).In modern times, the Hmong have adapted more towards American culture. These new ideas have caused marriages to split and an increase of domestic violence. Men have a higher status publicly while women hold their status more privately.
As a woman in today’s society, I’ve always been told to be cautious. To watch my back and protect myself. Growing up in a Hmong family, I am always aware of the fact that women are not as valuable as men. As sad as it sounds, it’s my reality. I realized that with culture comes uniqueness, but change is difficult. Over time, beliefs never adjusted even though Hmong women started to rise to power. I noticed that everything was based on history and cultural values. This is when I became passionate about the issue of discrimination against women.
I remember the first day of the semester, I walked into my Math class and sat down. My professor, Deane Newborg, introduced herself and began to share her academic biography with us. At the end of her introduction, she stated the fact that her college professors had told her that women didn’t excel in higher levels of math. This was disappointing to hear, but it was also interesting to me. It made me want to learn more about discrimination against women. Deane then shared her whole biography with me. Being a first-generation college student, she started with a biology major with the intention of going pre-med; and later switching to chemistry. With room for one extra class, she noticed many were science and math courses who were taught by only male professors. Wanting to switch her major, she talked to her professor from Linear Algebra for his advice. He then told her, “Women don’t do well in higher-level math courses”. Feeling discouraged from pursuing math, Deane said, “This was pretty shocking to me. All my life, my teachers, and professors had encouraged me and let me know I could be successful in whatever I chose to study. That really was a blow to my confidence”. Wanting a second opinion, she asked her professor from Calculus Ⅲ and was discouraged again. Even though Deane earned a B in that class, she was left with no confidence at all. Finally, she decided to get advice from a third professor. And with encouragement, she switched her major to mathematics. Reflecting upon her decision, Deane said, “Still, the advice from those first two professors stuck with me. It really stung. I believe that the fact that I’d had such encouraging teachers during my formative years helped me to seek the advice from a third professor instead of just giving up. I don’t know how things would be different if I hadn’t had such positive experiences in elementary and middle school”.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree, Deane was nominated for the Outstanding Graduate Student for the Department of Mathematics and for the entire School of Science (which included chemistry, biology, physics, and computer science). Ending with both awards in her hand, “It felt wonderful to have my achievements recognized and to know that my professors thought I was deserving of recognition.” Every professor Deane had was male.
Deane then enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of North Texas where she experienced her first time having a class with a female professor. Now with the first ten years of her teaching at NHCC, “I feel compelled to share my story, to try to make connections, and to be honest with my students about some of my academic setbacks in graduate school”. Caring for her students, Deane uses her inspirational story to know that it isn’t just students who experience academic challenges too.
In order to understand this concept, we must first look at what discrimination against women is. The was Lahle Wolfe describes is, “Discrimination against women starts at birth. Gender lines are drawn early, and exclusions for women continue throughout adulthood. These constant messages may lead to a false belief that women do not belong in the corporate world”. Lahle Wolfe is a single mom of four, an entrepreneur, author, speaker, web programmer, and application developer. She is founder and CEO of LA Wolfe Marketing and its two subsidiaries. Wolfe has extensive experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit business world.
With my own inspiration of becoming a dermatologist in the future, it is vital for me to understand discrimination against woman as much as I understand discrimination against other groups. Not only is this hard to learn about, it brings a new picture of reality. I will be discussing some background history of women and the process of which gender plays a role in our workforce.
To start off, many women today face the problem of being discriminated against just because of their gender. One main area this problem affects the most is the work force. According to the balance, “women earned only 83% of what men earned working comparable hours in 2015” (Wolfe). This was recorded three years ago and still happens today.
A little push back in to history when The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963 by President Kennedy. The purpose of this law was to stop gender discrimination based on wage in the United States. With the guidelines of,“forbidding employers from paying men and women different wages or benefits for doing jobs that require the same skills and responsibilities”. Even though this law is currently held, a recent study stated, “nevertheless, studies show that women are still paid less than men on average. Estimates vary, but according to a study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time women workers in 2016 were paid 82 cents for every dollar men earned” (Equal Pay Act).
While researching, one question that always came up was, why does sex-segregation happen so often? Not many people think about this, even though it is still occurring. Going back through the past, history explains the separation that still happens today. It all began with forcing males and females into categories. Traditionally female occupations were home tasks and childbearing. For example, a teacher, waitress, secretary, and nurse. Females were assigned to more feminine roles that were made to help nurture and serve others. These ideas were forced onto one generation and the rest following. Because of this, many women were traditionally thought to be this way, affecting the way how females see the “appropriate” ways of how they avoid “male” occupations. And the other way around, how males avoid jobs that are too “feminine” (Baker, 198-199).
Physical differences play a role in sex-segregation too. Economists George Akerlof at Georgetown University and Rachel Kranton at Duke University stated that social pressures caused professions to be male-dominated. If women were included, they would be seen as “a threat to the professions’ masculinity” (McGrew). According to Akerlof and Kranton, “By this account, men don’t discriminate against women because they view women as less qualified but rather because they are trying to protect the social power men hold through membership in the boys’ club.” This explains why many groups today create prejudices. They do it to keep their social, economic, and political advantages.
Figure 1, National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, 2015
Most researchers could continuously argue that gender discrimination today is represented as an “egalitarian” form. But a lot of people believe that each role should be different. Even though now people do support women’s rights, the expectation of what is traditionally right influences people to turn back around to the stereotypical male. Because of this, it leads to women being pushed into the lowest paying occupations and men with highest paying.
Heidi Hartmann, Barbara Gault, Ariane Hegewisch, and Marc Bendick from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research made a report of how women disbarred from middle-skill jobs that are considered as best-paying. Jobs consisting of logistics, advanced manufacturing, and information technology. Which require the same skills as female jobs but poorer pay. Other researchers believe that “this “wage penalty” for occupational feminization is a product of discrimination against women’s labor as opposed to productivity differences between predominantly male and female jobs” (McGrew). With a situation based on the foundation of traditions, it’s hard to see a change in gender segregation. Economist Cecilia Rouse introduces a plan stating, “strategies should focus on results-based approaches that decrease the influence of social networks and gender biases in evaluation, hiring, and promotion of women”. All of which can be ways to combat gender segregation.
Other than the fact that physical differences play a role, why are women seen less intelligent than men? Many studies have been done to see if there are any real differences in cognitive skills. Are men actually more intelligent than women? In 1990, a study was done by Janet Shibley Hyde, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin. With some other colleagues, she combined results from 100 different studies and noticed no large difference between the performance of boys and girls in math. This data was recorded from over 3 million participants between 1967 and 1987. From this research they were able to conclude that, “Boys and girls understood math concepts equally well and any gender differences actually narrowed over the years, belying the notion of a fixed or biological differentiating factor” (Think Again: Men and Women Share Cognitive Skills). They investigated further and noticed that girls were better at computation in elementary and middle school. Boys understood problems that took more problem-solving skills because of extra science classes. Both of which were only slightly better than the other.
Another study was done in 1988 by Hyde and other colleagues for verbal ability. They collected data from 165 different studies and revealed that women were at an advantage, but in only a slight way that is meaningless. Then again in 2005, Hyde conducted a study of communications skills, motor behaviors, social and personality variables, and moral reasoning. They noticed that in half of the studies, the differences were small.
In 2007, Hyde, Diane Halpern (Ph.D.), and colleagues issued a conclusion that “early experience, educational policies, and culture also strongly affect success in math and science” (Think Again: Men and Women Share Cognitive Skills). Women were shown to score slightly higher in verbal skills than men. While men were better with visuospatial skills, or the ability to understand the differences and similarities between objects and imagine objects.
In conclusion, learning abilities are only slightly different between men and women. This is mostly affected by social and cultural factors. Elizabeth Spelke, a psychologist at Harvard University, explained that social factors play an important role. Spelke believes that “differences in career choices are due not to differing abilities but to cultural factors, such as subtle but pervasive gender expectations that kick in during high school and college”. To continue, a study done in 1999 by Steven Spencer and other colleagues wanted to see if anxiety could affect how a woman performed on a math test. The researchers gave math tests to a group of men and women; telling half of the women that a math test previously showed gender differences. The other half were told that there were not any differences between genders. Overall, the women who were told that there were gender differences did worse than the men. To explain, “A 2014 study by researchers at Boston College found that women had greater anxiety during a math test, which taxed their working memory and led them to underperform on the test”. The learning abilities of men and women are not any different than the other. With these studies, we are able to recognize that social and cultural factors can affect who we are.
Works Cited
Baker, Mary Anne. Women Today: A Multidisciplinary Approach To Women’s Studies. Brooks/Cole Pub. Co., 1980.
“Equal Pay/Compensation Discrimination.” Equal Pay and Compensation Discrimination,www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/equalcompensation.cfm.
“Equal Pay Act.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2017, www.history.com/topics/equal-pay-act.
McGrew, Will. “Gender Segregation at Work: ‘Separate but Equal’ or ‘Inefficient and Unfair.’”Equitable Growth, 18 Aug. 2016, equitablegrowth.org/human-capital/gender-segregation-at-work-separate-but-equal-or-inequitable-and-inefficient/.
Owens, Christine Wilson. “Hmong Cultural Profile.” Hmong Cultural Profile , EthnoMed, 1 June 2007, ethnomed.org/culture/hmong/hmong-cultural-profile.
“Think Again: Men and Women Share Cognitive Skills.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Aug. 2014, www.apa.org/action/resources/research-in-action/share.aspx.
Wolfe, Lahle. “A Look at Gender Discrimination Against Women.” The Balance, 13 Aug. 2017, www.thebalance.com/gender-discrimination-against-women-from-cradle-to-c…
Wolfe, Lahle. “What Is Gender Discrimination in the Workplace?” The Balance, 11 Sept. 2017, www.thebalance.com/gender-discrimination-in-the-workplace-3515145.