Is Gender Equality a Myth?

[Lara Mills]

Is Gender Equality a Myth?



Beyonce is championing equal pay for women, having written an essay on the topic

Beyonce has written an essay about gender equality - calling on men to demand their wives, mothers and sisters are paid fairly.

The Run The World singer has published her essay - titled Gender Equality Is a Myth! - on The Shriver Report, a media initiative led by journalist and former California first lady Maria Shriver.

Beyonce writes: "We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn't a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the US workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 per cent of what the average working man makes.

"But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more - commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.

"Humanity requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. So why are we viewed as less than equal? These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.

"We have a lot of work to do, but we can get there if we work together. Women are more than 50 per cent of the population and more than 50 per cent of voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 per cent of the opportunities."

The singer's essay is part of the 2014 special report, A Woman's Nation Pushes Back From The Brink, which can be downloaded for free until January 15 at shriverreport.org.

And Beyonce isn't the only celebrity contributor.

Eva Longoria's essay, Empowering Latinas, encourages educational opportunities for Latina women.

Jennifer Garner's contribution is titled Turning Poverty Around: Training Parents to Help Their Kids and Jada Pinkett Smith has written an essay about human trafficking - Human Trafficking and Slavery in the United States: You Don't See the Chains.

Miami Heat star LeBron James has also joined the campaign, writing America's Working Single Mothers: An Appreciation.

The celebrity essays appear alongside works by experts and public figures such as Hillary Clinton.

Source: click here

[Lara Mills]

What do you think? Is it a myth, or will there be a time when men and women are equal?

I honestly don't think it will ever happen, purely because of the amount of women who say "I want equal pay" and then expect men to open doors for them and pay for dinners... either you want equality or you don't.

[samlad]

I always think that a woman with her hand in her knickers can coerce a man more than another man holding a gun to his head.

In terms of equality, men and women are psychologically and (obviously) physiologically different, so there will always be some gender-bias in many cases. For example, it would be inappropriate to allow a male PE teacher teach a female class. Why is that? Apparently the female PE teacher in my high school was a lesbian, so should she be allowed access to the female changing rooms because she may be aroused by the female body? Should a gay male be allowed access to female changing rooms because he may not find half-naked females attractive? Of course not, but there is a conflict between gender and sexuality bias here. Similarly, many women would rather have a female gynaecologist inspecting their nether regions over a male, but that doesn't stop men being gynaecologists.

I do think in terms of pay, people should be paid the same for doing the same job, I will agree with that. This discrimination isn't just gender based, in my old job in retail, as a deputy manager, I was paid more than some managers and some supervisors were paid more than me. Of course we were contracted not to discuss our salaries, but people did, and the fact that they put that in a contract would reinforce that this was happening, otherwise there would be an official standardised pay scale within the company.

Then again, I have read that female porn stars are paid more than male porn stars, and I also see that on sex cam websites, women are tipped by viewers far more than men and have a higher audience. On many dating websites, women are allowed free memberships because there are about 10 times the number of men signed up and they need women to level the playing fields.

In my opinion, when it comes to sexuality, women hold men by the proverbial bollocks, but when it comes to skilled or manual labour, men have the pay-scale advantage. Gender is a contributing factor, not the main factor, in a very large, unfair problem. In terms of opportunities (work, socially, love, etc.), we are always restricted in some way, by it in terms of skills, experiences, looks, personality, presentation, popularity, reputation or whatever. I think gender equality is a complete myth and it will never happen. We are a far cry from Victorians now whereby a woman was a man's property and he could use reasonable force and lock her up to control her -that is the extreme and we have thankfully come away from these times and attitudes- but there will never by a balanced gender utopia unless we force androgyny upon the world and call each other by a combination of letters and numbers as opposed to male and female names

[Lara Mills]

I always think that a woman with her hand in her knickers can coerce a man more than another man holding a gun to his head.

In terms of equality, men and women are psychologically and (obviously) physiologically different, so there will always be some gender-bias in many cases. For example, it would be inappropriate to allow a male PE teacher teach a female class. Why is that? Apparently the female PE teacher in my high school was a lesbian, so should she be allowed access to the female changing rooms because she may be aroused by the female body? Should a gay male be allowed access to female changing rooms because he may not find half-naked females attractive? Of course not, but there is a conflict between gender and sexuality bias here. Similarly, many women would rather have a female gynaecologist inspecting their nether regions over a male, but that doesn't stop men being gynaecologists.

I do think in terms of pay, people should be paid the same for doing the same job, I will agree with that. This discrimination isn't just gender based, in my old job in retail, as a deputy manager, I was paid more than some managers and some supervisors were paid more than me. Of course we were contracted not to discuss our salaries, but people did, and the fact that they put that in a contract would reinforce that this was happening, otherwise there would be an official standardised pay scale within the company.

Then again, I have read that female porn stars are paid more than male porn stars, and I also see that on sex cam websites, women are tipped by viewers far more than men and have a higher audience. On many dating websites, women are allowed free memberships because there are about 10 times the number of men signed up and they need women to level the playing fields.

In my opinion, when it comes to sexuality, women hold men by the proverbial bollocks, but when it comes to skilled or manual labour, men have the pay-scale advantage. Gender is a contributing factor, not the main factor, in a very large, unfair problem. In terms of opportunities (work, socially, love, etc.), we are always restricted in some way, by it in terms of skills, experiences, looks, personality, presentation, popularity, reputation or whatever. I think gender equality is a complete myth and it will never happen. We are a far cry from Victorians now whereby a woman was a man's property and he could use reasonable force and lock her up to control her -that is the extreme and we have thankfully come away from these times and attitudes- but there will never by a balanced gender utopia unless we force androgyny upon the world and call each other by a combination of letters and numbers as opposed to male and female names

On one of my friend's 21st birthdays a few years ago, we went into a strip club. At the door, we pulled out purses out to pay the entry fee and the bouncer just shook his head, held the door and went "go ahead, ladies". He stopped the men and wanted the fiver entry fee from them, and only them. Women got in free and the men had to pay. Is that fair?

Honestly, there were more women in the group than men, so why we didn't have to pay, I don't properly understand

[samlad]

On one of my friend's 21st birthdays a few years ago, we went into a strip club. At the door, we pulled out purses out to pay the entry fee and the bouncer just shook his head, held the door and went "go ahead, ladies". He stopped the men and wanted the fiver entry fee from them, and only them. Women got in free and the men had to pay. Is that fair?

Honestly, there were more women in the group than men, so why we didn't have to pay, I don't properly understand

I went to a strip club in Preston many years ago and the same thing happened to me, my mate and a couple of girls. I was sat with them all in the lounge when a stripper sat next to one of my female friends. My friend admired her breasts and asked, "have you had implants?" to which she replied, "yes, would you like to feel?" My friend was feeling the stripper's breasts and commenting on what a good job the surgeons did, but when I asked, "can I have a feel?" I was told to fuck off! Bloody sexism at its purest

[namesjack]

Yes I believe it is as in some sports for example the women get the same pay as men but do less work, (you could say then they are being paid alot more than the men) so really thats very unequal I believe and totally unfair ....