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Elizabeth McKinney
English 1231.11
Dr. Druann Bauer
12-1-11
The Female Disadvantage in the 21st Century
There is no doubt that men have ruled the household since families began. Up until
recently, men went to work, paid the bills, and made all the decisions concerning their families
by themselves. This can be traced back to the era of the cave men, when it was the males who
hunted and made the fires, and up to the twentieth century, when men were educated and women
were not so that men would be the breadwinners. As an individual growing up in the twenty-first
century, it is easy to see the differences between the roles men and women are given by society.
The world, but especially the United States, which preaches equality for all, has set a
standard with mens roles that women cannot, or are not allowed to, reach yet. If only everyone
would open their eyes and pay attention, they would see that this scenario is wrong, and they
should fix it.
Of course, this cannot happen while people believe there is no need for a change in roles
of men and women. There are some people who see males and females as already equal. Men
and women are both able to receive as much education as they want. The idea that both sexes are
given equal opportunities applies mainly to the workplace, although it does apply to other areas,
such as schooling and politics, as well. These people do not see a problem with men at the top of
the totem pole. This type of society is known as a patriarch, in which women and children are
subservient to males.
Other people would say women do not need to be granted the same rights because
women are becoming men. Today, as stated in the article The End of Gender Sanity in American
Public Life, many people feel the need to create real businesses, thoroughly modern places

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where they proceed with the project of making women more masculine (Christensen 409).
Along the same lines, these people are certain women are replacing men. With laws like Title IX,
emphasis is placed on womens sports and is removed from mens sports (Christensen 411).
What Christensen says is basically that society has flipped the tables, so women are
acknowledged while men are not. Christensen also brings up the point that these same people
men are becoming unnecessary. Military institutions, for example, want women, more and more
women. These institutions have changed their mottos from words such as Bring Me Men to
one delivering a message of integrity, service, and excellence, even though, as Christensen says,
the words Bring Me No Men would apply to the situation better (402). Slogans such as this can
be hurtful towards men because they take away the importance that has been implied for men for
so long.
It is true that women have made great advances in society, and they make up more than
half of the population in colleges, according to Thomas Bartletts article, The Puzzle of Boys
(342), but they still have a ways to go in order to be at the same level as men. The men in this
country definitely still hold the power, and women need to be given a chance to prove
themselves, to show this world how beneficial women can be, and how they can be advantageous
to society without becoming or replacing men. As Christensen pleads, anyone who understands
American culture also understands how masculine, manly, chivalric men are just as necessary
as women are to restore gender sanity, family integrity, and military strength (413). Women
themselves do not want to replace men. They simply want to be able to choose their place in this
world, instead of letting society and traditional roles pick for them.
Women need to be given the same equal, unconditional rights that men are given. They
are often put into the roles of mother, housewife, cook, or maid. Women should have more

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opportunities to hold positions of power instead of being shunned in favor of men. Doctors
Emily Greenman and Yu Xie say in their article that giving the duty of domestic work and
childcare primarily to the wife, which is the traditional role division, creates a substantial
obstacle for married women to be successful in the business world (1220-21). In most cases,
females are naturally more caring than men, and they are more likely to pay attention to the
needs of individuals than men are. This is probably the main reason why females are considered
the stay at home gender; they can handle the needs of children, in general, more adeptly and
adequately than men can. However, think of what women could do in the workplace with that
kind of attitude. Women have had to work hard to gain their rights, so they understand and can
empathize with the common working class today. Men, on the other hand, have been guaranteed
these rights from day one, so they are not as empathetic to the struggle to overcome obstacles.
Why should a well-educated, talented, caring, and attentive young wife stay at home with
the kids instead of going out and earning money, so she and her family can have a better life? In
this respect, women are nothing more than slaves, which is outlawed and protected by Congress
with the Thirteenth Amendment. According to the article Free at Last! Anti-Subordination and
the Thirteenth Amendment, researchers believe the Thirteenth Amendment could be used for a
variety of things: not only to protect citizens from racial profiling, but also to protect the
injustices done to women, such as mail order bride[s] and the typical roles given to women
that only serve to hold them back from their true potential. The article presents the case:
Slaveholders justified their treatment of human beings as property by arguing that the slaves
belonged to an inferior race (Zietlow 6). Using this logic, society sees women as the inferior
gender by not allowing them unconditionally equal rights.

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Even as fetuses, men are chosen over women. A Chinese poem reveals these sentiments
about boys: When a son is born,/Let him sleep on the bed,/Clothe him with fine clothes,/And
give him jade to play, and about girls, When a daughter is born,/Let her sleep on the
ground,/Wrap her in common wrappings,/And give broken tiles for playthings (qtd. in Sharma
198). Men are known to be the children who will continue the family name, who will go to
school and bring home the money to support the family. Women, on the other hand, are the
children who leave the family. In many countries, families have to pay a dowry to a mans family
for their daughter to marry that man, and take his name, instead of her family name. Indian
families, for example, believe, Better to pay $38 for an abortion now than $3,800 for a dowry
later on (qtd. in Sharma 199). Because women will completely leave their birth families, parents
prefer sons over daughters (Sharma 200-01).
Families are now able to choose sons over daughters, using Assisted Reproductive
Technology, one of many sex selection processes used in the world today. An online article by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains the process: it only includes procedures
that involve both the eggs and the sperm, never the eggs or the sperm by itself. Most procedures
surgically remove the eggs from the ovaries, and then combine the two in a laboratory before
returning them to the womans body. Procedures like this, from Assisted Reproductive
Technology, have been practiced in the United States since 1981 (Assisted Reproductive
Technology). This technology is discussed in Monica Sharmas article Twenty-First Century
Pink or Blue: How Sex Selection Technology Facilitates Gendercide and What We Can Do
About It. Despite the fact that Assisted Reproductive Technology is a factor in just 1% of births
in the United States each year (Assisted Reproductive Technology), Sharmas article explains
that the world is lacking 200 million females because of technology like this (199). In fact, one

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study mentioned in the article discovered, 41 percent of infertility patients surveyed would use
preimplantation sex selection if it were free, and even if they had to pay, half of that percentage
would choose the sex of their child (Sharma 199). Because of this thought process and the
readily available technology, girls are being discriminated against even before they are born.
This shortage of women causes more problems than just disadvantaging females. It also
means there are fewer women available for marriage. This leaves more men single, and may lead
them to excess violence such as sex trafficking and rape (Sharma 203). A lack of women also
means there will be fewer families, so the overall population of the world will decrease. Another
negative effect of using sex selection technology to rid the world of girls is job placement.
Without enough women to fill the typically female jobs, men have to take over, which causes
society to judge these men as feminine. Bryce Christensens article The End of Gender Sanity in
American Public Life focuses on the point that Utopians see this change in demographics as not
only bringing about fewer women, but also as bringing more masculine women and more
feminine males into play in society. Again, this just shows how society emphasizes the
importance of males; women are progressing as they become masculine while males are
regressing as they become feminine.
Historically, ever since sports were invented, men have had the upper hand. In the early
sports, only men were allowed to compete. In Greece and Rome, women would occasionally try
to sneak in to participate. When this was discovered, athletes had to play their sport nude, so that
women would definitely not be able to sneak in. This was the start of a trend that resulted in men
having years and years more experience with athletics than women. The older generations can
remember days when girls were not allowed to participate in sports in their high school or
college. According to the article A Sporting Chance: Title IX and the Seismic Shift in Womens

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Sports, a judge, after passing a law to prohibit girls from competing on a boys cross country
team stated, Athletic competition builds character in our boys. We do not need that kind of
character in our girls (Nauen 348). Up until 1972, when Title IX was passed, those words were
familiar to women. Recently, one sophomore female student transferred from a public high
school to a private high school. She had wrestled at the public school and wanted to continue at
her new school. When she tried to sign up for the team, the head coach told her he would make
her life hell for the whole season. This just shows how unfair societys molds and rights are
for women and men.
Men have also had the advantage in history textbooks. The article Beyond Suffrage
explains that men, for the most part, wrote the worlds history. Consequentially, women were
either left out completely or were shown only in relationship to how men define them (Schafer
and Bohan 302). Women were shown in their traditional roles as housewives or servants, not as
important members of society. Even when women were added, they were only acknowledged as
being a part of suffrage movements. This view of women provided to students, especially female
students, only shows how women are struggling to have rights; it is only logical to assume these
students will still see women as struggling. It is easy to change this view, however. When women
are written into history as it happens, instead of being thrown in as an afterthought or put in just
enough to keep society quiet, students will be able to see women as contributing citizens, not just
housewives without white mens rights.
Aggressiveness is a characteristic found both in sports and in the workplace, but it is seen
as a beneficial quality in males and an undesirable quality in females. It can be seen more in men
than in women, because it is socially suppressed in working women. Any athlete, regardless of
gender, is encouraged to be aggressive on the playing field, because the team wants to win.

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When it comes to the office, though, women are often regarded as cruel or cold-hearted when
they are aggressive. Many utopian activists began a social revolution by teaching women
competitiveness and even ferocity (qtd. in Christensen 411). Aggressive men, on the other
hand, are honored as people who know what they want and go for it, without letting anyone in
their way.
Attractiveness is another factor impeding the success of women when it comes to
competing against males. In general, society considers womens looks more important than
mens looks. Women are told they need to be skinny, to be beautiful, to look ten years younger
than they are, and more, just to be accepted. Women are supposed to be fashionable and always
look respectful and presentable. Men, however, are often told, Youre a guy. Youre not
supposed to be able to match your clothes. Women are under constant pressure to look good, but
when they are paid less than men, how can any woman afford to look better than a man?
Men, in certain fields, earn more money than females in that same field do. Even if the
two individuals have the exact same job and situation, with the same degree from equally
prestigious colleges, the male will earn more money. This situation can be seen most often in
schools, as male teachers or professors earn more than female teachers or professors. This is also
a factor in the higher payment rates for males. The men are getting all the top positions, so they
get paid the top amounts. Men also earn more money than women in generalregardless of
field. A study by Greenman and Xie that was executed just before their article was published in
2010 shows that women earn more than twenty percent less than males of the same race (1224).
Males are also more likely to hold higher positions in the workplace because they are
males. The biggest reason for giving a man this position over a woman is experience. The man
will almost always have more experience in that particular field. The women cant get the job

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because they are not experienced enough. However, women cannot get that experience because
no one will hire them. So, with no one hiring an inexperienced woman, she will never have the
opportunity to gain the experience she needs for that position, and will therefore never get the
job she wants.
That being said, there is no doubt that women have come a long way from being simple
housewives. Now, they can be educated and successful, but they are still being held back. With
the same freedom, encouragement, and respect that men are given, women could lead this
country, and the world, to a better place. Females tend to be more attentive and caring than men,
which would be a nice change to see in higher political positions.
The standards that have been stereotypically set by males in society are more than
attainable for women, if only they are given the chance to reach for them. Therefore, instead of
sticking to tradition and electing men, try electing a woman. The worst that could happen is she
would fail, which has happened to plenty of men throughout the ages. Give women a chance to
shine. Also, take the time to really look at a woman who is trying to start her own business,
running for public office, battling a male co-worker for a promotion, or even simply trying to
teach. Look at her qualities and look at what sets her apart from the males surrounding her. Only
when society as a whole becomes aware and comfortable with the fact that women are so much
more than housewives will women be able to rise above their modern glass ceiling.

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Annotated Bibliography
"Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) - Reproductive Health." Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. 19 Aug. 2011. Web. 23 Nov. 2011.
<http://www.cdc.gov/art/>.
Bartlett, Thomas. The Puzzle of Boys. Perspectives on Contemporary Issues: Reading
Across the Disciplines. 6th ed. Ed. Katherine Anne Ackley. Boston: Wadsworth, 2006.
340-45. Print.
The Puzzle of Boys looks at the typical categories people have put boys in, and the
differences between boys and girls in these categories, or roles. It also provides many
enlightening statistics concerning boys and girls; for example, boys are more like to have
ADD than girls, but girls are more likely to be depressed. The author also analyzes boys
in their natural habitat and offers several authors viewpoints on whether or not boys in
general are in peril. While this article was written for the Chronicle of Higher
Education, it is worded in a way that would be easy for even high school students to
understand. Bartlett has been a Senior Editor at the Chronicle since 2001.
Christensen, Bryce. The End of Gender Sanity in American Public Life. Modern Age 49.4
(2007): 400-16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.
Bryce Christensen has had works published in Modern Age, Wall Street Journal, USA
Today, Chicago Tribune, and more. Many of these pieces have focused on social issues,
especially concerning the family. This article opens not with family issues, but with a
different social issue: gender in the military, from the time when only men were accepted
to both men and women being accepted. Christensen specifically discusses the
restrictions on and advances of women in the armed forces. The piece is well written, and
seems to be directed towards at least college-level readers.

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Greenman, Emily, and Xie Yu. Double Jeopardy? The Interaction of Gender and Race on
Earnings in the United States. Social Forces 86.3 (2008): 1217-44. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.
This article looks at job earnings in the United States according to race and gender,
testing the hypothesis that the women in each ethnic group are disadvantagedhence the
double jeopardy of being a minority femalerelative to the males in each particular
group. The authors of the article found this to be true, with whites earning the most. Both
of the authors work for universities; Emily Greenman is a assistant professor of sociology
and demography at Pennsylvania State University and Xie Yu is a sociology and statistics
research professor at the University of Michigan. They have worked together on
numerous articles focused on sociology and related topics, as well as published many
works of their own. This article is definitely a success for both of them, as it is very wellwritten, clear, and informative.
Nauen, Elinor. A Sporting Chance: Title IX and the Seismic Shift in Womens Sports.
Perspectives on Contemporary Issues: Reading Across the Disciplines. 6th ed. Ed.
Katherine Anne Ackley. Boston: Wadsworth, 2006. 348-52. Print.
Elinor Nauen is a poet, journalist, and editor of Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend:
Women Writers on Baseball and Ladies Start Your Engines: Women Writers on Cars and
the Road. She focuses on sports, especially baseball, in most of her publications. This
particular article is centered on Title IX, a Congressional law that prohibits any
government-funded institution from excluding either gender from a particular activity.
Nauen discusses the restrictions before Title IX was passed and the consequences after it

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passed. The piece is overall a very informative article, coming from a knowledgeable and
credible author.
Schafer, Cynthia M., and Chara Haeussler Bohan. Beyond Suffrage. Curriculum & Teaching
Dialogue 11.1/2 (2009): 293-310. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.
The authors of this article, Schafer and Bohan, both have master of arts and doctor of
philosophy degrees in Social Studies Education. These degrees tie in to the topic of this
resourceful, informative article well: it discusses and explains how the role of women
hasnt changed much since the twentieth century, even though they have made
advancements in society. The roles and positions they are given today are still less than
men. The article poses and answers the question of why we as a society still let men have
all the power and control.
Sharma, Monica. Twenty-first Century Pink or Blue: How Sex Selection Technology
Facilitates Gendercide and What We Can Do About it. Family Court Review 46.1
(2008): 198-215. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2011.
Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is discussed in this article. ART allows parents
to know the gender of their child before the child is born, which has caused a shift in the
balance of gender throughout the worldat least 100 million girls are missing from the
world, because parents tend to have a preference for boys. The article looks not only at
the negative consequences of this shift, but also at why parents choose boys over girls.
The article provides a lot of knowledgeable information concerning the topic and seems
to be a reputable source. Unfortunately, the author is relatively unknown, and there is a
lack of readily available information concerning her.
Zietlow, Rebecca E. Free at Last! Anti-Subordination and the Thirteenth Amendment. Boston

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University Law Review 90.1 (2010): 255-312. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26
Oct. 2011.
In this article, Zietlow analyzes Congresses interpretations of the Thirteenth Amendment
for court cases. It has five parts: it explains the two models of equality, discusses several
debates over the Thirteenth Amendment, analyzes statutes from the Reconstruction Era,
discusses the individual rights proposition from the New Deal Era, and finally, discusses
the New Reconstruction era and the shift away from a focus on economic rights and
towards equal protection. Zietlow is a very credible source for discussing law, as shown
in this article. She is a Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo. She has
also published many works on laws and congressional enforcement of civil rights.