Md Islam
Professor. Harris
English 201
9th October 2018
GENDER INEQUALITY EFFECTS ON FEMALE
Gender Inequality has been a big issue throughout the world and it still affects many females even today. It is defined as discrimination that people face based on sex and gender identification. Females are more affected by it. It is derived from the idea that men and women are not equal. It has started in the early years of this country when women did not hold the same civil rights as men and men were superior to women in every way. This is an important issue to discuss because even after females gained their suffrage rights, many females around the world are still being treated differently in a society in terms of discrimination at the workplace, job opportunities, lower wages and cultural boundaries.
Source 1: The article “Combating discrimination against women” written by the United Nations human rights office which discusses the obstacles that female faces daily throughout the world based on their gender identification. It reports many data which shows gender inequality and how women are being discriminated against. Some of the key points that it makes are the economic hardships such that women get paid less on average than men. It also talks about the cultural norms that the women face historically, as evidence, “In some countries women, unlike men, can’t dress as they like, drive, work at night, inherit property or give evidence in Court. “Toward the end of the article, it also mentions actions taken by the UN such as forming activities and assisting gender inequality related events to stop the gender discrimination around the world.
Rhetorical situation: The author feels the need to create awareness of gender discrimination issue as it affects many female and wants to deliver a less complex text which could be read and understood by anyone to help bring positive changes to the society.
The genre of this article is opinionated informative website article because it informs the audience about the issue of gender inequality. Even though this article uses many facts/data such as “the number of women living in rural poverty has increased by 50% since 1975”, but it is considered to an opinionated piece because it favors one side, as the cover of the article reads “speak up stop discrimination”.
The audience of the article is students from middle school to college because the author uses easily understandable language which could be easily read.
The author’s stance is very passionate because the author only presents one side of the argument of how gender inequality affects the female and only talks about the obstacle that gender inequality brings to society. The authors want to eventually stop gender inequality.
The purpose of this article is to spread awareness of the social issues that are going on in the world, and to persuade others to fight for gender equality, as states “gender equality is essential for the achievement of the human rights of all”.
Source 2: In the article “Workplace gender discrimination remains rife, survey finds; young women in England and wale enduring harassment, job insecurities, and low pay compared to male peers”, the author Haroon Siddique exemplifies how women and men are not viewed equally and the author shows it through data from surveys taken from both men and women. Many of these surveys prove the need for gender equality. Results shows many females are being harassed at their work and they are feared to do anything about it since they might be fired from their jobs or lower their salary. Many females have reported that it is not fair that they don’t get the same paycheck as their other male colleagues at work even though they are doing the same amount of work. Based on the survey data, many have reported facing maternity discrimination and workplace having a negative impact on their mental health and favoring the men more.
Rhetorical situation: The author responds to the terrible workplace discomfort that females face every day. Through writing this article, the author wants to gather an audience to demand changes in the workplace.
The genre is a news report analysis because it is reporting current news of England and it gives data and analysis toward the subject by “Almost a third (31%) of young women reported sex discrimination while working” (Siddique).
The purpose of this is to inform the people of England about a common issue such as job insecurities and harassments concerning their workplaces. The author analyzes the data to give the audience a better understanding of the issue.
The author’s stance is very neutral because the author does not show any sympathy or emotions toward the issue. The author uses data to simply state the facts.
The audience of this article is the customer of Guardian newspaper because this article is published by guardian news and their newsreaders would most likely read this article.
Source 3: In the article “Gender discrimination” the author Bernard addresses the issue of women having less power in church and she gives his opinion on the issue as well. He addresses the issue of how society uses the term “man” when referring to “humans” in speeches and he thinks this is a misunderstanding. He talks about why it has been that way as she illustrated, “Jesus chose men as his apostles because the society in which he lived obliged him to do so.” Thereafter, the society assumed men to be powering church. He concludes his argument by stating “the priest should be an image of Jesus, the God/Human” and therefore women would no longer be excluded.
Rhetorical Situation: The author realizes that people misuse the word “man” when referring to “humans” and writes this article to share her thoughts on the issue and how it can be corrected.
The audience of this article is people that read magazine articles and teenagers because the language is very informal easy to understand such as “I wrote to comment” which is preferable for teenagers.
The genre of this article is commentary magazine article because here, the author not only addresses the issue, but he also gives his opinion on this issue as he starts by “I wrote to comment on a theme that appears occasionally in articles and letters in NCR: the role of women in the life of the church.”
The purpose is to argue and address the issue of the female power in the church and hopefully solve the problem. Females do not have equal power as men in the church and it should be changed.
The author’s stance is passionate as he shows sympathy towards the women here as states, “It seems that women qualify” and he thinks it is wrong of people to use the word “men” when refereeing to “human” as stated on the text, “We constantly, and incorrectly, use “man” instead of “human” in our speech.”.
Source 4: In the article “Gender Inequalities in occupational health related to the unequal distribution of working and employment conditions: a systematic review” written by Javier Campos- Serna presents a research that has been done based on data of working conditions of people to identify the gender inequalities in workplace and how it can affect a person health. Some of the key points the author mention includes the gap of unemployment between male and females, women occupying the lowest position in jobs and differences in the types of jobs. As stated, “women and men with the same job title usually perform different tasks,” (Javier Campos- Serna), which means that females perform different tasks even by doing the same job as men. She also talks about how these factors can affect the mental health of an individual.
Rhetorical situations: Through data and many studies, the author sees that there is still the unfair treatment of females when it comes to the workplace. By writing this article and conducting a research, she is trying to respond to the unfairness that many females faces in the workplace daily and how this may affect their health. She proves her point through the result of the research and data.
The genre of this article is a scholarly research with explanation and analysis, because here the author does a research on the subject of gender inequality in workplace and she provide explanation and analysis of how it may affect many females in terms of health as states, “work-related health problems as outcomes, including physical and mental health”.
The author’s stance is very supportive and sympathetic as the author shows some support toward females thinks that discrimination in the workplace is wrong because it may cause health issues.
The purpose is to conduct a study which shows the working conditions of females and analyze how it may affect them in the future and by doing this the author also wants to inform the audience as stated in the text, “the aim of this study was to identify and summarize the working and employment conditions”
The audience of this article is research/ scholars because the author mostly stays formal throughout her writing and she uses data and many technical terms as well. Since this is a scholarly source/ research, researcher/ higher educated individuals would be more interested in reading these articles.
All the sources listed above are very similar with some of the key differences that makes it unique. Even though all the sources are not exactly opinion-based source, they all support/ inform the audience to prevent gender discrimination with the goal of better society and have similar purposes. The rhetorical situation for most of the authors were very similar as they all wanted to address an issue for a solution. However, some of the differences between these articles are the authors stance on the subject. Some authors seemed to be more sympathetic and passionate while others were very neutral. Each of the authors audience was different as well, in terms of being different age groups with different educational background. Also, the genre is very different, even though they all deliver the message of gender inequality, but they do it in a different style, some being formal documentary while others were more of an opinion-based articles.
Works Cited
“OHCHR | Combating Discrimination against Women.” OHCHR | Freedom of Religion: UN Expert Hails Albania, but Notes New Challenges and Unresolved Issues from the Past, www.ohchr.org/en/issues/discrimination/pages/discrimination_women.aspx.
“Workplace gender discrimination remains rife, survey finds; Young women in England and Wales enduring harassment, job insecurity and low pay compared with male peers.” Guardian [London, England], 13 Sept. 2018. Infotrac Newsstand, http://link.galegroup.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A554091145/STND?u=cuny_ccny&sid=STND&xid=009dd123. Accessed 24 Sept. 2018.
Wagner, Bernard. “Gender discrimination.” National Catholic Reporter, 4 May 2018, p. 18. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A540001865/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=5e663e93. Accessed 24 Sept. 2018
Campos-Serna, Javier, et al. “Gender inequalities in occupational health related to the unequal distribution of working and employment conditions: a systematic review.” International Journal for Equity in Health, vol. 12, no. 1, 2013. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A534654885/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=bb8c1953. Accessed 10 Oct. 2018.
