Gender Differences in the African American Community - Research Paper Example

Gender differences in the African American community This paper is determined to identify the gender difference in the African American society. Going through various articles and books that have researched on the difference in the African American society, it was identified that the African American society were at par on issues to do with gender inequality. Both the women and men in the middle working class has been sharing responsibility, and there is no defined house role for a specific person. In addition, the women in the society have made some great achievement compared to the men in the African American society. However despite all the efforts and achievement by the women, they still face some challenges when it comes to employment. Even though some parts of the world and community are still fighting gender equality, the African American communities have made some great achievements. It is true that the community has made some great achievements. However, the government should be involved in addressing the challenge the Africa-American women face when it comes to employment. Introduction In this paper of the gender different in the African American community, we are going to talk about the gender differences in middle-class families, in the education sector and employment. Gender inequality is one of the issues affecting the whole world of today (Benería, 2003). Although the determination of the world in solving the problem of gender equality. For complete eradication of gender equality, much is yet to be done. Gender equality is a lack of the provision of equal opportunity for both the feminine and the masculine. Gender equality is where both the groups are not given equal opportunity in terms of education and work. The mainly affected group on the issue of gender equality is the female sex (Collins, 2004). Female are the group that started to face unequal opportunity just from the time they were young. The boy child is given privileges to various opportunities as the girl child never got the same opportunities. Gender equality was mainly due to communities believed on the responsibility of women in the society. Women were mainly perceived to be responsible for taking care of the family and the children. Their responsibilities were mainly to feed the children, clean the house, and cook the food for the family, and the most important one is to be submissive to their husbands (Cook, n.d.). However, gender equality has drastically changed over the years. The number of women going to school has an increase in a point that it is almost equal to that of the boys attending school and in some region in the world the number has outdone the male. The major problem that the women of today face is majorly at the workplace. Considering the families of the middle-class of the Africa American community, there is an improvement on how the African American middle-class family live. The research carried out in these families was very impressive and showed that the Africa Americans community has dedicated to fighting gender equality. Most of the African American middle families have been sharing the responsibility (Haynes, 2000). Both the husband and the wife had no clear responsibility, and any could wash the dishes, cook, and take care of the family. However, the finding also indicated that in the African American community men were the breadwinners while women were the caretakers. Africa America has made great achievement when it comes to the academic gender gap. The African American community has taken thirty years to reach where they are today on issues related to gender. However, the academic gender gap is still an issue in the community. Throughout the years, women have made great achievements than their male counterpart. A research on the academic gender gap carried in the year 2006. The research showed that the 81% of girls graduated in the African American community. The number was greater as compared to the number of men who graduates in the community which is ranging at 71% (Wood, Kurtz-Costes, Rowley & Okeke-Adeyanju, 2010). The study on the academic gender gap for the year 2005 showed that twice female graduated in that year as compared to men. The reasons for this finding linked with the number of women proceeding to higher education than men that was found to be very great. Another interesting finding of the academic gender gap found out that there is a rise in the number of African American in occupational attainment and educational achievements as compared to that of the men which is in the decline. The result attained may be because men are overrepresented compared to their PWIs when it comes to sports. Men expectation to further prosper in the athletic sector has led to the stereotype that mens value of academic is less. However, in African American women PWIs, reports of women having academic self –concepts that are high as compared to their male counterparts. In contrast to men in the face of racial discrimination, African-American women show better change, assertiveness and developing independence. In the courses selection, women are more likely to choose majoring in social science and humanities while men on the other hand chose a business, engineering, medicine field and social science. It is important for women to be encouraged to prosper in academics. Even though after a long struggle and determination of the Africa-American women in the community to pursue courses that were believed only to be done by men. The Black American Women still faced a lot of inequalities when it comes to employment (Dodge, Hill & McLoyd, 2005). This has also contributed to demoralizing the number of women pursuing courses in the engineering faculties. The problem faced by the Africa American Women at this point need to be handled immediately. The Africa American Women may go for a job interview with their fellow male partners. However, you may find that the women lose the opportunity to the male partner even though she has a better qualification as compared to the male partner (Baker & Wiseman, 2009). This experience has demoralized the women in taking courses that are seen to belonging to men. This is so because the even if they perform better than the male students they always lose an opportunity when it comes to employment because they are female (Oakley, 2000). Conclusion In the African American Community, it is clear that the community has moved from the era when women responsibility was just around the house. Things are shifting very fast, and the African American women have shown some prosperity in various areas that men used to do best. The academic sector used to have a low number of women. Things have shifted in the academic sector, and now men are the once experiencing the gender inequality in the sector of education as compared to the women. It is also vital for the courses done at the higher education level to be evenly distributed among the two gender groups. There should not exist courses belonging to men and those belonging to women. This is the only way forward in solving the challenges both the genders face when it comes to employment. When the African American women are well represented in various departments at the workforce, the difficulties faced by women in joining such departments will drastically reduce. Those women already in these departments will see that the rights of their fellow women are protected. Recommendations The government should recognize the efforts of the middle-class African Americans. These families should be encouraged to sensitize the community on the advantages of sharing the family responsibility. The African American Women, who still believe that their responsibility in the community is taking care of the family, are to be woken up. These women need to understand that there is a variety of jobs which they can easily do. However, something needs to be done on the alarming poor performance of the African American men in the academics sector. If nothing is done to eradicate the gap, the academic gap will continue increasing to appoint that it will be worst. On the issue of the challenges faced by Africa-American women at the workplace, the government should step in to put an end to what is going on in these industries. The human resource should stop the inequality they practice at the workplace and focus on employing the right candidate for a given position. They should be focused on the prosperity of the company by employing people via merits and not gender. This is the only way that the companies will improve their production as a result of not wasting a good brain because of gender consideration. Reference Baker, D., & Wiseman, A. W. (2009). Gender, equality, and education from international and comparative perspectives. Bingley, UK: Emerald/JAI. Benería, L. (2003). Gender, development, and globalization: Economics as if all people mattered. Psychology Press. Collins, P. H. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. Routledge. Cook, B. A. (n.d.). Women and war: A historical encyclopedia from antiquity to the present. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.: ABC-Clio. Dodge, K. A., Hill, N. E., & McLoyd, V. C. (2005). African American family life: Ecological and cultural diversity. New York [u.a.: Guilford Press. Haynes, F. E. (2000). Gender and Family Ideals An Exploratory Study of Black Middle-Class Americans. Journal of Family Issues, 21(7), 811-837. Oakley, J. G. (2000). Gender-based barriers to senior management positions: Understanding the scarcity of female CEOs. Journal of business ethics, 27(4), 321-334. Wood, D., Kurtz-Costes, B., Rowley, S. J., & Okeke-Adeyanju, N. (2010). Mothers academic gender stereotypes and education-related beliefs about sons and daughters in African American families. Journal of educational psychology, 102(2), 521. Read More