Unequal pay, different job opportunities, and a divide between genders. Women and men have been treated differently for centuries but educationally, men were always on top. They went to school and worked while a woman’s only “role” in life was to have babies and cook the men’s dinner.
Things are now starting to take a turn in our world, as women are taking over the workplace and taking home more degrees than men. No one knows when or why this divide started but it is putting our centuries-old norms to rest.
Gender roles go back to centuries ago when men would go hunt for food while the women raised the children and were the caregivers. Going a few centuries to the future, the 1950s was a perfect example of men being expected to work to support a family. They were seen to be more educated than women and they had the burden of earning all of the money for the family while the women had the motherly, caregiver role. They would marry, have children, and devote their lives to being a housewife by cooking and cleaning. Women barely had any rights and weren’t expected or wanted in the workplace.
Things have changed in the 21st century, being that women have worked tirelessly over the years to keep their spot in the workplace and show that they are more than housewives.
“I feel that we always feel the need to compete because we have always been held to a lower standard, and treated differently. We constantly have to prove ourselves, so we put in more effort to meet the goals we want to accomplish. After always being told we can’t do something, it makes us want to do it even more,” says Momentum Co-President Mya Perciak.
“In 1970, men outnumbered women in college, accounting for 59% of undergraduate enrollment in two-year institutions. By 1980, gender was perfectly balanced in four-year colleges and women outnumbered men in two years schools.” (Stlouisfed.org) Since 1980, women have increased their statistics being that for every man, there are almost two women attending college. More women are putting in effort to reach their goals, and while men are too, some aren’t reaching the same level as women.
Women have had to put in more work throughout the years to get where they are now. Years of protesting with blood, sweat, and tears. Things have always come easy to the men with receiving better jobs and wages, and throughout the years they have put in less work knowing that things will come easy to them. “They further claim that: In public universities, 65% of women graduate compared to 59% of men.” (Research.com) It seems as though men expect women to fall below them, but instead, they are rising above and it has been that way for decades.
Things also seem to be that way at CSCS. Women are the majority of the top 10% and most clubs at Charter have female leaders or presidents.
There is no clear reason why things are this way other than the effort that our students seem to put in and the goals they want to reach. “The women put in the work academically, but men are expecting it because that’s how it’s always been in the past. Women have to work for what they want, and men may start to be upset that they aren’t getting the same results as us,” says SGA President Kaitlyn O’ Neill.
In the end, men aren’t on the same level academically because women are putting more effort into reaching their goals and getting where they want to go. It’s taken many decades but the work females have been putting in has finally paid off and they can excel in school to get degrees and higher-paying jobs. It shows that anyone can achieve anything they want if they want it bad enough and put in the time.