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Social Inequality In The Work Force

“What is the difference between sex and gender?“ is an inquiry which some individuals seem confused upon because both concepts are often misunderstood. Sex is a biological distinction between males and females, while gender is a socially constructed definition that relates to characteristics defining masculinity and femininity (Kilic). The latter is a structural feature of society, as the public maintains the dominant belief in preserving male advantages. This ideology that the public has learned to accept has led to unfair treatment against women especially in employment opportunities. Women specifically experience deprivation in the work force as they face discrimination based on their sex. Many women in the employment industries have the least authority, and are confide to lower-ranking positions than men. In “Difference and Dominance: On Sex Discrimination” by Catharine MacKinnon, the author offers a variety of concepts as to how a particular gender (male) is constructed as being dominant in society. MacKinnon introduces the theory of the dominance approach, which she believes parallel society’s practice of social inequality. The ideology of gender identity has created injustice for women as they have become subordinate to men in terms of power and status. Similarly in the article, “An Overview of Sex Inequality at Work” by Irene Padavic and Barbara Reskin, the authors also claim that gender is socially constructed based on the dominance approach. MacKinnon’s interpretation of the dominance approach is behind the construction of society’s ideology on gender identity; Padavic and Reskin’s article also provides an enactment of this approach, particularly on the issue of sex inequality for women in the workplace. Women experience sex segregation of jobs, sex differences in promotion/authority, and also differences in their earnings.

The discrimination that women endure is a result of society’s ideology of the dominance approach. This is a concept where, “sex...