Sunday, September 12, 2010 x 9:13 PM

My third essay! Yay me although I think the ending sucks big time O:


Men are more disadvantaged than women in today’s world. Do you agree?

For the longest time in societies all around the world, men have been labeled the breadwinners while females the caretakers of the family. Women who are career-oriented are seen as “superwomen” in our society while househusbands are looked down upon and deemed as “failures”. However, who is to say that men are unable to stay home and take care of children while the women rake in the money? It is easy to say that history has shown many cases of compromising of women’s rights – trafficking of young girls and women, burning them alive, etc. however, in current day’s world, men are more disadvantaged than women. This can be shown through implemented laws and the pay disparity which I will go on to explain later.

Women may be denied higher ranking jobs or political positions because of the masculine stereotype that men would necessarily do the job better. This is very explicitly shown with the number of male politicians compared to female politicians and that 90% out of the world’s self-made billionaires are males. Females are usually seen as the ‘sacrifice’ in the family who has to stay at home and take care of children, and juggling both family and work is not an easy task. Furthermore, pregnant women or women who have been given birth have problems looking for potential employers as they would be able to claim more healthcare benefits from the company.

However, this trend is slowly dying. In Singapore, where meritocracy is a value, females who are hardworking workers are able to obtain higher ranking positions. Some examples include the CEO of Pepsi, and the CEO of Yahoo! who are both females. In fact, the pay disparity between sexes is very alarming. Contrary to popular belief, a survey done in New York revealed that women aging from 21 to 30 years regardless of education levels working full time make 117 percent of what the men earn. This shows that the stereotype that women are unable to work just as well as men is does not really hold true in our current society.

Legally speaking, there are many laws that protect women’s interest but nearly none for the converse. For example rape laws are biased towards women by preventing men from challenging their accusers; and when it is the men who are raped by women, the women are convicted less frequently and given lighter sentences. Also, mothers have a higher chance of winning custody of the children even if the father would be able to take care of children just as well. Judges are awarding more alimony to women but for the other way around, men are not entitled to alimony. Laws are generally biased in favour of females, and this disadvantages men in society.

Even more so, Singaporean males have to serve National Service after their tertiary education, while females are not obligated to do so. This causes men to forfeit two years of their lives which could be spent pursuing further educations or gaining experience in the working world, thus losing out to their women counterparts.

Evidently, men in today’s society are more disadvantaged than women. Women are protected very much by law and have proven to be as capable as men in terms of efficiency and skills. In order to achieve gender equality, we must first start from breaking away the stereotypes given to men and women.

562 words

By: You-Know-Who

Time to stone yay.

Labels: Life