Gender Inequality: A world issue (Paper #1)

              For most of our history and even in many places as well as in the minds of many people there is one problem that humans have faced. This problem has come more to fruition in more recent times with a number of movements and leaders advocating for the problem. This problem is known as gender inequality, although there is the theory that every human is created equal, we still tend to discriminate against someone for the gender that they are born with. This controversial theme has been taken on many times by many different story tellers, playwrights, poets and all other types of literature or forms of entertainment. Some examples of this can come from the play made by Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, and in a completely different form in the play made by Sophocles, Antigone. This problem is also still present in modern times and can be seen in many different ways and be advocated for by many different people.

           

            To begin, in the play A Streetcar Named Desire made by the playwright Tennessee Williams there are many different cases in which gender inequalities are present. One of the main conflicts between the characters Blanche and Stanley has many forms of gender inequality in it throughout the play. This can be seen in the ways that Stanley treats and talks to Blanche throughout the play. Shortly after Stanley and Blanche had started to talk and Stanley had found out about the lost farmland, he had started to talk down to Blanche to attempt to get her to give up the papers and intimidate her from the beginning. Stanley say “I don’t want no ifs, ands or buts! What’s all the rest of them papers?” (Williams 48) This quote can be seen as Stanley attempting to force and intimidate Blanche into giving up the papers and have her tell him exactly what she has even though the papers are her property and he has no right at all to have to know what the papers she carries are. Another example of this comes from later in the play with the same two characters, Blanche and Stanley, when Stanley decides to rape Blanche and then make sure to call her a liar and that nobody would believe her story as long as he said that it was not true because people were more inclined to believe what the man said rather then what the woman had said. This is resembled by what Stanley’s mocking of Blanche as she is being taken by the Doctor and the Nurse at the end of the play by saying to Blanche “You left nothing here but split talcum and old empty perfume bottles- unless it’s the paper lantern you want to take with you. You want the lantern?” (Williams 140). This shows how confident that Stanley is and the amount of confidence he has in the gender inequality for nobody to fully believe Blanche’s side of the story and that he will get away with what he had done.

            Next, the role of gender inequality was also present in the play made by Sophocles, Antigone. Although this story was written in a completely different time period compared to the last piece by Williams there were still signs of gender inequality throughout the play. One example to start is how before it was determined that Antigone what the one who had attempted to bury her brother everyone had assumed that it was a man who was attempting the bury the fallen soldier, Polynecies. This can be portrayed by Sentry saying “Yes, I will tell you. Someone just now buried the corpse and vanished. He scattered on the skin some thirsty dust; he did the ritual, duly, to purge the body of desecration.” (Sentry, 268-271). This quote can show how the only way that Sentry refers to the person who buried the body as he and would never think of it to have actually been Antigone who had made the attempt because she was a woman. This was mainly because of the time period that Antigone was set in. During this time period women had a very minimal role in society they were all for the most part just house wives as well as a means to reproduce and carry a bloodline. Another example of this comes from a conversation between Creon and his son Haemon. Creon says “Your nature is vile, in yielding to a woman” (Creon, 803) and in response this Haemon says “You will not find me yield to what is shameful.” (Haemon, 804). These two quotes show that woman have a very small say in what happens and if someone is to even so much as yields to a woman they will be mocked and made fun of for it.  

            Finally, there are unfortunately still some cases of gender inequality in the modern world. Today gender inequality can be seen mainly in the work force and with wages of male workers compared to the wages of female worker. In many cases there are companies that are paying male workers more than they are some of their female workers in same or highly similar positions on the work force. In one more recent and more specific case including a Chinese editor for BBC news, Carrie Gracie, ended up leaving BBC news because she was being payed significantly less than one of her male co-workers who was the editor for the American BBC new as well as the male coworker who was the editor for the middle eastern BBC news. Gracie says "He makes a point about making women more visible. Visibility isn't pay. It's all very well to make me as the China editor more visible but if you're going to pay us half of what the men earn then there's a dissonance there."(Gracie) In response to the head of affairs saying that they are trying to make women more visible in their workforce. There have also been many other examples of gender inequality all over the place and not only in the workplace either.

            For many years now, the role of women has been reshaping and reforming itself. Although, gender inequality may still exist in our society today it is not as prominent as a problem as it was many years ago and we as humans have been taking steps to make better upon or even eradicate gender inequality. However, for now while gender inequality still exists there will be people taking the needed steps to make sure that everyone is equal and is given an equal chance to do what they want to do with their life.  

Works Cited

Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. Norton Introduction to Literature. Louisiana, 1947

Sophocles. Antigone. 441B.C.

“Gracie Tears into ‘Dissonance’ of BBC Top Brass over Female Pay; Gender Inequality. Committee Hearing; Journalist Attacks Disparities as Director-General Says Decisions Will Be Centralised.” The Financial Times, 2018. EBSCOhost, hs1.farmingdale.edu:2443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.525789551&site=eds-live.