Summary Of The Gender Revolution, Uneven And Stalled By Paula England

Paula England begins her article “The Gender Revolution, Uneven and Stalled” by highlighting the sweeping progress towards gender equality- including the increase in women’s employment and decrease in gender discrimination. However, she brings our attention to the asymmetric change occurring in the gender revolution- with big changes going mostly in one direction.
From a functionalist perspective, Paula states that women’s lives have changed much more than mens- with, for example, women entering “male” domains more than males entering female domains. According to England, society’s devaluation of traditionally female jobs and activities is to blame for this one-way gender change. She argues that our society’s economic and cultural devaluation of things defined as feminine also discourage men from choosing traditionally female-dominated fields, in order to avoid losing money and suffering cultural disapproval.In contrast, there are economic and social incentives that push women to enter traditionally male dominated fields. Not long ago, my father shared with me how his parents forbid him from enrolling in nursing school- excerpting that it was a job for women. He was told to choose a more “gender-suitable field”, such as trades.
Parents, for example, are more comfortable giving girls “boy toys” like lego, then giving dolls to boys. Women also commonly wear pants, while men wearing skirts remains rare. In addition, author Paula England argues that gender egalitarianism co-occurs with gender essentialism: the belief that men and women are innately and fundamentally different in their interests and skills. Women looking to “move up”, currently working in none-college female jobs(such as waitress or secretary) can increase their income