31 October 2006

Gender Roles and Inequality

When I was young, I visited a friend's house. She had a white plastic register with fake food. The door opened, and you placed the pretend dollar bills and coins inside. I found playing grocery store boring.

By placing girls behind a register at a young age, we hinder them. We define acceptable feminine jobs even though women are supposedly liberated. Little boys get trucks and toy drills; girls get dolls and toy registers. How many little girls "play" grocery store only spend adulthood in a low paying cashier job? Although male cashiers exist, the job is still predominantly female. Why does society still try keep women in their place?

When will we allow women to move beyond submissive jobs into successful careers? Perhaps when we start giving boys toy registers and girls toy trucks, we'll see change.

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