Exploratory Essay

Boys will be boys and girls will be passive, nurturing, and feminine. Being labeled and confined to a box is generally frowned upon. Yet, boys are wrapped in blue and girls are wrapped in pink from birth. Colors and labels do not affect babies but, gender expectations will. Action against the heteronormative standards that all genders experience can be taken through economic change and gender non-conforming representation.

Social conditioning and expectation of genders to act a certain way creates space for inequality to thrive. It is a cause for concern when most of today’s culture still believes that sex and gender are interchangeable and masculinity and femininity are not. Labels can be helpful in identifying and bringing awareness to

Biological sex, gender identity and how gender is expressed, creates controversy surrounding what is acceptable through science verses society. Men and women are not the only genders that need to worry about societies expectations revolving around gender. Today’s culture creates an expectancy for genderqueer, non-binary, transgender and all other genders to believe they need to pick a side and a role. Although, science confirms that gender is multidimensional, society still perpetuates this outdated ideology (Understanding Gender). To solve the results of gender roles, action must be taken against the gender pay gap, occupational segregation, trafficking, forced marriage, and lower levels of equation and work opportunities for women. Conforming to masculine roles of competitive and ambitious self-seeking deprives men as well (Un Women). To counter stereotypes, mindful vocabulary, political action, rewriting public school curriculums, and positive representation of gender neutrality can lead to

With the easily available information on the internet and social media, ignorance is becoming less common among all generations. However, younger generations do not look to censored news like older generations do. To find reliable information, millennials look to reviews, unbiased research, and knowledge from other uncensored, digital platforms. Young generations thrive through a digital world, whether this a positive or negative movement, it is a fact. Millennials generally have an open mind and prefer to be aware of problems in The world that affect them. They know that gender inequality is an issue but, they are unaware of the actions they can take to solve it. Knowledge about how this gender gap came to be and why gender roles perpetuate inequality will have the most impact coming from people who are suffering from it. Since 50% of the population is under 30 (Boumphrey, February 13, 2012), representation of gender non-conformality will have the most impact on social media platforms, where young people are passionate, active