The first reading I will discuss is “Detours on the Road to Equality Women, Work, and Higher Education” by Jerry A. Jacobs. Jacobs starts by providing some statistics to illustrate the gender segregation of work. Jacobs states “women remain crowded in certain jobs such as secretaries or administrative assistants (99 percent female), child care workers (98 percent), or registered nurses (93 percent). Among the remaining male bastions are construction trades, such as carpenters, plumbers, and electricians (3 percent female), mechanics and repairers (5 percent) and engineers (10 percent) (2003). Although this article was printed in 2003, it is evident that not much has changed over 14 years. One would think that in today’s society, more than miniscule …show more content…
Similar to Lorber, Grinberg and Larned reiterate that parents and the media are the main enforcers of gender roles. The article supplies the results of the study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, which presents globally followed gender norms, most of which Lorber also discusses (Grinberg and Larned 2017). The teaching that “Girls are vulnerable, and boys are strong” relates to what Lorber discusses about the stratification of gender in which men are the dominant group (Grinberg and Larned 2017). Despite how much progress women make, the fear of males prevails from what is learned during youth. For example, from about the age of 6, I have been taught to fear men as predators as they covet the attention of women and to surround myself with females, especially at nighttime or in situations in which my family is not present. Grinberg and Larned reference phrases that are commonly instructed towards girls such as “don’t sit like that” and “don’t wear that” which provide evidence of Lorber’s point about gendered norms being enforced by authority figures (2017). Attending an all-girls high school, I had first hand experience with reprimands of this kind. These messages promote the idea that women should dress and act to cater to men. Being a woman, messages of this kind make me feel as if I should be apologetic for being a woman. This message is visible even further in today’s news about sexual harassment. Although both authors largely focus on women, how social constructs affect men are also discussed. The widespread message that “boys are trouble” is promoted by parents and the media (Grinberg and Larned 2017). I think that this negative message is unfair because it makes a statement that describes all boys, when in reality, not all boys