Which is the most difficult problem to fix?
Gender inequality is a global problem. Look at the following examples:
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Stereotypes
When people wrongly assume everyone in a group is the same. For example, all girls like pink and cooking; or all boys like blue and sports
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The “motherhood penalty”
When mothers face unfair treatment, like lower pay, fewer promotions or are thought to be less committed because they look after their children
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Male-dominated industries
When workers within an industry are mostly men. For example, in technology or construction
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Male-led development
When men develop products or systems, which can mean they work better for men than women. For example, in parts of London stairs were designed around the length of men’s legs
This got us thinking…which of these things might be the most difficult problem to fix? Why?
This poll is now closed
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Comments (394)
I see that male-led development is the hardest problem to fix these days. Take the example of London stairs which were designed to be easy for men to climb. And then woman will have a hard time navigating. And if you want to change it, all the stairs will be removed by construction and that will cost a lot, so most mayors/presidents will just stick to the normal version.
hi Frank, I think this issue is one out of many that sometimes get lost as many people are unaware that plenty of things were designed for males' ease. Another example is the default temperature of buildings. I wonder what you think about the interlink between male-led development and male-dominated industries? As many industries have historically been male dominated, a lot of new ideas and inventions have been designed by and for males, based on what they think is important. What do you think might happen if more women were part of these industries and helped make big decisions?
I see that the products designed will be more efficient for both men and women.
l support this point,i thing this issue is out of the most diffuclt both men and women in Kenya
I agree with all your ideas but it's difficult to change the motherhood penalty. People are so used to it. It's our responsability to do everything we can as young people. We want a better and more equal world! It's such a shame women are suffering from that!
Thanks for the new information, briliant information frank violin
I agree but what about motherhood penalty’s do you think that people can change that
While male-led development is definitely a large problem and difficult to fix, the others could be harder to handle. Stereotypes are rooted in time and commonly taught to children from birth. It's harder to change a person that doesn't want to be changed than it is to change a design.
I agree with your vision and I have changed my mind, you are right about stereotypes being hard to solve including but unlike you, now, I see that the motherhood is harder to solve
in my opinion the most difficult challenge is motherhood penalty this makes mothers earn less money if they have a child and they need more money o pay their tax and to me this feels a bit cruel and unfair since women should earn the same credit as males are not any more important than females because males and females are humans too so i dont even understand the reason that males earn more than women.In my opinion women should earn a bit more than males because they need the money to pay there tax and house and they have to support their family and their childrens and the fact they still have to buy the shoppingn and clothes for the kids and them and then they have to buy something for the children to be entertained and the kids will need shoes and maybe if the mum is single and the dad has left her and shes with the children living alone it would be worse because then she doesnt even have a father to support her or help her with money and women in all fairness should be supportted by men every day or every time since they have to have time to their selves and have clothes and shoes and go otside with their friends some days too like normal people would and they should still feel like there not trapped always taking care of their children and they should always feel like there young and should go outside and have a good time with their friends or family and they can maybe visit there parents and when its their birthday they could leave their children with her parents at home and then adleast she can be free for one day and not always have to take care of her child or stay
Thank you for describing the difficulties you've observed mother's have. You have mentioned all the additional responsibilities they have as the primary caregiver of their children. All these difficulties are very discouraging. How do you think the laws, society, workplaces can help mothers?
I agree with you, Careful ocean, since mother penalty is the most hardest things for a mother to deal with, they shall be free due to the stress,
I agree with you... male- led development is the hardest thing because space suits are made for men only. Also, same for crash test dummies. They only use male testers. Next, It seems like they only give men promotions because they think women are not going to be able to do more work because of their children and\or child . They can't decide your life style!
I second this since many urban designs, like stairs, reflect a male-centric perspective, creating accessibility issues for women and others. Retrofitting these spaces is costly, leading policymakers to avoid necessary changes. Inclusive planning is essential for ensuring public safety and mobility, benefiting the community and promoting equality in public spaces.
I agree with you. Male-led development is basically explaining about men being much more responsible than women. Your example really makes sense if it is talking about male-led development. I like how you took a very terrific example from the London stairs! I also love how you said that if somebody wants to change it, it would cost extremely expensive so mayors and presidents will stick to the normal version.
I also agree that male led development is the hardest problem to fix, because when something is based for men and it becomes widespread and used everywhere or a lot, it is hard to make everyone decide to switch. it only gets harder the more expensive it is to replace, as people won't want to spend lots of money to change something that still works for them. Governments could introduce laws, but either way, people still have to spend money to change what they have adapted to.
I agree because it isn't fair that most things were made generally for men. This is not good because other people won't notice this. I myself did not Know about this until the live lesson.
During the lesson, The people talked about space suits were made for men. I thought this was unfair because this makes space travel more uncomfortable for women and this is also a form of discrimination.
I agree too, like every single building made male-led development would have to be rebuilt for woman and men need which is an abundant amount of resources, people, and tools which is expensive, time consuming and difficult.
In my opinion, stereotyping is the most difficult problem to solve as it is not just an isolated opinion. Stereotypes are the bedrock of cultural narratives, from infancy, people are socialized to follow these stereotypes. Girls are supposed to nurture, boys are supposed to lead; pink becomes a "feminine" color, blue becomes a "masculine" color. These assumptions are reinforced through media, education, family dynamics, religion and even language. In Arabic, we don't have a "neutral" pronoun, so, we default to the masculine pronoun. It's mankind, not womankind. Toys further cement that idea into young children's heads. There are toys for girls and boys, and then that begins to apply everywhere in life.
Stereotypes also underpin other forms of inequality. The motherhood penalty comes from the idea that a woman's natural job is to take care of a child and that men are unaffected by such things. Male-dominated industries persist because technical prowess is coded as masculine. Male-led development reflects the stereotype of men being leaders while women are just peripheral viewers.
Stereotypes operate subconsciously, unlike overt discrimination, making them harder to combat. This makes girls themselves think that inequality is normal and expected. The media may represent a successful woman, but then say that she had to sacrifice her feminine traits so she could succeed. Challenging stereotypes can make people feel defensive as you are talking about their culture. Stereotypes also need a sustained effort to stop. In conclusion, stereotypes drive our lack of equality.
I agree with the fact that stereotypes are difficult to combat because stereotypes are opinions, things that can not be controlled while the others options(the motherhood penalty, male-dominated industry, male led development) can all be controlled through laws and protests.
So I would just like to add, that just because laws are in place to allow women into a field does not mean women will enter the field. In many walks of life women are discouraged from pursuing a career, especially in fields like construction or S.T.E.M (science, technology, engineering, math). This problem is deeply rooted in society itself and cannot be stopped, simply by a law or protest.
I totally agree women should not be held back from pursuing their dreams. For years women were not appreciated or they were only appreciated on certain days. And for "Motherhood Penalty" their shoud be centers and places for under aged mothers or single mothers. The shelters/center shoud be packed with food, water,beds and people to check up on the mothers.
Do you think women often have to chose between motherhood and pursuing a career? If yes, what would you like to change so girls your age don't feel like they have to chose when they grow up?
I think that indeed yes women in my community especially are told to choose amongst raising a child or pursuing their career. Since the society believes that its a man's job to be the provider to the family and men are allowed to work after marriage without any objection and are seen as "ambitious " if they want to grow in their career after the childbirth. According to my society a man's job is considered as a primitive prioritised job and seen as a sole bread winner. While a woman's life on the contrary is actually so difficult. Since after marriage she is often persuaded to leave her job and lend a hand in the household chores and her dreams of growth and working are often ridiculed and always told that she needs to focus on the house more than these "other things". Ironically, her dreams, her ambitions and her aspirations are crushed by labelling them as selfish especially after childbirth. Once she even manages to work with a child she is judged, criticised and yet considered inferior to her male counter part . Her job is not even seen as a source of income.
I would actually like to first change the mindset of my classmates especially girls regarding accepting their ambitions and never settling for less and looking out for themselves, being independent and be used to a bustling lifestyle. I would also like to normalise the fact of balancing both child and work and aspiration to growth and lead the lifestyle of her choice and never ever give up on their dreams and their career because they have earned it.
In my opinion I agree too, adding laws to encourage women to do anything they want they shouldn't be stopped by something they're trying to pursue in life "don't let men down you from your dreams or doing something that is best." S.T.E.M is a very great experience for women and men, be powerful. If I were to pick there should be protesting because, I'm a girl myself and I'm not letting boys or and men stop me from anything I'm trying to chase after. A gender equal society needs empowered women and girls who take control of their lives, making their own decisions, and succeed in their chosen pursuits.
Famous Quote *from John Wooden*: "do not let what you cannot interfere with what you can do"
Artistic_orange you make an important point. If it is not laws or protests, what tools do we have to encourage women to pursue careers in traditionally male-dominated industries?
I strongly agree with you because women are discouraged to enter fields like engineering even if there are laws or protests. Moreover, I think laws about gender equity have limits. In my country, in France, girls are encouraged to do engineering or math studies since protests appeared about it because these are male-dominated fields. However, a lot of women perceive this inducement as "We do not really want you in our school but we have to, for our image and to avoid polemics". This change is also presented as a "chance" for girls since it’s unusual to see women in these fields so they have to work twice as hard to be recognized and to succeed.
I agree because it is very much difficult to change the mindset of the people towards something. Society tends to be orthodox rather than embracing new changes. For example in India, the caste system was in fashion for centuries and a lot of time was taken to reform it
I agree because in my country men think that women are suppose to stay at home and do the basic house work and take care of children. In some parts of my country girls at the age of 12-17 are getting married and some of them are getting married to people old enough to be their grandfather, so in my country to the peoples mindset will be hard.
I strongly agree with you, especially in Nigeria. In Nigeria once a norm or value is adopted it is almost impossible for them to just stop it. Nigerians has always had the mentality that women are inferior and I don't think it is possible for them to stop thinking that way. For example in Nigeria, women are not allowed to be kings or in high authority in in the government they can't be presidents or governors.
I still believe that with equality between the two gender in Nigeria, Nigeria would be a better place and it would bring about development and eradicate poverty in Nigeria.
THANK YOU
I agree with your statement. Not only do we live in a world that allows, nay, ENABLES gender stereotypes that simply cannot be changed by a simple protest or two, but some professions in general hire the "other" gender over the other one. A clear example of this is when men have to do tedious labour while women (usually) have to nurture their children. The problem with this is that some people feel that they don't nearly fit in either box.
in my own view you are absolutely right because if peole keep stereotyping women i am not sure the world would move from its state of destruction it is now.
I strongly agree with this reasoning. Stereotypes may seem as a minor problem that everyone could just joke about. However, there are even mental illnesses and issues due to stereotyping. As cited from pmc.ncbu.nlm.nih.gov, about 36% faces restrictions such as negative impacts on their social life and expectations. It can also cause anxiety for many people, leading to depression and potentially suicide. This is not a topic that many people are aware of and it is not a joke. Stereotyping would be the most important one out of all as it leads to other problems now, as you have stated, male dominant industries and development.
I completely agree with forgiving globe as I believe that stereotyping is one of the main reasons that banter can turn into bullying as this can be racial or to do with gender or religion.
Forgiving_globe - thanks for sharing the data you found. What are some ways that you think we can address stereotypes?
I strongly agree with you. Stereotypes are one of the most difficult inequality problem to solve. They have been acting since hundreds of years and now they are too difficult to remove.
The education given works really hard to break taboos and educate children about how they should not be limited by any kind of stereotypes, and encourages children to do what they want to, with no space to worry about what other people think. Even though, this is harder than it looks. Out of the common education, children also receive a lot of influence not only at home and with friends, but unconsciously. For example, when you walk around shops, you can see most of the clothes in the "girl" section are pink, while in the "boy" section most are blue. It is also seen when kids are playing: girls very often cook and take care of babies, while boys build and do sports. This habits of plays seem harmless, but they build ideas of stereotypes of women and men in our children's heads.
Stereotypes might seem very difficult, if not impossible to break. However, from my point of view, I think changes can be made. Many years ago, pink was a "masculine" color that represented men, but with time, it swapped. That makes me think it is not completely imposible to erase ideas from people's mind, but needs a lot of time and not only one educated generation. But I still think some of these will still survive over years, hidden in people's minds, or perhaps not.
in addition to your points the most difficult problem to fix is stereotypes because this involves what that particular individual think about the female gender, as far as it is what the individual have made up his mind to think about that is what the person thinks about cause that individual will always down grade that gender until he or she changes his mind set towards that person and to change ones mind is very difficult so this problem can only be resolved if that individual changes his or her mind set towards that preson.
I strongly agree and respect your reasoning that stereotypes are the hardest things to change because they have a deep impact on not only the current generation but also to the upcoming several generations.The stereotypes are the hardest and most difficult things to change because when many people have the same mindset and perspectives toward something and has been passed down through generations,it becomes even more difficult to change as it takes a turn towards orthodoxy.It is a common practice about defining the traits of one's gender by birth and females especially are taught that they are inferior to males indirectly by telling them what to do and what not to as females.Also i feel that changing stereotypes is not completely impossible but it takes several years and any laws can't change it.
As an example from where I am,India there were several stereotypes and discrimination against women's education and caste based systems but things gradually changed when people's mindsets evolved.Similarly the stereotypes are not impossible to break but need to be paid attention on and have to be taught to the upcoming generation.
I strongly agree and respect your reasoning that stereotypes are the hardest things to change because they have a deep impact on not only the current generation but also to the upcoming several generations.The stereotypes are the hardest and most difficult things to change because when many people have the same mindset and perspectives toward something and has been passed down through generations,it becomes even more difficult to change as it takes a turn towards orthodoxy.It is a common practice about defining the traits of one's gender by birth and females especially are taught that they are inferior to males indirectly by telling them what to do and what not to as females.Also i feel that changing stereotypes is not completely impossible but it takes several years and any laws can't change it.
As an example from where I am,India there were several stereotypes and discrimination against women's education and caste based systems but things gradually changed when people's mindsets evolved.Similarly the stereotypes are not impossible to break but need to be paid attention on and have to be taught to the upcoming generation.
I partially agree with this statement. While it’s encouraging that future generations are facing less discrimination due to new laws and improved education, the issue persists. Derogatory language is still common, and media often perpetuates harmful stereotypes. As someone of Indian descent, I have experienced discrimination firsthand and observed that marginalized communities frequently face scrutiny. Disturbingly, lighter-skinned individuals often receive preferential treatment, highlighting the ongoing disparities we must address. We need to stay vigilant in combating these inequities to create a more just society for everyone.
You are absolutely correct and I agree with what you have said. But what about motherhood penalty? isn't that difficult to fix?
do you think stereotypes affect the male child in any way? if there is, give reasons
You have made a really good point about how stereotypes shape us from a young age , and I agree that they are hard to change because because they feel so normal . But I also think that while stereotypes are deeply rooted , they are not impossible to break . Over time , people's views have changed , now we see that more women are taking part in STEM and more are taking care of kids and managing house, which shows that progress is happening . Schools and media can play a big role in this by encouraging kids to think beyond traditional roles. It is not easy , like you said but if people keep questioning these ideas ,we could slowly move toward a more equal society.
I think male led development is difficult, as said, male led development is basically products that suit men more than they do women,and because they're systemized by men, it results in their effectiveness benefiting men more than women. And to change the mindset–viewpoint of those people, it'll require a very dramatic, even drastic, change in perspective and understanding, entwined with other industries. But it's significance still is strong. This could be changed by changes in policies, awareness campaigns, etc..
I strongly agree with you. Male led development are products that are mostly made and designed for men and not women for example, the news about stairs built in London for the legs of a man. Men think that women are meant to be in the kitchen but women should also work and earn money to feed their children if they have children. Shawna's team mates have children and they still work one of them has a close relationship with her daughter that her daughter can watch rockets launch, I believe this is also helping to create a love of STEM in her. I also believe we need to encourage more women led development by addressing the barriers women face and encouraging more women to take leadership roles. Educating and ensuring that more girls and women have equal access to quality education is one way to go, another is mentoring and coaching which I believe one Shawna's team mate has taken with her daughter.
I'm not certain that male led development is harder to fix because recently people are making adjustments and they are making it more suitable for both genders. For example the astronaut suit but not all equipment are suitable for both genders yet.
On the other hand, I think that the mother hood penalty will be harder to fix because recently I have not heard if both genders are payed the same amount of money in their different workplaces. Some of the reasons that mother hood penalty happens are:
1. Men work in companies or places where they are payed well for example doctors (especially surgeons), lawyers, engineers (particularly software engineers), corporate executives, investment bankers, pilots, financial analysts, and high-level positions in the tech industry. Majority of women don't have access to this jobs.
2. Majority of women don't have access to this jobs. Some of the jobs that people consider women's jobs are nursing, teaching, secretarial roles, childcare provider, flight attendant, receptionist, hair stylist, fashion designer, social worker, and public relations specialist. This jobs considered as women task are not paid the same amount of money as the male dominated industries.
3. People have a stereotype mind. If we lived in a stereotype free world, the mother hood penalty wouldn't be in existence. So if we get rid of stereotypes, it will be easier to fix the mother hood penalty.
To conclude, if we create a stereotype free world, it will be easier to solve all the gender inequality problems because people have a different and better mindset.
What is the biggest barrier to fixing the motherhood penalty - unequal pay, job accessibility, or stereotypes?
The main problem is stereotypes. As I mentioned earlier, when you are able to tackle the gateway to a problem, it is more easier to fix the whole issue. If people still have a stereotyped mind, and you establish equal payment, and job accessibility, it won't change the fact that women might still be bullied and discriminated.
That is why I emphasize on going step by step. Many times, people skip the most important thing in solving a problem which is starting from the root. Using a tree as an example, if you want to cut down a tree and you cut the branches, it will eventually grow back but if you tackle it from the root, there isn't a possibility of growth. So I hope that if we live in a stereotype free world, some of the problems we have today won't exist.
Hello Aimee, I would say that the biggest barrier to fixing the motherhood penalty is the unequal payment they receive because they don't have a lot of money to afford their necessities. They need to afford them because they need it to survive and live a nice life with their newborn. For example they need to buy food, water, and shelter, because if they don't have these basic needs they will be living a poor life. One of my family members has experienced this. My grandma had a difficult time affording these basic needs since she didn't have a job nor her kids dad. When she told me about how she lived during those times, I was surprised that she fought real hard to continue with her life.
I don't necessarily agree. While I see your point, it is important to recognise, where the root of the problem really lies. And the root are the people and their wrong beliefs. If a society has a consensus that something is right/wrong, this is really hard to change, even if it is not up to date or even irrational. Speaking to many people, I have noticed, that many of their beliefs were based on core values taught by their parents, friends or teachers, basically their whole social environment. This means that it is nearly impossible to convince or to argument with someone with different core values as they are experiencing the world from a completely different perspective. Maybe they were taught to boycott science, etc. And of course, this is also because of a lack of critical thinking that should taught in societies. And the thing is, people will still pass this false information to their kids, who will do the same,etc. This leads to division, making it even harder to convince someone from the other party as they naturally see "the others" as an enemy. And while male led development surely is a big problem, it won't be any problem, if the society were to be enlightened about their false beliefs to stand behind gender equality.
It is only a byproduct. If you want to fight something wrong sustainably and long-term, you have to start at the roots. And the people, at least in our world, are the roots of these problems.
I agree with you when you say that the products are "systemized" for men, according to me the beaming reason for this is the presence of women at higher positions in industries. What we are noticing nowadays is that the industries are primarily lead by men, even the industries which make products for women don't have a woman to understand the needs of another one. Like there are instances when seats are not designed for women to comfortably sit on, rather its the men they are made for its all due to women not being there to help or assist or create products which are suitable for both the genders. I think at this point its not just a matter of women empowerment or even feminism rather basic human needs that we are talking about in the basic amenities required to function daily life. Concluding, I believe that awareness is not just enough for this gap to be filled rather its the acceptance, normalising and seeing women at higher positions in the industry and giving them the way to design products for them .
Hello, I agree because led development is developing is basically products that suit men more then they do women. And this is why women are stepping up for there rights. I also agree because the policies are not doing anything about it because they don’t care and it is there job to fix all the problems around the world.
In conclusion I think that you are totally right and that everyone should be treated equally and the women should get the same amount of money that the men are getting if they are doing the same job and working the same hours. Finally I think that all products should be right for men and women and not just for men. Thank you.
I agree with you because there are many male-led industries that are overrun by, of course, men. I also agree with this statement: "...male-led development is basically products that suit men more than they do women." Not many women work in certain industries and/or companies, even in jobs like construction and mining, you rarely see ANY women.
In Egypt, the "motherhood penalty" is likely the most difficult problem to fix because it is deeply rooted in workplace culture, social expectations and economic challenges. Many employers in Egypt see mothers as less committed, leading to lower pay, fewer promotions and limited career growth. Some women even struggle to find jobs after having children.
Moreover, there are not enough affordable childcare options or flexible work policies, making it harder for mothers to balance work and family life. Furthermore, in Egypt, women are often expected to be the primary caregivers, which reinforces the idea that their careers are secondary to their family responsibilities.
In Egypt, fixing the "motherhood penalty" is especially difficult because it requires changing workplace policies, improving childcare support and shifting societal attitudes. To create real gender equality, we must support working mothers and ensure they have the same career opportunities as men.
I agree because, women are mostly looked over while men are quick to jump into conclusions saying they're stronger and women are weak. It's wrong to say that women are weak when they're the ones carrying the children and have the most responsibilities at home.
I agree that women are often not given the possibilities as men which has to be changed.
In Germany there are still leftovers from older policies which for example do that it is actually more convenient in terms of taxes if only one of two married people work in a job. It’s also really likely that tasks like doing the laundry or cooking for the family are given to the women because of tradition.
I agree with you because in India we too have this problem. Because of societal norms and evils, women are mostly not "allowed" to work or study even more so if they're mothers, though the reasoning behind why that is so is a little different. Woman are often seen as primary caregivers, so when she has a child, everyone starts minimizing her efforts and try to put more and more pressure on her in a way that leads to two outcomes—she quits her job or gets completely burnt out. In this situation, it becomes easier for conservative seniors to blame her downfall on her only.
Hello Topical Talk. I believe that stereotypes are the most hardest problem to correct as male-dominated industries and male-led development are easy to correct with the right leadership. The "motherhood" penalty is a bit of a challenge as many mothers in this world struggle with that problem, but it can also be solved with good and fair leadership in a company just like the last two problem. On the other hand, stereotypes are more difficult to correct as this happens in many homes as no one can stop anyone from giving their opinion, or stereotypes can also be shown in decisions, like not letting a woman work and the man stay at home as this may be considered "wrong."
In my life, I have seen this happen twice in my grandparents house as my grandfather had told my grandmother to wash his clothes, and when she asked why as she was cooking a big feast and why he couldn't do it himself. He responded with saying that "I am tired and that is a "woman's" job. Another time was when my grandfather told my uncle to let my aunt do the housework as "women" should be doing that, not men. When I heard these remarks, I was disappointed as this happens in many communities around the world. This deserves to be corrected as this is very disappointing and can hurt families's relationships too.
Thank you for sharing your perspective and experience. What are some ways you think people can challenge stereotypes?
Hello Steff. One way that people can challenge stereotypes is to find opportunities to engage in safe discussions where you can give your opinion about how you don't like how you are being as a woman. This can help you express what you feel and give yourself more comfort getting that "burden" or words "lifted off your back."
Firstly, stereotypes can be defined as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing, e.g. all politicians are corrupt, women are overly emotional, and men are not good at expressing their feelings.
So, with this being the definition, I say that some ways that people can challenge stereotypes is by acknowledging their biases and recognizing its detrimental effects, also to focus on the individual and recognize that every person is unique, and to expose yourself to diverse perspectives to break free from the stereotypes and many more.
To be able to deal with stereotypes, people need to cut their perspective of things or people because keeping that perspective would not be good for them at all, also stereotypes can lead to prejudice, discrimination, and limited opportunities. To stop them, we can challenge stereotypes through intergroup contact theory, media literacy, education, and fostering inclusivity and good mental health too.
In conclusion, I say that the world today is broken so people have different perspectives of people no matter how they seem, people think that their idea of people is true and right, but it is not all the time correct, so people need to vanish their perspective of other people. So, we all need to put stereotypes to a stop starting from ourselves.
LET'S BEGIN TOGETHER!!!
I would say that one way people can challenge stereotype is by standing up to it, because if as a human you are been stereotyped you should be able to stand up to it and fight for your rights as human.
In my point of view, I guess that the motherhood penalty is the most hard problem to fix. Because we know that a woman works really hard to get paid a good amount of money to be able to make her children go to school or nursery or university, so when she doesn't get paid well she will have some money problems, because she will not be able to pay for everything she needs to pay to her children schools, university and nursery plus their supplies or their needs plus their house needs which is like food or anything that they need. So I guess when we see a woman working hard she should get paid a good amount of money.
To conclude, I'd like to say that a woman works hard to get paid well so we should respect how hard she is working and how tired she gets for working but she doesn't stop working just for her children and her family, she could have just said I don't care and she could just sit at home and watch TV but no she said I should care about my family and started working really hard to get paid really well and after all of this suffering, she gets not a good amount of money? I don't think it's fair. So we need to respect a woman for her hard work and her responsibility for her family.
Thank you Topical Talkers!😊☺️
I strongly agree with your opinion because being able to provide the daily needs of your children is something very important to mothers and that is why they do not mind putting in the time and effort to get the work done regardless of how they feel. Their main focus is always on the welfare of their children. This is why i agree that paying them what they deserve after work is the right and appropriate thing for their employers to do.
Paying women the wages they deserve is only the right thing to do, it can never be fair that a woman will be paid less for the same amount of work been done by men
I agree with you, lucky_fruit, because women do put a lot of effort into their work but they don’t get paid well. Mothers work hard, especially if they are doing a job when they’re pregnant, however, they get paid significantly less or even get denied the job. Many people can understand why mothers get lower wages, as they can’t do much because of an upcoming baby or care for a child, but that doesn’t make it right. In addition to this, I know that since 2020 mothers get paid a whole pound (£) less than fathers per hour. It is astonishing and no one is doing anything about because they agree the wages should be lower but it can affect their family, food, home and life. We can’t go on like this!
Thank you.
Thanks for playing to my comment, humble , elderberry
I have just one point to add to your comment, which is:
Recently, there were some jobs, only for women, and they were intelligent at these jobs like kindergarten teachers were 97% females and they still wasn't getting payed well plus that in 2023 men starting going into the faculty of kindergarten university and they started to become men in the faculty of kindergarten and they (the men when they start to have jobs) were getting payed more than the women even though the women is working even more intelligently than the man and this is an example of gender inequality in my country (Egypt🇪🇬)
Thank you, Topical talk!
I agree with you , Lucky Fruit, the motherhood penalty is a worldwide problem, which is especially in China and New Zealand. Mothers in New Zealand are often over looked , and have to work more than the men in order to support their families , as you said. Mothers in the space industry are often looked at as weak, however, they show much determination to follow their dreams when other people are against them, and a sterotype is being used.
I think the biggest problem in our country is stereotypes, and we think it’s difficult to address this issue. In our country, many people believe that women should be in caregiving roles, and men should be in working roles. In Tamil Nadu, especially in Madurai, this mentality has a great impact on the lives of girls, day by day. A common thoughts is that women will leave their families after marriage, so they don't need education. As a result, women have lesser opportunities than men, which lowers their social status. Importantly, women are not allowed to write religious texts, and they are not more in fields like science, space exploration, and the military.
men also face challenges, they generally face less tasks compared to women. In India, there is big issue of sexual violence that often goes uninvestigated. This leads to stress and depression. If we can address these issues, our country, India, will improve more. And become great.
I completely agree!Your thoughts on stereotypes in India are thought-provoking and impactful. You've highlighted the pressing issues of gender inequality, limited opportunities for women, and the need for change. Your message is a call to action for a more inclusive and equitable society. Well said!
I agree because in the US stereotypes are a big problem and once someone has this opinion or idea in their head its hard to get out. The other ones can be solved with giving women more opportunities and reconstructing buildings made for men like the stairs mentioned in London. So I feel that stereotypes are almost impossible to get out someones head because then when they see a girl they will think oh she probably likes pink.
I personally believe the most difficult problem to fix will be 'stereotypes and expectations'. The majority of the Indian Community believe in orthodox way of living, resisting philosophical change. In India, women have to face several oppressive stereotypes. Some of these are that they are that are forced to abort their babies if it is a girl and family members blame the female for the gender of their baby, though science says otherwise. Exploiting the gender detection machine to kill girl babies before their birth lead to a temporary ban on these machines. The rights of women in the present world has improved drastically since the 1800s. In those times, widows, whose husbands passed away, were honored if they tied themselves in their husbands pyre. Education was also a hard fought right, as many of the first women intellectuals learned the alphabet under the flickering lights at midnight. These brutal beliefs were slowly brought down by famous reformers of our country. Another burden of expectation from a woman and her family at the time of marriage is to provide the groom with materialistic possessions like refrigerators and motorcycles. Some famous cases have revolved around the same when the groom forcefully killed the bride after they failed to fulfill their requirements. Some countries face problems regarding woman pay as women work nearly 3.8 times more to receive the same as men do in Indonesia. Though constant women empowerment missions have brought women up with men, there still is a lot more to overcome to attain universal gender equality.
I agree! Here in Germany, the world's first country to give women the right to vote, stereotypes are still ingrained deeply into society. Though here, most of the people he accepted that women can work in men dominated industries, and are even supporting it. However, they are still expected to take care of their children and are often the one's who take "Elternzeit"(basically paid time off so you can care for your baby/child, usually around 3 years that must be split), even though it is meant for both parents. Some men get strange looks if they take Elternzeit, as it hasn't really fathomed in German society, that men can also be at home caring for the child while the woman is working. So stereotypes not only affect women, they also affect men. I have also heard stereotypes being used in arguments, with people saying that a woman should go back home and care for her children. It will be very hard to fight those stereotypes, because, as you said, people don't like to change their philosophy. But I also think people like to keep these stereotypes going as they are profiting from them. Some men do this because they fear getting kicked out of their job by a better woman.
To conclude, although the issues with stereotypes and unfair expectations are not as severe as in India, they are still getting passed on and their impact can be noticed in everyday life. With the rise of the far right wing party AfD in Germany, and their plans to stop efforts for gender equality, we need to act quick and efficient.
i would say that the stereotypes that the society fix for women is difficult to fix because the mother hood penalty can be changed, male dominated industries can be changed and also the male led development but not the expectation and stereotypes the society fixes for a women. in my country India, women are not meant to be independent. though the nation got its independence a long time ago ,the women of my country are still fighting for it. the society expects the women here to be inside the house looking after the family and not to grow. but today most of the women are independently growing in their desired ways following their passion and aim but not without criticisms from the society. every women who is following their passion and dreams independently is facing a lot of discouragement and criticism from the society for not fitting into the stereotypy it had fixed for them. why would women want to fit into the stereotypes that the society had made. it is her own life and she has every right to be independent just as how a man is. India is a developing country for sure . the roads ,the parks, the buildings, the government everything is developing. but i hope that the society would also develop to accept that women are also meant to be independent.
I would like to break all of them down
1. Stereotypes= Stereotypes are what a certain group of people, gender, age, ethnic group or religion believe in. examples are; Men do nothing but watch sports, Women are better caregivers, Men should be the breadwinners of the family etc. This might be a big issue and be the most difficult to change because it is like it is implemented in people's mind and affect how we help people speak with them, act with them, play and communicate with people. Part of the reason for these is our traditions for example men are supposed to choose the wife they want a women can not choose.
2. The "motherhood penalty"= The motherhood penalty is basically the price for becoming a mother. For example some organizations in my country do not give new born mothers more than six weeks maternity leave while others give such leaves without payment. Some of nursing mothers are deprived of their payment by organization because of the time they spend taken care of babies instead of work. (Some organizations do not permit nursing mothers to breastfeed their babies around the work environment.)
3. Male dominated industries= The automobile industry(Car mechanics) in my country is seen to be the job of only men hence women are not encouraged to practice the job because it is seen as a forbidden profession for women.
4. Male- led development= Most development are not gender inclusive for women. E.g. Car seat belt is not designed for the body structure (chest) of women also most astronaut suits I have seen are designed for the male body structure only.
Thank you.
Interesting comment, how can we change these stereotypes? Do you think we can?
We can change stereotypes but it will be very difficult, because...
Stereotypes are mostly things that have been implemented as many stereotypes are being formed by a "single stories". Single stories come from one part of a particular people's view it does not carry everyone along. This stereotypes or single stories has been around or have been here in older versions. Many of these stereotypes have become traditions in many places like in a place where I live some cultures say such stereotypes that are not true and are just built then later becomes a tradition.
Stereotypes can be changed by telling people the truth and not contributing to this we should also look at a story from both sides or be the "third party" so that we can not classify/generalize a group of people that is not true.
I personally think stereotypes are the most difficult problem to deal with because stereotypes are pretty embedded in all of these problems.
1. They are embedded in The "Motherhood Penalty" because people just ASSUME that since the women are so committed to motherhood that they cannot work they well but that is not true since there are families, like my neighbors, were the husband looks after the child and the wife works and there are some women who can equally balance work and family like my own family.
2. They are embedded in Male-Dominated Industries because well since they are dominated by men there is a ASSUMPTION that men are better in that line of work than women which is simply not true because nobody is useless some people have different skill sets may be good at a different parts of a job. Like I (a female) may not be better than my dad at chopping a tree but I am better at growing the tree. To be clear, the tree was a dead cherry tree that I grew so my dad was not just randomly chopping the tree I grew.
3. They are embedded in Male-Led Development because there is also the ASSUMPTION that women would not use that product or system and only men would use the product or system which is not true.
In conclusion, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th problem can maybe be reduced by good leadership or other things but like a sickness you can treat the symptoms of inequality but not cure the virus which is stereotypes.
You mention that stereotypes are embedded in these issues. Can you suggest some ways to shift these stereotypes about women? Do you think that younger generations can help to shift the stereotype?
Hello Frances! I suggest that people should try to focus on fixing the younger generation first because the older the generation the more stubborn people are. I mainly think stereotypes can be fixed by understanding people better. For example, if you mix together a class of boys and girls then the boys and girls can understand each other better and see the other's perspective. While this method may not work as well, I believe with this method at least some of the students will develop a good empathy for others and then teach their children about empathy and over time stereotypes slowly will fade away. Emphasis on slowly.
Shifting stereotypes about women requires a concerted effort across various sectors of society. It will take some time for people to lose their perspective. The most prominent reason for people having stereotypes against women is gender bias, gender bias significantly influences people's perspectives on women, shaping beliefs and behaviors in various contexts. Some common perspective coming from gender bias are professional limitations, stereotypical roles and, their appearance and behavior.
Being able to address these biases involves education, awareness, proactive measures to challenge stereotypes and by promoting a more equal view of women's roles in society.
Of course, I think the younger generation would be able to play an effective role in shifting stereotypes, they actually play a crucial role in shifting stereotypes and challenging existing norms. Some ways they can contribute to this is by embracing diversity, utilizing social media, education and advocacy, challenging norms ,building the community and many more.
Two main effective strategies in putting women stereotypes to and end is education and empowerment, and representation in the media.
LET'S ALL COME TOGETHER AND PUT AN END TO WOMEN STEREOTYPES.
ARE YOU READY?
In my opinion male_dominated industries is the most difficult problem to fix . Why?? because all men see that women can't work like them , they see that women are not strong enough like them and also they see that they are better in work and this is totally not true . Women are like men and we are all the same we have to be fair I mean that we can't say that men are stronger than women in work and men are only the ones who can work hard jobs this is really really not true because women are also strong and we have to respect them and actually there was an Arabic movie it's name was (Only for men) and there was in it men and women and women want to work with the men some hard jobs and it was not allowed for them they told them that this job is only for men and then they pretended to be men, and at the end of the movie they did this job and they showed men that they are women and men were shocked that they mad this hard jobs so the moral here that don't say that women can't make hard work like men and finally we are all like each other and we are all the same all the time.
I believe that all of the problems that were mentioned above are difficult to be fix, dangerous and harmful subsequently honestly, I cannot ignore anyone of them since every problem is more difficult to be fix than the other.
STEREOTYPES
If humans that have the same opinions, point of view and attitudes in the same group. They will lose the opportunity of creativity and the exchange of ideas. Think about it! What will happen when a teacher put intelligent students in a group and put the normal students in another group? The normal students will not gain any information from the special ones moreover there will be no creativity at all in the second group. This is what happens in some schools in my country.
THE MOTHERHOOD PENALTY
This significant issue has a negative effect on all women in Egypt. The unfair treatment biases that the mothers face during working leads to terrible effects in their careers. Mothers may also face reduction in pay than men in Egypt in addition they can also experience fewer promotion.
MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRIES
This problem is a little bit linked to the first problem (Stereotypes) because some women cannot work in some industries like technology and construction. These jobs are only controlled by men. This also lacks creativity because of the absence of the women. This happens in my country a lot especially in Helwan factory.
MALE-LED DEVELOPMENTS
Gyms in Egypt are opened for men for all day, but the women have only one hour a day. This is not fair.
To conclude, Egypt does its best to fix these four problems.
In my opinion the "motherhood" penalty is the hardest problem to fix. I believe this is because first there are more stay at home moms and close to all babysitters are women. Another reason for this is because most men work jobs that pay more. Similarly, decision makers of different companies may decide to pay women less due to the reasons I stated. there are many ways to solve this problem. For instance, women can boycott jobs and shopping at places where companies pay women less. Women can become entrepreneurs and pay themselves and workers fairly. For example my mom owns her own business and pays herself and me fairly based on every order. Lastly women can fix the "motherhood" penalty by working from home so you can work extra hours while also taking care of you kids
Can you suggest some ways to solve this problem?
Some ways to solve the problem of the "motherhood" penalty include making equal pay laws, hiring fairly, and give women the same job opportunities as men.
These four problems all have significance and are all difficult to fix, although some may be harder to solve than others:
Stereotypes: they trace back to over 8000 years ago (cave painting that show more men than women hunting and partaking in violence), so they are embedded deeply into society. These sexist stereotypes are not really around in my country, but there are many other countries, such as India, where gender equality is far from a real thing. It will take many years for society to abolish stereotypes, as many people still believe in them.
The "motherhood penalty": many times, when a woman with a job has children, she gets paid less for it, has more restrictions, and in some cases is deemed useless and fired. Mothers work very hard to balance their careers and kids simultaneously, and should be treated fairly, or even given extra support.
Male-dominated industries: plenty of jobs are seen as more masculine, hence, women are not well seen working in those fields, such as mechanics and construction workers. This is also happening in my school, as most teachers are female because teaching is seen as more feminine. People should be aware that being a man, woman, or anything else hardly matters, what is important is having the skills for the job.
Male-led development: because males have been incharge of product manufacturing in the past, as well as other types of industry, many of the things we use today were intended only to be useful for men (e.g. stairs in London).
Can you take one of these stereotypes and suggest what we can do to challenge one?
Thank you for replying to me, Ollie.
The stereotype I would like us to challenge is "men are the protectors and breadwiners, while women live to serve them". This has always been one of the most heard stereotypes when it comes to gender roles, as males were always seen as the ones to protect the family from harm and to put food on the table. Adding to this, women have been seen as the ones who do all the cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids...
Honestly, this is ridiculous. I know many incredibly strong women who earn money for the family and play the role of the protector; anyone can do this if they have the mindset for it. Roles should not be assigned to people based on their gender, but on their qualities. Another example is that my own father does the house chores. He does earn the money, but he assists my mother in ironing clothes, making food, and most importantly, he looks after me.
I think that before people assign someone a role for being a man, woman, or anything else, they should stop and think: what qualities does this person have? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
It's not their gender that matters, it's the person themselves.
I hope my comment helped.
I think that the hardest problem to fix currently is the stereotypes and feminism protests. Back in the day, up to around the 1900s, women were usually at home taking care of their kids, being housewives and their husbands would be the breadwinner and the man of the house. You might be asking why this is relevant but history is what made today. Overtime, more and more women stood up for their rights and equality and they got their right to vote and more. The past where men worked and women stayed at home (most of the time) let men dominate many industries. This is why gender inequality and stereotypes is one of the hardest problems to solve because of the history behind it.
How do you think we can work towards changing these stereotypes?
Male dominated industries pose the highest threat towards women in a myriad of ways,firstly by often facing gender discrimination and biases that hinder career growth.In the tech sector for example women's contributions are consistently undervalued and put down some even experiencing heavy workloads that can lead to burnouts and mental health issues.Creating more inclusive workplaces can create ripple effects and lead to helping other causes listed like male led development.For example imagine an inclusive workplace with women and men together in a construction company trying to make stairs more accessible for all people since this workspace is inclusive and courteous of others people will in turn will support making the design more accessible for both genders and if you imagine that effect world wide across many sectors and places this in turn kills two birds with one stone.
Hello topical talkers,
I think that stereotypes are the hardest to fix because all generations growing were known that they are coming by colors gender reveals which makes it easy to differentiate them which is wrong as some girls never liked pink or purple.
In my opinion i believe that the motherhood penalty is the most difficult problem to fix.I believe this because even if in the future women have more equality and male dominated industries now have more women ,most people may believe that a mothers sole purpose is to take care of said child. Mothers sacrifice almost everything for being a mother.Health, time ,rights and even hygiene.Yet people believe they should give up all their dreams to take care of a kid and while most mother do this it is not necessary in all mothers it is a respectable decision, however if a mother wishes to get a job they should be able to not be belittled for wanting to follow their heart.
I disagree, because laws can be put in place requiring all people to be paid equally for the work they do. For example, a government could put a law into place which says all companies must pay all employees the same if they complete the same duties or have the same experience. While, things like male dominated industries or stereotypes can't be changed by simply putting a law into place, as they are woven into society itself.
In my opinion, I highly believe that stereotyping and expectations is that hardest one of those things to fix immediately or at all. This is because you can’t change how people think, or how they see you when you are within a situation that you can’t change. Society is built in these stereotypes that are seen above, ‘Girls liking pink and dresses.’ and ‘Boys liking blue and sports’ Not all these stereotypes are true but it is the hardest to change since these stereotypes have been used for years. These stereotypes are what makes our society whole but it is what also tears our society apart.
Are you sure you can't change what people think? Could you suggest some ways that we can overcome these stereotypes? Or do you think it is impossible to overcome?
I believe all sections will be a struggle to fix in society today, so I will touch on most of these matters that I find to be the most difficult to change. Many individuals around the world are subject to immense gender equality pertaining to any kind of activities the world may have to offer.
For example, many men and women may have a set role people believe they play, such as the man fulfilling the role of being very strength or power-based, considering the relation between men and their assigned characteristics or attributes based on their gender. A common stereotype in my country is that men, such as those who choose to enroll in the Army, Navy, or Marines, cannot "cry" or show any kind of emotion or affection, signaling them as being a weak figure in today's world. The standard of most men is to be considered "masculine", most individuals even relating these kinds of men to aggression and competitiveness.
Another challenge that individuals may face, with the base being gender inequality, is women being subject to the "motherhood penalty", in which women who have given birth or have a young child at home are seen as though they are not capable in completing many tasks, especially those regarding work. Due to this penalty, many superior figures correlated with the workforce are treated and paid unfairly. This circumstance is also extremely agreed upon in the United States, causing many women to endure almost 80% of the gender pay gap, this gap especially widening when women are predicted to have children.
In my opinion,Stereotypes are like a stubborn stain that's hard to get rid of. They're deeply rooted in our cultures and societies, and have been passed down through generations. Even the media we consume can reinforce these stereotypes, making it tough to break free from them. To truly overcome stereotypes, we need to be willing to learn, grow, and challenge our own biases. It's not an easy task, but it's one that's essential for creating a more inclusive and equal world.
I believe stereotypes are the hardest problems to fix. Stereotypes affect a widespread group of individuals. I believe problems that are difficult to fix are issues that can and do affect more than one group of people. And stereotypes achieve that. They're so engraved in society and people's mindset that it will take many years to destroy and disintegrate. Also, they are such a problem because most stereotypes cause mental harm. Stereotypes make people believe that they are supposed to act a certain way. On the other hand, it causes lifelong stress to express to people that they do not represent the negative stereotype. It will take many strong headed and determined people and organizations to change society's view on groups of people.
Personally, I believe that dealing with male-dominated industries is going to be the hardest problem to fix. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( in the U.S.), over 65% of industries are primarily led and worked on by men. Meaning that men not only have the highest dominance job wise, but they also have more opportunities because of male biased in certain jobs such as construction. However, seeing that so much of the global economy and development is led by men, changing the current status of who is able to work for a certain job has become extremely difficult, especially considering that as this problem goes on, it is growing fast. I believe that the reason that some men deem woman unfit for a certain job is because they think that they have their own job as a housewife or a mother, and only limited to that. I believe that they should make the choices that think are best for themselves, and be able to support their values while doing so. Realizing that not only one gender can lead an entire industry is key to establishing gender equality, and is one of the main concerns when trying to balance the equivalence of men and women.
I think that gender stereotypes is the most difficult problem to solve. In our daily lives many things are stereotyped such as the colors girls are supposed to wear (pink for girls, blue for boys). Pink for girls as it evokes feminine gender roles and blue for boys as it is "vigorous" and "perfect" for boys. Why must pink have to depict feminine nature and blue "perfect" for boys? Stereotypes are also present within many households. In some households the female children are expected to clean after their siblings (brothers especially) to "prepare" them for their household. Why should she be the only one preparing and her brother cant? That is one way stereotypes are present in households. Another would be how Mothers are expected to take care of the child alone while the father sits around (at this point she is a single mother). For this to be fixed, The stereotypes regarding genders should be taken away, women can't be expected to follow certain guidelines that men don't have too. (Fun fact!- In the Victorian Era women were to mourn over the death of their husband for up to 2 years, while men only mourned for up to 6 months and often encouraged to remarry. Funny isn't it.)
I think the hardest problem to fix is the "motherhood penalty" because it affects so many women and makes life really tough for moms at work. When women become moms, people sometimes think they won’t work as hard or care about their jobs as much, even though they can be just as good or better at work. For example, in the U.S., studies show that moms are less likely to get hired or promoted compared to women without kids. That’s unfair because being a mom is a full-time job too!
In some places like Japan, women get treated badly just for having children. They might not get the same chances at work as men, and some moms even have to quit their jobs because of the extra pressure. But in other countries like Sweden, they try to help by giving paid leave and childcare support so moms can work and take care of their kids at the same time.
Changing this is hard because it’s not just about money or promotions, it’s about how people see moms. If we want to fix this, everyone needs to understand that moms can do both: raise kids and have a career. It’s all about respect and fairness.
Great points modest_wildcat - what are some ways that societies can support women to excel in their career and have children?
You know, it's like women are juggling flaming swords and balancing on a tightrope at the same time. Trying to excel in their careers and raise children feels like asking someone to fly to the moon while riding a tricycle. It’s hard, and society doesn’t always make it easier. But there are ways to support them, like giving them more flexible work hours or providing affordable childcare. It’s like giving someone a ladder to climb a mountain instead of expecting them to jump up it. If women can have the space to work around their personal lives, they’ll soar higher than a rocket ship.
Companies can help too, by offering paid maternity leave, so moms don’t have to pick between career dreams and baby dreams. It’s like having a soft cushion under them while they try to land a tricky flip. And, let’s not forget about dads! When society gives fathers the chance to take paternity leave, it’s like building a playground where both parents can swing together.
Making sure women have equal opportunities and pay for the same work is crucial. It’s like giving everyone the same shiny, golden ticket to success, no matter what gender they are. Without these changes, women are forced to play a game with rules stacked against them.
So, do you think it’s possible to make these big changes happen in the world? How can we all help make it easier for women to do everything they dream of?
I would argue that stereotypes are the most difficult problem to fix. Stereotypes have existed for centuries, even in the present day stereotypes are still extremely prominant in society. Stereotypes causes limiting assumptions on groups of people, for example, it is a common stereotype that younger generations often have a lazy work ethic. This assigns a large quantity of people with roles that are not necessarily accurate to their true self, harming their reputations.
Stereoypes are extremely widespread and effect everybody. In fact, stereotypes are often the motive for prejudice behavior, as people will assume (for instance) that an ethic minority are associated with a certain trait, which will cause others perpetrate prejudice and unjust behavior against them. This highlights how stereotypes are the most difficult problem to fix, as stereotypes (which have existed for generations) still continue to persist today, harming and limiting the reputations of many, and are often the motive for prejudice and unjust behavior.
In my opinion, stereotypes and expectations are incredibly hard to fix as there will always be people who think differently even if it is a highly insulting and incorrect way to think. Also, stereotypes against women have been around for such a long time through history so, many people will just believe it is the correct way to go about things. However, I also believe that male-dominated workplaces are also a very difficult thing to change because throughout history men were typically seen as the 'strong providers' so people still think this way even though we know that now women are also just as incredible and immensely capable of producing fantastic work and being beneficial staff in a place of work.
In my opinion, male dominated industries is the hardest problem to overcome. Despite the fact in recent years women have been able to start businesses and become successful, this still hasn't been done without harsh criticism from men. This is because men have been seen as smarter, stronger and more competent than women, but that's only because women haven't had the chance to show that they're more than mothers, cooks and cleaners. Due to the deep rooted stereotype that women are meant to have children and get married off, nobody gives women a chance to become something, and to do something with their lives. This means that when a woman tries to work in 'male dominated fields', she's laughed at and ridiculed in her job. This means that men are continuing to dominate certain jobs, whilst women are made to feel like nothing but housewives.
A very clear and compelling argument. What do you think are some of the solutions?
I believe that stereotyping will be the most difficult problem to fix because it is already embedded in many other issues, such as the problems already stated above. The "motherhood penalty", for instance, is rooted very deeply in old stereotypes such as women being the caretakers of the family, as opposed to the men being the breadwinners. Male-dominated industries and male-led development also lean heavily into this stereotype. And if we're not talking about the examples already stated, there are plenty to choose from.
Pink is a girl's colour; blue is for boys
Girls like cooking; boys like sports
Even kids' toys are divided into what is meant for boys and what is meant for girls.
We cannot fix the other issues without first fixing this one.
I think that stereotypes are the hardest problem to fix. This is because we unconsciously judge people before we learn about them. This is our unconscious bias which makes us believe that for example men are stronger than women. This makes people believe that men shouldn't be allowed to cry however a lot of men do cry but are ashamed of it. On the other hand, some people believe woman are very hormonal which makes them weaker. This is not the case. Some women are much stronger then men, not just physically but also mentally. This causes society to be unjust and causes conflict.
In my opinion, I think stereotypes and expectations are the most difficult problem to fix, especially in this day and age where our first impressions on people are usually based on pre-made assumptions. For example, that all boys are interested sport and all girls like makeup and dresses. I know first hand that a lot of these aren't true, they've just been around for so long that people haven't changed their way of viewing others. Another stereotype is that men are stronger than women and are supposed to do the hard labour while women do the house chores. Although it is biologically proven that men are stronger, some women are perfectly capable of doing jobs that require a lot of strength for example working in the military. Equally, men can help around the house and cook.
In conclusion, stereotypes lead the way people view others and most of them are untrue, this is a problem and we need it to stop, we cannot continue to judge other based on unjust biases.
I believe stereotypes and expectations is the most difficult issue to counter. A stereotype is an opinion on how a group of people should act or behave, such as "Pink is a girls colour" or "Construction is a men's job". But as we progress in this day and age it has proven to not be true, women now have taken more political roles across the globe as well as jobs in construction and engineering which is thought widely to be a men's job and men have taken more roles in what was thought to be feminine careers like hairdressing, fashion designers and many more. Although, these diversions from expectations have not been addressed without judgement, it would be near impossible to change others opinions especially because they are opinions that have been around for centuries. However that doesn't mean we can not try, because to live in a world where something as simple as a colour is given a gender is a world where we can not progress if we do not welcome even the most miniscule changes.
As a British citizen with a Pakistani background, I believe the hardest problem may be the stereotypes directed towards women. I believe there was and still may be is the typical belief within many countries like my own that "women shouldn't work" as people believe they will marry and not need to work as they will stay at home. This is a major issue as many women around the world who aspire to become something and make a change don't get to which is extremely unfair and unjust. I believe people should do what they believe is right and shouldn't be restricted simply based on sex which is out of their control. Hopefully in the future there will be a difference for women across the globe and they will have the same opportunities in many fields such as work. The history of stereotypes is not a new belief but in fact dates back to many centuries ago and is rooted within generations from the past hence it is one of the hardest problem to fix.
Hello everyone 👋
I think the hardest problem of them all is stereotypes and expectations. As we cannot change what others think. We think everyone is the same but they are not. Nobody knows "girls like pink" from the starting but eventually get to know it from their surroundings. I think media plays the strongest role in this problem. There are many movies or tv channels that implements stereotype for people to believe. Like- blonde people are dumb, boys don't cry, mothers are caretakers, girls like pink etc. Movies like barbie ,sandlot ,legally blonde, princess diaries etc. are some movies I have watched that show these stereotypes. As we know everyone learns from their surroundings, we tend to believe these stereotypes easily. Let me take another example of my own country, during the floats of independence or republic days. Tribals are often shown dancing whereas other states or communities are depicted by their literature and culture. Women are considered as inferior with less skills etc. a women's talent in sports is mostly overlooked etc. These stop women from developing. If we just consider everyone unique and do not compare them with others this problem can be ended. But this to is too difficult. If not, we humans will only face difficulty in understanding any individual. Anyone's true personality, will never come out.
Thank you !
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Do you think the media is gradually shifting away from these stereotypes?
Can you think of any examples of films which challenge these stereotypes?
Here in my country, Egypt, we are facing gender inequality at high levels but the most difficult one to fix is stereotypes because people here in Egypt just say their idea then do it so think about it as a rock. Can we remove a rock or even reshape it? Of course, no, so this is stereotypes in Egypt. Even children, I saw a child in a store and saying that I want pink clothes not blue so that means that this is a horrible problem and must be fixed as fast as possible to prevent this to reach to children's minds. In addition to this, motherhood penalty, male-dominated industries, male-led development are all huge problems but they can be solved just over time and by the government. However, stereotypes cannot be fixed by time or even by the government because people will remain believing that pink is for girls and blue is for boys because these are like rules in their mind. I would like to share some solutions to stop stereotyping:
- Learning to change our mind
- If anyone saw someone stereotyping, advise him or her
In conclusion, I chose stereotypes because it is the most difficult problem to fix and because people in my country will never change their opinion about that. We can spread awareness to stop doing that to have a fair and a good country.
According my point of view, I think, in my country gender stereotypes are an great issue which is always on fire. Womens are suffering a lot on the daily basis due to discrimination, gender equality and mainly gender stereotypes. Many womens in our country, is knowledged with outstanding skills, but due to families pressure, they are married and treated as similar to maids, their knowledge and skills are being completely wasted. And in the legislative assembly of our country, 67% of seats are reserved for men, and only 33% of seats is reserved for women,since, there is a great difference between the men and women, and from this we can understand about discrimination and gender inequality. The society Will encourage men to study, but mostly discourage women by telling them to stop their studies and to marry. They will support for the men's sport activities,but restricting more women
to destroy and forget their talents in sports and to restrict them in 4 walls , from this, most of the women are in this hell and feeling depressed with loneliness and anxiety. They are mentally, so unwell. according to me, womens are not to wash vessels, resticted in 4 walls, they are to prove with their skills and to stand independently, and there stands the great, women empowerment. Let us all encourage women to empower...
Thanks for sharing your view on your countries challenges. Do you think change is more likely to come from politicians or individuals such as sports influencers/business leaders taking action?
I know there are great examples of female sports athletes defying the 'norm' and being trailblazers of their sport.
Thank you for the question!
According to my perspective, I think political people can bring a large impact. Government is to lead people to travel in a correct path, for this the politicians are very important. The political can create awareness about "women empowerment",to more people in a large scale. From this, more people will get convinced, and they will empower women. Also, sports influencers can empower women by being a great inspiration and role model for them, from which they get motivated and succeed in life. for example, the first women to go. to space, Valentina Tereshkova. On the other side, business leaders can provide more job opportunities to encourage them and certify the skills of a women...
Fixing gender inequality is hard, but stereotypes (in my opinion) might be the toughest problem.
Stereotypes are basically generalized ideas about people based on gender. For example, thinking all girls like pink and cooking or that all boys like blue and sports. These ideas start young and shape what people believe they can do. They push boys and girls into certain roles, stopping women from entering jobs like construction or technology.
Stereotypes are everywhere. A study found that movies with mostly female characters got 149% more negative and 44% more sexist comments than those with mostly men. This shows how awful the problem is.
To stop this, we need:
- Schools to teach that boys and girls can do any job
- Movies and TV shows should show women in strong and vast roles
- New rules in workplaces like supporting women in all fields
In Indonesia, many people still believe that women should stay home while men work. This stops women from going to university or getting jobs. Changing these ideas is the key to gender equality.
Other problems like the motherhood penalty or male-dominated industries come from stereotypes. So, if we fix stereotypes, we are fixing many other issues too.
I think stereotypes might be the most difficult problem to fix? Why because, its difficult to convince people about a particular idea or opinion especially when everyone talks about it for instance the one done in my country in the past, that says women aren't allowed to go to school but rather stay at home and cook. With this stereotype being said to the public, it caused the country for women, the lack of opportunity to go to school. so before it was stopped a lot of convincing was done just to prove the fact that everyone has to go to school. So from my own perspective I would say that stereotypes is a very difficult problem to fix due to the fact they have been living with it over years. Thanks.
Have you tried challenging a stereotype before? What advice would you give to someone attempting to challenge a stereotype?
Yes I have, tried to challenge a stereotype which actually later changed, my own practically instance is the one which I did in my school. Where by I changed a stereotype that says "girls can not play soccer" this stereotype actually got me thinking why should girls not be allowed to play soccer which actually state some few point why girls do not do games . But when I challenged the stereotype I changed a lot of things, now the girls can now have the opportunity to play soccer and other physical related games in school.
The advice I would give to those individuals that are attempting to challenge any stereotype is that, He or She should have that speaking skill and confidence to speak against or for a particular stereotype. Thanks.
I will say that it is stereotype that may be difficult to fix. This is because in my country, men think that some things are just suitable for women which is not true and if we say that we want to fix it, it is going to take a long time before people will agree that it is not fair that women don't get to go to work sometimes. Do you know that when ladies give birth, they have to stay home to take care of their child and most of the time they rely on their husband just to get things for the house? Sometimes, the husbands get angry and don't even buy the things again that is why i think that it is going to be difficult when fixing stereotypes.
I think that stereotypes are the hardest problem to fix, as they are deeply rooted in the way many generations have been taught to think, one way or another. It is not easy to change the mindset of millions of people who hold these beliefs.
I think the motherhood penalty is an important problem, but it can be easily and quickly solved by laws or raising awareness. Once people understand the issue, change can happen quickly.
Male-dominated industries used to be a bigger problem. Back in the 1900s, most women, if not all , stayed at home to take care of children and didn't have a chance to work. However, now I think that the problem is mostly solved as most women today are having their own jobs.
Male-led development is also being solved. Now companies, make products for both men women, as well as products that work for both. This is big improvement, so the problem is mostly solved.
To conclude, stereotypes are the hardest problem to solve and it is all our responsibility to build a new, more equal world for all genders.
I think that male dominated industries will be more difficult to fix. This is because, it may take more time for people, especially the men, to understand that jobs are for everybody and not just for men alone. People must come to an understanding that anyone that is skilled and can handle the job well should be allowed to handle it, irrespective of their gender. The notion or mindset that only men should be allowed in certain industries, is just a thing of the mind, which needs to be addressed, by creating awareness and organizing talks, training and orientations where women's skills are encouraged.
I think stereotypes and expectations are the hardest problems to solve as they are some false assumptions that most people think that it is an obligation for everyone to follow. It is very hard to find a way to stop people from trying to control what other people do, as these stereotypes have been existing ages ago, so some people consider them as traditional rules that others must follow.
I think that stereotypes are one of the main factors that some people cannot do what they want and like , which is against the freedom one needs.
Some examples of stereotypical images that some people from the west think about the middle east, my region, is the money and wealth that some of them think us Arabs contain. It is true that many of us are rich, but that does not mean that we are the richest people , or that we have fortunes. Another example of stereotypes related to gender, are the colors that are classified into two groups, warm and pink colors are for girls and dark and blue colors are for boys; I have personally been deeply effected by this stereotype especially when I was young , but when I grew to find out that these stereotypes were just thoughts that most people want us to get convinced of, I knew that these thoughts should be stopped.
These were some experiences I wanted to share that prove that stereotypes are hard problems that have been growing through the years , which makes them difficult to be stopped.
I believe that gender stereotypes are major issues because:
In my dad's company women's I've seen that women's are often take responsibilities on handling safer, less physical demanding roles instead of high risk jobs.
Due to gender stereotypes, women are seen less suited for technical or physical demanding jobs .
This could be a barrier for women's career growth .
It's important that women should be suitable for all sorts of work and even in male dominated jobs like constructions and riskier roles in automobile companies.
We should encourage and motivate women's for working in all sort
of jobs .
For example
Automobile companies like BMW and ford are hiring more women for engineering and leadership positions.
Thank you.
How do you think
I think that encouraging women to participate in various activities and work opportunities will definitely improve their career growth. It will help them break out of their shell and shine by showcasing their talents and capabilities.
I think stereotypes are the most difficult issue to solve now. I believe this to be the case because stereotypes are opinions that are hard to change as it has been molded and developed over time, starting from childhood, and get passed down each generation. Additionally, stereotypes have shaped society's idea of male and female, disregarding non-binary gender. For example, the saying "women belong in the kitchen" or the idea that men are the breadwinners, or even the simple idea that pink is a feminine color or blue is a masculine color.
In my opinion stereotypes are one of the biggest problems in the world. Lets look at an example of stereotyping: there are many sports like football for example that women always get stereotyped and things said like 'you are a girl you can not play.' Stereotyping of women had a massive spring in the 60's when the space industry came and white men were not having it they thought since some people were women and black as well does not give them a spot in the space agency (NASA) and since someone is black that they are not intellectual enough to get a spot. However it still goes on even in the year of 2025. Here is a scenario for this , there are boys playing football and a girl wants to join in and they do not let her play and she gets numerous stereotypes like 'girls have cooties' and this is a massive insult and we should respect everyone either if they are a boy or a girl or identify as different genders they deserve respect. As well not just girls like cooking boys do as well , there are people like Gordon Ramsey or Nick Dijiovanni who like cooking. Male led development links to this since the London stairs which are meant to be fit for only the length of men's legs and that is mass stereotyping and this phrase portrays that women are weak and men are very strong. This problem also starts at a very young age like boys are blue and girls can only like pink and if it is stuck in the childrens head at a young age this will be a used everyday which is not very good and kind if you want to be a respectful person in the future. Lets focus to say no to Stereotyping.
In my opinion it is difficult to put all of these issues in a certain category when I believe all of the problems listed are major Issues that all need to be solved and hold the same weight as the others. For example me coming in from an unbiased perspective i'd say all of these are unfair and carry the same value on how or what it can affect. I overall had to make one decision and I chose stereotypes and a viewer's expectations as the most major problem even though I truly believe that these issues should be taken into serious matters. There are stereotypes everywhere even minor stereotypes,There may have been a point in your life that you've made a stereotype based on assumption or what you've heard like "Pink is for girls only" or "Blue is for boys only" , this may be a minor problem to most but it is a huge issue considering how far the stereotype extent can go this is not good for any community and shouldn't be as normalized as it is today and reinforced as it is.
"The Motherhood Penalty" is also not a light matter as how it can affect a whole household over a petty choice, the motherhood penalty is unfair and adds on to gender inequality due to the fact it's only happening to mothers with children and without a income this would harm many hard working mothers and maybe put fear into them as for their kids. This falls under as 2nd if I had to rank them accordingly.
In conclusion it's hard to put a thought on how major these issues are because I believe they all are worth the same value because either way these issues affect many communities in any case.
I think that stereotypes is a hard and challenging problem because, it creates unfair judgement and discrimination among people. People always treat others unfairly because of their race, gender, religion differently which is not supposed to be. Stereotypes can be positive, negative or neutral, but they often lead to prejudice and discrimination because they encourage people to judge others based on assumption rather than individual qualities.
Hi,
I wanted to say that I agree with your statement and that I also believe that stereotypes create judgment that can without a doubt make a group of people seem bad or worse than others. Because of stereotypes, people judge someone without even knowing them and this like too said could be because of religion, race, or gender. This unfortunately leads to unfair treatment and can affect someones life like unfair payment even if the person is doing more work than other workers just based of gender.
I agree with you. In Nigeria stereotype is the most challenging problem and I believe it is based on gender, and ethnic group. Nigerians have the mentality that women are weaker vessels and they can't do some jobs which has greatly affected the development of the country. Many ethnic groups in Nigeria believe that a woman work is in the kitchen while men go to work but there been a question on my mind what if women are allowed to do the same work men are allowed to do won't the country be a better place and won't there be growth and development in the country?
I think that male development in the clothing industries might be the most difficult problem to fix. When it comes to buying products women's shopping experiences might be a little frustrating. Let's say a woman tries to buy something on a website not knowing that that website is only for men, she might order something in her size but then when it comes she wasted her money because it is to big because men tend to be larger than women, and industries cater to that. Male development can turn shopping into a stressful experience for women.
In my opinion stereotypes are difficult to deal with or change because people assume girls/women are meant to be in the kitchen but it is not right. People don't think that women are capable but they are, the reason why women are not doing what they want to do is because of stigmatization and self- determination, so when someone criticize or judge a woman about what she is doing this will discourage her ambition.
Thank you!!!
You say people assume girls/women are meant to be in the kitchen - can you give me some evidence of this?
Traditionally, in Africa women are only seen fit to take care of the home and not anything else. They are not seen fit to engage in any decision talk less of thinking about pursuing a career. Not only Africa but in other parts of the world women are underrated in many aspects, an example of this is the story of a popular woman in history, Malala Yousafzai.
Another thing to point out about the male-led-development is how the 2024 presidential candidates are spoken about and named. When most people speak about the candidates we refer to Donald Trump as Trump a when you refer to someone by their last name its often used to show respect and professionalism towards the person. But when you refer to Kamala Harris people do not use her last name they use her first name a more secular reference to someone and how people averagely talk to each other. This difference between their name shows how much women are undermined in politics and subjected to gender discrimination.
In my opinion, stereotyping is the toughest problem to solve. Stereotyping is making assumptions about someone based on their gender, culture, race, or age. Stereotyping would be the most demanding problem because it is the point of view of not just one, but several people. For example, these are the stereotypes that men and women face:
Men:
1. Men are expected to have a job and money
2. Men are assumed to play video games
3. Men are assumed to be lazy or "disgusting"
Women:
1. Women are assumed to be able to cook and clean
2. Women are expected to wear makeup
3. Women are assumed to enjoy pink, dancing, singing, etc.
In addition, stereotyping has created expectations and assumptions for everyone based on their race, age, gender, or culture. For example, because of the stereotyping, women and men are not able to enjoy and express themselves because there are now "feminine" and "masculine" colors, interests, and activities which are reinforced through social media, school and traditions. In addition, to expand on the traditions part, families have a variety of thoughts, they pass down their traditions and stereotypes throughout generation and generation which brings a mindset that there are such things that are too "feminine" and "masculine".
In my opinion, stereotypes are the most difficult problem to fix because, people will not stop stereotyping since it is the most common thought that comes to mind when think when women, men, ethnicity , or anything that comes to mind. People will often compare cooking with women and cars with men; this is one of the most common stereotypes with both genders. This is not the case since women can also like cars and vice versa. The stereotyping will continue on for generations since parents from other generations will tell kids about the common stereotypes about women, men, boys, girls, etc. This is a major problem in every part of the world since boys can like pink, girls can like blue, men can like cooking, and women can like sports. Even if the problem is fixed, the stereotypes will still linger in all of our minds since that is what we have been told as children. Meaning, stereotyping towards genders, ethnicity and religion will be the most difficult problem to fix in the world.
I believe that stereotypes will be the hardest to fix. Stereotypes, as shown in the example, are things that we learn through our culture at a young age. These stereotypes have been developed over long periods of time as our cultures have developed, and thus make them very difficult to change. It not only may be difficult due to the idea going against many years of your culture, but also because oftentimes, an idea that you have not grown up with with is very difficult to change.
A stereotype that is still very prevalent within the United States today is that women should not attend, or may not excel, in STEM fields. This precedent is completely false, and has been proven wrong by many women such as Marie Curie and Ada Lovelace -- they have completely excelled in their fields, yet are cast aside many times due to their gender. It will be impossible to change the minds of everyone who has grown up with this idea, as it is simply something they have learned while they were still toddlers. However, it can still be changed with a few people at a time.
In my opinion, stereotypes are the hardest problem to fix, especially long standing ones. Almost all kinds of people are stereotyped, not just men and women. As a boy, I don't like sports and black is my favourite colour. Another stereotype I don't like is how stay-at-home dads are seen as something strange to be. Some also assume that stay-at-home dads are lazy and don't do any work. My father is a stay-at-home dad, and he also works at home, so he provides for my family. It generally shouldn't matter which parent takes care of child, as long they are taken care of.
Hello!!
I voted that the most difficult problem to fix is The "Motherhood Penalty" but I also think that stereotypes are also going to be vey difficult to resolve. The reason that I first picked the Motherhood Penalty was because people have been fighting for women to be payed the same as men but there has unfortunately been very little progress, and because it is true that some women have to take care of their children, unfortunately jobs think that because of this they should not be payed more or get promotions which is completely wrong. Furthermore, I think that stereotypes are going to be a bug issue to fix because for the longest time there have been so many stereotypes that lower the image of women and that a attempt to make them seem less significant compared to men. And what sucks is that these stereotypes are not true at all, people say that women cant do a mans job yet on countless occasions I see women standing up for problems just as much as men do. For example, Greta Thunberg who is an environmental activist, has shined a light on the massive issue that climate change is. Another women who has stood up for a big problem is Malala Yousafzai who has fought for girls education in Pakistan which is such a big issue. These stereotypes true and give this false image that Women are lesser than men when in reality Women do just as much and even more than men and unfortunately this sometimes goes unseen.
I think stereotype is the most difficult one to fix because it is an assumption that is wrongly made that can affect the lives of people which will make most female genders live in poverty and that will be so bad. Stereotypes can make a lot of negative impact on most lives, which is very wrong so I think that stereotypes is one of the hardest or difficult to fix. I have been wondering what the world would look like if there was no stereotypes and how people will be living, I have realized that if there was no stereotype, the world would have made more progress because people won't be judged wrongly and won't be treated unfairly therefore enabling them to use their talent without holding back and won't waste it, there will be lot of accomplishment. Another reason I say so is because, when you want to change the mindset of people it will take a lot of time and effort for it to be accomplished and done, this is why I say stereotypes is the most difficult to be fixed.
Thank You!!!
Hello! I think that you have provided many good and valid reasons as to why stereotypes would be the hardest to fix. You mentioned that changing the mindset of people would take a long time - do you think that if children are taught and made aware more of stereotypes from a very young age, it might help in tackle the issue at hand?
in my opnion I feel like the most difficult problem is stereotype this is because this is a bias thought about a particular group of people and most times this opnions are passed down to the through generations,this thought usually affect the group of being considered taking for instance when it comes to employment , if it is said that people living in a particular area are considered crooks or thief then a lets say a young adult who wants to start his life goes for a job and in his document it show he or she lives in this area in question because of the stereotype the young adult would be seen as a thief because i mean they spend their formative years there so they probably experience thieves something of that sort ,i have personally witnessed such scenarios in my local community there is this particular area where i reside people from that region are considered cunning so i have a friend from that area she tells me she finds it hard to relate with people because of what they think of the place she is from. this is a clear sight of what stereotype does because it already an ideology that is in people and we cant just change peoples thought about issues its what they feel and see as right thats basically changing their mindset and it is not easy to convince people from what they already believe especially if it is a large group.
in my opinion stereotyping is the most difficult problem to solve. in my country everyone has this mentality that women are not meant to work and be leaders which makes the employment rate of women very low. and makes women lack independence and self confidence which makes them lack experience in literally everything. And this would be very difficult to change because it has been going on for a very long time, and it's deeply rooted in culture and traditions.
Before I proceed I will like everyone on this hub to understand the concept of everything:
Gender inequality is a major problem in most countries is defined as the condition in which access to rights, resources, and opportunities is unequally distributed between genders both male an female.
Stereotypes is the social grouping of people in the society based on occupation, age, colour, class which might be fair to others and unfair to others or a particular group of people.
Motherhood penalty is the economic disadvantages given to mothers it can include Lower pay or salary, The problem faced here is that mothers who even needs the money more are paid lesser than childless women .
I choose motherhood penalty as the most difficult problem to fix because it is common in most offices for long and there is no particular problem that can solve it. It is hard to change something that almost everybody in the whole world is common with
I simply believe that motherhood penalty is the most difficult problem to fix because it is hard to change the mindset of people . Some male genders think that women don't need jobs they believe that they only need to cook and take care of their children. For me this is not true at all because women can do much more than just cooking and taking care of children, As a matter of fact it is also the job of the man to cook and take care of children. It should be a joint effort to raise a family not the job of one gender.
Lets talk about wages, even after working as much as men in most cases in some companies. the women end up getting paid less than the men for the same amount of work. This is wrong and i believe we should all put in our effort to stop gender inequality and promote gender equality
THANK YOU
Hi! I think that you have made some interesting points as to how both motherhood penalty and gender inequality are unfair on women. What do you think are some simple steps that we can take to help tackle these issues?
In my opinion, the problem that might be the most difficult to fix is stereotype. I say so because;
. Stereotypes are those features that are attributed to people, classifying them into groups eg all girls liking the color pink and cooking and all boys liking the color blue and sports. It starts from childbirth and is being passed down from generation to generation changing people's mindset and making them think and act in a particular pattern and order. It is really having a strong effect on the mind as it is hard wired in the brain and whatever the brain thinks, it begins to work together with it. It might really take a long time to change the perception people have as it is now seen as a tradition of what is right.
In conclusion, stereotype is a complex issue that is really affecting people , community and society at large and I believe it is not impossible to be fixed, we could create great awareness in the society , schools working to achieve stereotype being fixed continuously with resilience.
Gender stereotypes are something that, as a society, we can never fully eliminate. They have been a big part of our history and have been passed down through generations. The major problem with people, whether they are at a disadvantage or not, is that they'd still be enforcing these gender stereotypes in some way, shape, or form. That's what they have always been taught by everyone around them. Society is constantly conforming to gender stereotypes. It has essentially become the norm.
As you mentioned, there are many examples of gender inequality within society. How could we challenge the idea that these inequalities should continue to be accepted as the norm?
I believe the 'mother-hood penalty' and male dominated industries are the biggest issues, and most likely the hardest to fix. Using my own mother as an example, who not only is currently pregnant, but who works in a male-dominated industry, she rants to me constantly about the hardships. and how her pay may worsen when shes on maternity leave. also, the steryotypes of women in certain work-places have seemed to almost never change, so its incredibly difficult for things to change, when they've been the same for so long.
In my opinion the motherhood-penalty is the most difficult problem to fix. When a woman becomes a mother they gain another big set of responsibilities. Which makes it very hard to get a job whilst taking care of their child. Forms of this in my country are when women are not able to keep up with their job and are denied raises. For example if they have to provide for their child and perhaps miss a day because of it. This results in some mothers losing their do to them having to spend time with their children. To conclude I think this problem is the hardest to fix.
How can employers support mothers in the workplace? Should fathers take on more responsibility to help?
Yes, employers can support mothers by being completely unbiased while interviewing them, as this will give them a fair chance at getting the job; also Yes the father can take on more responsibility to help with taking care of the child. However, the father may have a job as well which may lead to fathers having to take more time off work. In conclusion, both mother and father should each take equal responsibility to take care of the child.
gender inequality, is it hard to solve or easy to solve. I believe will be is hard to fix\solve the mess it has created but with enough hard work and dedication from both the people and the government we can solve it once and for all. The reason I think it will be hard to solve\fix is because it isn't one singular thing it is many things which include: male-led development, the motherhood penalty, male-dominated industries and stereotypes and expectations all of those are a part of gender inequality.
although, gender inequality is hard to solve, what is the part of gender inequality (in this case male-led development, the motherhood penalty, male-dominated industries and stereotypes and expectations) that is the hardest to solve. If I had to pick one, it would be male-led development. the reason I chose it is because we can't stop male people from inventing things entirely.
now, the motherhood penalty, I understand that they think mothers will pay more attention to their son\daughter than work, but does that mean they will slack off, in fact most mothers are very hard-working people. The way to solve it is pretty simple either warn people about what they could suffer or set a law and the cost of breaking this law is a heavy fee\light fee.
The reason I didn't choose male-dominated industries is because the way we can fix these is by showing the bosses and people around the world that woman can also be as efficient as men, and this would encourage woman to work in these jobs
the reason I didn't choose stereotypes is because these can be changed over time.
I think that gender stereotypes are one of the hardest problems for us to face as a society because they are ingrained on a below the surface level and they will never truly go away forever. Even when people know stereotypes are unfair, they can still be unconsciously relied on.
Assumptions based on gender can influence everything - career opportunities, personal interactions, etc. Women are expected to take on caregiving roles and are seen to be less assertive in a workplace. In professional settings women tend to have to work harder to prove their competence, whereas men are usually assumed to be good at what they do.
These stereotypes will always hang around no matter how hard we try to move on from it, and I think that women will always have to face inequality unfortunately.
As a person that was born in Asia, I believe that stereotypes are the most likely difficult problems to fix. I say this because everyone is allowed to share their own opinions due to rights. Asia is a continent, with over 4.7 billion people and 49 countries. This means that there are a lot of different, diverse lifestyles and cultures that result in a lot of stereotypes in Asia.
In my opinion, I think that male-led development, male dominated industries, and the motherhood penalty are able to get solved easier than stereotypes. To fix the motherhood penalty, companies can place a policy where women who have children are able to have longer and flexible work hours. Fixing male-led development can be achieved by testing companies' products on both males and females. Male-dominated industries can be fixed by a policy where there are equal opportunities in hiring.
In conclusion, my opinion is that stereotypes are the most challenging thing to fix.
I think the hardest problem to fix is the motherhood penalty, because it gives people an excuse to underpay and mistreat women in the workforce. Also, it can be easy to hide the amount you pay women workers, and that when a woman does need to take maternity leave, the company may use that as a reason to fire the woman. From there, people may not speak up on it due to contracts, legal threats, or simply fear. However, I think that the motherhood penalty is rooted in a stereotype, that women with children will not work for as long or hard because they have a child, along with the days that follow childbirth.
In my opinion, stereotypes and expectations are the most difficult gender inequality problems to fix because they are deeply ingrained in society and influence almost every aspect of life. Unlike policies that can be changed through laws or workplace reforms. Stereotypes exist in people's minds and are passed through generations, making them incredibly hard to break. From childhood, people are taught gender roles. Like boys are encouraged to be strong and ambitious, while girls are expected to be nurturing and accommodating. These expectations affect career choices, confidence levels, and even the way people are treated in workplaces and leadership roles.
Another reason stereotypes are so difficult to change is that they are reinforced, culture, media, and social norms. Most movies and advertisements in my country often depict men and women in specific roles, making it hard to break free from these outdated ideas. For example, giving women domestic or caregiving roles and men leadership roles. Even when opportunities appear equal in theory, ingrained assumptions and societal biases can still create barriers. For instance, women in male-dominated fields often face skepticism, while men in caregiving roles may experience backlash and stigma. Changing these perceptions requires not just policy changes, but a shift in mindset, which takes time and effort.
Breaking stereotypes is challenging, but it is crucial for building a more equal and inclusive society where individuals are free to pursue their ambitions without being limited by outdated expectations or social norms.
I think stereotypes are the biggest challenge faced when coming to gender inequality. I was born in America, but my heritage includes being Vietnamese. Growing up, the elders used to set "rules" for each gender. Me and my sisters had to stay inside and clean, wash dishes, do laundry, and mop. However, my brother and dad never did. I never understood this rule, and I never will. I always questioned it but my elders always just said it was a woman's job to do chores, not a man's. This definitely changed my brain chemistry and I grew up to always do stuff that my elders wanted me to do. Not only this, but my brother also did. He grew up never having plushies or any toys because they were seen as too feminine, and I wasn't allowed to play with toy cars or trucks like he was. As a kid, these stereotypes were very normal to me as they were the only things that were accepted in my household. As I grew older though, I started to listen less to the stereotypes and just did what I wanted to. My older sister introduced me to Barbie movies, which I saw portray different careers, even ones that only "boys could do". I saw Barbie as a construction worker, a soccer player, a musketeer, and so much more. This opened my eyes to the many other things I could do, which weren't normalized for me growing up. However, although I have definitely changed my perspective on these stereotypes since I was a kid, there are many others who haven't, and it's mainly on the way they grew up. A lot of my friends still subtly imply that women are less than men, without even noticing it, even the girls.
I think male-dominated industries will be the hardest to solve. Most of these industries have been dominated by the male gender for years or even decades. Examples of such industries are:
.Construction
.Plumbing
.Piloting
.Mechanical Engineering
.Manufacturing
Currently some women aren't even interested in most of these jobs. Mindsets are also hindering these thoughts and interests due to upbringing and external factors.
Though it could be solved by changing mindsets, some mindsets are ingrained into people from a very young age, making it hard for people to change.
Changing the male-dominated industrial landscape in Bangladesh is challenging due to several factors:
1. Social and family barriers : Many women do not receive enough support from their families, especially when they went to engage in business or industry.
2. Economic limitations : Lack of capital and investment opportunities make it difficult for women to enter the industry, as many banks and financial institutions are hesitant to provide loans to female entrepreneurs.
3. Lack of facilities : There is a shortage of safe workplaces,training programs,and networking opportunities for women.
4. Social perception : Women are often considered less skilled or less capable compared to men, which limits their participation in the industrial sector.
While some women successfully run online businesses, not everyone can do so because of:
1. Lack of digital skills and internet access.
2. Limited family support.
3. High competition and risks of online fraud.
To everyone these challenges, women need better access training, financial support, and a shift in societal attitudes.
I think the most difficult problem is Male-led development because the fewer percentage of women working. The harder the problem becomes difficult to solve. All of this because there are so many men working all around the world and this will increase products like seatbelts designed by man and suitable for men.
But wait a minute...who should tell women to work?? nobody all you have to do is to spot the light on changemakers so...what will happen??
I have the answer to this when you spot the light on changemakers women will have their role models which will support women to work and then we will have a higher percentage of women working. which will make products suitable for both men and women.
Male dominated industries is the most difficult problem to be fixed. Almost all type of industries is working with male domination. Only few female staffs were noticed in those industries. Why because Industrial works will be too heavy for women. Lifting and carrying heavy products, working in standing posture for more than 10 hours, attending night work schedules are some of the difficulties faced by women. This leads to Gender inequality.
I believe that stereotyping is the most challenging problem to be fixed in our society. Stereotypes can be considered as the roots for gender inequality. As, from the birth they make us beleive certain gender stereotypes . From birth stereotypes like blue is for boys and pink is for girls are followed. Boys play with cars whereas girls play with dolls this is a stereotype which all of us have faced. A major role is played by the people of our society in making and promoting such stereotypes. When a boy playes with dolls, he is criticized and often teased. Also girls are mostly gifted with kitchen sets and dolls. Even today if I tell my friends that I like to watch barbie, they will make fun of me.
Also the stereotypes are the cause for other problems including "mother hood penalties" that comes from the stereotype that girls should nurture the family and "male dominated industry" comes from the idea that boys are stronger and more efficient.
From their childhood these stereotypes get embedded in each one of their lives and our cultures that even we do not feel that this is 'wrong' and should be stopped immediately.
I believe that if we stop stereotyping, many problems related to gender inequality will stop .but it will require combined efforts of every individual.
I think the most difficult problem to fix is gender stereotypes because its wrong in many ways one of them being that it keeps people from expressing who they are because other people expect them to act a certain way based on their gender for example if a boy likes the color pink he would force himself to wear blue because other people would make fun of him.
Gender stereotypes are when people are expected to act a certain way based on their gender.
Traditional gender roles go back to a time when there were unequal rules about how people were supposed to act based on their gender. People who were born male were expected to be strong, aggressive, sporty and not emotional. Females were expected to be kind, caring, emotional and domestic meaning they were all expected to be able to cook and clean and were forced to be stay at home moms.
All of that leads to people hiding their emotions because they thought that boys arent supposed to be emotional or empathetic and girls arent supposed to show anger.
Thank you for your comment, grounded_alligator. Do you have any ideas on how we might go about breaking these gender stereotypes?
As a women and especially as a women in India I think that the hardest problem to fix is the motherhood penalty because it isn’t just about money, it’s about how the world sees women. A women works hard, building her career, she stays late, meets deadlines and proves herself in a world that already favours men. Then, she becomes a mother. Suddenly everything changes. People assume that she won’t be as dedicated. She’ll be left out of big projects, Promotions will go to someone else. The society mindset is like if a women leaves work early to pick up her child, she’s “not committed”. If she stays late she’s a “bad mother” . This is how society sees women. No matter what she does , she loses. Meanwhile when a man becomes a father, his salary will “ goes up”,companies will assume that he’s now more “responsible “ and “stable”. The same system that treats women unfairly“rewards” men for having children. This isn’t just unfair, it’s dangerous. When mothers are pushed out of good jobs jus because she’s a mother, her families suffer.
Fixing this problem isn’t as simple as passing a law. It requires changing “how we see motherhood”. We need to stop treating parenting as only a woman’s job. Companies need to stop treating mothers unfairly and should start supporting them. Fathers also need to take equal responsibility at home.
BEING A MOTHER SHOULD NEVER MEAN LOSING THE RIGHT TO CHASE HER DREAMS.
Very well argued point! Do you have any ideas how we as a society can decrease negative associations with motherhood?
In my opinion all these problems affect us but the most harmful is men in leadership! Think about it if there were no men in leadership then there would be no more stereotypes between a man and a woman, pregnant women would be treated correctly and things would no longer be done only for the benefit of men!
In conclusion, one gender should not be superior to another and everyone should be treated the same!
Let's try to change the world together every day and make men realized what they have done for so long!
: I think that motherhood penalty is the hardest to fix as women who are mothers don't have the chance to prove them that yes they are still capable enough to do the work with the same efficiency as before. Some workplaces don't have this but male dominated industry in particular have the stereotypes fixed in their brains that mothers are not efficient, how many examples as we have of promotions , bonuses getting delayed because of motherhood . Motherhood penalty is a very crucial problem and should be solved as fast as possible.
In my personal point of view, I believe that the most two hard disasters to be fix are Stereotypes and the male-dominated industries. They are going in the same path. They are the same furthermore they have the same effect on people.
STEREOTYPES AND THE MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRIES
Imagine that people are divided in small and particular groups depending on their personality including their behavior, opinions, point of views and characteristics. This will be a huge calamity because people will lose the opportunity of creativity, innovation, developing and improving. This is what happens in Egypt with the people who have disabilities and difficulties. They are divided in some specialized schools that are made for them only for them consequently they will not gain any information except from the teacher subsequently why do not they gain information from the higher-leveled students? This is what happens with the women in Egypt. Women are known that they cannot work under pressure or under any hard conditions. They are also known that they are weak in addition they cannot work in hard jobs such as construction, chemical factories, iron and steel factories, mining and civil engineering. When the job is crowded with men and there are no women working with them, they will be dominating the work however they will be deprived by the thinking and the innovation of the women.
To conclude, now in Egypt, the governments are trying to reduce these problems, and they ordered the companies and factories to make women and people with disabilities to work in them.
In another view of mine I will choose stereotypes It is an oversimplified and generalized beliefs or ideas about a particular group of people e.g race, gender, nationality, religion, colour and more.
Example pink is for girls, blue is for boys.
It is a problem due to historical roots: Many stereotypes have long histories and these narratives are passed down through generations creating a strong foundation that is hard to change.
Another reason why I say it is hard to fix is because of Societal and Institutional norms It often uphold and reinforce stereotypes through policies, practices, and social norm, certain job roles may be associated with one gender that means that people can loose jobs because of stereotypes which is not a nice one.
In conclusion I will say stereotype is hard to fix because people have different beliefs and ideas regarding different things .
Stereotypes is a big problem in world. A Stereotype is a wrong assumtion of both gender for examples " girls like pink and cooking while boys like blue and sports. I think that both genders should have opportunity to do anything they want for example girls choose any colour and color they want while boys can also choose any their want.
But in the other hand, girls should be able to lead a country or a community.
I would say that stereotypes is one of the hardest problem to fix. When a boy and a girl are grown up, a boy believes leadership is natural for him because the society has raised him like that, while the girl doubts her own voice because the society has made it like that. According to the society a boy is encouraged to take risks while a girl is encouraged to play it safe.And the stereotypes doesn’t stop there, When a woman speaks with confidence, she’s named as “bossy” by the society but when a man does the same he’s named as “a leader”. And a man who stays late at work is seen as“hardworking” but a woman who does the same is seen as “neglecting her family”.
I think this is why stereotypes are so hard to fix. We can change laws, but how do we change what’s inside people’s minds?
The only way to fight stereotypes is to rewrite the stories we tell. We need to show girls that they can be bold and boys that they can be kind. We need to change the societies mindset’s and religious leaders can help us to make a change and we also need parents to stop raising their sons and daughters differently.
Thank you :)
Hello👋
I think that stereotypes are the hardest to fix. Stereotypes are the problem of everything. Stereotypes are the reason that across the globe 95% men 25-54 years old are employed but 52% of women are employed. Bosses of every job stereotype. Many bosses believe that the more children the less effort, but women really participate more to get money to pay for the kids or kid she has, and I am talking about single moms. Single moms don't have men to work and get money for the kid/kids. I also think stereotyping is why moms get 24%less money than men. I think if there were more women in positions to make decisions, some of this could be fixed.That is why I think stereotypes is the hardest to fix.
In my opinion I think The Motherhood Penalty is the most difficult problem to solve. The reason I think that is because 95 percent of men are employed and 52 percent of women are employed. In 2023 the people found out that women were getting 24 percent less than men. Only 26 percent of women are working for ai but 74 percent of men are working for ai. The women get less unfair treatment than the men just because they are mothers. Only 6 percent of women are pilots and most of the pilots are men. The women get less promotion because they are moms. I think that some very smart women are also moms. I think they should have the same opportunities. I learned a lot today.
I think the motherhood penalty is the hardest because as a mother, your options are limited in the workplace—especially with younger kids and babies.
You can only do so much when you have kids running around and causing chaos. I don’t think mothers should be penalized simply because they can’t work in-person or can only work limited hours
I believe that stereotypes are one of the biggest problems in our country, and they are the most difficult to fix. Most of the people are underestimating women and provide lesser opportunities for them, thinking why women should even receive an education. In some states of our country, such as Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Kerala, and Uttar Pradesh, in this places there are more discrimination problem for women.
Furthermore, women are often not allowed to write any religious books such as Bible, Quran, or Bhagavad Gita. In some places, marriages for girls under the age of 18 are arranged so the girls are affecting mentally and get into stress, and there is a thought of some people that men can do anything, and going outside at any time, while women are restricted from doing this. In Tamil Nadu, specially in Madurai, these issues are happening more.
Many people in society still believe that women are going to only cook and move to another house after marriage, and why should they need education. These stereotypes and gender biases create a biggest problems in our country. If we can overcome these issues, I believe India the Bharat can become the best country in the world.
Stereotyping is one of the most difficult things to do because it does not involve just the mindset of an individual. Stereotypes are the foundation of cultural stories that determine how people view the world from childhood. Girls are supposed to be kind and boys are supposed to be strong. Pink is link to the feminine side while blue is linked to the masculine side. These ideas are picked up from media, education, family, religion, and even language. For instance, in Indonesia there is no gender inclusive pronouns and the masculine is chosen. In the same way people use manmade and not womanmade. Even toys are divided by gender (e.g. robots are for boys while dolls are for girls). The so called "motherhood penalty" is driven by the belief that child caring is the central work of women while men are exempted. This is because technologies are still seen to be for men simply because they are deemed to be masculine. Decision making positions are mainly taken by men, meaning that women have no place in those positions. Whereas discrimination is direct and easily identifiable, stereotypes are not; this makes them difficult to combat. Many girls learn to accept inequality as the way of life. The media may present successful women, but they are usually depicted as having had to give up their femininity to get ahead. Challenging stereotypes can annoy people because it demands them to address deeply seated cultural perceptions. Moreover, changing such prejudices needs a process that has to drag on for the years.
In conclusion, stereotypes are deeply embedded society.
I think that stereotypes are the hardest problem to solve because they are deeply ingrained in a culture, traditions and social expectations. In the world a lot stereotypes exists, not just gender stereotypes. For example there is this stereotype about Romanians that they are thieves which isn't true at all, but because of this some people might not be friends with Romanians because they think that they will steal their things. This is just an example on a stereotype. I also think that it will be very hard to change stereotypes because if a person lived their entire life hearing about the fact that women should take care of the children and to stay home and don't have a job, that person will think it's normal for women to don't work and to take care of the children. This is why I think that it will take like 20 more years for gender stereotypes to disappear completely because the newer generations know that women should have a job and to work and to have equal rights, but older generations don't think the same. Also the other problems are much easier to solve than stereotypes.
So, this is why I think gender stereotypes will be the hardest to be solved.
In my opinion , actually all of them are hard to fix and I wrote one comment before , but in it I said that male-dominated industries is most difficult problem to fix , but after some days of thinking and searching and seeing what is happening in my country I yes still agree with this opinion but I have another different opinion after some times ,which is male-led development is the hardest problem to fix because I see that all the men in my country are doing this and I don't know why . We have to respect women so why men are building things not suitable for women ? and actually I have a lot of examples in my country like seat belts and door viewer and also when men hang something women need it they are making it so high and women can't reach it and this is not good we have to make things suitable for both men and women to make things more fair and better but unfortunately this is really hard problem to fix.
In my opinion stereotypes and expectations are the hardest problem to fix in the society because: stereotypes in the world are things such as men are stronger than women, blue is for boys and pink is for girls. It is gone so far that people has labeled colors for genders. But now there are sayings such as anything a man can do a woman can do. These sayings are now encouraging women to have more confidence in what they say and do. Then there are also expectations like women are meant to do house chores and take care of children while men are supposed to do the hard work in the farms and work jobs. Meanwhile all of these things, both for men and women can do at the same time.
In conclusion both men and women can do the same thing and no gender is stronger then another no matter how people feel about their own gender.
Well done for mentioning stereotypes that affect both men and women, generous_context!
In my opinion the motherhood penalty is a huge issue because it has a harmful effect on everybody.
Firstly, because they know they maybe won't be promoted, a lot of women delay being mothers or totally give up the idea. This influences the whole society as the birth rate is getting lower, at least in a lot of European countries. Women shouldn't have to choose between the two.
Then, in some countries, like the UK, as our teacher explained, mothers only get payment for a few months to look after the babies and then what are they supposed to do? Even if there are grandparents to look after the babies, it's not the same. So this has an effect on the babies' wellbeing. At least in Romania women are allowed to take care of their babies for two years.
I'd also like to point out that stereotypes don't only affect women. For example in Romania there are a lot of parents who don't want a man to be their kid's teacher, at least in primary school. Also, a huge number of people here also assume that dads are not very good at parenting, so when parents split up it is always the mother who is favoured. I think this is unfair.
I believe that stereotypes are a major issue because it can lead to women not being properly credited for their work, or have it critiqued more than it would be if a man had made a discovery or piece of work. In addition, stereotypes are deeply rooted and hard to dispel from a large amount of people's thought process. The motherhood penalty also seems like a huge problem, considering that raising a child is expensive, so paying them less would cause more difficulties in raising them, which could inadvertently cause neglect, among other issues.
I believe the most difficult problem to fix are the stereotypes women have to face. Although most stereotypes like the "pink for girls, blue for boys" began in the 19th century, women were ALWAYS stereotypes to be weaker and "below men". Throughout history, women were forgotten and only known if they knew her husband as well as forced to cook and make clothes for their families. These ideas of women being below men are deeply ingrained in our society and they always were throughout history. This is what's nearly impossible to change, we can't change the mind of every person in society.
On the other hand, male-led industries are being challenged in the modern day of my country. Many females are picking up male dominated jobs like construction even created female only groups. In my US, there are 10 female owned construction companies as of right now, this marks the increasing growth of the role females have in male-dominated industries! As for male-dominated developments, we don't necessarily have any and if we do, they're not noticeable, the stereotypes, mother's penalty, and the male-dominated industry far outweigh them. My final contest would be the mother's penalty, although it is a really big problem and really hard to get rid of, I believe a solution could be, speaking out. Many of these problems go unspoken of, so I feel like if we raise awareness and enough people know, we can change the mind of some of their co-workers into not discriminating the hard working women in their jobs. Although these are strong problems, stereotypes are a stronger problem to get rid of.
I wouldn't think this is the hardest problem to solve but it is definitely a topic that I don't see talked about much. World Hunger. Millions of people go daily without a meal, water, sometimes they go weeks without eating and there's nothing they can do about it. But bigger people such as Elon Musk, Jeffrey Bezos, and many other multi-billionaires could do a lot to help. I believe that if more people talk about this problem it will be solved in no time.
I think that stereotypes is the most difficult problem to fix in society due to there being many stereotypes that effects everyone for example pink for girls and blue for boys this idea has been passed down for generations this it why it affects society so dearly because in many cultures and countries that woman are deemed as useless and men are the superior but this leads to men to be pressured into being perfect and masculine and this can destroy their mental health and well being. Also it effects the female community due to them being pressured by society to be perfect and to fit in and this can also effect them mentally and physically. Overall having to fit in to society and stereotypes can destroy peoples well being so it is not good for our community to have stereotypes.
In my opinion, we cannot focus on just one part of this problem in order to 'fix' it. For thousands of years these stereotypes have came to be and have adapted from women just meant to be wives to now having to be mothers but also role models. To begin we could decide to focus on bringing more female influence into the production business in order to make it safer. For example, many women die every year due to a lack of knowing how to perform the procedure on a woman's anatomy so women should be able to create new CPR training dummies.
We could also begin to focus on the industry in which women are payed less. Women face a check 26% less then men, even more with the so called 'motherhood penalty' so we must focus on preventing this happening to these hardworking women who only wish provide for their families. In order to do this we must help women choose to work and want to earn the money they deserve. We cannot focus on one way to just 'fix it' but we can understand and adapt in order to fight stereotypes and improve women's lives.
I believe "stereotypes" will be the most difficult problem to fix because of the way people portray each other. For example, people often portray women to be weaker than men or how people portray women to be smarter than men. Either way both are wrong by faulty assumptions. Girls can be strong and men can be smart, there is no way around it. Stereotypes are faulty assumptions that shouldn't be made at all.
How can we overcome such stereotypes?
How can we overcome such stereotypes?
I think that the most difficult project to fix is the issue of stereotypes. Stereotypes have been happening for years on end, which can potentially make it more difficult to end the issue. According to the U.N. Women, globally 3 in 4 people have admitted to hearing or seeing stereotyping regularly, which is 73% of the global population. I know people personally in my life that have been stereotyped based on multiple factors including race, ethnicity, and gender. Stereotypes may also be harder to fix because many times people don't realize that they are stereotyping. I have seen several instances where a person may not be purposefully stereotyping, even though it may not have been intentional it still counts as stereotyping. I also think that children from a very young age are taught about stereotypes. For example, from a young age, kids are taught that girls are supposed to like pink and boys are supposed to like blue, or in fairy tales when a princess is in trouble and they need a knight in shining armour to come and help them.
How can we overcome such stereotypes?
We can try to overcome such stereotypes by making sure to check ourselves when we may have been stereotyping. We can also try to embrace diversity by getting to know people of other cultures or ethnic backgrounds and not thinking of them only as what their stereotype is.
I agree with your comment because it is a problem that is affecting the promotions of women. If this continues, then there could be protest or other acts that will occur in the future.
I chose the motherhood penalty as most difficult because it's harder for some women to work and take care of children at home. Women have more responsibility after having a child because they have another mouth to feed including themselves. Many women are looked at less due to more dominant men and male dominant industries. Women are more hardworking then men since women are the ones carrying the children and having to worry about them. Women get paid less in the job industry because people think women lack more in that particular work area.
I'm not sure that 'women are more hard working than men' is correct. Please can you explain this idea?
I believe that the most difficult problem to fix is the gender stereotype one. I believe this is the most difficult to fix because for many centuries, people have believed that females should "stay at home and take care of the kids". Since many people expected this of them for so long, many people continue to expect it from them. Due to this, I think that changing the gender stereotypes is harder to change than the rest of the problems. So to conclude, the stereotypes that women should be at home and have domestic roles are the hardest to change, in my opinion of course.
Thanks for sharing! How do you think we could promote gender equality within society?
I think that the stereotypes and the expectations will be the hardest problem to fix. This should be the hardest problem to fix because not many people will want to trust women with jobs like construction. This could be because men were expected to do the more difficult jobs and they expected the women to do the more domestic jobs like cooking and cleaning. If their opinions could be changed with a female president or more women in construction, maybe there will be less inequality when it comes to jobs. To conclude, the stereotype and expectations with women is the hardest problem to fix because the people won't be persuaded easily.
I'm not sure what you meant by 'not many people will want to trust women with jobs like construction'. Please can you explain this idea?
Sorry about that, when I said some people I meant people that think women are too fragile or weak to handle jobs that require strength.
I have noticed that women have been at a disadvantage due to male-led developments causing many problems throughtout the population. Many technological advancements that have been made have been created specifically for men examples like the seatbelt which are built for a flat male chest. Due to this their have been many controversies on how women are at a disadvantage because most of everything is made for men. To keep this from happening there should be a male/women-led developments to benifet women but still help males as well. So I believe that male-led developments are the most difficult problem to fix.
Stereotypes would most likely be the hardest thing to fix. The majority of children are born and raised on gender stereotypes. Women being considered "motherly" and men being the "Money-Makers" in a household is considered traditional and has been since the early 19th century. From birth, it's always girls wear pink and play with dolls, then they grow up to become housewives, while boys wear blue and play with fire-trucks so they grow up to become firefighters. It's so much harder to fix something so deeply rooted within the minds of people, as well as history, because it's something that feels natural and it's determined to be the norm. Thankfully, people are slowly starting to change, but there will always those who will stand by stereotypical gender roles, believing that is how things were meant to be.
In my opinion, stereotypes are the most difficult problem to fix among all the other problems included. For me the "motherhood penalty" can be changed in the future since more and more women are able to get a job, get treated fairly and get paid the same as men do. So, in the future I think women will be able to get treated equally. Male-dominated industries and male-led development, I feel like it can be changed in the future for the same reason as I said before with the "motherhood penalty." But, as for the stereotypes, I don't even know if we could be able to change people who think that way. I said this because, MOST people I know who have those types of mindsets, it is impossible to talk to them. Once they make up their mind, they never back down. So for me, stereotypes are the most difficult problem to fix.
The hardest of these to fix would be stereotypes. It would be this because of how deeply integrated it is. Think about it, centuries and centuries of stereotypes. Not just stereotypes but in actual action. Like in the 1800's in the U.S. and U.K. (Great Britain) where every woman had to cook and do other feminine stuff, never manly things. Even 1,000 years before that, no woman was in an army, going to war. Not to mention how many men are accustomed to these stereotypes. To change the mind of the great majority of them, it would be near impossible. Additionally, a lot of languages like French have a behemoth of words that are masculine dominated. The "Motherhood Penalty" would probably be the easiest to fix because it all takes just one law. Male-dominated industries wouldn't be relatively hard to fix because of the simple fact that women just have to get hired in those industries. If you want to argue that no one will hire them, that's not true; if they are qualified enough, they will get hired. As for male led-development, it will be difficult but it can be achieved when females can work WITH or along male co-workers to develop for both male and female. As time passes, the previous ONLY male designed products will disappear, being replaced with males and females in mind.
The problem that would be the most difficult to solve is male-dominated industries. This is a major problem in a lot of industries because there is little to no- representation for women in jobs like construction, police, firefighters and other jobs that are considered dangerous for women. Another issue with these jobs are the uniforms, most uniforms were created for the male body and are not exactly suitable for the female body. A reason for this is because men made the stereotype that jobs like these are not made for women because they are not suitable or they don't have the proper anatomy for certain jobs. And just in general there is a very little percentage in jobs like the space industry like only 12% of women that work in this industry. Women have worked very hard to get where they are and for males to try and stop them is a problem that needs to be stopped.
I think the mother hood penalty is the hardest problem to solve because women are never going to stop having children because the population would stop grow.,but it is unfair to penalize women because of a priority and to solve this problem fathers should step in more because it is not just the mother that creates a child.
I wouldn’t necessarily agree with you, because I think stereotypes are the most difficult problem to fix. In my country many families don’t have a strong mother hood penalty, for example as I got born my parents shared the time with me. That helped my mother not to lose her career. Stereotypes are almost in every country and many people don’t understand that people can live how they want. Many people always overthink and don’t be judged by their actions. Me personally can’t think of a solution of this problem.
The hardest thing to erase is the assumptions already in the minds of people. if a majority believes in something without approvals it becomes hard to justify. women nowadays can be seen in construction industries and that proves them breaking the ceiling barriers of men posse sing such sectors.
we have women in leadership thus making us believe that women can lead. in my experience, Kenya has women taking leadership positions.
but stereotypes are hard to fix.
Women are an important part of our life. So, it is our duty to make them feel equal and as members of same society, respect them.
Since our childhood, we are taught and an image is created in our minds that girls are the people associated with all such things like pink colour, household works and over - emotional feelings. Whereas boys are associated with blue colour, fights, and comparatively an insensitive nature. This has been the biggest problem in our society, Stereotyping, which gradually leads to increase in Gender inequality.
As a boy, in my childhood, I have come across a very confusing question that, "Why are you crying? Are you a girl?". I often thought what was the relation between being a girl and crying. Don't boys have feelings? Why is it necessary for only the girls to cry? Why would I be teased if I start liking pink? These are some questions that trouble my mind.
Now, if I talk about my country. Most of the schools have teachers mostly as females. On the other hand, construction workers in buildings are males. This is because this is the mentality which people have, thinking that girls are weaker and boys are stronger.
So, from now onwards, it is our duty that we promote gender equality and make this society equal for everyone.
Always remember, Gender Equality is a human fight, not a female fight.
I think that stereotypes and expectations would be the most difficult to fix. As,in our country, India, stereotypes is a huge problem. Though,mothers are also not treated very well,but only in a few families,not in all. But,in our country, everyone has a stereotypical mindset and always expect girls to obey the orders of boys and in some families girls are treated as slaves. I really feel very bad. Still, a proper action is not being taken. Like, for example it is considered surprising that a girl is a pilot or an engineer. Only a few low paid jobs are considered should be done only by girls. In fact,in rural areas girls are not even allowed to be educated and that is terrible.
I just hope that these stereotypes end as soon as possible.
Stereotypes are the most difficult problem to fix because of how impossible it is not to encounter assumptions made based on gender. Stereotypes have been implemented in humanity for hundreds of years. Every period in human history has its customs and expectations for both genders, engraved into our history permanently. From clothes to jobs, to colors, and to how we are supposed to act, there are stereotypes everywhere. At a young age, children will see what is expected of them based on their gender. Cartoons often depict boys as "strong" and "athletic" while girls are often depicted as "polite" and "in need of protection". From a young age, children are told what they should be and how to look.
Stereotypes have become the norm making it harder for people to see that they are subconsciously making assumptions of people based on their gender. The motherhood penalty is unjust but the amount of people it affects could be decreased with laws ensuring that the issue is fixed. Male-dominated industries where the workers are mostly men can be discouraging for women, creating a space where it is harder for women to succeed in male-dominated fields. However, it is not impossible, this problem can slowly be decreased by offering specifically women opportunities to male-dominated careers and providing the necessary needs to succeed. Male-led development are a hard problem to fix as many things have been built for men specifically and have not changed, but it is a problem that can be reduced by educating people on the topic and supporting movements that encourage change.
I believe the motherhood penalty is the most difficult problem to fix. In China, many women are worried about having children as they are scared of losing their jobs or being treated unfairly at work. Also across the world 95% of men between the ages of 25 and 54 are employed but just 52% of women are employed. This shows that career is out of reach for women because since 52% of women are employed that means the others are not employed because they have children( they are facing the motherhood penalty) which will reduce the development of the world. But recently there are mothers who are astronauts, example, Kellie Gerardi. Kellie Gerardi is an American astronaut and mother. She was one of the first 100 women to travel to space to travel space and is and Instagram influencer, promoting motherhood and careers. Kellie includes her daughter, Delta, in her work by taking her toys to space and letting her watch rockets launches. To many she is seen as a role model. I believe there is development in the world and the motherhood penalty problem would be fixed by the help of other mothers who are in high offices like Kellie Gerardi.
In my opinion, stereotypes are the most difficult to fix. Let me explain my reasons. In a place where people believes that girls don't play football and a girl suddenly starts playing football that girl would be isolated and mocked. For example, in my community where girls are not seen as people who participate in most sports, how are you to change the minds of people who have been hearing and believing that. That is how most girls are and that is what people now believe. Stereotyping is something related to culture and generalized behavior. That is what some cultures state. Girls are to remain in the kitchen and cook and do household chores because they are the "weaker sex" and get uncomfortable under pressure. The reason girls are being seen as the weaker sex is because that is how they normally behave. Girls are supposed to be the princesses in distress while boys become the knight in shining armor. It is how girls have depicted themselves in the society and therefore what people believe.
If the problems of stereotyping want to be fixed, girls should try to be stronger.
Thanks.
What do you mean by 'stronger'?
I personally think that stereotypes is the worst issue out of the four and it being the hardest to solve. Why? you might ask because some people are just fixed minded enough to convince themselves that people are just like how they think they are. Another way to put it is that sometimes we just think that our "gender" or you can even call "sex" determines what we do and what we are. It's not always gender that we're talking about even skin tone, hair, or even something so simple like how we dress. For example, some folks just come around and generally think that people with the skin tone black always loves the food fried chicken or sometimes they even they call "the bad guys". There is really no way to stop this issue because there will always be someone out there thinking that their way of thinking is just how life is and always "correct". Stereotype is just too opinion based that we just aren't able to change everyone with such thinking.
I think stereotypes will be the hardest to fix out of the four. Yes, all four are problematic and difficult challenges that women have to face everyday. However, those can be fixed.
Male-Dominated industries: Women could start building their way up to new industries or companies of their own, even taking the jobs that men do.
Male-Led development: Stuff like the London stairs, the government can fix it. Yes, it will cost a lot of money and time and while it's being constructed again, people who normally use those stairs will have to find another way to go, which will be very inconvenient. However, this is easier to fix than stereotypes.
Motherhood penalty: Lastly, in a relationship, it's always been seen as the woman's job to take care of the children while the husband goes off to work for the income. However, it should be up the woman if she wants to go back to work or stay at home and take care of the kid, that goes for the husband as well. I also think that after a woman gives birth, the company she works at should be responsible for giving her at least a month off.
However, since all of these issues will have a hard time being fixed, they still can be. However, stereotypes can't. No matter how much people fight for gender equality, there will always be someone who thinks the opposite. No amount of posts, speeches, movies, or activists can change everyone's perspectives on women.
I think that after stereotypes, the motherhood-penalty is the second hardest to fix. Giving birth is listed as one of the most painful things your body can experience. After giving birth, it has detrimental effects on the woman's body, deteriorating her physical health. According to studies, a woman should at LEAST rest the first 6 weeks after childbirth to maximize recovery. However, this still will not fully recover the woman's body. My mom has has 4 children, and each time she has had to rest for at least 2 months before being able to go back to work. Even when she did, she was very exhausted and often had migraines. Nonetheless, although multiple and countless researches have shown that childbirth is very harmful towards the body, companies have still forced women to come back to work after the first few weeks. This can be very dangerous towards physical health as the body hasn't fully recovered from the effects yet. Not only this but, when women see that their job is on the line, they will feel more pressure to go to work, even when their condition isn't well. Stress isn't good for anyone, and when they decide to choose their health first instead of a job, they get less pay, fewer promotions, and some even get fired. Is this how we treat the women that brought us into the world? The answer is sadly yes.
I believe that the "motherhood penalty" appears to be the most difficult problem for our society to successfully overcome.
In many cultures women were and ,in a handful of extreme cases, still are considered to be not any better than animals and only good at having and looking after children as well as doing jobs around the household like cleaning and cooking.This fact is also, in my opinion, the reason that the majority of today's stereotypes about women exist, since it's extremely time consuming and hard for situations like this to improve over the years leading in false assumptions about the place of women in the modern era.
I think stereotyping is the most difficult thing to fix. While the other problems are still extremely profound, stereotyping really is the basis for all of this. Once a society holds consensus that something should be wrong/right, it often becomes very difficult to change this, even if it is proven wrong or simply irrational. Sometimes, this can be done, but only where it is easy understandable for the people. And this is simply not easy to break, as reasons often lie very deep as to why people won't believe facts. Oftentimes, people have been taught core values which are not resonating with the ones that modern scientists have. And still, misinformation is spread not because people are so dumb, no rather because they profit from this disparity!
And at least in our societies, the people have to agree with it to change something in long-term. Whenever you are trying to fight something wrong, you should always start at the root. And the root, in this case, are the people and their wrong beliefs.
You can do everything you want: if the people don't agree with it, it will be a waste of time.
How can we change deeply ingrained stereotypes - through education, policy, or something else?
Yes... and also no. We can surely achieve something with education, but to do that, every part of a country has to move together to clear up these stereotypes. This also means that social media, which plays a big part in this stereotyping, needs to be freed from content that teaches stereotypes. And this will be very hard as true and non-misleading facts are currently not in the interest of most major social media platforms. And there could be also the problem of freedom of speech/opinion if the access to social media or the internet is being restricted. There are many people who could be enlightened about their misconceptions. Though there are so many people, where education won't work. The division of society has become so bad, that we can't reach many of the people we want to reach as they will simply not believe it, because it is "woke". This points to a way bigger problem: The "I am right - you are wrong, no matter the facts" culture. This, the lack of critical thinking that is taught and narratives or conspiracy theories told by those who profit from it make it very difficult to near impossible for just education programs to succeed. We need more radical measures. For example, banning parties who support this stereotyping and fuel it with their narratives.
I think male-dominated industries are the hardest problem to fix. This is because of the age old existence of gender norms for jobs. 200 to 2000 years ago a woman would never work a construction job or enlist in the military, obviously a lot of this was attributed to the laws of the time. 200 years later and still, hardly any women are willing to attend an interview for a job because of these norms which have been forced into our heads due to the fact they were written into law. The idea a woman cannot serve in the military was passed down to us from the people who surround us and nowadays, even the internet. As long as people still hold those views they will continue to spread and be burnt into the minds of the next generations, even more so due to the internet. A lot of us here on topical talk will probably and some subconsciously spread these stereotypes in the future. It, unfortunately, is human nature and as long as most people do not bother to combat it, it will stick with us for a while.
In my opinion overall, the biggest problem is stereotypes among women AND men. I'm saying this because just from previous years of everyone's mindsets being that "All women are weaker than men" "Women can't do anything as good as men expect cook, clean, and take care of children." The only thats true about those statements is that women are BIOLOGICALLY weaker than men physically, but they can in fact be stronger depending on the work put in. If these stereotypes on both men and women are less normalized, then it could positively impact the other three problems.
Meaning that if stereotypes change then, there is a higher possibility mindsets might change or be less biased and heavily influenced. The "Motherhood penalty" could be changed from people not decreasing pay or not giving as many promotions, to them giving an equal amount to both men and women due to the lesser amount of prejudice on the genders.
This same thing would affect the male-dominated industries by having more women getting promotions, thus moving up in the world ranks, and having higher average incomes. Along with male-led development being changed due to more people realizing that about half of the world's population is women, meaning that these stereotypes negatively affect 50% of the entire world, just from them being more suited for men.
In my opinion, after i did the classroom lesson i think that the stereotyoes and expectation problem is the most difficult one to fix. I think this is the worse problem because people always think before getting to know the truth about a person or a situation, one example is when you see someone on the street and think something bad about him/ her without knowing them. I believe that if we can show people how to respect others from a young age we would all be better and after some time maybe some of the stereotypes and expectations would be a smaller problem.
While there are other big problems in the world regarding women and men and the equallity between them i believe that focusing on this problem and trying to reduce it might help the other problems to resolve themselves because people would learn how to respect eachother.
In my opinion, the hardest thing to fix out of all these things are stereotypes. The reason that makes me think that stereotypes will be extremely hard to get rid of is the fact that if someone believes in one of those stereotypes they will spread it to their friends, family or even children. For example: if a mum believes that a woman cant be a constructor since women are weak and cant carry heavy weights.
I also wanted to mention that in my country, Romania, we are a lot more equal than in other countries. I found out that Romania the gender pay gap is about 3.5% and that makes it one of the countries with the smallest pay gaps between men and women. Other countries with small pay gaps are: Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg.
Countries with the biggest pay gaps are: Estonia (with 25.6%) and we also have UK and Germany (that also have the pay gap for more than 20%)
I think that the leading problem within gender inequality is industries that are highly male-dominated. In my opinion women contribute significantly into our society today yet are still penalised based of their gender. For example in an old school I attended I helped as a interviewer for a teacher interview, there was 2 female, 1 male and I believe that the male who got the job got it unfairly. This disturbs student learning as some schools have many male teachers because they are male, not the quality of teaching they provide. Furthermore, it is statistically proven that males get higher bonuses and increased amount of promotions in comparison to females employees. Women deserve equal pay to men and should be paid evenly as in some industries women can provide heightened services and improved quality to that sector.
Stereotypes have been fed through many many sources over many years. Whether it is TV, barbie, stereotypes have grown and changed over the course of human history as religons and cultures have mixed and grown, sharing their opinions with the world. Centuries ago the expectation was for women to be virgins like Virgin Mary. She was what every woman was told to aspire to be like. Then as time progressed women were expected to be perfect housewives and mothers. One thing that barely changes is the expectation for women to be subservient. It took centuries for women to be seen as people, not property. It took a world war, the suffragists and suffragests for women to be allowed to have a say in who ran the country they lived in. But at first it was only property owning women over 30 untill eventually all women over 18 were allowed to vote. And stereotypes and expectations aren't even that simple as that! Depending on where you lived, who your family (Most importantly, your father) was and how much money you had, you had different expectations and stereotypers. For example: in the Edwardian Era if you were lower or working class you were expected to be maids and prostitutes. If you were middle or upper class you were expected to be a perfect wife and mother. In a nutshell, Stereotypes have grown and evolved over time and are embedded into modern society.
I think that the 'motherhood penalty' is the most difficult to fix as only women can birth children and it has a time impact on their lives which can detrimentally affect their career progression. However, at our school for example , majority of our leadership team is female showing how birth and pregnancy hasn't necessarily had a massive effect on their
Hello Topical Talkers
I think gender stereotypes is one are of the worst problems in the world. For example my friend Faith loves playing football but boys make comments about her what makes her feel upset and feels like quitting. Women are not caregivers and should not look after the men it should all be equal. Women don't have to do the laundry the dishes and should not have to do all the household chores. On average women earn 24% less to the farther of the child.
thank you for reading my point.
I think stereotypes are one of the hardest problems to fix because they’ve been around for so long and basically just stay in people’s minds. Even when things start changing, these ideas still shape what people do, how they are treated, and what’s expected of them. Families, schools, and movies especially make these beliefs stronger so it’s not easy to break.
In India, I think stereotypes are still a big thing. Girls are expected to help with household work, while boys are pushed to focus on their careers. In sports, cricket and football are seen as boys games while girls are encouraged to play badminton or do gymnastics. And when it comes to dance, it’s often considered a girl thing so boys who enjoy it might get judged.
I’ve seen this happen in my own school most boys join instrumental music, and hardly any try dance because of what people might say. I even knew someone who wanted to learn dance but gave up because others would tease him. It’s honestly unfair because talent shouldn’t have a gender. But that’s just how things are, and I think breaking these ideas will take time. one day, people will stop caring about these labels, and everyone will feel free to do what they actually love.
According to me all these problems need to be faced as all of these are important in the aerospace department there are very few women to get to go to the space and according to many orthodox Hinduism saints have said that if women get to learn different things like what men learn . Then women can dominate the men and in this men dominated society it is very important to learn that women are worthy that they can do anything .One of the most famous doubt in my class was that why many things were named man made and not women made and even now mothers are not treated well firstly they have to do all the housework ,then take care of the children and then make them study and then cook dinner or lunch for the family there are infinite work that mothers do and most importantly the sacrifice their life for their children and husbands .Mothers are like god they give birth to us .As we saw that in this male dominated society about 90% men are only working and only 10% women are Working isn’t this not equal in wars you may have seen that only men are the ones who are fighters because they are brave and aren’t women brave are they just here to just take care of children and family .Nowadays many new schemes and policies have been started by the government even you can see that many new businesses are been created started by women.So I hope that women prosper like this in their life and overcome these problems and male dominated society.just like there is saying that never underestimate the power of common man and never underestimate the power of a common woman .
Greetings! I believe the male-led development is the hardest problem to overcome in my country. As described, male-led development is basically products and items that better fit men than women because they are designed and taken over by men. Some examples of this in my country are certain chairs, devices, and even clothing. Some men products like jeans have more pockets than women jeans and have become known to all yet there is no change. To change the mindset of the designers and people would be very challenging and require and drastic and even dramatic change in perspective and understanding, This would also be necessary to industries and managers across the world, despite the huge significance that it has made and spread. We would need new laws, campaigns and many more to change this effect across America. Thank you.
In my own opinion, the most difficult problem to fix here is the motherhood penalty. This is because as it was said in the topic that gender inequality is the global problem round the world, some people think that what a man can do, a woman can not do it, because they think that woman can not withstand the pain of the work, so they tend to discriminate from the work, not knowing the pain a women go through at the time their birth. So people make women to face an unfair treatment, like lower pay, fewer promotions or are thought to be less committed because they look after their children.
Hello topical talk
I think that the hardest problem to solve is male lead or dominated development because we can’t moats of the issues this courses are going to take a lot of time and money to solve.
I think male dominated industries are hard to fix because a lot of men do construction and you only see a small amount of women do the technology for the designing of like a house but other than that it is mostly men because a lot of people think that men are stronger than women but if the woman put the hard work in they can whatever they want todo in life because as they say anything is possible .
I think mother hood penalty is the biggest problem as women are expected to stay home and take time off to take care of the children and be the house mother and let the men do the work. In reality women are capable of men jobs.
In my opinion, l strongly believe that stereotypes are the most difficult to change ,for example ,a plumber is known as a male ,while females are known for being nurses. However, it would be extremely hard to persuade more than 50% of people to now believe that so many jobs (that are usually dedicated to men )are open for women as well. Even though it is harder to make this change , we can still make a difference and convince woman to take up jobs that are most likely for men, so it can be equal.
I think that women have bigger problems because they have to look after there kids while also doing jobs like house cleaning the men have jobs like building or construction workers.the women work more then men and the hustle is too much for them and they want to work more and the men can look after the children. Then women can do the jobs that they want to do and say “oh honey can you look after the kids while I go to work” “I am going to the army” and that is what the women would say. As well the men have to go to work after the women come back so it is fare.
I think that Male-led development is the most unfair situation in this media because most items have been designed for men. During the class discussion we watched the videos; and in my opinion I think that it is unfair that women have to were men's space sots and are put at risk. This is because men have a different body shape to women.
However, I think that male-dominated industries are also a concerning problem because woman shouldn't be judged and told what they can and can't do. Women can do anything better than men.
In conclusion women should have equal rites to men and should not be told what to do.
I think that stereotypes are the most difficult to change because, it is in movies 🍿 and it is almost a trend that (for example) men are builders and women do ballet. If you think of a doctor, you think of a man but if a nurse, you think of a woman. There has always been an excuse due to most common gender of that job.
Stereotype can be based on many reasons, such as a person's race, gender, age and economic conditions.
I think the stereotypes can be positive, neutral or negative. I learned that communication with each other can also affect stereotypes. So I'm interested to finding out how to affect stereotype❓ I'm interested in knowing the opinions of others
I am of the opinion that both these 4 problems and major and should be solved under any circumstances. As for the gender stereotypes, there are plenty of them around the world, for instance girls should be always quite and boys can be loud. Here in Greece, there is always this assumption that when an accident on the road occurs always the woman is blamed or everybody believes that it was a woman that cuased it and in general it is believed that women are very bad drivers and are not carefull on the road. As for the "motherhood penalty", I think that it is insane to completely cut off the career opportunities of a woman just because she is pregnant. For example, how can a pregnant woman offer less when it comes to a desk job (I mean if she's got the skills why not hire her or why offer her a very low salary?). I think that companies use that just as an excuse to "save the company's money", but I can't see the point in that. As for the male dominated industries, yes, this is a massive problem. I mean there are cases that girls do not accmplish their dreams just because they think the industry "is not for them". Common examples in my country are the STEAM, robotics and mechanics but in many countries as well it is considered that girls can't work in these fields. On the other hand, I think that the male-led developpement is not such a big problem because I believe that this is an extereme case. In my opinion whoever works in developpment knows the gender a product addresses and it will be made accordingly. Also, if a company makes products for men, it'll losse female audience.
in my opinion i would like to say that all can be a problem fix ,because coming to;
STEREOTYPES :as they say that when people wrongly assume that every one is the same ,of course we all are all the same but the thing that differentiates us is gender .For example ,we wrongly say that women can't play football but the most surprising thing of them all is that they are also the best of them all and they are been neglected. and also when people say that men are only the bread winner of the family and not the women and that is again wrong because a mother in a family can also provide for the family and not only the father. and this can be a problem fix .
THE MOTHERHOOD PENALTY: this can also be a problem fix for example when a female in an office is not been paid the same amount as the male are been done and they will say that the male does much work than the female but it is actually wrong
MALE DOMINATED INDUSTRIES :in some industries only 80 % are male and 20% are female because they do say that male are stonger than female but it is all wrong because 25% of pain
In my opinion the hardest to fix out of all these problems is the "motherhood penalty". I say this because it's an issue deep rooted in societal, workplace and economical structure. Most jobs operate on things such as constant availability and a structure that rewards long work sessions , these things can be harder for mothers because they have to take care of their children. In addition to that, working part-time or having a more flexible schedule can sometimes lead to lower pay and fewer opportunities. In general, maternal leave's support can be very inconsistent because it can be different depending on the company and the country. Overall, wage gaps between men and women still exist in the job market and being a mother only widens them. However, there could be potential solutions such as better childcare support, but that would require government funding, which varies based on political priorities. Thanks for reading!
Stereotyping is the hardest problem to fix in my opinion.
It's very difficult to change the mind of someone who already has a mindset that cannot falter. When people are born, they are told a lot by older people or people younger than them. Especially when young, we believe anything told. When someone is told something from the beginning, it gets hard for them to let the thought go. For example, with colors. Blue, red, and even green are classified as "male" because those are the typical colors chosen by boys. Pink and purple are classified as "female" because those are the typical colors chosen by girls. When children think of it this way, they may think of it as set rules. This happens for a lot of stereotypes. When I was younger, my older cousin who was a boy said he likes pink and blue. I argued, "But pink is for girls." He had to explain to me that there are girls who love blue and boys who love pink. Even after he explained it, I was stubborn. But, Sometimes stereotypes are broken. As a girl, I now love blue as a favorite color and red and green as the other colors I like.
This isn't the case for everyone, though. There are people whose minds stay fixed on an exact rule that they believe can never be broken. Like, with the LGBTQIA+ community, many people think that the rule of "male and female" cannot be broken and they continue to degrade the community.
This happens with women too. "Women can't drive", "Women have to cook." A woman can drive, and a woman doesn't have to cook. But changing someone's stubborn thoughts will never be easy for society today.
Ans.
I think that what we really need to fix first is the people's mindset , the stereotypes and expectations that they have should not exist because what mostly demotivates not just women but even men is the fear of thinking what others would say. For example if a man wants to become a nursery teacher then many people will laugh at him just because their thoughts are fixed at one point that if a man does such jobs then he will be not be valued even if it's his own choice. Also , if a woman has to do a job which is mainly considered as a mans job then she has to face so many stereotypes and this is exactly what demotivates a person from trying new things and doing something they love. If we really want a society with equality then the first priority should be to change the mindset of the society and stop such stereotypes which demoralises people from following their Passion. The other points which are mentioned in this topic are also very important but what I personally think is that this should be the 1st priority to change the society.
Hello !
Fixing stereotypes is a daunting task. Stereotypes are deeply ingrained, often unconscious, and perpetuated by societal norms. They influence how we perceive and treat individuals, perpetuating inequality.
For instance, the stereotype that women are nurturing and men are assertive affects hiring decisions, performance evaluations, and promotions. This bias is hard to recognize and even harder to change.
In contrast, addressing issues like motherhood penalty, male-dominated industries, and male-led development requires policy changes, education, and awareness. While challenging, these issues can be tackled through concrete actions.
However, stereotypes require a fundamental shift in mindset, which is more complex and time-consuming to achieve. It demands self-reflection, empathy, and a willingness to challenge one's own biases.
Thank you !
- happy_morning
I believe solving stereotypical thinking is most difficult. Because it’s the root cause of gender inequality and”stereotypes are not born they are made up “ everyone blindly just think they way the past generations have decided and accept it the truth . Even now in India women are forced to get married which is referred in “ lapata ladies “ an Indian movie but the wives get misplaced and then they empower themselves on their own feet and study too by their hard earned money. It’s a really wonderful movie and I recommend all to watch it because it has a great message. Hope you all liked my thoughts :).
I think male - led developement is most difficult to fix . This is because most of the systems and machines have been designed and developed by men as well as for men from many decades showcasing the biases and gender ineqality. It is not a piece of cake to change the mindset of people and these systems , especially whem these structure or sustems are immerged with cultures and values.
For example in many contries, like my own, women are mostly affected by the poor urban planning , such as inadequate safety measures and lighting as they are more likely to be considered as care givers and have different mobility patterns. To solve this issue we can involve most of women in the development and design process.
From a human's birth to the human's Death, we all learn and witness struggle and difficulties in different stages of our lives.
From the points given above, it is really hard to choose any one, because, all of them are quite serious!
I. STEREOTYPE
:- stereotype thinking is carried from early ages till date. A prediction that girls like pink and boys prefer sports is FALSE! This type of prediction makes up an image of others in our mind from the beginning.
II. MOTHERHOOD
:- There are many places where women don't get maternity leave, or they don't get fully paid. In many households a mother is held responsible if her child fails in learning or behavior. This is totally wrong, a father should also take equal responsibility.
III. MALE JOBS
:- Many professions and industries like pilot and technology prefer men over women because people think that men would work more professionaly than women.
IV. MALE LED DEVELOPMENT
:- Development like london stairs or other historical developments were made according to men, for men. Due to this women are now facing trouble, but reconstruction would be costly.
All the thinkings are in our minds, none of them would ever create an issue if we start to throw them out! We are the new and growing generation, it is our choice to shape our new world.
I believe that stereotypes are the hardest problems to solve. For example, the stereotype that boys like the color blue and girls like pink. I know many girls that like blue and many boys that like pink, it is just not a fact. But people will start believing it because they have heard many people say it all around the world. And stereotypes aren't just a small thing like this, I also believe that some parts of racism are stereotypes. Some people think that all black people are thugs and robbers and that is just not true but many people will just listen to the people they believe. It's most likely that they heard someone say that they are, or maybe they have seen it in person, but it doesn't mean that everyone in that ethnicity is like that. And this can be a huge problem because the people that get stereotyped, which is black people in this case, could be treated badly or even get in trouble because of the stereotype. Or maybe be rejected at an interview and denied a job which can ruin their future. This is because if people don't stop telling people all of these false stereotypes, then many people will continue to believe them and possibly ruin the future for people. And if some people do start to tell people that the stereotype isn't true, then still many people will still believe the stereotype. Also, many people will continue to spread the stereotype, making even more people believe it. For these reasons, this is why I think that stereotypes are the hardest problems to solve.
I personally believe that the motherhood penalty is the hardest problem to fix.
This is mainly because mothers can't just leave their baby or babies alone they have to stay and take care of them until they are old enough to take care of themselves. I think a reasonable age for that would be 8 through 10. But until then the mother may have to stay home to take care of their child because the yearly price to take your child to daycare at minimum is $9,600 in some places. Nine-thousand six hundred dollars Just to take your children to daycare. Also having to pay for the expenses for your children like diapers, baby formula, and clothes. That would be very expensive especially if you have more than two children. Having to stay home because of these reasons could get women demoted or fired from their job.
That's why I think that the "motherhood penalty" is the hardest to fix.
I think the motherhood penalty is the most important problem that could be solve, because is very unfair to treat a person different or give her less oportunities in life or in order to get a job just by the fact that she has a baby. I understand what great companies like to have young people which ca spend many time in the company and don´t have to take free days because they are just starting their lifes not as mothers which one day couldn´t go to their job because they need to take care of the baby, also other thing that I mentioned is that most companies search to have young workers and mothers usually are not very young. Despite all this facts I think that companies should be more flexible and give the opportunity to work to this womans who have babies because they could work as well as young people or people without babies
In my opinion stereotype is the biggest challenge we've had to face. In my country, America, many people get outcasted for not liking what they'd normally like as their group would. For example If a girl likes the color blue she might get bullied for not liking more of what you might think a girl would like.
Also, many cultural groups get discriminated against for not going by other peoples thoughts on what they might think. As we speak there many people getting discriminated against and bullied
In conclusion, I think that with the right evidence I think that stereotypical problems are the hardest problem to face in these four topics.
I think solving motherhood penalty would be the hardest. Because I thought that they could simply just give them a couple weeks off. Then I realised 59% are pregnant or a mother or even both so they are going to lose many customers, workers, and even managers, or CEOs. The company would lose a lot of money so they couldn't give them a couple weeks off. so in conclusion I think that solving motherhood penalties would be the hardest to solve.
From my point of view, the most difficult problem to fix are the stereotypes and expectations, as this is in our mind. Of course it is really difficult to solve all of them, but if I had to choose one, I would choose the first one. As I see it, we can try to fix, at least a little bit, the rest of problems, establishing strict rules, but it's almost imposible to change people's mind.
You can force businesses to treat women with children in the same way than other workers, doing some test every 6 months, or if they are trying any new technology test it with men and women, but you cannot change how people see the world. You cannot force them to see the world as you want them to see it. That's something that must change with time, and we need a lot of time.
I think the motherhood penalty is the most difficult to fix as the women in some countries are working the same hours and doing the same jobs but get paid less. During ww2 the men were sent to war whilst the women are expected to take over the men's jobs
Of course Stereotypes! Considering for one to erase the very taboos which cause the creation of those stereotypes, one has to alter the psyche of the collective unconscious. This needs deep and effective education, esteemed role models and a family which doesn't interfere in ones beliefs and core values. Unlike most other problems which can be fixed by just a few policy changes.
I think stereotypes are the hardest problem to fix because they have been deeply rooted from history and have been ingrained into peoples opinions for many generations and because of this since they are still around now it shows that people aren't just going to forget about them and they're going to be around for a lot longer as people are born taught these things and its hard to change someone's opinion when they've spent their whole life believing in it. The assumptions of what women should and shouldn't be doing affect society by reinforcing gender inequality, limiting opportunities, and restricting personal freedom. These stereotypes influence career choices, discourage leadership roles, and continue the wage gaps between women and men. These stereotypes can cause assumptions and harmful reputations for women and can negatively influence their self esteem and ambition for the future.
I think gender stereotypes are the hardest problem to solve. If everyone around the world is assuming that girls like pink and boys like blue, then how do we change their minds? That’s approximately 8 billion people around the world that we need to influence but I believe we can do it if we put our minds to it.
By process of elimination, motherhood penalties don’t happen frequently in my country. If it is happening in other countries, maybe women or mothers can go on a strike so we will we see how the country does things without the help of women. That will make our world appreciate women more and give them higher wages.
I think that male-dominated industries will be fixed easier than gender stereotypes. When a woman has an ambition to be a builder or tech person, they should be able to do it. If a male-dominated industry refuses her the job, she should go to a mayor and get them shut down or convince them to employ her. No one wants to be shut down so I am certain that the industry will employ her and she will achieve her dream.
Male-led development I found quite tricky comparing to gender stereotypes. However, I think that male-led development might be slightly easier to solve. We are a world of the future with advanced AI coming out soon. With this new tech, the tech can influence men to manufacture products for women too. As well as this, the AI can work alongside them so that it can help too.
In conclusion, I believe that gender stereotypes are the hardest problem to fix.
I think the hardest problem to solve is Stereotypes because people talk and talk without stopping and the stereotypes are getting worse with every day that passes. People are racist and they speak badly about other people. For example in my country there is a stereotype that says that woman can’t drive or blonde people are stupid. Which obviously is not true. There are many other stereotypes that are vulgar and racist and I prefer not to say those.
However male-dominated industries are very common and people are bad and they are looking to being the leader and they want the most attention knowing that woman have ideas that not everyone has.
In my opinion both females and males have stereotypes for each other and both genders should stop, but still males have more to comment about woman than females comment on men. That's what I usually see from day to day life or on social media. Men have too many opinions on what other females should do or wear. We can just stop with the stereotypes by trying to understand things about eachother and stop comparing us with people or competing with others.
I believe The Motherhood Penalty is the biggest problem as they are expected to stay home and take time off to look after their children and men are expected to go to work and earn money. Women are capable of this though so they should be given a chance to try stuff that the men do. For example construction when do you see a women working with construction. You would expect a man to do it as it’s very rare for a lady. So that’s why I believe The Motherhood Penalty is the biggest problem to fix. Thank you
You have talked about how The Motherhood Penalty affects women, how do you think The Motherhood Penalty affects men?
I think stereotypes is the hardest problem to fix. Before you start assuming about someone you need to confirm , not every boy has his favourite colour as blue and not every girl has her favourite colour as pink , but everyone assumes it is this way because even at baby showers it's like that. Everyone is different and this is the way it should be. Examples of stereotypes which exist in my country are that blondes are stupid , but I don't think the colour of the hair depends on someone's intelligence and knowledge.Another stereotype is that women don't drive well , it depends on the person , some women drive really well even better.
I agree with you all of your reasons are complete they are better than mine good job.
In my opinion Male-led development is extremely difficult to overcome, for Decades the development of our communities is often built to sustain the needs of the male gender, ranging from companies that are predominately male-led to infrastructure such as the London stairs which were designed for the length of their legs. These implications and mindset makes it much more difficult for Women to become a part of the 'big picture'
What an interesting fact about about the infrastructure in London! Where did you find out this fact?
Mother penalty has a catastrophic impact on women's careers, triggering a devastating ripple effect that resonates throughout their life. The statistics are staggering with women's earning potential plummets by 4-10% per child, while their chances of advancements are crippled by biases and stereotypes. This draconian penalty not only perpetuates gender inequality but also inflicts lasting damage on women's financial stability, metal health and of course the over all well being .
I think that the biggest and main problem is the stereotypes, because sometimes, some people see women in a way which dosent suit any of the qualities this person has. I think the stereotypes are mainly made thanks to how people dress, thinks or express themselves, but not expressing themselves in many things. For example, some people gets judged for only saying something about a delicated problem. In my opinion this should be fixed.
I agree that stereotypes, which are assumptions, are a problem. You come up with some good ideas about what can lead to people making assumptions - what does it mean to you for someone to be a woman or a man?
I agree with this statement because people are being discriminated everyday and its not ok. I think they should actually let them do what they wanna do and stop the madness.
I believe that stereotypes are the hardest problem to fix because they influence how people think from their childhood and shape all other types of gender inequality.
Stereotypes like "boys are natural leaders" or "girls should be gentle and caring" , affect career choices , job opportunities and even family roles. In India for example, many families still believe that daughters should focus on doing and handling the household responsibilities rather than focusing on their career , which limits their independence and are not allowed to achieve their dreams. These stereotypes also also contribute to male dominated industries because fewer girls are encouraged to pursue careers in fields like engineering , or technology.
Unlike the workplace policies , which can be changed through laws , stereotypes are deeply rooted in culture , traditions , and everyday conversations. Changing them requires years of education , representation in media , and awareness campaigns. Since these stereotypes are passed down through generations , it takes a lot of time to break these patterns and create true equality for everyone.
Great comment! Your make a statement, elaborate with examples and offer a justification of your view. Are you also suggesting that stereotypes are not just the hardest problem, but the main problem, that the other three problems come from?
From my point of view, the fourth of them are really important and difficould to change. With the years this problems have became more and more visible but we need to continue fighting against them. I know how these problems can vary depending on the country thats why i´m going to tell you from my point of view and from my country.
Stereotypes are a big problem for me, we associate everything with the different people and everyone in the planet is different. In my coutry they probably say that girls love pink colour, playing with dolls, doing their nails... and for boys they will probably say they love football, blue colour, and they are not afraid of nothing. It is really unfair people think like this and we should do it more visible.
Industries are like jobs, everyone need to have an opportunity to be there, I know it sometimes depend on the physical condition of the person, but the opportunity should be exactly the same one.
To finish my comment I think when we talk about dessingning objects it must be two dessigners, one man and one woman. To explain their different opinions, experiences and how they can improve the product for being the same for everyone.
Well done - a nicely structured comment! Yes, I think the four problems are all interrelated and assumptions are a problem.
I have a few questions for you too :)
How do you mean, for example, male dominated workplaces have become more visible over the years? Do you have any examples?
I am curious who is "they" and what you mean by "unfair"? Do you think that there is anything natural or true about any of the stereotypes you've mentioned? Is it possible that, for example, boys are have a genetic predisposition or physiology that naturally makes them brave?
When designing objects, why it is a good idea to have both genders? Is that not re-enforcing stereotypes? I agree with having multiple opinions, but why not just pick two people at random - two people could often not agree and be different in some really important was, but both have the same gender. Because gender doesn't matter - right! :D
Nowadays male dominated workplaces have became more visible because woman are fighting and trying every day to do their best and also to change this type of things. Some examples I could give are manifestations, it is one way by which women can express their ideas.
I think obviously man and woman have different genetic and physical conditions but stereotypes can not be apply for everyone. A girl could also like cars and blue colour, this two things, and lot´s of more have no gender. In my country they will also probably associate the hair cut with boys and girls. A boy "usually" have a short hair cut and a girl the opposite and some times when people see that a girl for example having short hair they look at her strange. There are lot´s of stereotypes and this provoque that kids can not do what they want because they have "social preassure".
From my point of view a boy can be brave but girls also and showing different things like films to kids make them, in this case girls, they can not be brave and they need to wait for a boy to save them.
I think having two different perspectives can help us to improve the society, not only first think at a man dessing and later try to adapt it to a woman. Maybe to take a group of people with different bodies, opinions and genders can help to improve the new dessings.
Thanks you!
I think that the hardest problem to fix nowadays is male-led development as most of the objects we see and use everyday were created by men. In my opnion it is very unfair and I can not imagine how many women from past years have been struggling with these problem. For example, the seat belts from cars were designed using a man perspective and as a result, they did not protect women and were uncomfortable. To create a product, is fundamental to have both perspective, men and women as well, because if not, these problem will continue with us forever. With products created years before, there is nothing we can do as they are normal objects you can find in your home, but, from now onwards, I hope new products are accesible for everyone.
In my personal opinion, male-led development is the biggest problem nowadays as differiencing it from the others, this can affect in a much worse way to women´s lifes, as taking as an example the one shown in the lesson, the cars safety dummies for accidents, these are desinged for average men size, this makes me ask, what about if a woman has an accident? Women have more risk of having serious injuries and even death if the have a big accident, this is not normal, and im not suggesting that there have to be different cars for women and for men but the desing should fit for both in the same way. This is the example that impacted me the most but there are thousands more that can also affect women in a very negative way.
I personally think that stereotypes and expectations are the hardest to get rid of because stereotypes are deep rooted and they date back quite far so I feel it would be difficult to eliminate them. People are even placing genders on colours and saying that pink is a girl colour and blue is a boy colour and that girls like Barbie and boys want hotwheels. Gender stereotypes for men and women have been around for too long, in my opinion, and i think that they might now be irremovable. As we talked about in class yesterday on this topic, the space woman, Sally Ride, faced many sexist and stereotypical comments and questions in an interview, asking her what makeup she would take with her into space and asking if she cried from the pressure. These questions are very stereotypical and suggesting that all women wear makeup and all women are sensitive and cry a lot. The significance of this is that it is once again proving that stereotypes about females are very common and are even being applied in a public, professional setting.
I think that male dominated industries will be the most difficult to fix/see the least development in the coming years because for the majority of time since the beginning of civilisation, women taking more domestic or less stem related jobs has had a place in society. All though there are many women and girls who want to be in the more male dominated industries but don't as they are afraid of not making it as far as men or not being taken seriously, i also think that women and girls just generally aren't as interested in these types of jobs most of the time. However, i think that this could change. From birth, girls and boys are often subconsciously pushed into these rolls, which has an effect on their interests later on in life and the things they shy away from. A lot of parents nowadays try to give their kids the freedom to choose for themselves rather than letting society dictate what they should and shouldn't do, but the patriarchy is a deep rooted idea in society which will likely never go away. In addition, some of the biggest religions also include the ideology of women taking on more domestic roles, and with a majority of the world being religious, many girls will continue to grow up with the idea that these industries are for men.
I believe the motherhood penalty is one of the most difficult issues to tackle. Couples that wish to start families have to seriously consider how they will fund childcare should they return to work. Childcare costs in UK on average are around £8,000 per year which is a third of the average annual wage. Our teacher shared her experiences of the childcare penalty as she had twins so the cost was doubled, she had to take a career break and because of that she is now not earning the same as her male counterparts who did not take any time off work.
I believe the UK now lets parents share maternity/paternity leave but only if your company agrees - this still puts the onus on women as they are entitled to the larger share of the leave. Until we treat men and women as equals on all matters, we cannot expect there to be equality in my opinion.
I think that stereotypes and expectations might be one of the problems women might face in the space industry.
I think this because women are not always thought as being as strong and smart compared to men. For example the first time a women was in space was in 1964 compare to the first man in space was in 1961. When a women astronaut was going to space she was asked in a interview whether she would be taking any make-up into space, and that does she cry under pressure. Another point she was asked was that if she would be doing the cooking. Personally I would find this very rude , as this would emply that as she is a women she should look after the men on board the space station and that the is just there to be a house wife, not like the men onboard the ship exploring space.
i believe the most difficult problem to fix is male led development due to the test dummies in car crashes are the average male height and weight so that would mean a smaller woman would sustain worse injuries another example are the London stairs which were the perfect height and length to make climbing them easier for men but to fix this issue it would cost the government lots of money and labour and most politicians wont take any notice to it.
Very interesting insights, where did you hear about this?
In my opinion the hardest problem that needs fixing is inequality such as gender in the workplace.
women have historically been treated differently especially in jobs such as construction or as a
astronaut. this could be for many reasons such as stereotypes like women are weak or they can't have jobs or they can only cook and clean
I think that no matter how much we try this will be an issue that will always affect women. The best thing we could do is try to lower the rates and make life easier for everybody.
Women are shaped by society. They are told that if they don't act a certain way, they're not 'lady-like' or an 'actual woman'. For reasons like these women think they have to conform to certain stereotypes or male needs. This in its self is degrading and wrong. It is difficult to diagnose things such as ADHD or autism within women as they suppress their feelings and truths to shape into how society want them to be. Another issue we need to be aware of is the 'pink tax'. This is where female products are overpriced and cost a lot especially when they are natural, bodily things. Sanitary products are good example for this. Women have to pay lots every month just to keep sanitary. Companies have developed within this area by making some products cheaper or even giving out so many free products a month. However, you have to drive to the nearest storage house or factory of the company, so many women would just rather pay round a corner shop. One of the biggest issues within society is the bipolar feelings towards how women should be. Some men say a woman should be extremely pretty or even wear makeup where others say that a woman shouldn't wear makeup because that makes her a liar. Some say a woman should have her kids as her first priority but also not 'over-mother' their kids and make them none resilient. I think its unfair to say that all men fall into this bracket of stereotyping because they don't. Many men are extremely supportive of women's rights and will also stand with women for their rights. Many dads aren't embarrassed to buy daughters sanitary products anymore also
For the hardest Problem to fix, I chose male-led development because a Woman Body is different to a Mans Body in many different ways such as mostly being more Shooter than the average male. And because male-led development is used for the average male, this will make it harder to mix it up with the average Woman trying to find the perfect result. Of course it is possible to separate the results but this will just make things worse. The motherhood penalty can easily be fixed by just not having kids. Stereotypes and expectations are just sexist and just hinder women from reaching their full potential because of a wrong mindset from people that didn‘t get raised the right way. Male dominated industries isn‘t really a problem because if women start working out intensely, they will get way stronger and can also handle a so called male dominated industry. This is why I think the male led development is the hardest problem to fix.
You can the motherhood penalty can easily be fixed - can you make this claim for certain?
I think stereotypes are by far the Most difficult problem to solve about gender inequality. Stereotypes are views that people start to “absorb” from their parents as they’re born, so these ideas are near impossible to get rid of. Even if you’re aware of what stereotypes affect you, and try to avoid them, you’ll still subconsciously be influenced by them. And those stereotypes won’t go away as long as people still grow up with them and make choices based on them all over the world. It’s also those very stereotypes that cause all the other problems like the motherhood penalty, male-led development and male-dominated industries: Employers might think “mothers can’t work hard because of their children” or “women should stay at home, not work” or even ignore women when making design choices. These stereotypes persisting are also the reason it’s so hard to fix the other problems, as they’ve been engrained in society for so long it’ll be a serious challenge to finally have gender equality.
In my opinion, the motherhood panelty is the biggest problem. Women aren‘t just there to get children and do the work at home. In some areas of the world it is like this (mostly in less developed countries). But also in good developed countries this is often a problem. Companies didn’t employ women, because they are scared/ except that women will get a child one day. And because of this employees didn’t pay women the same amount than men. This made me very angry of the society! I mean in which millennia do we live, that women aren’t that worthy than men? Also the expectation that every woman wants to have child one day. Every woman can decide for herself!
The gender stereotypes are the hardest problems to fix because are some solutions to the other problems. For example in Germany we have way to combat the male led Industry by having something called the woman‘s quota which basically means there is a percentage of the employees that have to be female. With this woman‘s quote the problem that there is a male led development is going to be fixed because women are also going to design products for example that fit them or even both genders. Also the motherhood penalty can be fixed. In Germany the father can also stay home and take care of the child while the mother goes to work. This should become more common and balanced.
I feel that stereotypes is the most difficult problem to fix, because first of all, stereotypes often lead to those other problems like the mother-hood penalty or male-led development. For example People or often men think that pregnant women can’t or don’t work that well beacause when they’re pregnant they aren’t physically fit enough. And these stereotypes lead to problems like this example which make the lives of women more difficult. It is also hard to change a persons mind who has these stereotypes about women. There are so many people you could argue about for many hours and they still won’t change their mind. Other problems like the male-led development are a bit easier to change. For example I read on another comment, that the stairs in London are built for the average size of a man. But Buildings or stairs in this case have to be rebuilt every year. And if at that time when they are being rebuilt, they can be built in way which is also convenient for women.
I agree with you because yes people think men can do certain stuff and how women can do certain things like doing the laundry but we can change this by trusting women!
I think that stereotypes are a problem, for example you hear someone saying this to there child"Your a boy! You need to always wear blue! Boys like blue!" Or "Your a girl! Put on a pink dress! and go put on makeup! Your a girl! You need to look like a girl! and fix your hair! Your a girl, girls like pink!" Its is not right! we have to do something about this!
I think gender stereotypes are really really bad like it could make a woman not able to do a job she loves or not get a job at all. For example if a single mother and need to find work to get money for her children right but the bosses don't think you can do the job just because your a women and men are ranked higher that is just so so unfair and yes it has got better in recent years but it is still a problem around the world I find it really sad
Can you tell me some examples as to how this issue has gotten better in recent years?
There will always be a divide between men and women. Our biological structures are different which causes a barrier for full equality.
Some of these divides within the working industry are down to personal interest such as the stereotype of women working in the beauty industry and men working in the factory industry. Due to biology women are not naturally as strong as men, which causes a divide in sporting categories such as football and the Olympics. Women are able to work hard and exceed the natural strength as men however in physically demanding jobs they would need to work twice hard for the same result.
We will never reach full equality, that does not mean we should not try. As a community we need to challenge stereotypes and defy gender normalities.
How do you think we can challenge stereotypes and defy gender norms?
There will always be a divide between men and women. Our biological structures are different which causes a barrier for full equality.
Some of these divides within the working industry are down to personal interest such as the stereotype of women working in the beauty industry and men working in the factory industry. Due to biology women are not naturally as strong as men, which causes a divide in sporting categories such as football and the Olympics. Women are able to work hard and exceed the natural strength as men however in physically demanding jobs they would need to work twice hard for the same result.
We will never reach full equality, that does not mean we should not try. As a community we need to challenge stereotypes and defy gender normalities.
There will always be a divide between men and women. Our biological structures are different which causes a barrier for full equality.
Some of these divides within the working industry are down to personal interest such as the stereotype of women working in the beauty industry and men working in the factory industry. Due to biology women are not naturally as strong as men, which causes a divide in sporting categories such as football and the Olympics. Women are able to work hard and exceed the natural strength as men however in physically demanding jobs they would need to work twice hard for the same result.
We will never reach full equality, that does not mean we should not try. As a community we need to challenge stereotypes and defy gender normalities.
i believe that the most difficult problem to overcome is the mother hood penalty. this is because it is not something you can just ask. this is because of prejudice. people subconsciously change their attitude on these opinions. this can not be changed as long as education stays the same. the common phrase boys will be boys makes young boys get away with treating girls as inferior. as long as this continues men will continue these.the mother hood penalty furthers this as women are less likely to get a job as they could get pregnant. this leads men to give women less pay and pay less once they had a child due to the stereo type of men paying for children.
i think the motherhood penalty is the hardest problem to fix these days because many people thinks they are doing the right by giving mothers like that lower pay which is not fair because they are looking after their children. so, they can have bright future but many people are too selfish to see and help instead of that they pay little amount of money and less promotion.
one job that is easy to fix is male led jobs. to fix this you encourage girls from a young age to peruse these couriers rather than shut them down. this means women will go for an interview for these jobs. on the other side is encourage young boys to peruse women led jobs as no job should have a gender.
In my opinion, I think stereotypes are the most difficult of all the problems to fix. First of all, most people assume the men go to work, and the women do all the chores/housework. But, it can also be the opposite: the man can do the housework/chores, and the woman can go to work. Second of all, most people will think that it is weird for them to do the opposite of what they think they should do. A lot of people will probably criticize them for it or say that it is weird for them to do that. So in conclusion I think stereotypes are the most difficult of all the problems to fix because, most people will never get used to seeing the opposite of most common stereotypes about colors, jobs, etc.
I agree with you because most men think they go to work and women take care of the house. It can be really difficult to change this because at the end of the day you can't change the way a person thinks. Many people criticize women they don't just criticize them because of their gender but also because of the race. Overall I agree with everything you said and I've also noticed that we kind of talked about the same things in our writings.
In my opinion.I think stereotypes is the hardest to fix because it has been going on for years. I also think people have tried to protest in the past. Gender reveals also do blue as boy and pink as girl. How men look at women might think. MAKE ME A SANDWICH WOMEN. People think men are tough. But they might be soft inside. People might get their personality wrong. That's why I think its the hardest.
I voted A, Stereotypes, because if you think about it, when you look back into the world, what is the biggest problem ? Some people think it would be motherhood, but what causes that? It's the way men and people look at women and say "Hey, I don't think you can do that or this". If people didn't think that women couldn't do hard work like truck driving etc. The reason we can't build on the world is because men look down on women. That's why I said A, because no matter what you say or prove to men they wouldn't listen.
I chose stereotype for my answer . I think stereotype is the hardest one to fix because it can be hard to change people's opinions. I say this because as me being a woman myself I have gotten comments where people thought I couldn't do as much stuff as men. Women didn't get most of their rights until the 1920s and before they did they were seen as just cooks or maids. Most men also think women can't play sports. For example if you are in america and you watched the super bowl. If you saw the commercial about how the NFl was trying to support women playing football. This relates to stereotype because the guy in commercial was telling the female about how she couldn't play football , then once tryouts came along for women to tryout for flag football she proved him wrong. They put at the end of the end the commercial that they were trying to get women to be able to play football in the other 50 states because it's only aloud in certain states.
In my opinion I think stereotypes are the most difficult to fix.You can't easily change someone's mind especially and I mean especially if they are a......Jock!Jocks are the most sexsist people ever.They never learn even after every time in a video or show.In the United States jocks flood the 50 states they are everywhere.I don't think the government can suppress ALL of them.This is my reason on why I think this.
You say that stereotypes are difficult to fix, but then share a stereotypical view about jocks. How could you challenge your own assumptions here?
I think that stereotypes and expectations are the most difficult to fix because people think only men can do certain stuff and how women can only do certain things like doing laundry and babysitting. I think we can change this by trusting women like how we really trusted them during World War Two!
Many women can't get jobs that men do because of stereotypes, or what people think should happen. So that means that because people would think that women for example, can't play football because they "can't handle it," that means they can't play normal football, which is unfair. But that will be very hard to change because even though you can convince people that they should allow women to get more jobs like crystal mining or building, you can't make them change the rules because we don't have mind controlling devices yet. That means that even though you can force them with their life on the line, there is a chance they will say no. (By the way, please don't do this there is a 99% chance you will go to jail if you do.)
I think stereotypes because,I think it would be hard to change someone's opinion about something like people think women like pink and men like blue,and also people look at women and say I don't think you can do this or do that.People also look at women like all they do is cook and clean but in reality they can do so much more for example WW2 women told over work that men did and even better then men.
I think it's going to be hard to change the male dominating industries. For example, there isn't an NFL (National Football League) for women, it's just men even though women are coming up in flag football. I also think construction work and truck driving is a male dominated industry and many people believe that women are not capable and do not have the physical strength needed even though there are many strong women. Finally I believe that we can change this by women posting themselves online doing jobs that they want to do. Sort of like self promoting. If a lot of women start doing that many companies will acknowledge them and see there capable.
I think the motherhood penalty is the hardest problem to fix. Some workers are racist to women because they gave birth and took a long break from work, and then they have a lot of work to do and the boss wants to retire them. Example: A women just gave birth and they took a month break, and when she comes back she asked to be the boss of the company, but the boss does not let the women be the boss because she had a month break. Also she has a big pile to work on since she had a month break. Some men bosses that wouldn't care about the motherhood penalty problem aren't a problem so they lower the pay raise for the women since that women had to give birth. The women mostly have a job, and they already have more responsibilities because of the baby. Racist bosses would lower the money, and promotions, as an example your a work and you could be promoted to a manager but since you have a child and took a break from your office work they don't promote you. the hard problem with this is that you can't force men to stop being racist to women. There are equals right but that can stop some but what if the population of the racist men grow higher and there will be a massive problem. a hard problem with fixing this is that most police officers are men and what if they don't like equal right so then there is a raid with this problem. women are known to have birth, but if they have a job they might lose their job and have a massive pile of work to do. Women have an option because either you don't have birth and just have a 9-5 job or they can have birth and risk their job.
You make some interesting points here! But I think you mean "sexist" (about sex/gender) rather than "racist" (discriminating against race/ethnicity).
I feel like "stereotypes and expectations" are the most difficult out of the 4 to fix because it isn't easy to change someone's opinion and the other problems branch off of it. Take for example, the motherhood penalty. Many people believe women should work in housekeeping areas because they are not "capable" of working in other areas. This is technically stereotypical. So, the real problem is actually stereotyping. I feel like we can solve this problem if we take our time to recognize what women are capable of. In world war 2, women worked in factories and majorly affected the war. This shows the effect of women.
I believe that one of the greatest problems in our country . Many women in our country face these challenges, as men are becoming increasingly dominant. A common thoughts of the people in our society is that women don’t need an education because, after marriage, they will go to other house and only cooking. Therefore, it is often assumed that men should only receive an education. This mindset is the most peoples thought in many areas, especially in my state, Tamil Nadu, where these issues are big spread.
In places like Madurai, some men even say that women should not be bold or straightforward, otherwise men will be do some violence against them. Unfortunately, these issues are not only in my state, they exist globally. Stereotypes are one of the biggest problems In India, many women are still not allowed to get education. I strongly tell, in future all of the women must be educated because it will more helpful for their life and contribute to the development and progress of our nation.
Additionally, some older women also against the younger generation of women,telling men can go anywhere at any time, women should not have the same freedom. These are just a few examples of the many challenges women face. If we can overcome these problems, our nation, Bharat, will become great and more developed country.
That's a really nice comment illuminated_ant,
how can we redefine success and progress in a society that historically has only valued the success of men and often restricts the growth of women?
For me the hardest problem to fix is the past. By this I mean that many bosses will hire more men than women because they grew up with the mentality "Men work,women stay home".
The "motherhood penalty" is definitely a very troubling situation, not just because of its limitations women have to face in the job field. The thing is neither, of course, could the young women be accused of being at fault in the situation, as, first of all, not all of them aspire to be mothers, but even if they do, its by all means their right to do so, but neither could the employers. Many developping companies need long hours of work and require engaging in many activities out of the office, such as business trips or colleagues'-business dinners, for example. A mother has, of course, much limited time for such "social" events that are still part of the job, though. And, of course, her child will always come first, so there may be a need to pur her job in a lower position at the list of her priorities, and not be able to spend as much time at work. So, is it really that unreasonable that employers will take that into consideration and opt for a candidate who will, maybe, be more dedicated?
Interesting ideas genial_owl - what is your opinion on this topic?
In my opinion, the stereotypes are the most difficult problem of a women or a girl this is due to the things that women are supposed to do such as clean , cook food and take care of children this is all because of stereotypes. Some times I thing that we live in a patriarchy society because of mostly men telling us women what to do and how to act and talk . Me as being a young girl myself I am expected to take care of myself need to smell nice need to be kind and caring and I am not saying that all of these trait are bad but what I saying is that if we don't do one of those things then we are criticised and we get told to be more "lady like" which I think is a bad saying because you can be what ever you want newer days. There isn't just women stereotypes you could look a different way and people will judge you because of it . You could fix this by getting rid of stereotypes but since we are all different in personalities then this will be a bit difficult but if we all work together then this might be possible.
I think that the most difficult problem to fix will be the gender stereotypes and expectations of women. I believe that women should be able to be their own person and be accepted as who they are or who they want to be. All of these problems are going to be difficult to end but I believe that if we are accept the fact that women are equal to men, we can finally put an end to what women have protested for most of their lives.
Being a girl myself, it is hard to believe that women are being discriminated against for being themselves. I'm sure most of us don't want to grow up in a society that values boys more than girls. The classroom discussion we had shows that everyone has heard of gender inequality but not many people have seen a change. Of course over time it has changed but even he little things can do a lot.
On the other hand, male-led development is also a major problem in today's society. As many of you may know, most jobs during the 1900s, were given to men such as, the army, the space stations and many more jobs. It is not right that women are treated differently from men. It's not right that we are being exploited just because of our gender and who we are. It is our own choice how we chose to act but if it doesn't improve, it could drag the whole world down. I
I know the world can do better. I know we can make it right. We just need to work together and create a happier, healthier world to live in.
Hello everyone,
I believe that the motherhood penalty will be the hardest problem to find a solution to. This is because sometimes when becoming a mother the time you take off work will have a knock on affect. This could mean you had to months off you so you have lost your place or position. However sometimes it is not just a natural consequence it is a inequality in the system. A example of this could be the lack of support for new mothers. 1 in 5 mothers have contemplated leaving the workforce due to balancing childcare and work. I believe that this will be the hardest as it will need to be a nationwide solution which will need government help. This may be difficult as raising awareness can be quite difficult to do especially if you have to get the help of the government to put a solution in place. It also may be difficult to solve as a lot of the motherhood penalty is mental and that it is a lot of work to balance both a job and a child. Therefore there is not one specific thing that everyone can do to help.
I do not believe that stereotypes and expectations is the hardest one to change as if there is education to help and promote the fact women can do anything I believe generation stereotypes will break and there will be less inequality. I don't think male led development is the main issue as to get into a position of power you must earn so these men must have the right the be in power however I do believe in some cases men are wrongly chosen over women. Lastly I don't believe male dominated workforces is the biggest problem either.
Nowadays there are reports showing male led developments are much more common than equality. Like the example shown above, the London stairs were built for the length of the legs of a male which can make It difficult to live up to as a woman. Though, this isn't just about the stairs. In general there has seemed to be many businesses that are made particularly for or expected for men which comes in contrast with Male dominated industries. These come hand in hand as the economy continues to grow, Many big worldwide leaders tend to be men as their bases are built for them to succeed. For example, many inventions that we use still to this day were created by mainly men such as the lightbulb and the car. Women are highly unlikely to succeed the same way a man would just because they are doubted and outshined by a man.
The stereotype/motherhood penalty can go hand and hand when they are both based on assumptions made by men when at the workplace. I have seen that women, especially single mothers, have been treated differently simply because of their status. They assume that women are less committed, and can only do this much work or that specific work. This would be a very hard problem to fix as it is not as physical as it is a societal issue. Male-dominated workplaces may have trouble in fixing the disproportionally amount of women on the team; however, in the last 50 years, there have been great strides in fixing this, while the stereotyping of women continues as a fundamental problem. But for both, a change in thinking must occur over time. These issues aren't something that can be solved in a relatively short amount of time. The male-dominated way of thinking must change into a diverse and inclusive way in which every group is thought of equally.
I support your discussion and comment on this, i have personally seen women bullied, underpaid and given less attention when it comes to country political matters and developments.
most cultures omits mothers from the decision making table.
The "motherhood penalty" is one of the hardest problems to fix in society. Many mothers struggle to even feed their children and the idea of having them work while they have children to care for is unfair. More than not Mothers have to raise their children alone and money does not come easy, not only do they have to struggle but it's heartbreaking that they are forced into a system that cannot support them or their kids. Having to abandon your children to feed your children isn't a choice everyone wants to follow. It's one of the biggest barrier in which a woman can care for her family.
Stereotypes are the most difficult problem to solve because it is a challenge to change what majority believe. this remains in the mindset of those taking such a point of view. Rather, Women have proven to be strong in breaking all the set stereotypes on them by getting themselves into space meant to segregate and sideline them.
i think male led development is the hardest issue to fix these days because if you take a picture of the london stairs which was made for easy climb of men you can just think for your self or even imagine for your self that it was an easy plan which was made so that women can not navigate the stairs
i think the most difficult thing to fix is stereotype mainly because in Kenya many women are downgraded because of their physical appearance and strength .When a woman goes looking for work in industries and construction sites, they are rejected and told they do not have the strength and instead go home and do the house chores and also baby sit babies .In terms of hygiene men are told not to be neat and clean because that is a thing for girls . That is really had to remove in the minds of people in the interior parts of Kenya
In my opinion stereotyping is the most difficult problem to solve ,because it is hard to erase from peoples mind who lived in knowing that girls lived to help boys and they all loved the color pink then blue and black was for boys.
I think that Stereotypes are the most difficult because working on stereotypes involve talking to people which is a slow and challenging process because you will get to meet a lot of breath taking angered people which is somuch difficult to talk them out of, and most of these people have deeply rooted believes in gender descrimination such as: Women are to be in the kitchen only, there are jobs that are for men only because women are not strong enough, etc, choosing to talk about it on social media could also be challenging because you'll tend to get a lot of dislikes due to these strong believe systems, like traditionalists, misogynists and patriachalists.
I believe that stereotype is the most difficult problem to fix. Stereotyping has been a great problem to the world. It has brought about under development and less growth even in the economy of the world. The only solution I believe would solve the problem of stereotyping is being "Neutral". By being neutral people would not have the mindset that a particular color or sports belongs to a boy or girl. It will also help us drop the mindset that a particular social role is for a boy or a girl, therefore enhancing participation of both male and female in different social roles.
With the help of neutrality I believe stereotyping would stop and the world would be a better place.
THANK YOU.
well the problem of male-dominated industries is quite a difficult problem in the society. women are being stopped from pursuing one dream or another due to that they feel like they are too weak. women actually do better than men at doing work or a job if they put their mind into it as men do and if they are not being talked down on.
I think male -dominated industries is the one that I think this is the one that you can fix.Because my reasons are people that work or that have worked in landscapes or construction people will think that women are not strong or will not being able to be carrying concrete blocks or heavy things and men will think is not for girls because its unsafe but women might be stronger than you think.So women might be stronger and men are just judging of how they look.
Stereotypes are the hardest problems to fix these days. For example girl are more dramatic during conflict while boy are less dramatic or even that girls are meant to be in the kitchen, taking care of kids and being a house wife and while boys will be the one working .
What can we do to change these stereotypes?
The most difficult problem to fix could be male-dominated industries. I think so because industries like technology and constructions mainly build up of male figures. some changes we could carry out are: Not having gender stereotypes influencing on carrier choices. This means giving the same opportunities and not to underestimate a woman’s choice of studies. we could also have woman talking about careers in STEM and encouraging others to be part of it. There could be some podcast to inspire more girls to enter in this sector. And finally, giving institutional support to them, avoiding discrimination and lack of real opportunities.
Other issues, for example, motherhood penalty or even stereotypes, could be fixed thanks to awareness, policy changes, cultural shifts… How ever, fixing male-dominated industries requires a huge scale in education or workspace making it more difficult to be solved.
I think it's stereotypes because if it was a motherhood penalty it would only affect women but I chose stereotypes so this will affect both women and men. Also lots of people judge women that they can't do men jobs like footballers,boxers ,astronauts and lots of other jobs. And men can't be fashion designers , makeup artists and lots of other jobs.
I think gender stereotype is the hardest problem to fix because people underestimate and doubt women like most people that fight for their country are most men. I also think male dominated industries is really unfair because women should atleast have a chance me and my friends discussed that women should atleast have a trial. I personally think all of them are important and can change a lot of things. People shouldnt doubt women as they might be smarter than men like the three girls who made a big impact for all people from space. I think everyone should be treated equally because its unfair on women who try the best to get a job that they know they would enjoy but men just dont trust them at all for some reason. Men find women as girls who should be in the kitchen cooking or staying home and taking care of the kids but they are way more talented then they think. Taylor Swift she is one the most well known and richest people in the world with a net worth of over 1.6 billion. Fixing this will be really hard as there is so many people in the world who think women are useless and are only useful at home but they are not. Women might even be more successful than men. Most professional sings are girls it is shocking that some people dont even give women a chance to achieve there dream.
i think that mother hood penalty is the most difficult because mothers get paid less when actually they need more
because they need to provide for they're child they need to feed them cloth them send them to school and give them other nessecities and the goverment dont wanna because THEY THINK that mothers will lose commitment to their job even though mothers have to work to take care of their child no coz even if they doTHEY BUYS THEY MEANT TO so dont blame them coz like how greedyyyy
I think/believe that the most difficult problem to solve, because it's not easy to erase thinks that they grew up knowing like girls born to help boys and them loving color pink and blue for boys and men or boys working in certain industries like construction or women only certain activities such as cooking or fetching water.
I think that the hardest one to fix is stereotypes because people were born thinking that men are better than women but actually we should think that we are all equal. Now that most people think this they will pass their thought down far generations and the only way to fix this is if the small number of people who support women say what they think and if others are inspired by them. It is also hard to fix since many people who think men are better than women have quite a lot if power so they won’t listen to them and as they have a lot of power most of them can throw the people in jail for many long years.
I agree because This is so true. Many people believe men are " stronger" and more "powerful" then woman which is completely wrong for we all have an equal amount of intelligence.
Can you tell me why people believe this and what influences their beliefs?
I personally think that stereotypes might be the hardest problem to fix.Not only because it is global and happens all over the world.But also because no matter how much you tell people that women can also be astronauts,They will just disagree with you and keep saying that being an astronaut is only for men and women can not work there at all.And no matter how much you tell them it is not true they will disagree and since it is global it is hard to fix.
I believe that stereotypes are the hardest to fix. From what I see, people bully people because their skin color and their gender. I once heard someone say, "There is a spill on the floor. Clean it up since you're a girl." I was shocked to see someone talk to a woman like that, or anyone. My opinion is we can't change people. People change themselves. In conclusion, my opinion is that stereotypes are the hardest thing to change.
The motherhood penalty is the most difficult to fix because when you think about the amount of single mothers that can't afford or don't have anyone to babysit their kid it's a problem. The motherhood penalty can eventually lead to mothers being homeless and without a job. If mothers can't go to their job,they won't get any money, and if mothers can't get money, they will eventually go homeless. And if mothers can't provide anything to their child,they would have a chance to get a horrible disease or something way worse. And they would go hungry and get extremely dehydrated from having no water or food.
I think the motherhood penalty will be the hardest one to fix because you have to convince a lot of owners of business to let females work at theirs company's and the same get benefits and money as males. This means companies will have to pay more to females which may cause issue because most males think that females are built different from males. For example, people don't think females can play in the NFL or they don't think they should be flying to space and a lot more. Even if companies let females compete in more physical sports, it may lose its views because people will think females don't belong there.
I believe stereotypes is the hardest issue to fix in the current world. This is because social media has become such a large base for the spread of hateful beliefs, which can pass onto others (especially teenagers), causing widespread stereotypes that can damage relationships. For example, the stereotype that women are too emotionally weak to be anything more than housemaids is a very wide belief, and is ultimately untrue. This belief is a main fuel for the gender pay gap and a reason on why a less qualified man may be hired over a more qualified woman.
I think male-dominated industries are going to be the most difficult problem to fix. For example, men do things people say that women can't do like fireman, construction, police, technology, and way more. Another thing is they only use male dummies for testing seatbelts or mens' bodies for spacesuits. This could be dangerous for females because they are only built for men.
In my opinion I think that stereotypes and unfair expectations are the most difficult problem to solve because everyone has their own beliefs. Some people might come from a family who thinks all girls like the color pink and all girls like to cheer, and that boys love the color red and like football. It might take a long time for everyone to get on the same page. For example, I might say girls should be able to do things boys can and get jobs boys have, but someone might say girls should not able to do things boys can do. Even if we can change the world's mind about equality, and girls are capable of doing things that boys can do, there will be people who still disagree. That's why I think stereotypes and unfair expectations are the most difficult problem to solve.
Hello, I think that you have mentioned some interesting points here. What do you think are some solutions that can help in battling against stereotypes and unfair expectations?
In my opinion I think that stereotypes and unfair expectations is one of the most difficult problems to solve because I think that this leads to most problems like motherhood penalty. It can lead to motherhood penalty because when someone criticizes a mother or a parent of what they are trying to sign up for and they criticize what they are capable of it can cause the mom or parent to not get the job they are trying to sign up for and could lead to homelessness or less money and when you have less money you cant provide enough nutrients for you kids and then they can get sick. Stereotypes and unfair expectations is also a big problem to solve because many people have different thoughts or beliefs which can also lead to the male- dominated problem by people thinking that one job or sport is suited for men more than it is for women because of people judging different stereotypes. this is why I think stereotypes and unfair expectations are one of the most difficult problems to solve.
I think that Stereotypes is the most difficult to fix because we can't change people's mind about what they think. For example, imagine you are applying for a job as a women and you go to sign in but there is another person, a man. When the person who is hiring you they chose the man over you they think the man can do better than you. If this happens to all the jobs you apply for then that means that you get no job and no home because there is no way to pay the taxes and bills if you have no way to earn money. When you are giving a person a job you should never ever judge a book by its cover. If you pick the man and think you made the right choice you probably didn't because if you did not check the person's background. You may not know if he is a criminal or not, and you're letting a criminal in your company. If you judge a book by its cover you should read the whole story instead of letting it slide.
I think the motherhood penalty is the one that will be the most hard to fix because people would have to come up with a reason to convince the person that is paying the women to pay her equally like men. If women don't get paid much there is a chance they can go homeless. Women should get paid like men so it makes it equal. A lot of people think women can only sing and dance but women can do more than just singing and dancing. construction people don't hire women if they do it's rare. That is why i think motherhood penalty is the hardest one to fix.
The most difficult problem to fix is the stereotypes and expectations.
I feel like this because you can't change the way someone feels about things. If someone feels like women aren't strong enough or powerful enough then you can't change the way they feel. It's their personal feelings and you can't change that.
I personally think that male-led development is the biggest problem in the country because most clothes that are required to do clothes are made for men like vest for construction and fire fighter outfits.If they continue to only make only clothes for it will be dangerous.For example if a woman is walking and her hard hat falls off because it is to big and she gets hit with a brick it will be more damage to her head than it would be if the hard hat falls off.
I think in México and in other parts of the world, the biggest problem is that males dominated industries and sometimes that affects womens because some mans use his power in the industry to manipulate or abuse womens that wants better jobs.
In my opinion stereotypes is the hardest to get rid of. Women stereotypes is they are good at cooking and cleaning and men stereotypes is to be strong and to have money. The reason stereotypes are so hard to get rid of is because stereotypes are ingrained into people's brains. Stereotypes have been here for years and that's why stereotypes are so hard it git rid.
In my opinion I think that stereotypes are the hardest problem to solve. First, one of my reasons is In America people think women drive bad. Second, some people think girls only like the color pink. I know some that don't like it. Third, some people think girls and women are only good at cooking and cleaning. But some women and girls are good at sports, engineering and etc. No matter what happens, people will keep making stereotypes about women.
Hi, reasoning_tomato. Thank you for a fascinating comment. It ends on a downbeat note: you say that no matter what happens, people will keep stereotyping. Do you really think there's no way to combat stereotypes?
I think that Mother-hood equality is the hardest to improve on. I think this way because, since older men are adapted to this lifestyle (the way they are treating women) it may be hard to break.. like a bad habit. Another reason why this may be hard to break is because if these fathers son se them act like this it may influence the sons that this is a cycle of life that isn't bad. To add-on to my first reason, If a woman is working while being paid less money and she is a SINGLE mo, how will ch be able to take care of her children? Her children may end up with a worse quality of life. To add on, If the mother-hood penalty did not exist then the other issues such as Stereotypes, Male dominated Industries, or even Male led developments, would not exist and women would be able to contribute to new development and tech. In order to prevent this from continuing, ladies, don't feel intimidated by a room of men. For example, an independent women competed in Rubiks' Cube Competition and set a world record of 5 seconds for women. I believe if more females took a role in Rubik's Cube Competition's then the speed of women solvers may increase.
I personally think that stereotypes and expectations is the most difficult to break and treat. In many parts of the world partiality between men and women still exist which leads to increase in inequality. In ancient periods, women were treated as godesses and were worshipped but with time the conditions have worsened a lot these could only be changed if we all come together and take a small step to reduce inequality on our level, as Change comes from within we should all take a pledge to try to reduce and stop ourselves and others to treat someone unequally.
I believe that overcoming the male-dominated nature of certain industries is a significant challenge. From a young age, society often teaches that boys are destined to become astronauts, CEOs, or presidents, while girls are typically encouraged to consider careers in teaching, nursing, or hairdressing. For instance, in science classes, it is common to hear examples referencing "the average man." Why can't we use more inclusive language and simply refer to "a person"? ,Furthermore, when discussing historical achievements, we often hear about "the first man to reach the moon," but we rarely see recognition of the contributions of women in this context. Speaking of space, spacesuits are predominantly designed for men, perpetuating the stereotype that women cannot go to space. Even when they do go, they often face stereotypes that reinforce the idea introduced earlier about the "average man."
Thank you for reading, and I welcome your feedback below.
I just brain stormed about this topic topic and asked my neighbours, what they think, most of them told "motherhood penalty" because they experienced that a lot. If a women, became to the role of mother, the society will tell them to sacrifice their wishes, and to take care of their baby. For few months, after the birth of new born babies, they can't go out of their door because they are in the role of mom , who protects their babies. But in some societies, the mother with 10-15 year old child will also restricted by the society to live independent. They will say, focus on the your child's behaviour and education, you can fulfill your wishes through your child, but this continues generation (mother to daughter, that daughters' girl child) , and the society is telling next, but they do know that it will destroy the wishes of women and make them depressed. I think this affects the inner hearts of more mothers in our country India...
In my opinion, in France the most important issues are the stereotypes and male dominated industries. I feel like we tell to girls not to go in "scientific" universities because this profile belong better to boys. I have the impression that a glass ceiling is placed above them since many generations. But today girls and women are breaking it, proving that because you are a girl you aren't necessarily literary profile, and that because you are a boy, it doesn't mean that you should better do scientific studies. Also, some sectors like construction are not widely open to women because of certain stereotypes. Women are considered as "weaker", or some companies consider that women will someday take "maternity leave" so it's less profitable for them. Some inequalities persist, so these are the reasons why we need to teach to new generations how to emancipate themself from them.
In my opinion I think that stereotyping is the hardest to fix. When babies are born and grow up their set to follow this path with the girls being portrayed to stay at home to clean while the man is expected to go to work. Stereotyping has been here for thousands of years so it's hard to get rid of .So many people think that females are not capable to do physical jobs and that they're only good for cooking and cleaning the house and taking care of children. Most people see women as the caregivers of the family and that they won't pursue a career that's considered for men.
I believethat the "motherhood penalty" is the hardest problem to solve. I think this because mothers with children are being paid less because people believe women with children aren't as useful as men. This is unfair for mothers that are trying their best to support and provide for their children, men who don't have to support children but earn more money than women with children is an example of gender inequality. Women are just as great as men, so no matter what gender you are, you should be paid the same amount of money. A way to fix this could be to shame companies who pay women with children less than men on social media. Shaming them on social media would work better than using a poster because a lot of people are on the internet each day. Another way could be to make a charity to give donations to mothers that get less money than men because of having children that they need to support and provide for.
In my opinion,I think that the "motherhood penalty" is the most difficult problem to fix because of people assuming that mothers won't have time to be available to do other things such as work.According to the lesson,''Across the world 95% of men between the ages of 25 and 54 are employed but just 52% of women are.This tells me that 48% of women do not have jobs other than being a mother.It is hard for women to earn enough money from their job to provide for their children because they aren't being paid as much as men even though they may be working the same job as men.This has to change so women can be able to provide the same things for their family as men do.
I agree with what you said because women with children need more money than men that don't need to provide for their children like mothers do. It's truely unfair and needs to change as soon as possible.
I think a solution is that in a company a great thing is that 50% men and 50% girls in the company.
In my opinion the Male-led development is something good because the women spend more time in the house with the child and that is a fact.
Why do you think women stay at home with their children? Do you think it's because of society's expectations or because they are better caregivers?
I feel that male dominated industries might be one of the most difficult problems to tackle, as since men have dominated women since forever, now that women are entering the work force, due to the lack of females in the corporation, the woman might not feel comfortable in an environment, built brick by brick strictly for men. For example, she might get harassed by her coworkers, have a huge wage gap, may not recieve promotions and such and in some cases, not be granted maternity leave. It's male dominated environments, that make it harder for women to step into work forces, especially if they've been fed harsh messagings about how she should focus on being a homemaker and leave the bread winning to her husband/brother/any other male figure. Many of the problems listed above, in some or another way stem from oppression of women in corporate offices.
in my opinion i think that stereotypes is such a big issue in our community most of people believe that men deserve to work and live their lives, not women and thats not fair cause lot of women deserve to work not only men why some peoples dont give a chance to womens they are also genius and they are creative and they can be responsible not only men and also those kind of people think that women is just to take care of children and cook and she can't work like men they thinks that woman's place in kitchen but this is not fair to solve this issue we need to give other womens chance to work like men and the can be responsible not all men
Thanks and i hope you understand my point.
Hello topical talk,
I think in my country the hardest problem to fix is the motherhood penalty, as when they are during pregnancy a lot of the companies and industries don't give out breaks or a vacation for them and not even providing money if they are not working so they don't even have money for giving birth or pregnancy needs and when they are born they don't have money to get a maid that can take care of the babies and getting a maid or baby sitter which is trustworthy is rare and expensive.
and also many women never get a praise which they need to get a raise and that is totally unfair as they are just as capable but the only difference is that they need encouragement this is why industries are missing out. thank you!
I think that motherhood penalty is the most difficult problem to solve .This is because most of the women are trying harder to work but they are not paid well .Some of them are not even allowed to do what they would like to ,moreover people are suggesting work like house helps which is not in their minds. Woman can do what a man can do . Who said that a woman cannot become an engineer? in fact most of them can do better than man.
Hi! For me, stereotypes are the most difficult problem to solve since they are the root of most of the gender-related problems, like the "motherhood penalty", male-dominated industries and male-led development. Gender stereotypes have existed for so long that they are deeply internalized in most cultures and social spheres. This, for sure, affects all of the other activities we participate in as humans, such as a job, science or even climbing stairs as the example given demonstrates. I believe it's the most difficult because it's harder to change the mentality of a whole community that continuously keeps repeating the same patterns they were taught. Encouraging someone to think critically about their own opinions is such a difficult task that it requires fostering equity and inclusivity in a progressive way. If someday we achieve our goal of reducing stereotypes, our participation as women in all fields would be less judged, more appreciated and promoted.
Stereotypes are the major issue. Stereotyping is when people make assumptions about a race, culture, age, or gender. Stereotypes would be the hardest issue because male-dominated industries and male-led developments could be considered as stereotyping. Male-dominated industries are a reason why women have less opportunities, men ASSUME that women are uncapable of doing jobs such as:
1. Construction
2. Police
3. Astronaut
When our society created things such as male-dominated industries, it created a mindset for many just because of assumptions made by society. Our mindsets have grown to think that women don't belong in certain fields because they are assumed to be not strong or worthy enough. Women shouldn't have to worry about fitting in or being judged, they should be able to keep their heads high without a worry. In addition, male-dominated industries also create a tense environment for women going into those male-dominated industries. When women head into fields that many would assume for only men to do, they face the risk of sexual harassment, gender pay gap, less opportunities of promotions, and also lack of support needed to advance in the field/career. Furthermore, male-led development and stereotyping connect. Male-led development is when developments are made for the comfort of men, making the inventions or developments more suitable for men rather than women. Male-led development is led by stereotyping because those developments are made to be comfortable towards women because of the belief that women cannot do certain jobs, which leads to lack of efficiency
i think the motherhood penalty is the hardest to fix these days because many mothers are part of this situation which is really bad because they are doing it for their children but people still look down on them or give them lower pay for the work they have done.
We think stereotypes and expectations could be the hardest problem to fix because they have been ingrained over a long time and are a deep-rooted cultural issue. They have become social norms that are very difficult to subvert and challenge. Furthermore, they are developed from early childhood so this makes it even more difficult to change as they have almost become part of our psychology.
In my opinion, male-dominated industries is one of the most difficult to fix. I believe this because a lot of industries are led by men and not women. This may lead to the industry not understanding any problems female co workers may have and then overlooking the problem, making the female suffer. A male-dominated industry may not allow females to join as they are seen as 'inferior' and 'incapable' of doing the 'job of a man'.
I believe that male- dominated industries have a negative influence on women in the physical work industries. take for example, in the construction industry men have somewhat degraded or diminished women who have a passion in the field. This has led to, A 24% decrease in women quitting their jobs due to the unnerving pressure they feel by men.
I believe that women are affected by the 'motherhood penalty' because they may feel as if they would not be able to presume a career that consistently pushes them down. This shows that STEM which is a male led development will always put down. In STEM there is a 84% chance that men will go for STEM while 45% of women leave the STEM industry because of the stereotypes and the subtle prejudices that are faced directly towards them.
I personally think that stereotypes is one of the hardest topics to tackle due to the fact that no matter what people do or how much they say that men and woman are equal there will always be the typical "woman belong in the kitchen" or "woman are only meant to have children and stay at home" mostly due to how people have been brought up as the older generation had been fed these belief by their parental figures and are now pushing it onto there children creating a vicious cycle.
Even though women's rights have improved over time men and women still aren't totally equal.
I think that both stereotypes and the ‘motherhood penalty’ are the hardest problems to fix but male-dominated industries and male-led development are the easiest. Stereotypes are really hard to do this because if someone thinks of a builder or a plumber the gender they think of is a man. To change this, women will have to dominate the jobs of builders and plumbers but that wouldn’t be fair on men either. This will be really hard to solve as this occurs with lots of different things. The ‘motherhood penalty’ will also be really hard to fix because women who are pregnant might want a job but owners refuse; they can’t do much as they are pregnant. This can make women live in poverty but business owners will still refuse them a job. Meanwhile, the other two can be quite easy to resolve as we can rely on leaders like mayors, MPs and prime ministers in my country to have businesses with more women to equalise our world. Therefore, it will be solved soon if we are determined enough to do it. Thank you.
According to me, Male Dominated Indurtries are the hardest problems to be fixed as we assume that the hard work like lifting can onnly be donee by the men as it is not true. Every human beiing has theirr own Power and strength and are capable to do everything and the society should not see females with lower strength. We can't change tthe miindset off every person so posssiblyy iit is the hardest thing to fix.
I think that stereotyping is one of the hardest problems to fix, espically for older people it seems because of the mindset back in there days that they keep. I think it depends whats being stereotyped, like u can easily see a women who might like to work out and adores the color blue, or a boy who adores pink and likes to cook. However if someone believes in a stereotype of a different nationality like americans being obese, british people liking tea, etc, unless there rich they cant just fly anywhere just to see if that stereotype is true so they'll have no proof.
Sure we have the internet that will let us see peoples cultures and how different they are, theres those stubborn people who refuse t0 change there minds and I feel like thats a reason most problems cant be solved including this one.
For me, male-dominate industries are more difficult to change because to solve this problem we would have to change everyones mentality and also more women should have to enter to "supposely male" carrers, which I think is more complicated because the mentality and ideals passed down from generation to generation, also any of this problems can´t be solved immediately but this one is the slowest one
I think that is incredible that women had reached the space, so here we can see that womens are capable to reach all the goals they set themselves, even if they are very difficult of if they have some limits. This may encourage more people to fulfill they dreams even thought they are many diffiulties.
I see that steryotipes is the hardest problem to fix, since it costs a lot to change an old mentality that has been transmitted from generation to generation. Although old mentalities can be transformed, for new generations they will continue to be outdated. What I mean is that there will always be stereotypes even if they are not always the same.
I hold the opinion that stereotypes are a difficult problem to solve, because are people´s mindset and is a topic that have been normalize, instead "motherhood penalty" "Male-dominated industries" and "Male-led development" are things that could be change. For example, people use to associate the colours with the gender like girls with the pink and boys with blue and it doesn´t have to be like this. In addition, talking about old people that have not used to new generations and the new mentality in a lot of aspects.