In
Britain, women occupy 77% of administration and secretarial posts
but
only 6% of engineering and 14% of architects, planners and
surveyors.
83% of people employed in personal services are women.
It could be argued that a justification of socializing males and females in different ways is due to tradition. Older generations often value and respect traditional values regarding the ways in which men and women should behave. Another justification could be biological factors; men are physically different to women, making them seem stronger and more powerful, therefore superior.
These ideas
regarding biology, tradition and socialization all relate to
the general
issue of gender inequality. Gender inequality has existed
since
biblical times, and it could be said that religious and mythological
systems are
to blame for how train of thought has evolved. Philosophers
such as
Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas applied their own theories
regarding
gender differences.
Later
theorists such as Karl Marx spoke of evolutionary sequences of
kinship
organization and gender relations. The turning point in history in
which
women’s rights really started to be considered was the
Suffragette
movement, which initiated modern thinking regarding
intellectual
issues surrounding women. This was the rise of modern
feminism
which kick-started the movement to try and achieve gender
equality.
One cannot deny,
the predominant status men procure in not only
social
circumstances, but across all aspects of society. Data from
October 2016 show that women still account for
less than one in four
(23.9 %)
board members in the largest publicly listed companies
registered
in EU Member States (Report on equality between women
and men in
2017 ( Ec.europa.eu,2017).
