Free Relationship between Gender and Capitalism Essay Sample
Penny (2011) argues that gender binary is the natural classification of sex and gender into two divergent and incoherent forms of manly and womanly. Gender binary is a type of gender system whose origin was a description of the social boundaries that discourage people from crossing into other gender roles. In addition, this system was set to prevent the generation of other gender forms related to gender expression. Gender binary is a system that has the ability to represent the gender-based prejudices which end up creating stigmatization of intersex as well as the transgender community.
Gender binary originated from the need to have a description system through which the society is able to create a split between males and females. Such a classification could be in regard to gender roles, identities as well as the attributes that are held by the respective gender upon the communal determination. Gender roles are one of the most critical aspects of gender binary and it is an aspect that ensures that people are assigned roles as per their gender categorization. Gender binary origin was thus motivated by the need of society to have a system through which they will organize their people without much ado. Gender binary did not come into existence as a way of polarizing people, but as a tool that is critical to the organization of people as per their sexual categorizations.
According to Chang (2011), capitalism is an economic practice that involves the elements of private ownership of the production means as well as the creation of goods and services for the sole purpose of making money. Capitalism followed feudalism and it thrives with the accumulation of capital and having power in competitive markets as well as voluntary exchange and wage labor as its elements. Capitalism thus involves the creation of a polarized market and economy with the tycoon’s dominance over the disadvantaged society.
Similar to capitalism, gender involves separation of one sex from the other; the dominating gender from the submissive feminine one. These two are set to ensure that one party is dominant over the other and they have the say in specific matters.
It is essential to have the public as well as the private spheres come into limelight and help rescue the community from gender biases as well as the capitalist approaches. However, the private industries are driven by making profits at the disadvantage of other industry players and they advocate for capitalism approaches and perspectives. The public, on the other hand, is considerate of the varied aspects and perspectives and seeks equality. The public thus do not advocate for capitalism or gender disintegration, they protest against separation and fight for equality.
A capitalist project is driven by the need to dominate and make profits at the expense of other potential players. Gendered identities are discriminating in a capitalist project. For instance, women in a capitalist project are not regarded as having the power and wit to lead the project to a profitable venture. Men usually gain advantage over women despite the fact that a woman may be more qualified for the job in question. In this case, gender categorization is applied and bent towards women’s deprivation of good conduct and managerial practice. This is an example of how gendered identities are used in a capitalist project to sideline those people who hold similar abilities but are of different gender. Capitalism is about dominance and advantage of one perspective over the other (Rand, 2006). Thus, gendered categorization in a capitalist project is used to the disadvantage of one gender due to the need to have dominance in the course of the project.
Gender inequality is, however, influenced by institutions and certain branches of law and its doctrines. Gender inequality is reproduced by various institutions which include the school, the church and other religious bodies, the books and social groupings. The school, for instance, advise the male students to take up certain subjects (usually sciences), while they do not suggest this to females. This means that the school in this case is in preference of the masculine gender against the feminine one as far as choice of subjects is concerned. Therefore, the school will influences gender inequality. Religious organizations promote gender inequality as well. This institution mostly requires men to lead the congregation while women take the subordinate roles in church. From research, it has been justified that the male gender is referred to in books far more often than the female one. This means that men are preferred against women, and this encourages gender inequality. Biased communal laws and leadership guidelines also encourage gender inequality because they prefer leadership of men against that of women.
Economic inequity does influence daily behavior of men and women significantly. For instance, men dominate over women if they are stronger and more stable economically. Similarly, women tend to behave in a way that represents their dominance as per the economical situation when they are in stable financial condition. The wealth disparity between men and women comprises all the disparities that are involved in the distribution of the economic assets and wealth. Such a distribution disparity affects economic status and thus influences individual’s behavior. However, men and women behave similarly when their economic status and assets portfolio are alike.
Reverse sexism deals with the efforts that are put into assisting the minorities in the community to realize and achieve parity. However, reverse sexism could be disputed through its accompanying claims and problems such as men’s complaints that their privilege is gradually eroding. In addition, reverse sexism claims are disproportionate and are in most instances used to obscure greater problems. Lastly, reverse sexism is directly translated into sexism against men and its intentions could be simply regarded as females’ fight against men. Using the afore-mentioned cases as basis, I would thus dispute the claims carried by reverse sexism.
According to Storrs (2000), sexism is gender discrimination, more particularly against women. It is hard to eliminate sexism under a capitalist economy. The reason behind this is that the various players in a capitalist economy believe in dominance over the rest of the people and attaining economic power and stronghold. Sexism is a factor that allows masculine gender to take a higher position in a capitalist economy. Thus efforts to eliminate it are normally brought down by the powerful because it threatens their status and economic position. Elimination of sexism is thus threatened by the power subjects that run the capitalist economies. Sexism is a practice that has deep roots and eradicating it under a capitalist economy is hard and challenging in all aspects.
In summary, gender and capitalism are part and parcel of all people’s life in regard to what they advocate for. Similar to gender discrimination and categorization, capitalism involves dominance of particular parties against others for their own gratification and benefit. Gender categorization encourages and promotes practice of capitalism and realization of capitalist objectives. Thus, there exists a strong relationship between gender and capitalism.