Charlotte P. Gilman & Janet Chafetz
Gender Inequality
Gender Inequality is when men and women are separated by the belief that one gender is superior to the other in forms that deny full participation or restrictions to one’s ability to live an equal life. Ever since the dawn of time there has been one gender superior to the other and to this day there are still gender differences in the political, economical and physical life of a male versus a female. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one theorist that I chose to help explain this trend of males having power over women. Gilman was an evolutionist theorist; her point of view helps me explain how gender inequality came about and how women are viewed during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Gilman grew up very poor but her education carried her through her life accomplishments, at one point of her life she was bisexual which shines some light into her theory perspectives (Allan, 2010). Her theories were based on how society as a whole has to evolve to be able to survive. Gilman’s theories consisted of the social evolution of gender, such as preserving the balance of the self and of race, sexuo-economic relations, and her theory of Gynaecocentric (Allan, 2010) Janet Saltzman Chafetz is the other theorist chosen for this topic of gender inequality. Compared to Gilman she is a more modern theorist who specializes in explaining how social structures play a role in gender inequality (Allan, 2010). She was a positivist who explains how society functions at different levels of a pyramid of coercive structures. The pyramid consists of four levels, Macro-, Meso-, Micro-, and Personal. Chafetz also focuses on how gender inequality has changed over time, and the change is either intentional or unintentional. These two theorists are useful to compare because both of their focus is towards woman in society being undermined and exploited by men. The pictures of these women chosen are in a timeline from