structure
Thesis
Argument 3
Counter Argument
Argument 2
Counter argument
Argument 1
Counter argument
Conclusion
Topic: I want to write a paper that is about gender inequality. My major is sociology and I always pay attention to social problems. At the same time, I am from China and this social phenomenon is very serious in China, so this topic is very important to me.
Thesis: My theme is gender inequality. I interviewed many friends and experts around me, and they told me about the sex discrimination that happened to them. These experiences have had a very serious impact on them. This is a global problem, especially in my country, China. Many people think that gender discrimination only occurs to women, but men are also victims of gender inequality. I want to analyze the gender inequality that occurs on different occasions from an objective perspective, so that more people will have the awareness of this problem and promote gender equality.
Sources: Grusky, D. B., & Szelényi, S. (2011). Inequality Reader: contemporary and foundational readings in race, class, and gender. Westview Press.
Kristof, N. D., & WuDunn, S. (2014). Half the sky: turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Williams, B. K., Sawyer, S. C., & Wahlstrom, C. (2017). Marriages, families, intimate relationships: a practical introduction. Boston: Pearson Education, INC.
1. Duanwen. (2015). Sexual harassment is serious in the biggest female prison in America that
several hundreds women are enforced to be prostitutes. Retrieved from
https://theinitium.com/article/20151216-dailynews-us-prison-women-corruption/
2. World Health Organization. (2017). Violence-Against-Women. Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/zh/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women
3. Zhihu. (2016). What’s your opinions about the documentary “India’s Daughter”? Retrieved from https://www.zhihu.com/question/28766304
1. Taylor, J., & Thio, A. (2012). Social Problems. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC
2. Bank, J. B., & Yelon, M. H. (2003). Contradictions in Women’s Education: Traditionalism, Careerism, and Community at a single-sex College. New York: Teachers College Press
3. Lei, D. (2017). One out of six female soldiers has suffered sexual assault in Iraq military.
from http://www.cankaoxiaoxi.com/mil/20171224/2248969.shtml
Potential Experts:
Xiaoli—My aunt. She is a senior investment banking executive in China who has experienced the “glass ceiling” in the workplace.
Jing Wang—A sociology professor in Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. She is teaching the related courses.
Xuqi Sheng—My friend in high school who set up a platform “HeForSheVERSION” that is about the equality of genders, she experienced the discrimination in the school so she wanted to set up this platform to promote gender equality.
Experts Questions:
To Xiaoli:
1. How did you experience the “glass ceiling”?
2. In your workplace, are men who have the same ability and work experience as you are higher than your position?
3. What advantages do men have over women when recruiting in the workplace?
To Jing Wang:
1. Have you seen any gender discriminations in college campus?
To Xuqi Sheng:
1. What motivated you to build such a platform on gender equality?
2. When you created this platform, I knew you had been criticized a lot. What do you think of these bad comments?
3. What achievements has this platform achieved, and did your efforts reach your original purpose?
Interviews Questions:
Xiaoli
1. How did you experience the “glass ceiling”?
The “glass ceiling” I experienced in the workplace is reflected in that my position can only be promoted to the present level, no matter how hard I try, there will be no improvement. Many people think that women cannot hold important positions because of our emotions. Especially in this financial industry, many people think that women do not have a rational mind to analyze statistic problems, which has led to me not being reused in the company. I’m almost 50 years old this year, and many younger men now have higher positions than me, and their salaries are much higher than mine, but I know that I have enough skills and qualifications. My boss told me very clearly that I am very quick to retire, I can take a good rest for the next few years, so there is no need to work hard for the company in very important positions. I think it is a naked discrimination for our female group. Regardless of our gender, our age, if we have enough time and eligible abilities, we should have the same rights as men.
2. In your workplace, are men who have the same ability and work experience as you are higher than your position?
I have to admit that most of the men who were recruited into the company with me now have higher positions than me. We entered the company with the same educational background, but the company always gives them more opportunities, whether going abroad or training opportunities, they are easier to get. In this case, their promotion is very fast. There are a lot of men who have entered the company later than me, but their current positions are also above me. In fact, their work experience is not rich and their abilities are very general. It is just that the company always think of men firstly when boss wants to make a promotion. In the sametime, women are always given different kinds of excuses that are used to stop us from doing more important work.
3. What advantages do men have over women when recruiting in the workplace?
Now I often hire employees as interviewers. When recruiting, I found a lot of advantages for men because of their gender. Many interviewers believe that women cannot enter our company just because of they are women, they will have children, they may not be able to devote themselves into work in the future, and may take a long maternity leave. In fact, in this case, people naturally bring women into the image of housewives. Why do women have to invest more time in the family after giving birth? Houseworks is not only for women, why men cannot take care of children and doing houseworks? So the company is more willing to recruit male staff.
Jing Wang
1. Have you seen any gender discriminations in college campus?
I saw a variety of sexism on campus, not just at work. In school, teachers are mostly women, and most administrative positions are held by men. For students, discrimination is also very obvious. This discrimination is more serious in Chinese society. In the classroom, professors are more willing to ask boys to answer questions, and there are any opportunities for schools to be more willing to give them to boys. Teachers generally believe that boys’ mathematics and physics are better, so they often think that this is because girls have insufficient IQ. Although this is not the case in our school, I know that many university teachers will abuse female students for this reason. There are also many incidents of sexual assault in schools, not only male students against female students, but also sexual harassment by male teachers against female students. As a female teacher, my female students treat me as a big sister, and they always tell me that they have been disrespected by boys for their speech and sexually harassed them with a lot of dirty language. There is also a lot of news about male teachers using their rights to rape female students, threatening them if they do not meet his requirements will prevent them from graduating smoothly. These are the phenomenon of sexism in schools. Schools are the epitome of society. Since the problem of sexism in schools is already so serious, it is conceivable how much of the dark side of society in our society is due to gender.
Xuqi Sheng
1. What motivated you to build such a platform on gender equality?
I created this gender equality platform to give more people the awareness of gender equality. Because I have received sexism before, many people have misunderstood and demanded women’s figure, especially women’s good figure seems to please men. Many girls control diet to lose weight just to make more boys like them. I think this idea is very wrong. Women do not live for men. Our figure is our own decision. Why do we need to control our bodies because of male? I used to be laughed at by many boys and even girls because I was fat. These boys don’t know that I never thought my fat body was a shameful thing. What ’s even more stupid about these girls is that they don’t know that they laugh at me also means they look down on themselves essentially. In order to make more people aware of this problem, I plan to create this platform to tell more people the importance of gender equality.
2. When you created this platform, I knew you had been criticized a lot. What do you think of these bad comments?
After I established this platform, many people did not understand me. Many people thought that I was provoking the relationship between men and women. They said this without thinking just because I told the truth. During this period, many boys insulted me verbally, saying that no man in my life would love me, including many strangers who read my articles and added my contact information to specifically scold me. I couldn’t bear it at first. After all, I was very young at the time. I couldn’t bear the feeling that many people became my enemies overnight. Later, I found that more and more people are on my side. I don’t think I’m fighting alone, so I don’t care about these bad comments.
3. What achievements has this platform achieved, and did your efforts reach your original purpose?
This platform became bigger and bigger, and later it was interviewed by a magazine, and more and more people joined us. Later, our platform gave a speech at the Middle School League, and the role of publicity has been achieved. Since the development of the platform, we have thousands of followers. Although the speed is not as fast as I imagined, I feel that as long as I continue, I will definitely achieve my original purpose.