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Charlotte Cotter

Mr. Pace

Junior English

10/27/23

Social Inequality Of Women Effects Achieving The American Dream

“From February to May, 11.5 million women lost their jobs compared with 9 million men

– underlining how women are more vulnerable to sudden losses of income” (Holpuch). The

American Dream is different for everyone but at its core, it’s goals and achievements you set for

yourself to reach and accomplish. Although most people want to attain it’s harder to achieve for

some, especially women. Specifically, social inequality presents a barrier which makes achieving

the American dream difficult for most women. Discrimination and sexual objectification are a

part of social inequality which are some obstacles that prevent women from achieving the

American Dream.

One of the leading reasons why women aren’t able to achieve the American dream is

discrimination. An example of this treatment is unequal pay and opportunities. There are many

ways that women get treated differently than men: “One of the worst is unequal pay for equal

work. So often it was justified, erroneously, by the notion that men had families to support while

women were second wage earners” (Medium). Unequal pay for unequal work is only one of the

ways women are discriminated against throughout the workforce. The phrase above notions that

men are more important because they need to provide for their families, suggesting that women

stay home and take care of house chores. Although being a stay-at-home mother is perfectly

acceptable, many people believe that women are not supposed to work outside the house.

However, other women would rather follow a stable job path that requires them to work outside
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the home and support their own families. Because men generally tend to make more money than

women it makes it slightly easier to achieve bigger things, pay off taxes, and spend money on

things for themselves and family. Opportunities also play a significant role in discriminating

against women, making it more difficult for them to achieve the American dream. Opportunities

are necessary for achieving the American dream, which includes job opportunities. In the poem

“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman, the poem talks about all the jobs that each person

has. When it gets to the women, the only jobs they have are two household jobs: “The delicious

singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing”

(Whitman). From a poem in the 1800s, these characteristics are similar to things we see today.

Women had very few jobs, examples include, doing houschores and providing for their husbands

and children. Women didn’t have the opportunities to go out and do the work they wanted to

because it wasn’t allowed. Nowadays women still receive unequal opportunities based on this

idea that women should be housewives and that they are incapable to do otherwise, this shows

little has changed over the decades. Unequal pay and unequal opportunities show how women

get treated differently and shows what women have to constantly work through. Overall, the

unequal pay and unequal opportunities women receive make social inequality for women a hard

barrier to overcome while trying to achieve the American dream.

Another way that the American dream is harder to achieve for women is sexual

objectification. Being sexualiezed can lead to many side effects, for example: “The current

literature makes it clear that sexual objectification is both directly and indirectly linked to various

mental health distresses and disorders in women, including anxiety, depression, disordered

eating, and reduced experiences of flow and productivity” (Rooney). Objectification in or outside

the workforce is a huge barrier for women to overcome, there are many effects and trauma that
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come with it. Productivity decreases because when women are objectified, they undergo negative

thoughts in their head that they need to look a certain way, so they begin to feel self conscious

and doubt themselves. Goal-achieving becomes more difficult as a result of becoming

sidetracked and distracted from being objectified. Another side effect includes, you start to

become more conscious of your environment and yourself, your thinking starts to shift:

“Objectification theory posits that constant objectification creates a continuous stream of

anxiety-provoking experiences, requiring women to maintain at least part of their concentration

on their physical appearance and safety at all times in order to better anticipate the perceptions

and actions of others” (Rooney). Being more aware of your appearance and environment due to

objectification causes more discomfort. This is an obstacle since, as I mentioned in my previous

explanation, it derails you from your work and makes it more difficult to accomplish your goals.

Overall, sexual objectification is a huge barrier that is hard to overcome. It comes with effects

like trauma and anxiety, and is another factor showing women’s social inequality and how it

decreases your productivity and limits you from reaching the American Dream.

Discrimination and sexual objectification are just a few aspects that increase women’s

social inequality. Which makes achieving the American dream harder for women because they

have to constantly push through it. Overall, women’s social inequality has been around for

decades, throughout history social inequality has changed over time but there are still similarities

within. There are still many people who support inequality for women. Hopefully years from

now a woman can go for any job in any position and not be judged or treated any differently just

because they're a woman.

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Works Cited

Holpuch, A. (2020, August 4). The “shecession”: Why economic crisis is affecting women

more than men. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/04/shecession-

coronavirus-pandemic-economic-fallout-women

Hughes, D. C. (2017, May 21). Global crisis of gender inequality. Medium.

https://medium.com/42hire-don-t-panic-just-hire/workplace-inequality-is-destroying-american-

women-61b6f33fde55

Rooney, E. (n.d.-a). The Effects Of Sexual Objectification On Women’s Mental Health. Applied

Psychology OPUS. https://wp.nyu.edu/steinhardt-appsych_opus/the-effects-of-sexual-

objectification-on-womens-mental-health/

Whitman, W. (n.d.). I hear america singing by Walt Whitman. Poetry Foundation.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46480/i-hear-america-singing