The New York Times published an article that showed the results of a study done to compare preference of one sex over the other. Some students from Yale University conducted research where they created a false summary of an imaginary person who was applying to work as a lab assistant in a science class. They wrote the same application, but the names of the applicants differed between Jennifer and John to be able to compare the results between a woman and a man. The results that they gathered from this experiment show how the people’s minds instantly prefer one male over a female. As a women, I am disappointed about the fact that men are still considered significantly better than us. I have heard people say various times that this preference is no longer present, but the results of this experiment prove these people wrong.
They handed out the applications to 6 top league universities, and were equally distributed between physics, chemistry, and biology. When I first read how the experiment was carried out, I predicted that most of the people would prefer John over Jennifer only because he is a man. As the results came out from the professors who responded, the statistics showed that ‘John’ was considered more competent for the job and would receive a higher average salary than Jennifer. Why would John be considered more capable than Jennifer if they received the same application? If the universities who received John as an applicant would have received Jennifer would they have responded differently? These results reflected what I had thought at the beginning. It is not a big surprise. In fact, in the United States women win 77 cents compared to a dollar men win. Although many people I know believe the inequality between genders is almost over, it is clearly shown that gender equality is still a global issue.
Gender inequality has been present since Genesis. Eve, the first woman created by God, was made from a rib of Adam. Discrimination is also seen in early civilizations such as Greece and Rome. We have always been and still are seen as less, and there still are men who believe we are overreacting about the problem. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow as the same person but with a girls name? How would you feel if people treated you differently and considered you less capable than what you already are? Men are also judged by their capability of doing things, but most of these judgements occur by the way they perform at work. But women are initially judged because of their gender even when they haven’t got the chance to show their skills.
I can certainly conclude that the people that received the application didn’t respond the way they did as a form of discrimination. I believed they responded in a natural way. These results should be taken into account due to the fact that they prove ‘inferiority’ of females by certain. Simone de Beauvoir, a French writer, intellectual, feminist, and gender equality expert says “Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman iis inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male’s superiority.” Yet, the preferencial bias was also clearly seen with women faculty. The inequality was seen with people that are trained to think in a rational way. It is horrible to admit that even the most objective people in the fields have subconscious preference towards males. I hope that tomorrow I will wake up in a world where everyone is treated equally no matter what groups they belong to.