Gender parity in the US

You will be looking at the topic of gender parity in the US. Gender parity refers to how
gender outcomes compare with one another, and whether the outcomes are similar, or if there are large
discrepancies. For this assignment, we will look at gender parity in the areas of education, health, employment,
earnings, poverty, safety net, occupational segregation, discrimination, workplace sexual harassment, and
social networks.
Instruction: Answer each question and number each response. Use your own words and support your answers
with examples from the article. Your responses should include content from the readings, not just opinions. Do
NOT use long quotes from the article. Respond to each question in 1-2 paragraphs.
Be sure to support your answers by providing specific examples from the reading and citing the source.
Your citations MUST include the last names of the author(s), date of publication, and the specific page number
if you use direct quotes.
Article: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality (2018). “State of the Union: The Poverty and Inequality
Report.” Special issue, Pathways Magazine.
Question:

1. In the section “Executive Summary,” the authors explain contributing factors to gender gaps in different
   social domains, and posited that gaps may continue to exist “partly because they’re rooted in the essentialist
   belief that women and men have fundamentally different aptitudes and are accordingly suited for fundamentally
   different types of roles (e.g., occupations, majors, relationships).
   These widely diffused beliefs work at once to (a) encourage women and men to make choices that are
   consistent with such stereotypical views (i.e., the “socialization mechanism”), and (b) encourage managers and
   those in authority to allocate occupations and other roles in accord with such stereotypical views (i.e., the
   “discrimination mechanism”)” (page 5).

• What is meant by an “essentialist belief” about perceived differences between men and women?
  *Expand on this definition in your own words. How does this belief affect the types of choices men and women
  make in their lives?
  2.The Pathways report contains extensive information about gender gaps in various societal domains:
  education, health, employment, earnings, poverty, safety net, occupational segregation, discrimination,
  workplace sexual harassment, and social networks. Choose three domains that are examined in the report. For
  each domain, answer the following questions:
  What gender gaps currently exist in this social domain?
  What caused the gaps?
  What are some policy suggestions to narrow or close the gaps?

1. From the “Policy” section (pp. 47-49), name two factors that have impeded the US in making further
   progress in increasing gender equality. What are three things that the US could do to reduce gender
   inequality?