borrowed from the traffickers enough money to pay their
transportation, believing they were going to work in fac-
tories. They are forced into prostitution to repay these
debts, and their families are often threatened should they
try to escape (Human Rights Watch, 2000; International
Labor Organization, 2001). Global sex trafficking and
global sex “tourism” are among the ugliest elements of
globalization, and ones that the advanced nations are
increasingly policing.
Although gender inequality is a worldwide phenom-
enon, its expressions can and do vary from country to
country and from region to region within countries. In
some countries, like Saudi Arabia, women may not own
or drive cars, but in other Muslim countries, like Pakistan
and the Philippines, women have been heads of state.Gender Inequality in
the United States
In the United States, gender inequality can be seen in every arena of social life—from
the workplace to school to families, to even the most intimate and personal aspects
of our lives, like to those whom we choose to love.The Gendered World of Work
The work we do is “gendered.” We have definite ideas of what sorts of
occupations are appropriate for women and which are appropriate for
men. These ideas have persisted despite the fact that the workforce has
changed dramatically in the past century. The percentage of women work-
ing has risen from around 20 percent in 1900 to more than 60 percent
today. And this percentage holds for women who have children—even if
they have children under 6 years old. It’s also true for all races, and for
every single occupation, from low-paid clerical and sales jobs to all the
major professions. Today, women represent a majority of clerical and sup-
port workers and also a majority of students in medical school and law
school (American Bar Association, 2006; American Medical Association,
2006; U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission, 2005).
Yet traditional ideologies persist about women and work. Women who
are successful are often thought to be “less than” real women, while men
who are successful are seen as “real men.” Such ideology translates into
practices: Women are paid less, promoted less, excluded from some posi-
tions, and assigned to specific jobs deemed more appropriate for them.
Gender discrimination in the workplace was once far more direct and
obvious: Women were simply prohibited from entering certain fields. Until
the late 1960s, classified advertising was divided into “Employment—
Male” and “Employment—Female.” Women were discouraged from “tak-
ing slots away from men” if they applied for jobs, or they might be asked
in a job interview whether they planned to marry and have children
(because that would mean they would leave the job). Can you imagine298 CHAPTER 9SEX AND GENDERJThis billboard in Nigeria
indicates a growing awareness
of the problems and issues
surrounding the growing and
profitable global sex trade.
In the nineteenth century, the assistants
in companies who wrote letters, kept
appointment calendars, and otherwise
organized office life were called “clerks.”
This was a highly skilled position and was
reserved only for men. In the twentieth
century, they’re called secretaries, the
positions are filled almost entirely by
women, and they’re paid less.
In the 1940s, by contrast, women were
hired as keypunch operators, the forerunner
to computer programmers, because it
seemed to resemble clerical work. In fact,
however, it “demanded complex skills in
abstract logic, mathematics, electrical
circuitry and machinery,” which the women
did routinely. Once programming was
declared to be “intellectually demanding,”
it became attractive to men, who entered
the field and drove wages up and women
out. Today it is a largely male-dominated
field (Donato, 1990).Didyouknow