Feature: "Women: Housewives or Businesswomen?

The following was written for an exercise as part of a class at Indiana University's High School Journalism Institute (HSJI).

Women: Housewives or Businesswomen?

The impact of implicit, or unconscious, bias has been quite negative for women. Many people, specifically older generations, have a certain level of implicit bias engraved into their brains that tells them that women aren’t exactly equal to men. This bias is very apparent in society today, leaving women at a large disadvantage is almost every area.

When it comes to general income, women often aren’t paid as much as men. In the movie Joy, featuring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, Lawrence played the leading role yet wasn’t paid as much as Cooper, who held a supporting role. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women stand to make 80.5 cents on the man’s dollar in the average workplace, as of 2017. Even though bias against women is so prevalent, the level of gender equality can be amended with time and effort.

Every day, women are told off by the male presence. 17 year old Eleanor Massengill revealed she not only feels gender bias at school, but at her hostessing job. Eleanor lives in Chicago, where she attends Jones College Prep and is the president of the Women’s Empowerment Club. She also works part-time at her country club as a secretary in the tennis office, where she feels like she is not taken as seriously as her male counterparts. “Two old white guys got into a conversation about hydroelectric power and every time I jumped in, they’d correct me and treat me like I was stupid, even though I spent three months studying the topic for an AP Seminar project,” Massengill said. She felt like she was belittled and dismissed by entitled men who felt they knew more than a female.

Beth Applegate, founder of Applegate Consulting Group, a woman-owned OD group, believes that in the fight for equality, it is up to up-and-coming journalists to fight that implicit bias that many people today have. “It is your role to explore [feminism] through journalism,” she told HSJI students at IU.

Journalism is one of many ways to spread awareness and eventually diminish the bias that is so apparent today. Young journalists, especially female journalists, have the ability to squash the gender bias and make gender equality more of a reality by setting the new ‘normal’.