For this next essay I am planning on addressing the issue of how the media affects the way in which women are perceived in society.  Throughout history, women have always been seen as being the weaker and more dependent sex.  This image of women has been made even stronger by the influences of media.  Some instances occur in which notable people take a stand against this negative outlook on women.  I will be highlighting these instances in my paper along with the instances where women are depicted in a negative light.  This topic interests me because the issue of gender inequality has always been a major issue in our society.  Although the issue has become significantly better, it still exists.  In this paper I will be asking why does gender inequality still exist and does the media play a major role in keeping gender inequality alive.  My audience for this paper would be people who are also interested in the issues of gender inequality and anything that has to do with a difference between men and women in any aspect of society.  To show that I have researched both sides, I will talk about two instances, when women are shown in a negative light in the media, and when the role of women is being defended by various people.  Sources that would work relatively well for this topic would be pieces in magazines or news articles that speak about women in society.

Currently for this upcoming paper, I am researching the concept of gender inequality in our society and how the media affects the way in which women are perceived.  I will also focus on how some popular figures in the media speak out against the derogatory beliefs associated with women.  This has proven to be a very controversial issue among both academic scholars and websites.  I am still working on narrowing down my topic.

In this blog post by Barbara Lee, the issue of the gender wage gap is spoken about.  Lee being a major supporter of women’s rights movements, definitely has areas of bias in her writing.  For example, when Lee speaks about the trends released about women’s earnings, she uses the words spoiler alert in parentheses and tells the reader that women still earn less than men, which exhibits the bias in Lee’s writing.  By writing this blog post, Lee is bringing attention to the issue of the gender wage gap, and although it has decreased significantly over the year, it still exists today.  Lee tries to support pay equity by bringing up the point that “when we hear pay equity framed as a women’s issue, let’s remember that women’s issues are family issues.” (1)

MLA citation:    Lee, Barbara. “Three Things to Think About Following Equal Pay Day”. Huffington Post. Web.

The purpose of completing these assignments is to allow us to practice how to reference articles in our writing.