In the world we live in, looks matter. The first impression, the first thing you judge, is appearance. This is usually something people should keep to themselves. Children are told looks don’t matter and that everyone is equal, but is that really true?

The GII is the Gender Inequality Index. It is an index for measurement of gender disparity introduced by the United Nations in 2010. On the scale, a zero is a perfect equality and a one is a perfect inequality. The United States was ranked 13th with 0.189 in 2017. The number one place holder in 2017 was Norway with 0.048. This goes to show that no, not everyone is equal as long as no country is able to score a perfect zero. When a country has perfect equality, the Human Development Index and the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index are equal. When the IHDI falls below the HDI, the country does not have equality. This means that life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators are different for people. These differences can stem from inequality in the lives of varying genders and races. There is no country where women are equal to men. The average woman is paid less than the average man. The average woman’s unadjusted annual salary has been cited as 78 percent to 82% of that of the average man’s.

People knowingly or unknowingly see these differences and it affects their daily lives. Unfortunately, it is common for people to vocalize these differences in even the subtlest of ways. In your daily life, you can hear a person calling a lawyer or doctor a “lady doctor” or  “Asian lawyer”. These titles are completely unnecessary and ridiculous. The kicker in that is I rarely hear people correct others on their microaggressions. Parents may correct their children, but people don’t correct adults. They should be held even more accountable for their actions.

Why is it necessary to categorize someone by their gender or appearance? Neither have an effect on the jobs they do. In a progressive society, why do we still hear microaggressions? The answer is simple, no one says something. It has become normal to hear. Generalizing by gender is common to hear from people in the workplace so many people don’t bat an eye or think they can say something. I know a doctor who happens to be female and she feels her coworkers and even patients don’t take her as seriously as they would a man. She is concise, to the point, and not overly kind like many people expect from women. This causes some tension between her, her patients and coworkers. My mother, who is a lawyer, has received back-handed comments that generalize other women and then say “but you aren’t like that”. Other women can marginalize and belittle as well. It seems that some women judge others more harshly because they are women. They judge for not being as feminine, as warm or kind as they are ”supposed to be”.

But here’s the thing. Men won’t give their fellow white man these microaggressions, because that would sound ridiculous. Imagine that conversation.

“ Hey Bob”

“Hey, Jerry. How was work?”

“Well, I didn’t get much done because I had to talk to that man lawyer”

“Really? I was visiting the male IT in the tech department. We had a good chat about equality.”

The biggest problem with these microaggressions is the tone in which it is said. The tone of voice is used to belittle or minimize the person they are referring to. People who use these terms won’t simply say doctor, lawyer, teacher, officer. They must say something regarding their gender, race or ethnicity.

The music industry used to be almost completely male-dominated. This was before blind auditions. These auditions were introduced to reduce racial and sex-biased hiring. After the new audition process, women leveled the musical playing field. This is one of several examples of bias and inequality.

Microaggressions like these are the reasons why we don’t have equal pay. Why we don’t have an equal society. They are negative on your mental state. After hearing that a certain person should only act a certain way for so long, don’t you start to believe it? People need to speak up and stop this negative habit we have.

Some people don’t realize what they are saying is harmful or offensive. That is why we as people yearning to live in an equal society must correct and reprimand them. When speaking, people guilty of marginalizing might not realize they even said what they did.

I do not want to be regarded by gender and race before my occupation. I do not want my physical appearance to have anything to do with the way I am treated, do my job, or am expected to do my job. Judge me on the way I work. Judge me on the way I act. Judge me on the way I treat others. Not the way I look.