Review of Limiting Inequality Through Interaction: The end(s) of Gender

Ridgeway and Correll in their 2002 article Limiting Inequality Through Interaction: The end(s) of Gender, significantly expose the rift between genders in what has now become “an institutional system of social practices for constituting people as two significantly different categories, males, and females” as described by sociologists. According to the perspective developed by the two, the gender system is multilevel like other systems of inequality and thus affects various aspects including patterns of behavior, situational structures, distribution of resources, and cultural beliefs among others. Although these effects apply at different levels such as individual, interactional, and macro levels, the fundamental rules of the gender system apply mostly at the interactional level (where men and women interact). Ridgeway and Correll through the essay present an attainable utopian vision that would change how the gender system functions. They provide answers to what must be done to diminish interactional forces that propagate gender inequality and what could be done to elevate equality.

Gender inequality is a significant concern throughout the world. The gender system has to a large extent been built upon the cultural presumption or belief that men are generally more competent or superior than women and thus legitimizes men’s authority or status in the society. Although we cannot be able to end gender and completely change the stereotype associated with the gender system, it’s right to say that we can push gender to its ends by retaining sex categorization but limiting the inequality that comes along with it. As suggested by the authors, gender can be pushed to its ends through such initiatives as equal resource policies, workplace policies that are family-friendly, bureaucratic accountability and open information about remuneration and pay at the workplace. Gender equality is more likely to be achieved if the presumption that men are more superior than women can become extinct.