The U.S. news media often emphasizes progress toward gender equality, but my experience as an international student at GW has revealed a more complex reality. I have found that gender norms at GW are not absent, but rather more subtle, often manifesting in hidden biases and assumptions, especially around women’s roles in professional spaces. This is particularly evident in STEM fields, where women still face implicit barriers to full participation and leadership. I’ve also observed that some students at GW, whether knowingly or not, continue to perpetuate these ideas. This has challenged my expectations of the United States as an international student from Pakistan, reminding me that even in institutions that pledge to be committed to equity, progress is still needed. Acknowledging these dynamics is the first step toward creating the inclusive and truly progressive community GW aspires to be.
In a country like Pakistan, gender norms are explicitly enforced, often by a woman’s family, as clearly defined rules. Women are discouraged from working and instead told to focus solely on household and familial responsibilities. Any woman who enters the workforce is thus met with criticism, resistance and stigma by their family and society. In such a dynamic, women never receive the chance to enter the labor force. Here in the United States, the narrative is different. Women may be expected to “do everything” — like having a successful career, managing the house and raising kids. Additionally, the cost of living in the United States increases every year, which often forces both partners in a relationship to contribute. A 2020 United Nations Report revealed that 74 percent of working-age men are part of the labor force compared to only 47 percent of women around the world. The cause isn’t simply economics — it has a lot more to do with culture.
Despite the perception of the United States as a leader in gender equality, the infrastructure needed to support women in the workforce — such as paid parental leave, affordable child care and flexible work policies — remains severely lacking. Despite the cultural differences between Pakistan and the United States, the outcomes for women in both contexts can often feel strikingly similar: less freedom and fewer opportunities for growth in the workplace. While American women may be expected to pursue careers, many still face lingering societal attitudes that suggest working somehow diminishes their value or desirability. I’ve been particularly struck by how these conservative views persist even among students at GW.
While it may seem evident that such norms exist in Pakistan, it was surprising even to me that certain gender norms exist at a liberal school like GW, all unapologetically colored by the implication that women shouldn’t work. I have heard some women who are students at GW state that it is better not to work and rely on their partners for income. This led me to believe that while people in this current political and social climate in the United States may not voice such norms frequently or publicly, they still hold them. When gender norms aren’t openly voiced, it’s easy to assume they no longer exist. At GW, I initially believed that these outdated beliefs did not, especially given the University’s public commitment to equity and inclusion. But through one-on-one conversations, I began to find that many still quietly hold traditional views about gender roles. Even when these views aren’t spoken aloud, their consequences are tangible.
During my time at GW, I have heard countless statements like “Engineering is more of a man’s field” and even “Working women don’t make good life partners.” One of my friends at GW recently dropped engineering as a major, and someone told her, “Ya, engineering’s a little hard for a girl.” That comment is one I vividly remember.
While Pakistani society generally tends to succumb to such norms, my family’s mindset was always very different. I remember my dad would tell me that no one he met in the United States believed in gender-segregating careers and that during his college years, at Purdue University, in the 1990s, many of the civil engineering majors were female. Back in Pakistan, all the civil engineers I know are men. At GW, 52 percent of civil engineering majors are women, which, on the surface level, looks great, but it’s important to note that GW is also a school with primarily female students. I was not expecting to hear those very same views that I’ve always wanted to escape from at GW. If this dialogue or these views exist here, at a primarily liberal school in a country that has progressed more when it comes to gender equality, it can serve as a microcosm of how the United States hasn’t actually progressed as much culturally as many seem to believe.
In the United States, gender equality in the workplace is often seen as a resolved or semi-resolved issue. But when we see individuals in the United States and students at GW speaking this way about women’s careers, it shows us that we still have a long way to go in our fight against gender inequality. These issues are only mirrored and magnified in other regions across the world.
When women consistently outnumber men in college and run for president, it is easy to assume that the issue of gender inequality is no longer present. But the issue can’t truly be gone if there is still such degrading talk surrounding women in the workforce, which may hold true more in modeling, acting and especially in more conservative areas. It is also important to make the distinction that the United States conversation about the workforce generally tends to focus on female representation statistics, rather than lived experiences. In essence, the statistics do not take into account the dialogue that is exchanged about women and the struggles and barriers that women face in the job market. Equality is not only about visibility, it is also about the invisible cultural views that society is structured upon that affect freedom and opportunities for women.
This cycle of gender norm reinforcement is self-perpetuating, as these attitudes are often absorbed by future generations. It is an especially alarming issue at higher education institutions that are meant to be progressive and are built upon the very idea of equality. Ignoring this issue only leads to its normalization and deepens the stains in systems that claim to operate on principles of fairness and equality.
It is essential, at a school like GW, where around 61 percent of the student population consists of women, to understand the global dimensions of this problem and challenge such norms and barriers — whether they are loud, explicit and traditional or modern, subtler and muted.
Minahil Umar, a sophomore studying economics and business, is an opinions writer.
