Gender inequalities: to what extent do they still exist today? Throughout history, the roles of women in society have been different from those of men. Women's jobs were generally tied to their traditional roles of caring for the house, raising children, making clothes, and cooking, while men were the breadwinners. Women had been raised to be mothers (as well as nurturers), while men were raised to be entrepreneurs and businessmen. It wasn't until the 1950s that women began to protest and fight for equal rights. Since then, many claim that the disparities between women and men have diminished considerably, even to the point of becoming minimal. However, in today's society, although we would like to believe that women receive the same treatment as men, this is not the case. Gender inequality is still evident in today's society. Women's voices are continually ignored. They face social stigma, are portrayed stereotypically in advertisements and are mistreated in professions generally dominated by men. In an advanced society like Japan's, gender inequality is still evident. In October 2012, a panel of eight leading female experts called on leader Margareta Wahlström to “push for gender equality in disaster risk reduction” (Matsuoka 978). Since Japan faces many earthquakes and tsunamis every year, it is extremely important to have an effective disaster risk reduction plan. However, women's voices are not heard when it comes to discussing policies or making decisions related to the plan. Former governor of Chiba Prefecture in Japan, Akiko Domoto, said that "much of the work is actually done by women, but [they are] not integrated...... middle of paper ......n can be very different from the way men are treated in this profession. In conclusion, to some extent, gender inequality is still quite evident in our society today. Although people like to believe that gender-based discrimination and inequality no longer exist, the reality is that it does. Data from different regions of the world (in this case Japan and Vietnam) shows that women are treated differently simply because of their gender. Even in the United States, surveys show that women are mistreated in professions (in this case, the legal profession) where men typically dominate. Gender inequality, although a long-debated issue, has not changed as much as one might think. This is inherently evident in the society in which we live. So, to improve our society, we must minimize this gender inequality, slowly, one step at a time..