Society's Reality and IdealismHave you ever looked forward to something, but ultimately didn't get what you expected? For many people, living in the United States is no exception. A foreigner most likely views the United States through our ideal culture, the American dream, where Americans pride themselves on representing equality and justice. People from all over the world associate words like freedom and hard work with America, and immigrate to the United States for the opportunity to create a better future. We believe that the American dream does not depend on who or what you are, but a well-informed citizen understands that who you are matters and that there is a huge disparity between real culture and the ideal America we have come to believe. describe. Unlike anywhere else in the world, we have greater access to education, career opportunities, and the freedom to choose who we love and marry, but the realities of these matters are far different from what we would expect. we expect. The first example of an ideal culture different from reality American culture, which may shock many, is that of inequality between the sexes. Equality is a fundamental part of the constitution, but gender inequality often exists in the workplace, as evidenced by the types of jobs women enter, their salaries, and their treatment in the workplace. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women primarily work in administrative support and service jobs. These jobs are most often poorly paid, have male supervisors, and offer limited opportunities for advancement. Only 15 of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are female CEOs (Macionis, 278) and the highest-paid woman earns only as much as the ninth-highest-paid man. Additionally, sexual harassment remains a serious problem, even for women in high positions. The media industry is growing and our higher education system seems to support social inequality. The future is full of hope and promise for bridging the ideal and actual cultural divide, and in our age of information and technology, it will be difficult for our cultural "glass ceilings" to remain intact for a long time. Guttmacher Institute. “Trends in Premarital Sex in the United States, 1954-2003.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. US National Library of Medicine, January 2007. Web. March 20, 2014. Macionis, John. Society: the basics. 11th edition. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.Mathews, TJ “Analyzing trends in sex ratio at birth in the United States.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 15, 2005. Web. March 20, 2014.TheSandroff, Ronni, Sexual Harassment in the Fortune500, WORKING WOMAN, December. 1988,