There has always been a certain tension between men and women throughout history. Mostly because of something called ‘women’s rights’. Like many of our ancestors, there has been change, whether it be with African-Americans, GLBT, or even people of different religions. Though there are many improvements that need to be made, as there is still discrimination going on in the world (especially on women’s rights). Still, how much of this so-called ‘discrimination’ is shadowing the real reasons on why women don’t get paid as much as men?

There are many reasons that women think that this is a man’s world. I am in no way saying that everything is completely “straight-down-the-line-equal” as said by Huffington Post, but I’m saying that there are other factors that people aren’t considering.

One issue that really throws a wrench in the ‘women versus men’ debate; however, is that men and women don’t always live together. This means, men and women with children don’t always have partners to support their child.

Contrary to people’s beliefs, men don’t have it as easy as they are led to believe. Single parents make up a large part of the working class, but this seems to be shoved under the table when women’s rights in the workplace comes out. Being the child from a single male parent, I can tell you that my father not only cooks and cleans, but also brings in a constant cash flow. There are actually many more single male parents than you would think, though there is not as much support for single male parents, as there is with their female counterparts. There is more government grants for single female parents than male parents. So contrary to belief, men don’t have it as good as you would think.

If you pay attention to advertisements on the television, you will notice that most cleaning products are usually being used by women cleaning up around their sloppy and lazy men. This seems to be all the talk between some women. Though, they talk about unequal opportunities for women, they also bash men. This isn’t a radical prejudice, but it is just enough to bring tension to both genders.

Yahoo recently announced that they will be calling all at-home workers into the office. This has sparked some heat between women working at home, as well as their bosses. They say that they need to stay at home because of family related issues. The fact of the matter is, they are the primary caregivers of their younger children. They cannot leave their children unsupervised, and might not be able to afford expensive day care services, and at home jobs offer exactly what the parents need to be working parents.

Also, some women just don’t want to think about other factors in gender roles in the workplace. One such person is Sheryl Sandberg.

Sheryl Sandberg is the recent author of the book Lean In. Sandberg talked to Huffington Post about the book on gender roles and women’s rights in the workplace. She stated that working moms are spending the same amount of time at home as they did in the 70’s. This is not a true statistic by any means, and I’m not quite sure where she obtained this information. Studies have shown that not only is this a false statement, but it is almost a dramatically opposite statement. A recent study from the nonprofit Family and Work Institute shows that 63 percent of men are more likely to be granted to work at home. This means that not only are men ‘bringing home the bacon,’ but are also spending more time at home.

I think that when it comes to so-called “discrimination,” some people just don’t pay attention to other things. The world isn’t built on as much discrimination as people would think. So the next time you talk about discrimination or gender roles, think ‘Is this really discrimination?’