Gender issues include a range of social and economic differences between men and women on the basis of personality, behavior, changing roles, aspirations as well as the overall status of women in urban, industrial societies and developing nations. Gender issues are studied interdisciplinary and cross-nationally as they are evident in political, social, economic aspects of all societies.

The popular and sociological descriptions and definitions of gender are of different focus and dichotomy. For instance, the approach of sociologists to “gender” concerning social roles will focalize upon the economic or power differences in positions of males to female employees disregarding their sexual orientations of between gay or straight.

In contrast, the popular approach concerning gay and straight sexual roles will focalize on different social conceptions of people who are straight/gay in comparison to straight people which disregards the vast economic difference between females and males in both categories. In accord, as the term “gender” is approached differently by feminist sociology and the homosexual sociology.

From an economic perspective, the wage gap between the two genders can be observed through a range of occupations. In 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that females in sales occupations earned 64.8% of the wages that males earned in the same positions. If working women are paid the same amount as men in same positions then, their income would increase by $4000 each year. It is also estimated that current poverty rates may decrease by as much as half.