Introduction
Gender inequality refers to unfair rights between the female and male genders on different gender role that adds up to unequal life treatment. For many centuries, the male gender has always been dominant and women were the minorities. Men were the family breadwinners and their wives/mothers had to stay home and take care of the children and different house chores. Women barely had any rights. Husbands would willingly abuse them and get away with abuse cases very easily. Fortunately, over centuries, precisely the 20th century, things have gradually changed. However, the issue of gender inequality is still a common and far-flung issue. Gender inequality is mostly an issue that many people take for granted; it is even considered an acceptable norm in some societies. The inequalities are often invincible in many cases and happen in our daily lives in everything from education and employment even in the media and politics.
Discrimination
Gender discrimination involves a biased and unequal treatment between people of opposite sexes. The modern world strongly believes that unequal treatment of women is a primitive behavior that denies people the lives they deserve. Presently, the world we live in is more advanced than past generations and yet people still debate about how women and men should be treated. Most people identify with gender inequality because it is an issue faced in different sectors of the economy. Materialist theories state that gender discrimination was caused by women and men who tied genders to the society’s economic structure. It was believed that the main role of a woman was to be a good wife and mother for the society to be more productive (Undp 11).
History clearly proves that the responsibilities and roles for women and women were already chosen for them even before they were born. Women were given the responsibility of taking care of homes and children. There was the issue of male dominance in employment up until the Second World War. During the war, women got the opportunity to get male-oriented jobs for the first time while men fought in the war. Before this, men in families were considered to be “the breadwinners” and had to work to provide for their families. Females on the other hand were more inclined to work in unpaid labor labeled as the “housewife” role. They did all the chores around their family home and had to look after the children. This was accepted as the normal way of life and many women lived such lives where they achieved less satisfaction. This issue even exists in modern societies where some men assume their wives should not pursue careers or education and opt to marry women who choose to be housewives.
Gender discrimination impacts the whole population. For instance, because of gender inequality, the number of newly born girl and boys is unequal. Some communities value the male gender and the hope to have sons can lead to an imbalance between the two genders. Unfortunately, this issue has been around for many generations, so its impacts on the population are significant. The health ministry even reports that despite its attempts to reduce the fluctuation between the birth of girls and boys, the population continues to always have more males than females. If this trend grows into the future it will have some consequences in the order and security of the society. For instance the issue of imbalance can make some people not to get marriage partners. For instance, a report in china indicated that women are likely to run short of brides in the future because of the serious gender imbalance among young populations.
Moreover, gender discrimination can also have some consequences in education. Education is a very important aspect to anyone’s life. People have the right to get educated regardless of their gender. We have many empirical evidences indicating that increased female education improves outcomes of human development like health, child survival and schooling. The economy is also consequently affected by gender inequality since there’s a connection between the economy and education. The impact of gender discrimination is seen through the population of students in educational institutions. There exists a large gap in females and males in schools and this backwardness can be associated the stagnating economic growth. Strong focus on a particular gender denies the other gender the opportunity to contribute to the development of a nation (Undp 22). We have talented women who are denied access to opportunities where they could have performed better. The issue of inequality is even seen in the way we bring up children. Toys are good tools for teaching kids
Just because women have different biological characteristics does not mean they are weak. Just because men have historically not been exposed to more cleaning and cooking as young girls and women are, does not mean they are not capable of doing the “female” responsibilities. When thinking about the differences associated with women and men it’s difficult to ignore their behavioral differences. Depending on different societies with different cultures, men and women have different behaviors and morals. For instance, husbands in Iraq consider their wives to be their property. Some Islamic nations even stone women to death if they act immorally or break some rules. Such events show complete inequality in the treatment of women with such societies considering men to be more superior.
Stereotypes
Some stereotypes like men being associated with more efficiency in performing manual or difficult tasks are some sources of inequality. Aggressiveness varies in different cultures. Women can be aggressive but they are only allowed to show their aggressive nature in a more discreet manner like “badmouthing” instead of physical fights. On the other hand, men are more confrontational and likely engage in physical fights to settle issues. Because of this women have been constantly victims of domestic violence. Some societies consider men to have the right of beating women if they disrespect or hurt their feelings in any way(Undp 17). Such ideologies make women to live unfulfilling lives where they just ‘survive’ in marriages for the sake of their families.
Conclusion
Interestingly enough, in the last few decade women have been granted more privileges which have enabled them to compete at the same level with men. Gender discrimination is still obviously a major issue in our planet. Despite the fact that much of the issues have been addressed, gender inequality still exists and this causes many people to suffer its devastating consequences regularly. Many issues are associated with this problem and it is a challenging problem that the world has to solve. However, with progressive thoughts of people and education, there is hope on a future where issues of gender inequality will come to an end.
