Webster Dictionary defines gender as ‘socio-cultural characterization of man and woman, the way societies make a distinction between men and women and assign them social roles. The distinction between sex and gender was introduced to deal with the general tendency to attribute women's subordination to their anatomy.’ Keeping in mind this definition, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is important to treat men and women equally for a better society.
The main view, when it comes to gender inequality, is that this begins from the childhood. Parents treat their daughters and sons differently. In many families it is observed that fathers and sometimes mothers as well are biased towards their sons. As they will be the sole earners of the family, they are given more time and more money is spent on them. Seeing this, the girls either turn out very rebellious or they just accept the fact that they will always be treated with this inequality. The sons are sent abroad for the future education while the daughter is given mediocre education and is married off at a very young age.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries many theories emerged which said that this gender inequality is biological. According to this theory, females are more suited to domestic work rather than taking active part in politics, jobs and social activities.
Nicolas Malebranche wrote in his book that women are destined to face gender inequality because they have delicate brain fibers (qtd. in Delusions of Gender: How our Minds, Society and Neurosexism Creates Differences). He put forth the ideas that as women have “delicate” brains they cannot take up the responsibility of running a family. Herbert Spencer, a famous philosopher of the Victorian Era also had the same philosophies that as women are more suited to domestic work, they can’t take understand the notions of justice and social responsibilities.
Judith Worell in encyclopedia of genders writes that Freud also had presented a similar idea, regarding males and females, to that of Malebranche and Spencer. He said: “women were less morally developed in the concept of justice, and, unlike men, were more influenced by feeling than rational thought. Early brain studies comparing mass and volumes between the sexes concluded that women were intellectually inferior because they had smaller and lighter brains.”
However these theories by Freud, Spencer and Malebranche were negated when in twentieth century many theories began to emerge stating that intelligence is not based on genders. Lewis Terman, a noted psychologist, wrote: “Gender plays no role in intelligence. In his research, psychologist Lewis Terman found "rather marked" differences on a minority of tests. For example, he found boys were "decidedly better" in arithmetical reasoning, while girls were "superior" at answering comprehension questions, though he concluded that gender plays no role in general intelligence. He also proposed that discrimination, denied opportunities, women's responsibilities in motherhood, or emotional factors may have accounted for the fact that few women had careers in intellectual field.”
Therefore, it can be said that gender inequality is not only a social flaw but also a personal flaw. Women should not succumb to the pithy and discouraging remarks of the people. Instead they should just ignore them which is better for their on sake.
Keeping these ideas in mind, if we look at the present era, we will see that though we have progressed in terms of technology and sciences, many people have same narrow approaches when it comes to genders. The main society is ruled by the men folk, it is till patriarchal. Joseph Kay in his article, “Gender inequality and gender differences” writes, “Our society is patriarchal. Our institutions, our traditions, our everyday lives, are filled with examples of men in positions of authority over women. You are born and take your father’s surname. You marry, and tradition holds that a father gives away his daughter to become the wife of a man whose name she shall adopt Until very recently it is the man in a relationship who holds financial control, and the woman who takes the (unpaid) responsibility for the home and the children. When a woman goes out to work she earns, on average, substantially less than her equivalent male colleaguesShe is less likely to receive a promotion, and is likely to receive a smaller pension. If a woman is a wife and/or mother, she will also, on average, continue to take responsibility for the home and the family in addition to her paid employment. The decisions made on our behalf by representatives in unions, councils, and governments are made predominantly by men. Despite the now higher proportion of female law graduates to their male counterparts, our legal system remains dominated by men. Equality legislation has not resulted in equality. Why should this be the case?
The issues of gender inequality became more prominent in the Victorian Era. That is why many female writers began to write about the injustices done to the female community. What is more astonishing is that these female writers knew that their works won’t be taken well if they used their real names. So instead they used pseudonyms, for example Emily Bronte used the name Elis Bell and Charlotte Bronte’s pen name was Currer Bell. Moreover, the scenarios depicted in those novels were not only representative of women of that time and region but is true for present say as well. Women never have their own identity, they are either identified as their father’s daughter or later as the wife of the man they get married to.
Cordelia fine in her book says: “associational learning is key to our socialization, a process that includes the internalization of gender roles and can account for the apparent differences between men and women. Beginning at infancy, our young malleable brains are subjected to pressures to conform to gender norms deemed appropriate for our sex. Thus, to take the obvious examples, girls are surrounded by pink and boys with blue; girls are given toys that will allow them to imitate the life of a traditional wife and mother (e.g. dolls and play-kitchens), and boys that of a traditional working man (tools, building blocks, etc). While in recent years many parents will attempt to reject these for more “gender-neutral” parenting, society as a whole will ensure that a child will soon become aware of what is “normal” for a girl and how that differs from what is “normal” for a boy. Violation of these norms has violent consequences in bullying, harassment, depression and suicide.”
Many psychologists write that many daughters are subjected to gender inequality when they are sick. The patriarchs think that they are the ones who tend to the sick ones, not the other way round. So when the girls are unwell, they do not tell this to their families and ultimately grow frail and week. Moreover numerous childbirths from a same woman is also included in gender inequality. The male members of the family want a son and they totally forget about the rights and love which their daughters truly deserve.
Many a time’s gender inequality occurs because of the social and religious norms. Many people (men) think that they are doing the right thing, according to religion, if they are trying to pacify the woman. But in doing so they do not understand that they are literally snatching away the rights of the women. They are not only snatching away their breathing space but also their social as well as personal rights.
Nowadays, gender inequality is quite apparent in different work places. Cindy Hsu writes: “A woman earns only 80 cents for every dollar a man earns. Women are performing better in school than men are, and women definitely have equal qualifications, if not higher. Yet, in our supposedly merit-based, capitalist society, women still lag behind men in wages. Despite the huge advances women have made within the education system, women are still at a disadvantage in the workplace.”
According to the National Committee of Pay, “Women earn just 77 percent of what men earn for the same amount of work In addition to this gender wage gap, women often face a glass ceiling when it comes to promotions, which is evident when you survey the lack of women in leadership positions at major companies. Women who have children often find themselves penalized for taking time off; if they're not dismissed, they may face discrimination and outdated ideas of what a woman can accomplish if she's pregnant or a mother. And jobs that are considered traditional women's work, such as nursing and teaching, are often some of the lowest-paying fields.”
Gender inequality is observed in eastern as well as western countries. Molly Edmonds writes: “Saudi Arabia provides the most extreme example of limited mobility for women: In that country, women are not allowed to drive a car or ride a bicycle on public roads. The strict Islamic law in the country prohibits women from leaving the home without a man's permission, and if they do leave the home, they can't drive a car.”
Edmonds goes on to give an example of gender inequality in western region as well. She writes, “In 2008, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported that one in every three women is likely "to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime" In both the developed and the developing world, violence against women in the form of rape, spousal abuse, child abuse or spousal killing is such routine behavior that it rarely even makes the news anymore.”
Moreover it is quite depressing to know that majority of the people who are illiterate are women. Even if they are sent to school, they are not allowed to study further than primary or sometimes they are married at such an early age that there is no choice for them except for leaving school. This practice is more apparent in the eastern countries but some of the western countries are also not free of this flaw. Molly Edmonds writes, “This gap in educational attainment becomes particularly maddening when you consider the numerous studies that have been done which show that educating girls is a key factor in eliminating poverty and aiding development. Girls who complete school are less likely to marry young, more likely to have smaller families and exhibit better health outcomes in relation to maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS. These women also go on to earn higher salaries, which they then invest in their own families, thus ensuring that future generations of girls get to go on to school. Indeed, it's addressing the inequalities in education that may solve many of the other problems on this list.”
Over the time, this inequality has been treated to an extent. Before the women were not even allowed to go out of their home or to do jobs. Now they do work in renowned firms but the chances of promotion are quite thin. The main excuse offered to the female workers is that because of the fact they are mothers, they cannot be promoted because they won’t be able to fulfill the requirements like travelling. If they do accept such conditions they are tagged as carefree and irresponsible. In this regard, Cindy Hsu writes, “Yes, women have come a long way in probably almost every aspect; however, now is not the time to be complacent. Yes, girls are doing great in school – better than the boys, in fact – but unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that women have broken the glass ceiling. Men still dominate the math and sciences, earn more money, and wield more power. Nevertheless, the progress women have made in academics in the past few decades serves as proof that such progress is also achievable in the workplace.
Gender Inequality in profession is a different matter than gender inequality at home. In the former ones, the women do have their own identity; there are identified by the kind of work they do, whereas the latter one totally negates the identity of women. They just become machines which work day and night and all their efforts are in vain.
Nowadays women are being treated unequally when it comes to the technological tools. Men mock them by saying that they cannot understand the basic mechanism of the technology. This kind of attitude further discourages the women. Therefore gender inequality is one of those issues that have been observed in every era. The only difference is that now women do not meekly succumb to this injustice.
There are many women who not only take care of the domestic chores but also earn a monthly paycheck. These women not only work for long hours at work but also manage to drop their children at school, pick them up, feed them, and clean their clothes and what not. Therefore they should not be treated with injustice and indifference but with love, respect and care. They should be given more opportunities so that they can show the world that they are much more than house wives only. Though being a housewife is also not an easy job. But on the whole, women should be given their rights and the respect that they truly deserve. They should be given more chances to study further. Plus they should be respected in a work place rather being criticized at. Pithy remarks and lowly attitude not only discourages them but also ruins the reputation of a nation. Because, as already has been mentioned, women make up the two third of world’s population and any harm to them means an indirect harm to the nation.
So in order to maintain peace in the world, government of each nation should take steps to demolish it. This flaw is not present in few countries but is contaminating the whole world. Instead of just vowing to fight against it, appropriate steps should be taken to eliminate it. This will help in improving the social, political, religious and economic scenario of the nations.
Works Cited
Edmonds, Molly. "10 Examples of Gender Inequality around the World." Discovery.com. N.P. Web. 7 Dec 2012.
Fine, Cordellia. Delusions of Gender: How our Minds, Society and Neurosexism Creates Differences. W.W.Norton, 2010. Print.
Hsu, Cindy. "Gender Inequality in the Workplace." The Harvard Independent. N.p., 01 Dec. 2011. Web. 7 Dec 2012.
Kay, Joseph. "Gender inequality and gender differences."Libcom.org. N.P., 13 May 2012. Web. 7 Dec 2012.
Terman, Lewis. The measurement of intelligence: an explanation of and a complete guide for the use of the Stanford revision and extension of the Binet-Simon intelligence scale.. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916. 68-72. Print.
Worell, Judith. Encyclopedia of women and gender: sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender. 1. Elsevier: 2001.
