Look at Gender Inequality With a Parallel Worldview

Have you thought of, what if there was another planet where all men are discriminated against for jobs, social status and everything. What if men were treated like women are in our world today? 

This french short film portraits a worldview in which women are the ones who dominate the society, while men are in the weaker position. This parallel universe theory points out that everything could happen. There is no certain set of rights and wrongs, which means, women do not necessarily weaker/worse than men. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UWxlVvT1A

This novelty should strike many people hard. Taking the view of the possible existence of a parallel world makes us realise it is all about majority. The majority rule the society. This applies to every society and applies to every single social issue. The stereotyped set of mind determines which group is more powerful. It just happens to our world that most cultures rank men higher than women.

By Sean Yau Shun Ming

Gender Inequality

Institutionalized sexism may sound like an archaic idea in the contemporary world, though it is hardly a relic of the past. Out of all 535 members of congress in the United States, only 98 are women. According to the Global Gender Gap, Yemen, followed by Chad and Pakistan, has the most sexism towards women than any other country in the world, and Iceland, followed by Norway and Finland, have the least (The Global Gender Gap, 2011).

Gender discrimination amplifies many problems such as wage discrimination and unequal access to social programs. In the United States, it is estimated that women make only 3/4^th of the money a man makes for the same exact work. This means that for every dollar a man makes, his female counterpart will make about $0.75 for doing the same exact work (Forbes, 2013). Furthermore, some people cite the eugenics, or the study a certain “science, “as proof that gender inequality is not such an unfair thing.

The problem with eugenics is that is not credible and offers inept and unsupported ideologies to promote biases and stereotypes. For example, eugenics supports the idea that all women are naturally born weaker than men (which is not true), so they, as a collective whole that comprises a little over 50% of the human species, are unfit for working. According to Pew Research, “75% of women of the ages 18-32 believe that United Sates needs to do more to bring about gender equality in the workplace.”

Gender inequality is certainly not an exclusive problem. For instance, age, racial, and religious discrimination are also still very present in our contemporary societies. But to trivialize the problem of gender inequality, and the impacts it left on millions of men and women in the world would be to deny the history and plight of those who have suffered.

Lindsey S.

Walking that Walk

In one of her write ups by Cassandra Clifford called ‘Seeking an End to Global Child Abuse’, she quoted Shirley Chisholm: "The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl.'” That stays true globally irrespective of caste, religion, time period or country only the magnitude differs.  Having said that, it is encouraging to see how some countries have indeed ‘walked that walk’ [and not just talked the talk] gradually managing to move towards a more balanced society.

HDI [Human Development Index] is a measure of Human Resource Development in a country [higher values indicate better performance] and GII [Gender Inequality Index] is a measure of gender based imbalance [higher values consider greater imbalance]. If we let the numbers do the talking, one can’t help but observe the following from the below graphs showing HDI and GII of 12 countries from 2000 to 2012.

·         Japan shows most favorable HDI v/s GII ratio [i.e. not only has there has been an overall development of people there has been least

·         China and UAE show considerable growth in HDI and a remarkable fall in the GII

·         Although India and Ghana show equalizing HDI growth, Ghana shows a marked low GII comparatively.

·         Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran have shown steady improvement on GII while Syria shows an opposite trend.

Data Source: http://hdr.undp.org

                                       

Clearly countries like Japan, China, UAE form great examples of countries that have walked that walk towards lessening the gender based imbalance amongst their population as represented in their GII trends calculated based on reproductive health, empowerment and labor market.

Japan specifically has a remarkably stable GII some of their milestones being:

·         Average life expectancy for females in 2004 was 85.6 years, greater than the male average of 78.6 years. Every year since 1985, Japanese women have had the world's longest life expectancy.

·         97.8% of Japanese women advance to high school or equivalent, and since 1969 that % has been higher for women than for men.

·         In 2004, the women advancing to universities and junior colleges were 48.7% nearly as high as the 51.1% of men.

·         Women made up 41.3% of the workforce.

To achieve and maintain this, Japan has constituted a Council for Gender Equality and Gender Equality Bureau that works Priority Fields that all countries striving to achieve a low GII can benchmark, some of them listed below: [Source: Publication by Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office – Steps towards Gender Equality in Japan]

·         Expand women's participation in policy decision‑ making processes: This can be achieved by ensuring women’s participation in the democratic machinery by participating, contesting and voting in the electoral process.

·         Review social systems and practices and raise awareness from a gender‑ equal perspective and eliminate violence against women: By forming strict legislations with severe consequences against malpractices like female feticide, female genital mutation, dowry, human trafficking and sex crimes.

·         Secure equal opportunities and treatment between men and women in the field of employment: By instituting labor laws with provisions relating to whistle blowers against acts of discrimination based on gender, caste or color and penal provisions for those found guilty.   

·         Establish gender equality for realizing dynamic rural areas: Abolishing laws and customs prevailing in many parts of the world that prevent women from owning land, property or enterprises.

·         Support the efforts of men and women to harmonize work with their family and community life: Social acceptance to women participation in the work force and in social activities especially new initiatives and priority sectors.

·         Support better quality of life to women via social security measures: Like promoting child care, focusing on reproductive health, creating awareness against HIV/ AIDS and Breast Cancer and an effective pension plan.

·         Enrich education and learning – Including material to promote gender equality  in curriculums and encouraging education amongst girls and women also creating awareness discouraging discriminatory practices.

Last but not the least- those around us learn more from what we are than what we preach, so leading by example is worth a try!