Friday, August 14, 2009

Alyn Magenta A01: 'Women will never enjoy the same rights as men.' Do you agree?

Since ancient times, gender inequality has existed. Men tended to have more basic rights and freedoms entitled to humans as women were treated as a lower class as compared to men. There have been feminist movements to overturn gender inequality since the late 1880s when the word “feminism” was first used and even though such feminist movements are not as prominent as they were then, many are still fighting for equal rights for women. Indeed, women have progressed in their status quo but to a larger extent, it is true that women will never enjoy the same rights as men as in many societies, women have yet to achieve gender equality as men are still generally dominant. Some womens' civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education have been achieved but not all, especially not when compared to men.

Undoubtedly, women nowadays are given basic human rights in the developed nations but it is certainly not the same for women living in developing countries. There have been laws issued by many governments across the globe to ensure the rights of women. One example is the United Nations Millennium Project. The project claims, "Every single Goal is directly related to women's rights, and societies where women are not afforded equal rights as men can never achieve development in a sustainable manner.” There are surely better living conditions for women and more resources allocated to take care of women than before. However, this is only true in countries that can afford to defy the traditional society’s point of view to give the females better treatment. In developing countries like India, the mens' opinion is too strong to be suppressed that women are still being treated as people of lower status. Women are traded like merchandise in India and in China many female babies are abandoned or female fetuses are aborted because of the one child policy. People have chose to give up these lives of women in exchange for a possibility of getting a male baby. Figures have proven that women’s rights are not equivalent to men. Of 150 million children aged six to eleven who do not attend school, over 90 million are girls and of the world’s 876 million illiterate people over 15 years of age, two thirds are women. Women also make up 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people worldwide who live in poverty. They are not only not given proper living conditions or the opportunity to progress from their poor living conditions, they are subjected to violent abuse by men. They have become the source of satisfaction to men’s lust and women being victims are even at times blamed for the lecherous acts of men. There are honour killings committed by Iraqi men against their own sisters, wives, daughters and mothers whom have been raped by other men or have been suspected of straying from traditional rules of chastity and fidelity. Thus, even though the human rights entitled to a woman has advanced; women still do not enjoy the same human rights men do.

It can be seen that women have achieved certain rights that men used to enjoy which women did not in the past in the workplace, but it must also be recognized that there is still a long way to go before real equality is achieved. In this era, women are now able to enter the workforce and hold an occupation. This was never possible before as women’s role was stereotyped as the one taking care of the family and staying at home to perform house chores. It can be seen that women’s rights in the economic realm has improved; they are now able to earn a living for themselves and not depend on men as the sole breadwinners of the family. Women are even given the privilege of maternity leave during their pregnancy. However, there is still this social stigma against women. Many employers are reluctant to hire married women or give them a higher position in the company as they are aware of the possibility of women going on maternity leave, that women have the tendency to place family above their career and that women are more emotional as compared to men. It is certainly still gender inequality existing even though it is not blatant. Globally, female directors of companies are few and far between. Statistics have also proven so. Worldwide, women work two thirds of the world’s working hours and produce half of the world’s food yet women only earn 10 percent of the world’s income and own less than 1 percent of the world’s property. Moreover, in Forbes 2009 top richest people in the world, the only female that came close to the top ten was Alice Walton whose wealth was not even earned by herself but an inheritance from her family. It is clearly illustrated that although women have been given economic rights, the playing field in the workplace is still not level. People still think that a woman’s role is ultimately as the housewife and not the one with a successful career or the one who is able to help the company advance. Therefore, women have enjoyed more rights than before but women will never enjoy the same rights as men as society has been structured such that women are tasked as caregivers of the family.

In addition, in the political arena, it appears that women can now take part in governing the country but the truth is, women are still under-represented. Indeed, more and more females are now entering politics and given the opportunity to voice the female point of view instead of the same old patriarchal voices. However, women in fact do not enjoy the same rights as men in politics. Their political rights are still less than that of men. Women make up more than half the population in the world but only 12.7 percent of the world’s parliamentarians are female. Also, it has been said that women who break political barriers despite being a female do so because of their family connections. Benazir Bhutto and Indira Ghandi, both ex-Prime Ministers of Pakistan and India respectively were of privileged political lineage. In many other countries that have elected more women than others, it is also because of lineage that they were able to slash through gender barriers. Another example would be Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, a war time hero that led Burma out of colonial rule. It is not only the rulers that deny women of their equal rights but also the members of the society. In a poll done in the US recently, 14 percent admitted they would never vote for a female. Hence, this shows how women are not given the exact same rights that men enjoy even though they get do get a sniff of it.

In conclusion, women do not enjoy the same rights as men even though the situation has been somewhat ameliorated. Women will indeed never enjoy the same rights as men because of the characteristics a woman have and the social stereotypes that have become innate to mankind since time immemorial.

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