For a very long time, women have fought to be considered competent, to vote, to be hired for the jobs that men have been conventionally doing and to be promoted in those jobs. And we, women, have come a long way. But most recent studies show that gender bias is still going strong. The real thing here is that women are still at a disadvantage in the scientific world, simply because they’re women. Millions of women throughout the world live in conditions in which they are deprived of their basic human rights for no other reason than their gender. Women were and still are discriminated in the society. [break]
Discrimination, in a general sense, simply means making a decision based on some distinctive factors. It involves making decisions on treating people differently based on factors such as race, age, sex, color, disability or national origin. Throughout history, the most common discrimination we hear about is the race of people. Thus, no one really takes into consideration of how women are discriminated because of their sex, and how they are treated as lower beings owing to their traditional roles.
Discrimination against girls and women in the developing world is a devastating reality. When a boy is born in most developing countries, friends and relatives exclaim congratulations. A son means insurance. He’ll not only inherit his father’s property, but also earn and support the family. When a girl is born, the reaction is very different. Some women weep when they find out that their baby is a girl because, to them, a daughter means expenses. In some parts of developing countries, it is traditional to greet a family with a newborn girl by saying, “The servant of your household has been born.” In many parts of the world, aborting female fetuses is still rampant.
However, discrimination against women isn’t exceptional to developing countries alone. Gender discrimination is rampant in developed countries too. A recent report from the Department of US Labor showed that women today are paid only 72 cents for every dollar a man earns.
Almost every country in the world still has laws that discriminate against women. Law and property rights are enforced inefficiently and inheritance is usually the sole right of the sons. In Nepal, even though laws are enforced for the rights of women on parental property, not many are aware of it. Also the social structure is such that daughters don’t usually insist on their property rights.
On the other hand, society favors men and gives them higher authority and this makes women vulnerable to crimes like rape, eve teasing, sexual abuse etc. Freedom from the threat of harassment, battering, and sexual assault is a concept that most of us have a hard time imagining because violence has silently become a part of our culture.
Studies show there’s a direct link between a country’s attitude toward women and its social and economic progress. The status of women is central to the health of a society. If one part suffers, so does the whole. Women can’t defend themselves against physical and sexual abuse until they have the authority to speak against it without fear. Knowledge gives that authority.
Thirty years ago, most forms of violence against women were hidden under a cloak of silence or acceptance. As more and more women talked with each other in the recent wave of women’s movement, it became apparent that violence against us occurs on a massive scale; that no woman is immune; and that families, friends, and public institutions have been cruelly insensitive about it.
As women have gradually become leaders in the professions — in medicine, law, and business, they also have taken jobs once regarded as too physically strenuous. Women have become sanitation workers, police officers, firefighters, and coalminers. As women advance professionally, they have begun to redefine their self-images. One woman leader says: “We used to think we had to marry doctors [to achieve status and financial security], now we know we can be doctors ourselves.” Although more doors are open to women today, there seems to be a “glass ceiling,” a level above which women do not rise. Even women who are fairly successful in their careers face limitations because they are women.
Hence, in order to end violence against women, we need to completely transform the environment that actually makes this violence possible. It’s essential to build fair societies. The society won’t change unless we change ourselves individually. Next, women empowerment is necessary. Empowered women are more likely to earn a decent income, raise healthy children and invest back into their families and communities. Women must feel safe on the streets and in their homes, and have control over their own bodies. It’s essential to realize that women are politically, economically and culturally equal with men. Implementing new laws could be another potential solution.
However, before the solution to the problem is addressed, the cause of the problem needs to be identified. Many researchers have come to the conclusion that the cause of discrimination against women is the fact that people in societies all over the world are raised to think that men are better than women. Boys are raised today to believe that they are superior to women in strength, intelligence, and moneymaking capacity. Boys should be raised to believe that they are equal to women, and that there’s nothing wrong with them being equal. Children should be taught at a young age that men and women are equal, and they should not be assigned specific gender roles.
In reality, this proposal would take many years to bear fruits because it needs to start with small children. Adults now are already set in their ways, but if we can change the mentality of children, then women in their generation and the generation after them will have much better lives. Hopefully.
The writer is a Chartered Accountant student.
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