Gender Inequality
- mphokgano
- Jul 27, 2020
- 3 min read
Gender inequality is one of the biggest problem we are faced with. Women are looked down upon, belittled, deprived form reaching their full potential, subject to domestic violence, seen as sex objects and not taken serious.
For so many years’ women have been longing to be equal to their male counter parts. However, this is rather hard to achieve because we are taught gender inequality from a very young age. At home, women are taught to clean the house, wash the dishes, do laundry and take care of quest, while boys are taught out door work and they have more free time- only that is enough for them to think that they are better that girls.
See, gender inequality is an action, it is emotions, behavior, and culture. It is diction and perception. It is like some kind of a spirit that is instilled to both a boy and a girl child at a tender age. Boys learn that anything girly is associated with weakness. Boys are taught that girls are valued less and boys are better than girls.
As a girl child grows and her body start developing another problem emerges for her. Every time she walks passed a boy or group of boys, they comment on her body. She will then be told to cover herself, to not walk alone in the streets and to be at home before it gets dark whilst a boy child can come home at any time.
The community we are raised in reinforces gender inequality. For example, when a man beads up his wife, and she goes to church to ask for help, she is told that we can’t change people but we can only change our selves. she is also told to pray, be patient and consider her role as a wife. When she goes to the police, she is sometimes discouraged to press charges against her husband and rather consider counselling.
Gender inequality is about women. but a woman is not taken serious when she raises a point about gender inequality, she is told that she is emotional and bias. However, when a man raises a point about gender inequality, he is celebrated and called a feminist.
The first step in solving gender inequality is to make gender visible to man, because whether we like it or not, man don’t see anything wrong with how they treat women. They think it’s only fair and just because their ego, status and reputation is more important than that of a woman.
it is very beautiful that this man touched on the issue of gender inequality talking to these children at their age. What is even more interesting is this young girl’s view on gender inequality. She knows that boys and girls should be brought up the same way, taught the same thing and be treated the same. Families, schools and churches can address gender norms and attitudes in children before they become ingrained. The Media affects how people view each other, working towards representation of equal relationship between man and women can help change people’s mind
Gender equality is the equal right for both men and women to have access to opportunities and resources, including the rights to participate in the economic sphere and make informed decisions. Women empowerment is a fundamental aspect of archiving gender equality through boosting a women’s sense of self-worth, her decision making power, her access to opportunities and resources, her power and control over her own life inside and outside home, and her ability to effect change
If we really want to eradicate gender inequality, we will need to confront a man’s sense of entitlement because that is where the problem lies.
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