tws.edu.in · Web viewThe word “Gender” is a very mysterious term in this modern day world. With the effect of globalization and the world coming closer the word “gender”

Taurian Innovative Journal/Volume 1/ Issue 1

Gender discrimination: Its effect on girl child, society and education

Sugita Mukhopadhyay1, YuktashreeHui2, Deepika Tudu3

1Teacher ,Taurian World School2Grade XII, Taurian world school, Ranchi3 Grade IX, Taurian world school, Ranchi

Abstract - In this modern day society still we come across the terms “gender discrimination”. Discrimination between a girl child and a boy child is an important deciding factor in the progress of a country in the modern day world. Gender discrimination acts like a cancer causing hindrance to the progress of the society. Steps are being taken to create awareness in the world by stopping sex determination tests, setting up of schools for girls, reservation of constituencies for women during election, allowing girls to apply for different types of jobs especially in military, navy, air force, granting government aid for girl child and many more to come. These steps will help the families who are only gifted with girl child and will give them the strength to boast off in the society.

Keywords - Dichotomy, Gender Inequality, Sex Determination Test

1. Introduction

The word “Gender” is a very mysterious term in this modern day world. With the effect of globalization and the world coming closer the word “gender” or “gender discrimination” should not have been finding a place in the dictionary. But is it so? Can we say that in this modern world, society is free of all discriminations or society is free of all differences based on gender? Sorry to say the answer is a big NO. This gender discrimination has a very big effect not only on the society but also in every spheres of our life. But, now time has come to wipe out this concept from the society dominated by the human beings and treat all male and female child equally and give them equal scope and opportunity to explore themselves.

There are different connotations of the term “Gender Discrimination”. It can be a situation to make people understand that men and women are not equal. It can

also refer to unequal treatment or perceptions of the individuals wholly or partly due to their due to their gender. Gender discrimination arises from the differences in gender roles. Gender systems are often dichotomous and hierarchical.

Figure1. DichotomousIn this image, the universal setU (the entire rectangle) is

dichotomized into the two sets A (in pink) and its complement Ac (in grey).

According to Onwuka [2002] Gender is defined as the roles, attitudes, behaviors and values prescribed by the society to all men and women who comprises the society. According to her Gender issues are socially constructed, but can be changeable and mainly is based on society’s perception.

This inequality comes from the very base of the society that a female child or women lags behind men in many areas like education, salary structure, jobs, grabbing and utilization of opportunities. In this paper the authors have tried to discuss the effects of Gender Discrimination with its impact on society and in the world. A comparative analysis is also made to show the effect. The authors also have tried to find out remedies for getting rid of this discrimination and

32Corresponding Author: Sugita Mukhopadhyay


present to the world a society based on equal rights of man and women where both of them can flourish equally.

2. The 5 Toughest Places To Be a Girl

As per the statistics by World Economic Forum (WEF) the countries are as follows:a) Iranb) Chadc) Syria d) Pakistane) Yemen

Gender Inequality is a global problem. These 5 nations are facing the toughest challenge. If we go through the data we will see that around 62 million girls are missing from schools. But not always we wanted to find the reasons. What do we do? We start blaming the girl instead of analyzing the reasons. The reasons can be as poverty, illiteracy, lack of cultural norms in the family, sexual harassment, lack of bathrooms and feminine hygiene products and others.

The 10worst countries for Gender Equality ranked by Perception are as followsa) Jordanb) Egyptc) Indonesiad) Turkeye) Iran f) Malayasiag) Algeriah) Indiai) South Koreaj) Saudi Arabia

Figure 2. How girls around the world are educated3. Causes of Gender Discrimination

Let us now try to analysis the causes for gender discrimination around the world. Let us look at some of the figures:

a) Abortion Rights around the world South American and Caribbean:These are the two states in the world where abortion is banned. The government of Michelle Bache lot in Chilli had indicated desires to liberalise policies. Uruguay recently liberalized the abortion laws which were very much supported by the Women’s Rights Organization.

Figure 3. The Guardian Sources: UN World Population database 2013 ( revision)

b) How nations stack up Gender equality?Global gender gap report browserRanking as 2016Rank for us 45th with the score of 72%

Icelan

d

Finlan

d

Norway

Swed

en

Rwanda

76788082848688

Gender Equality %

Gender Equality %

Figure 4. Gender Parity Score for top five countries in 2016



Yemen

Pakist

anSy

ria

Saudi A

rabia

Chad48525660

Gender Equality %

Gender Equality %

Figure 5. Gender Parity Score for bottom five countries in 2016

c) Millions of women need family planning

Figure 6. Image No Ceilings

d) What work-life balance?

Figure 7. Image Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

e) Problems with Parental leave

Figure 8. Sources : Global map

Besides there are other causes also like bad mentality, culture and tradition, education level in women, religious beliefs and empowerment, child marriage.

4. A comparative study of gender inequality across the world in the modern day

a) IndiaOne of the most important causes for gender inequality in India is the Patriarchal system of society. According to Manu a women when child should be under the custody of father, when married should be under the custody of husband, when old should be under the custody of son[6]. So where is the women’s independence? If every time the women have to be under the custody of somebody how can she express herself? When a girl child is born in our society then the families do not want to educate them having in mind that the child will be married and will go to her in-laws house. So why to invest so much on her where as if money is spend on the boy child then in future the child will give back the money to the family only. Time has come to change this idea. Awareness has to be spread against honor killing, created among the citizens to treat a girl and a boy equally. Besides, poverty, lack of education are also important causes for gender inequality in India. As far as Global Gender Gap Index 2017 as released as part of World Economic Forum India ranks 108 out of 144 countries. The low score was due to health and survival. The steps taken by government are to increase women representation in the public sphere, taking initiatives to educate the girl child, Special Mahila police volunteers, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme, One stop centre scheme, Rajiv Gandhi National Creche scheme for working mothers etc. Women’s helpline etc. are some of the steps taken by the government to minimize gender inequality in India.

b) AmericaWhen we speak of America we cannot think of any gender inequality there. Such an advanced country where this problem is not there only. But it is there. The causes for gender inequality in America are Gender pay inequality, maternity leave, affordable child care, women’s reproductive rights and violence against women.



c) Middle East countriesWhen we speak of gender inequality the Middle east countries comes to our mind. The main causes of gender inequality here are ongoing conflict, gender based violence, economic (dis)empowerment, lack of political participation, restrictive family laws

d) EuropeHere also the gap between male and female employment rates, female representation on corporate boards and top management, cost of motherhood in terms of lower wages for mothers.

e) YemenYemen is regarded as one of the highest countries for gender inequality because of highest sexual discrimination caused by religious and traditional circumstances.

5. Global problem of gender inequality

Gender Inequality still exists in different parts of the world. The countries like Costa Rica, Cuba, Sweden and Norway are some of the countries that has achieved gender equality. The global problem of gender inequality can be crime against women, honor killing, rape sex determination tests, dowry, and other causes. In many families women eat last in the family getting the least chances of nutrition, But there is a hope that if we invest more on girls now then we can ensure a brighter future for girls and women.

Figure 9. Source: Human Development Index (2014)

Figure 10. Source UN

Figure 11. Source: Seck and Azcona based on calculations by UNIFEM

Figure12. Source:Wskaznik- Top News



7. What is gender equality?

Gender Equality means that men and women, girls and boys enjoy the same rights and opportunities, facilities, protection from the society. If this gender equality prevails throughout the world then we will see that many of our social problems are also solved. But how do we measure gender equality? Gender Equity Index is the index that measures gender equality on three parameters as education, economic participation and empowerment.

Figure 13. Image on Gender Equality

8. What women want for creating gender equality

Include news for and about women, create pay equality, increase skill and leadership abilities through mentoring and development programs, stop dowry deaths, stop child marriage, access to jobs, stop sex determination tests, make people aware of the importance of girl child.

Figure 14. Source: My World: Global Responses to gender

Here is how every country in the world ranks on Gender Equality:

Figure 15. Source: UN Dispatch 2017

The most gender equal countries1. Iceland2. Norway3. Finland4. Rwanda5. Sweden6. Nicaragua7. Slovenia8. Ireland9. New Zealand 10. Phillipines

9. Women’s empowerment

Women’s empowerment is a critical aspect of achieving gender equality. It includes increasing a women’s sense of self -worth, her decision making power, her access to opportunities and resources, her power and control of her own life inside and outside the home, and her ability to effect change.. Now the question can be asked why to empower women? The answer is women’s empowerment transforms the world. 8th March every year is observed as international Women’s day by UN. UN women Strategic plan 2018-2021 supports the effort to achieve



gender equality and empower all women and girls. This plan emphasizes on five strategic priorities:

a) A comprehensive and dynamic set of global norms, policies and standards for gender equality and the empowerment of the women are strengthened and implementedb) Women lead, participate and benefit equally from the governance systemsc) Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomyd) All women and girls live a life free from violencee) All women and girls contribute equally to build peace in this world

Conclusion

This gender inequality is a very serious problem in the modern day world. Steps should be taken to remove this gender inequality. Let women and girls have the chance to raise their voices, let them have access to mobile phones, stop child marriage and sexual harassment, make education gender sensitive, give proper value to women’s work, to help to fulfill the aspirations of the girl child, As a responsible citizen of this modern day world, it is our duty to protest against this gender inequality and raise our voices for Gender equality. Only then we can make the world a peaceful place to live in. According to Swami Vivekananda “There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of the women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.”

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our special thanks of gratitude to Taurian World school and respected Principal sir, Dr. Subhash Kumar for giving us a chance to participate and present our paper .We express our sincere respect and heartiest gratitude to Mr. Yogesh Popat, Coordinator and Head TGC & R&D, for his kind guidance and motivation in writing this paper. We are very much thankful to him for his all-time help and support with a smiling face.

References

[1] Edith, Otu., Maureen, B. Nkamare : Gender issues and its effect on the development of the girl child in Ogbunabalicommunity in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria: Pelagia Research Library, European Journal of Experimental Biology, 2012, 2 (6):2188-2191

[2] By Breeanna Hare, CNN,Updated 1323 GMT (2123 HKT) October 13, 2016: The 5Toughest places to be a girl

[3] US News, in partnership with Y&R, BAV, WHARTON,: Research carried by Perception

[4] http://www.womwnunlimited.org.genderinequality

[5]GENDER INEQUALITY IN INDIAPosted by IndiaCelebratingTeam | Dec 24, 2016, Social Issues

[6] Glassdoor economic research by Llewyn consulting

[7]https://genderinequalityinyemen.wordpress.com

Corresponding Author: Sugita MukhopadhyayInstitution: Taurian World School, RanchiEmail-id: [email protected]


http://www.womwnunlimited.org.genderinequality/

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tws.edu.in · Web viewThe word “Gender” is a very mysterious term in this modern day world. With the effect of globalization and the world coming closer the word “gender”