Gender Prejudices

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Gender Prejudices

“Women need to..” is the first line featured in the new ad campaign for UN Women, an organization focusing on the gender equality and the empowerment of women. The ad features a woman with a Google search bar obscuring her mouth and autocomplete results for the incomplete phrase “women need to…” These include “women need to be put in their place”, “women need to know their place”, “women need to be controlled”, and “women need to be disciplined”. The small print of each ad also reads “Actual Google search on 09/03/13.” UN Women successfully uses these results to illustrate the still- present ideas of sexual discrimination. However, an analysis and synthesis between this campaign ad and articles related to the plight and progress of women show that the presence of gender prejudices can one day be an antiquated ideology,

Discrimination against women by policy, laws, and legislation around the world is still a major obstruction to gender equality. These include laws discriminating against divorce, marital rape, employment, education, sexual harassment, and obedience laws. In countries like Kenya, Zambia, and Malaysia, laws prohibiting gender discrimination are present but do not protect women against laws on marriage, divorce, and custody of children. In Uganda, practice of polygamy, bride prices, and forced marriages are still in practice. In studies done by the U.S. Census Bureau, the average age of marriage for an American woman is 26.9 years, and most states feature an age requirement of 18 years. However, in places like Guatemala, Japan, and Syria the age requirement for marriage differ between the sexes. In Japan, girls can marry at 16, while boys marry at 18. In Syria, the limit is 17 years for girls ...

... middle of paper ...

...day be a thing of the past. In future years, the progress of women with overshadow the close-mindedness of some individual’s beliefs and the concept that “women need to be put in their place” will be a thing of the past.

Works Cited

Austin, Grace. "Legalizing Discrimination: Women's Discrimination Around the World." Diversity Journal. N.p., 10 July 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

Deen, Thalif. "WOMEN: Reservations Grow Over UN's Women's Treaty." Web.archive.org. N.p., 15 Mar. 1970. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

Gender Development Group. "Quotations on Women's Rights." Quotations on Women's Rights. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

Howard, Caroline. "The World's Most Powerful Women 2013." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 22 May 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

"UN Women ad series reveals widespread sexism." Un Women. UN Women, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

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