Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
traditional roles of women in society
female inequality in religion
traditional roles of women in society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: traditional roles of women in society
Bangladesh is a country that puts on a facade of gender equality. While the constitution and several laws make provisions for the equal treatment and protection of females, few of these laws or constitutional rights are ever enforced. The primary factor behind this is that few people view women in any capacity other than that of mothers or potential mothers, and, under the further influence of out-dated “religious” beliefs, may even treat females in a family as possessions. Additionally, the ignorance that many women possess regarding their rights, or a fear of repercussion from a male dominated and highly chauvinistic society, keep them from speaking out for themselves, especially in matters concerning business, inheritance, or violence, preferring to leave the matter in the hands of sometimes quite distant male relatives. These attitudes have led to many disadvantages for females of all ages nationwide. Fathers, believing there to be no value in educating their daughters, limit their access to education, resulting in the majority of the illiterate population in Bangladesh consisting of females. In addition, girls as young as eight or nine are forced to work as servants, while many older girls take up work in factories. The salary they receive is normally only a fraction of that given to their male counterparts, and this kind of disparity can also be seen when considering the inheritance of property, where daughters may be entitled to only half as much as sons. Violence and the harassment of women have also become issues of mass importance in Bangladesh, with the number of cases of eve-teasing, rape, and domestic abuse increasing day by day. Trends and situations such as these are not capable of being solved overnight, but aside ...
... middle of paper ...
...arly evidenced by the differences that can be observed between developed and developing nations. Even though females make up less than 50 % of the Bangladeshi population, they do, nevertheless, comprise a good portion of it, and contribute accordingly to the demographics of the country, and the so-called social and economic progress associated with them. This shows that the impact of gender-based inequality, especially in a developing country, reaches far beyond humanitarian issues and actually affects the development of the country itself, and that continued discrimination against females on the basis of their gender will only serve to slacken the pace of Bangladesh’s development and prolong the suffering and mistreatment endured by women who are treated as second class citizens in a society that once claimed to revere all women as if they were their own mothers.
objective and the principle means of development.” Sen does a great job in reminding us what should be expected from a developed nation-state without framing it from the Western lens. However, he does not provide a solution on how to achieve these ‘freedoms’ which makes it simple to discount his assessments in relation towards contemplating what progress is. Creating room for opportunity for women in Bangladesh, a developing nation whose society traditionally makes it almost impossible for female advancement, one should definitely consider that progress.
Despite the drastic changes made toward the improvement of equal rights there a still many problems that have been overlooked, or simply ignored. According to Mario Osave, (2010) “Thirty years after the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), many girls and women still do not have equal opportunities to realize rights recognized by law. In many countries, women are not entitled to own property or inherit land. Social exclusion, “honor” killings, female genital mutilation, trafficking, restricted mobility and early marriage among others, deny the right to health to women and girls and increase illness and death throughout the life-course.” (Shah 1)
Violence and injustices also greatly affect non-western women. Female circumcision, polygamy, the ease of divorce and violence against women, as well as the lack of access to productive resources and unequal access to education and health care, plague the women of the less developed countries. For the modernization of these non-western countries women must play a larger role than they do now. Without equality for women less developed countries cannot move forward.
Hossain, Kamrul. "In search of equality: marriage related laws for Muslim women in Bangladesh." Journal of International Women's Studies 5.1 (2003): 96+. Global Issues In Context
Women are part of our society and their tremendous performance is not less to those of men. They are competitive and superb in diverse areas, even beyond men in some situations. They constitute half of the world’s populace. Gender inequity subsists in many countries globally. Discriminating and preventing almost half of the world’s population from attaining its complete potential is an economic irrationality. Denying girls and women equality makes them endure, as well as obstruct development of whatever is left of society. In order to ensure we develop society as a whole, it is important to cultivate gender egalitarianism throughout all areas of our civilization.
It is often said that sexism is a subject of the past, and yet women still face gender oppression throughout their lives. The concept of Gender oppression, defined as persecution associated with the gender norms, relations, and stratification in a society. Indian culture perceives men as the breadwinners and women as the caregiver for her family. In a country like India, Patriarchy has been a norm for about two hundred years; the society of India has emerged to become a patriarchal society. Women have been empowered from raising their voices and are kept silent in cases, including sexual abused or verbal abuse. Such issues have imposed women of India to live under a glass ceiling, limiting them to reach their full potential. This structure has lead India to be a patriarchal society, where men are the breadwinners, and women are caretakers of their families.
The responsibility to solve the social inequality lies with everyone. Empowerment is a key aspect in not only raising awareness for women’s rights but allows those facing discrimination to fight for themselves. One way individuals and society as a whole can empower is through governmental activism. Legislation promoting equality, such as the Equal Pay Act, help women receive fair wages for equal work. Other laws that improve women’s rights are those abolishing arranged marriages. Fighting against arranged marriages solves other societal issues such as the fact “only 40 percent of Indian women can read, compared with 60 percent of men” (Kazmin).
Some of the main challenges being cost of education, school environment, position of women in their societies as to how they are treated, conflicts and social exclusion. One of the main reasons why parents discriminate against the girl child when it comes to education is the cost when compared to economic returns to the household after the completion of education and also the expenditure of marrying off a daughter is enormous in many societies. It has also been documented that girls in most developing countries start helping in household chores from an early age and being highly educated causes constraints regarding marriage as many grooms don’t prefer a literate wife. Studies have shown that girls are the first to discontinue schooling to provide care to a sick member in the family or take care of younger siblings in case of death of a parent, and this is one of the main reasons why in Sub-Saharan countries there are many child headed families. Social exclusion is another barrier that prevents girls from going to school as they are excluded based on caste, ethnicity and religion (DIFD Report,
Women in the current century are a troubled lot this due to the various predicaments that they have to go through on a daily basis. The women and girls undergo brutality in various aspects: sex trafficking, mass rape, acid attacks, and bride torture. Poor countries are cognizant of these forms of injustices that affect women. Furthermore, in a larger percentage of countries worldwide, women and girls are uneducated and marginalized. All these are impacted on women, despite the fact that they represent an opportunity even greater in an economic and geopolitical sense. Evidence is the poverty that such countries that marginalize women face. In view of this, there has been an ever growing recognition from everyone among them the U.S military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff who figures that aiding organizations that focuses on women and girls is a sure way to fight global poverty. This means that the world is slowly but surely beginning to realize the fact that women are not th...
Gender equality is a major issue amongst today’s current events. Organisations, groups and protests have sprung up in accordance with third wave feminism which shines light directly on women in the work force and their role in it. Whilst this has mainly been an issue dealt with by developed nations, a more inquisitive look into the role of gender equality can be found in the development of developing economies. Gender inequality is an issue that plagues developing nations and only through a thorough understanding of it can any important change be done. Whilst professionals in the field of development all agree that gender equality is critical, evidence can only be found in real world examples and theories that aim to improve equality. This
Mistreatment of women in the workforce has been an ongoing issue ever since women have been introduced into the work environment. While some issues are specific to certain workplaces, others are issues that are continuously noticed almost everywhere. There are many who experience poverty around the world, but research has shown that along with ethnic and racial minorities (of said country), women have been consistently among the most disadvantaged and programs to help those in poverty that do not take gender inequality into account have consistently failed to help women out of these circumstances. (International Development Agency (USAID) “Women, Men and Development”) “Men and women often are poor and for different reasons, experience poverty differently, and have differing capacities to withstand or escape poverty.”(Whitehead, Ann Failing Women, Sustaining Poverty: Gender in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers) There have been many instances...
Women’s rights are an important factor in understanding global well-being. Although a treaty was endorsed by the majority of the world’s nations a few decades ago, numerous issues still exist in most aspects of life, despite many successes in liberating women. It is an unfortunate case, how women are paid less than men, yet work more; throughout their lifetime, gender discrimination negatively affects girls and women; and women are often the ones who are in a state of poverty. It is a common misconception to think that women’s rights only exist in countries where religion is a law. Similarly, some individuals might think that the rights of women are an issue no more. Unfortunately that is not the case. Today, gender bias continues to
Despite progress in recent years girls still suffer a lot of disadvantage in education systems. While gender equality in education remains a crucial issue for many countries women still account for two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population. Estimated thirty one million girls of primary school age and thirty four million girls of lower secondary school age were not enrolled in school in 2011. (http://www.UNICEF.org/education/bege-61657.html) Girls’ education is both an intrinsic right and a critical lever to reaching other development objectives says UNICEF. Girls’ education is important to the achievement of quality learning. Girls who have been educated are likely to marry later and to have smaller and healthier families. Educated women can recognize the importance of health care and know how to seek it for themselves and their children. Education helps girls and women to know their rights and to gain confidence to claim them. However, women’s literacy rates are significantly lower than men’s in most developing countries. UNICEF recognizes the opportunities provided through girls’ education and it supports governments in the reduction of gender discrimination through interventions at national, local and community levels aimed to empower girls. As we look towards 2015 and beyond, UNICEF continues to take a more transformative approach to girls’ educ...
“In recent decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need to increase gender equality throughout the world. Strategies to achieve this end have focused on empowering women in social, educational, economic,
“Women’s rights in Islam” is great controversial topic going on nowadays. The world is colored with different cultures and religions. Most people come up with different thoughts for other religion’s people by just having one look on them. Veil is obsession for some people, whereas, being bald is freedom in some people’s point of view. There are lots of misconceptions about women’s rights in Islam among non muslims. If women are covering their body or if they like to stay at home, people think that they don’t have any freedom in this religion and women are obsessed. But this is not reality. A person cannot point out anything wrong and blame other’s religion just because of his own confusion. He needs to study thoroughly and then come up with opposing viewpoints. Therefore, the misconception about women’s rights in Islam should be removed because women have equal rights, veil is for their protection, and they have freedom of speech and expression.