Gender Based Discrimination
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Gender Based Discrimination
INTRODUCTION
Discrimination has existed in a number of areas, and more so, the gender-based discrimination goes for a wide range of issues. For example, gender is discriminated in decision-making processes and most recently on economics, where, women are not given enough grounds to prove their work in the areas of making their own development. However, discrimination of women has been tended to be put as a form of violence, and Chaiyanukij (S223) notes that this violence against this weak gender puts a barrier for women to achieve full rights. In this paper particularly, the investigation is on how women have been put as the inferior gender, and how this has been, the factor that has made them heavily discriminated. Specifically, the concentration is on how and to some extent why women have been discriminated on the areas of economics.
Gender Based Violence. By definition, gender based violence is a kind of violence or discrimination that is based on sex; and especially, the definition is mostly put as the discrimination or violence against men. Here, men are seen as the perpetrators of this violence, that is, the gender violence or discrimination is a kind of discrimination that comes from men as directed to women. According to The Advocate (116), the world has tended to give heightened significance to preventing this coercive gender violence, and where, the women are seen to be on the loose or they are perceived to be weak and discriminated. Somehow, women have not made in the past to be free and they have not invented their own strength, and therefore, they are in all aspects taken as very weak and cannot fight for their rights.
Gender discrimination has tended to bring in some kind of victimization and by this; Nolle (53-69) argues that there has tended to be some attempted suicide in transgender persons. These are the persons who cannot be said to be women or men and that is why they are termed as transgender persons. In fact, the attempted suicide has been seen to be about 32% and it varies from one situation to another and from one region to the other. This means that the violence against women has been instigated for long and it is time that this problem is rectified. Sex discrimination, which at times is substituted with the gender discrimination or violence, comes in many forms. History has it that the sex discrimination has been blatant and a matter of law and policy. History as well as the property that was for the women were eliminated, the women could not vote, and they were barred from the professional world and actually impeded from getting the high offices.
Some people have tended to argue that women should fight it out with men in all aspects, and should be no trend that women have to be given positions or opportunities through favorism. However, Human Rights group internationally like the United Nations have put it clear that there has to be equality, and the fact that women were denied opportunities in the fact should be the basis of starting to give the women a chance to prove themselves worth in the business. Duncan (95-115) writes that some of the countries such as the United Kingdom have brought up legislations that are aimed to fight sex discrimination. However, one striking thing in this is that discrimination in women is in age, that is, some of the age groups in women are discriminated and when there are some affirmative action, some of those age groups; for example, the young and the very old are discriminated.
Gender Discrimination in Economics. The definition of economics as per Siegel (52) is a social science of a place, a country or a particular region; however, in this context, the definition of economics means all the aspects that add up to the sustenance of a place, a person or a group of people. For example, the economics of a place is the potentiality of a place to grow to great heights. In essence, economics of women is the potentiality of this category of gender in moving forward or in their own sustenance without the assistance of their male counterparts. Many countries have tended to put up measures that would ensure women realize how much they are potential and can improve their livelihood. For example, some of the countries have instituted laws that make sure that a particular percentage of opportunities are reserved for women while others note that no particular gender should occupy more than a set percentage; for example a third of the opportunities.
The context of economics is wide, and when it is placed in the international arena, it may mean the growth in international development, and this falls under two major categories of Macroeconomics and microeconomics. However, in this context, the analysis is why the concept of economics whether micro or macro applies to women. The use of women is because it is the gender, which has not made it well in the past and as Verma (36-37) notes, if there are some things, which are to be changed concerning the understanding. The improvement of economics, it ought to be placed on making everyone equal, that is, the level of women in terms of financial standing should be equal or close to be equal with that of men.
Gardeazabal (1034-1036) cites the wage discrimination as an area that has been focused more when it comes to gender discrimination. He notes that the contributions of persons has been unfair to one gender, and this implies that there is a lot that has to be done if at all we are to achieve leverage in gender parity. Gender parity also has to be followed in the workplace where workplace harassment has to be eliminated at all cost. It is unfair and most of it all, it has become illegal in countries which have instituted laws against women discrimination. In a company, it is possible that a man is to be promoted with ease while this may be difficult when it comes to the promotion of a woman. This is one of the biggest disease in the society as such kind of discrimination means the women are to remain as underprivileged while men continues to prosper. If at all any efforts to remove this disease is to bear fruits, then, any person from the young to the old must take it as his or her responsibility to institute at heart accommodating everyone.
Laia (563-584) writes that one of the common areas of sex discrimination about economics is the employment discrimination, where, there is undue exercise of the men domination in companies. When there are opportunities in the company, where there are needed new recruitment or promotion, men are given the first priority. The argument most companies give is that men can easily turn an area that was not productive before to become very productive. In this therefore, the justification is that giving women top jobs would jeopardize the set goals; they would corrupt the chances of company survival or there would be procrastination in the achievement of the goals. This cannot be taken as a justification because given equal education; women can perform better men counterparts.
The History of Gender Discrimination in Economics. In economics, discrimination is a term that is used to describe discrimination that is based on the economic factors and this can be traced more than 150 years ago. However, its meaning has changed over time from the original coined meaning, but what is clear is that it all means discriminating people concerning the economic factors they have. At times economic discrimination can be put to show how one region is discriminated against another or where one region in a country is forgotten while in other areas, there is economic boom. However, in this paper, the discussion is on the history that goes along with gender discrimination in the concept of economic discrimination, that is, the history that goes with the discrimination of gender based on economics. Mukherjee (79-80) writes that the early 20th century had discrimination in employment that concern unequal terms and discrimination in terms of gender and mostly women were discriminated while men were favored.
In the year 1992, all governments in the world were being called to recognize women as valuable to the economic boost and actually invest in them heavily. Investment on women was seen as panacea to the boosting of the economy and the society at large. In the year 1995, there was lots of gender bias in all sectors of the economy. However, continually, governments in the world have tended to make paradigm shifts where policies have been enacted that make sure that women access economic factors as much as their men counterparts do. If this trend continues, there would soon be a situation where all people in the world stand equal chance of developing their own societies. However, some of the societies continue to lag behind and there is no sign of improvement in those societies regarding this.
The present world has shown and made clear that women are not to be ignored, as they are capable of performing with equal vigor what is required of them, and to some extent, they have made to surpass the potentials of men. The kind of society that we have or we are likely to have in the near future is a society that does not disregard any particular person about his or her gender. Mostly, the kind of society is that which has women who can perform in any sector; for example, traditionally, women could not engage in sectors such as engineering while men could not engage in sectors, which were seen to be the preserve of women. For example, making of hair, cooking in big hotels and housework were seen to be the preserve of women. However, the kind of society that we have is one, which has men being the cooks; others make hair and take care of the house. Times have changed and this change is taking pace first such that, in the near future, the kind of society we will have is one, which has anybody doing any kind of work, of any measure and at any level.
The history has it that the basis of women discrimination in economics started when women failed to give priority to education and as Chavez (29) writes, men took up education as most serious while women relied on the education of their male counterparts for their own survival. Henceforth, men took this as advantaged and propagated violence and discrimination against the women. Jackson (18) adds that women have had potentials to be on themselves; however, they did not take an early chance and they waited for their male counterparts. The realization of their rights would make this history of women discrimination end and what we will have is an equal society that recognizes all rights.
Gender-Racial Based Economic Discrimination. In the discussion, the argument is that women have been discriminated for long where they are not allowed to take up what they are supposed to take. The argument centers on how women have been denied opportunities across the world and how there is even women discrimination when it comes to employment and promotions in companies. However, Hoffman (8) writes that there is also discrimination against gender and consideration of race altogether, where; the discrimination of women is based on where these women come from. For example, possibly, the discrimination on women in a multi-lingual company such as United States of America considers race. That is, the women who come from some communities or religions that are perceived as not very welcome in the country are not favored as the white women in the country.
Countries that have mixture of people, that is, the countries such as England and United States of America have now instituted measures that makes race not be used to discriminate people. However, before that, lots of discrimination was based on segregating some of the races. It therefore means that if there were discrimination of race, it means that women too are segregated in favor of the white women. The economic status of women who are perceived to come from races such as the black race is inferior while the economic status of others such as the Native American women is high. According to Sellers (187-216), there is a high interrelationship between the racial discrimination and gender discrimination, and mostly, this is when gender discrimination is done on a particular race or segregation of gender when based on races.
A number of studies have been conducted to determine the level of racial discrimination as combined to gender discrimination, and some of the study have suggested that the white women; even though they are segregated when taking just the gender discrimination are more favored than the black women. Still on this, on a country such as America, women who occupy economical areas have the largest percentage being the whites while the black women or the immigrants are not favored as the whites. However, many of these researches have tended to focus more on the discrimination of adolescents based on gender and race with the white adolescents who are females taking a big favor in comparison to the black female adolescents. This can result to a number of things, and the most common of it is that there is a general psychological feeling that they are not fit to be in the land, especially considering that they are of the female nature.
Gender discrimination is to be blamed for the discrepancies and the big difference that is found between men and women in the society, and it becomes worse when this discrimination incorporates the race. According to Simon (9-25), a number of the multicultural societies in the world practice racial discrimination with the dominant cultures getting a bigger shot. On this, it is also noted that gender discrimination goes hand in hand with the racial discrimination where, the dominant cultures in multicultural societies such as the United States and England have gender discrimination in equal measure as the racial discrimination. The whites have many of their female in high jobs while the females who come from the black continent such as African are seen to occupy lesser or low jobs or even they do not occupy jobs at all.
The Future of Gender Discrimination in Economics. It is argued that a lot has changed when it comes to discrimination of women especially in the areas of financial standing or economics. Women are taking up jobs all by themselves and with little assistance by the states, it is possible that women would in future be the forces to reckon bringing the societies up. In the present world, women have become the sources of their own livelihood, and this is to mean that women are no longer dependant on their males. Some of the women are single, and this tells that their life is not based on dependence on a male person but solely on her. According to Mandel (949-967), there has tended to be an equal measure of women versus men, and it is possible that this trend is to continue, and possibly, women may overpower men. However, it is the assistance of the governments adding value to the empowerment of women economically and removal of the gender based discrimination in the world.
In near future, there is probability that men and women would be equal in terms of access to major properties such as land and other assets. According to Puhl (992-1000), a land such as America has come along way where females of all races are integrating smoothly, and where women in general are seen to be taking up their positions well. To this end, it can be noted that the future of this world would be where every individual would be integrating each other effectively, and more so, women would be in a position to take up what was denied to them by the tradition. In the continent of Africa, women are improving and they are able to access major resources that are paramount to making them strong in what they do. Governments are also assisting women to realize their roles in the economic sector.
CONCLUSION
Gender violence is a hated word, which is changed to gender discrimination, and in this discussion, the kind of discrimination on women is when they are denied access to economic factors. By definition, gender discrimination in economics is particular genders and more so, women are denied some of the basic rights on where women are made to depend on the male counterparts. The discussion has centered on major areas that women have been denied in economic terms and how women have had a history of relying on their husbands or men in general for their economic progress. However, there are changing times where women now are taking up their denied rights and where the discrimination is slowly dying.
The above trend is to continue, and with this, it is expected that women would be able to conquer the areas that they did not make to conquer when they were being discriminated. The paper has also compared discrimination of women and that of races where, it is studied that in multicultural societies such as the United States and England, women of the whites or the native women have some powers of themselves while the black women are discriminated. The assistance by the government is making it possible for women to get what they did not get in early times and where it is possible that in future, they would achieve this to the fullest and probably go up than their male counterparts. Other women have taken it as their own responsibility to develop their own potentialities, and this is in no way a threat to men because when they are empowered, it would mean that the society would develop more than it is today.
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