Women walking on the street get whistled at, why don’t men? Women are often asked to, or voluntarily choose to give up their careers to be caretakers of their children. Why don’t men do the same? Women often feel unsafe walking home from work at 10pm on a weeknight. Why don’t men?
We live in a gendered world. The words gender and sex are often used interchangeably, but there is a critical difference between the two. The male or female sex is simply a biological or physical trait. The word gender, however, carries with it a strong socio-political connotation.
For a more clear definition and example of gender, read what the World Health Organization said here:
Definition:"Gender" refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.
Examples of gender characteristics :
-In the United States (and most other countries), women earn significantly less money than men for similar work
-In Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as female smoking has not traditionally been considered appropriate
-In Saudi Arabia men are allowed to drive cars while women are not
-In most of the world, women do more housework than men
As you can see, these roles have nothing to do with biological restrictions or attributes. Earning less money, for example, does not have to do with how a male or female is structured.
When examining gender roles around the world, we see that women have been oppressed in different ways since time immemorial. Mustering up courage after centuries of inequality, women gained political freedom in a number of democracies. It wasn’t until 1920 that women gained voting rights in the United States. Men, of course, had the original and unquestioned right to vote. Why was there this difference? Why does this difference persist? And why is this difference so pervasive in all walks of life?
Yes, the crux of this article is feminism. Not the bra-burning, man-hating type. That’s actually not at all what it’s about. Feminism isn’t anti-men, it is pro-women. There’s a stark difference. Feminism is a way of life. It’s a light into a dark, dark tunnel. It opens your eyes to the realities around you. On reading political theories of Machiavelli, Rousseau and even contemporary theorists like John Rawls, we find that either women do not constitute a part of the canon at all, or they are treated as inferior.
We might disagree with some of the more extreme feminist arguments, but there is a high possibility, no, a surety that we will agree with a large part of them. Feminist writing has the power to make women around the world feel more enlightened, more aware of the injustice, stereotypes and biases we suffer from today. (Find examples of great feminist writing at the end of this article)
Why is Isabella Swan, the lead character from the Twilight novels, in constant need of being saved? Why does she need protection from her beau? Why is she portrayed as a meek, weak, irrational girl? Why is she so indecisive? Her character feeds into the stereotype for many women today. There are countless examples from popular culture that highlight characters like this but where’s the girl power we keep talking about? Why don’t we see enough of it in books and movies?
It is clear that women are at a disadvantage in some cases and that much of these embedded stereotypes are so ingrained that they are hard to fight. It is clear that there are systems to blame and governments to criticize. However, let us not be fooled into believing ourselves helpless. The sad truth is that we can not ignore that women themselves are often perpetrators of this very stereotype. In order for these stereotypes to discontinue, there has to be some level of effort and cooperation- be it at home, at the workplace or even at school. If at every turn, women refused to play into oppressive gender roles, those roles would be scrutinized and eventually done away with at a faster rate. We have to take some accountability as well, because we create stereotypes and we create society. In situations like these, where we as women continue to feed into backward thinking, we are also accountable for creating some of the misery around us.
Fortunately, Democratic power and the freedom of speech have given us the power to protest, share opinions and gain insight. We have the tools to make a change, so what are we waiting for?
The key is education, so take time to learn more about these stereotypes and what feminism really means (forget what you’ve heard). Here are a few links and recommended authors to get you started:
-http://www.carolhanisch.org/CHwritings/PIP.html
http://autof.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/butler-judith-gender-trouble-feminism-and-the-subversion-of-identity-1990.pdf
- http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3963&context=flr
-Disha Brara is a proud jumbler currently pursuing an MBA at Mumbai’s Welingkar Institute of Management. She is an alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi where she studied Political Science. Disha writes only to share, not to be published since she has little inclination towards journalism. She is looking to pursue a career in Marketing.
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