THE gender inequality it's an old but current problem. Since the dawn of humanity, most peoples have walked towards the development of patriarchal societies, in which the man held the power of command and decision over the family. This model was transposed from the private family sphere to the public sphere, causing political systems to develop under male command.
For a long time, women were excluded from effective participation in public spaces, work outside the home and the possibility of scientific and intellectual development through formal education, in addition to being submitted (this still occurs) to the power of men in their family, in general their parents and husbands. This led to a problem that urgently needs to be resolved: inequality based on gender.
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What is gender inequality?
Gender Concept
Before conceptualizing gender inequality, we must understand the concept of gender. Gender
, within humanity and in social relations, is described as a classification of masculinity and femininity. Contrary to common sense, gender is not necessarily about biological sex. Gender concerns the way in which social relationships frame the expected behavior of each sex into patterns.On this subject, the contemporary French philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir says, in the prologue of her book, considered one of the pillars of feminism of the twentieth century, the second sex, the next:
“Nobody is born a woman: he becomes a woman. No biological, psychic, economic fate defines the form that the human female takes within society; it is the whole of civilization that elaborates this intermediate product between the male and the castrated that qualify the female.”|1|
This quote presents an intense feminist vision while conceptualizing the term gender. Gender is a kind of performance of what is taught and expected from the behavior of men and women in society.
With this phrase, Beauvoir did not mean that anyone can become a woman, but that being a woman in our society is a assimilation process of behavioral patterns, just as being a man also requires this type of assimilation. Beauvoir also says, in the quote, that women were relegated to the status of a second category (making an analogy with the title of the book), as the behavior of women in society every kind of restriction is given, while man is given every kind of freedom.
Gender Inequality Concept
After all, what is gender inequality? Now that we know what gender this type of social characterization of women is, we start talking about inequality. Since the beginning of humanity, man has used his physical strength to dominate social relationships. This domain began in the private family sphere and extended to the public sphere over time. Women came under the domination of men, and public spaces relating to commerce, business, politics and science were dominated almost exclusively by them until the 20th century. Therein lies the genesis of gender inequality.
For a long time, women were deprived of access to formal education, of working outside the home and of having autonomy over themselves. and about your body (and this still happens in some societies with more evident traces of a reactionary, sometimes religious, sometimes moral — almost always both). While single, women were under the control of their parents or legal guardians, and after marriage, they were subordinate to their husbands.
Orphans could suffer all kinds of abuse by men, precisely because they are in a vulnerable situation, in which they did not have a man to “protect them”. Suffering from abuse, they were “badly talked about” in society, which took them off the list of possible marriage candidates. The fate of these women was loneliness, abandonment, recurrent abuse, social marginality and prostitution to guarantee their livelihood.
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At the XVIII century, a lot started to change in our society. The fight for rights became a recurrent agenda and the absolutist regimes began to fall apart by the popular struggle. It was also in the 18th century that feminists, like Mary Wollstonecraft, began to raise a voice against the unfair situation imposed on women. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women began to organize themselves in a struggle to fight for the right to political participation. At that time, poor women already had the right to work outside the home in Western societies.
At the 20th century, the guidelines of the feminist movement turned, first, to the insertion of middle-class women in the labor market and the conciliation of professional and marital life, perpetuating the liberal strand of feminism. Many achievements emerged during this period, such as suffrage and labor rights, such as maternity leave. From the 1960s, feminism turned to the female sexual liberation, at the same time that black women reconciled the fight against the racism with feminism, emerging the feminismblack.
Currently, feminist movements gain a voice on social media, but inequality persists. Women are still treated unequally in relation to men. Political, academic, scientific and social spaces continue to be dominated by men, who are the majority in number in their occupation.
In the corporate world, men are the majority in management positions in addition to earning an average salary greater to perform the same function as women, although they seek more studies and qualification. The trend is that the voice of men is even more heard than the voice of women, and that they have to work harder than they do to have their spaces guaranteed.
There is also the inequality in the home, because, in general, women who work outside the home have to choose between two extremes: either they refrain from marrying and having children, to devote themselves to their career, or take an exhausting journey that includes working outside the home and taking care of all the housework and sons.
They arefew men who really share the tasks equally so as not to overload their companions. There is a strong tendency, not totalizing, but quite expressive, that homosexual women do not suffer so much from this, considering that a relationship between equals facilitates empathy and promotes a fair distribution of activities.
See too: Suffragette movement - demand movement for women's suffrage
How does gender inequality affect society?
Any form of inequality affects society. Social differences, racial and gender profoundly affect social relations and prevent an imperative feature of modern social revolutions that value freedom, equality, democracy and for the guarantee of rights. How can a society be democratic if there is no equal treatment between women and men? Equity is deeper than equality: how to have a democratic society without respecting women's singularities?
In the first place, it is necessary to recognize the value of women in our society, which has the same weight and importance as that of man. Above all, it is necessary to treat women with respect and guarantee them the necessary equity for their full social development. Only in this way is it possible to have a broadly democratic society.
When a society privileges some and discriminates against others, there is a huge loss in social, political, intellectual and economic aspects. imagine how many talentswasted do we lose because of women's difficulty in accessing and maintaining themselves in scientific spaces? imagine how much the market loses why not invest in talented women, who could develop real innovations in this field? Imagine how much society loses for not having a significant number of managers and legislators who could, who knows, promote real political change in Brazil?
Also access: Rosa Luxemburg – Polish philosopher and activist for communist and feminist causes
Data on gender inequality
According to an article on the Época Negócios website|2|, from the Globo group, equal pay for men and women can take 170 years to achieve in the world. This article expressed some graphs from world research institutes that show data on gender inequality in the world in different aspects. Check out some data below:
• As for the gender inequality in the labor market, 449 occupations in the United States were analyzed, and in 439 of them, women earn less than men. The national average is 0.78 cents earned by women for every dollar earned by men. Worldwide, this average is 0.50 cents for women for every dollar paid to men.
• Between 8% and 18% of maternal deaths in the world are the result of abortionsunsuccessful. Unsuccessful abortions occur, for the most part, in places where such an act is considered a practice criminal, which forces women who do not wish to continue their pregnancy to seek clandestine clinics. A controversial discussion, mainly because it is a taboo subject for morals and traditional religions, abortion is an indication of women's rights.
• In a survey carried out in 2007, it was found that 121 million children and adolescents were out of regular school education worldwide. Despite the high rate that affects, above all, developing countries, the number of women with access to basic and higher education increased significantly compared to the last century. There has also been an increase in the age at which marriages take place in the world. O weddingchildish it is a social distortion that unfortunately still happens in some parts of the globe.
• O planningfamiliar, a right that is taken away from women in some religions and cultures, is one of the indicators that says a lot about gender inequality. In Afghanistan, 33% of women want to stop having children, but do not use contraceptive methods insurance. This happens because of a sexist culture that prevents them from accessing such methods. The average number of children per woman in the country is five. The average of women using contraception in the country is 27%.
• Women work inside and outside the home. The average Italian woman works about 22 hours a week in choreshousehold, which would give three working days in the country. This unpaid work would generate an income of approximately 10 trillion dollars a year, which corresponds to 13% of global GDP.
• A licensematernitypaid it is not a right guaranteed in all countries. The World Health Organization advises that a mother be guaranteed six months of maternity leave for breastfeeding. In Brazil, this license is granted to women who contribute to social security. In public service, six months are guaranteed, but in private, the license lasts only four months. In the United States, maternity leave is optional, and only 14% of employers guarantee it. Sweden grants a total of 480 days of leave to a couple who receive a newborn child (and this right is granted to gay couples as well). The 480 days are distributed, and both parties can take only 30 days at the same time. Each party is entitled to 90 days (which includes the 30 days that both parties are licensed at the same time). The other 300 days are distributed by the couple according to their wishes and needs. This factor also indicates that domestic services and childcare are better distributed in the country.
• As for the gender inequality in Brazil, Brazil occupies 90th place in a ranking prepared by the World Economic Forum, displayed on the Fundação Tide Setubal page|3|, which analyzed 144 countries. In 2016, Brazil occupied 79th place, which resulted in a drop of 11 positions over the two-year period. To prepare the ranking, the survey related themes such as remuneration, sexual harassment, occupation of political positions, among others. With strong racial inequality, the criteria analyzed indicate that black women suffer much more, having, for example, less access to schooling and occupying non-specialized professions that pay any less.
Grades
|1| BEAUVOIR, S. the second sex. Rio de Janeiro: New Frontier, 1980.
|2| Access the article by clicking on here.
|3| Access the information by clicking on here.
by Francisco Porfirio
Sociology Professor
