About Women Rights and Equality

Women’s rights are an important factor in understanding global well-being. Although a treaty was endorsed by most 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 create massive obstacles for many, especially poor women, colored women, and immigrant women. In order to further the cause of child survival and development of all of society, gender equality is a must. The importance of women’s rights and gender equality should not be underestimated. History shows us that women in today’s society are better off than women of the past. There has been great progress towards women’s rights over the years. However, females around the world are still far from being equal to men. In parts of the world, women are denied access to education and do not have a voice when it comes to political participation. In the poem “Girl” the author portrays a young girl being trained by her mother to behave like a stereotypical woman promoting a specific type of culture where women were expected to be conservative and traditional and are not given any freedom of choice or power (Kincaid 107-108). Similarly in the essay “What if Shakespeare Had a Sister.” Virginia Woolf talks about how women are not given power to choose their own path. She tries to promote this idea with the help of a fictional character (Woolf 548-555). Girls and women are prevented from making choices around child-rearing, marriage, and other personal choices in their private lives.

As a society, it is important that we understand the feminist perspective and raise awareness of women’s rights and gender equality. On the other hand, feminism is also relevant for boys and men. How do you ask? Well, it is about changing gender roles, sexual norms, and sexist practices that limit and/or punish individuals when they deviate from them. Through the feminist perspective, looking at the micro side of sociology – the family, we need to understand sex/gender and the gender roles, the views on sexual norms, and discuss how we can improve the rights and lives of women, girls, men, and boys. The traditional family institution teaches individuals that sex, and gender are basically the same terms. In the essay “No Name Women.” the author speaks about how her aunt had to end her own life along with her baby because of the gender bias and sexual norms which were constantly forced upon her (Kingston 769-777). Then society makes stereotypes to define the roles of male and female look like. Society says that different roles will fall into different buckets and those roles define your femininity or masculinity. Also, you have to fit into the specific gender bucket, otherwise you defy societies norms and values. However, sex and gender are not interchangeable. Yet, this is how society labels individuals. If you are male then you need to follow the roles of man, and likewise for females. What happens to the male who likes cooking, dance as human beings, equality is important for both men and women have the right to happiness and personal fulfillment. With equality in women’s rights, society will be able to advance on so many levels. Often society treats women like they are some type of robot designed to listen to the needs of men but that should never be the case. Women should be able to do everything men can if they wanted to. Instead of taking the conflict lightly, we should be focused on ways to make the matter of women’s rights more known.

Women strived to get the same equality and rights as their male counterpart for many years. Some of those rights like women’s suffrage were achieved by the first wave of feminists during the late 1800s. However, the fight for equality still goes on from there. Before the feminist movements of the 1960s, society used to make all women feel that they are destined to follow one path in life only: get married, support their family, and do household chores. To make matters worse, society has enough freedom to ridicule young women who were not married yet. A married woman, on the other hand, who does not bear any children will have to answer questions like: “When can we expect a child from you?” In most cases, women who work for their family will get suggestions from society by telling them they should stay at home and let their husbands do the hard work. Work discrimination, sexual harassments, and reproductive rights were also problems that women had to face. These issues would later spark a series of campaigns that would go on for several years. It would later be known as The Second Wave Feminism and its goal is to reintroduce women to society. This series of movements would later become every woman’s doorway to receiving more proper equal treatment from society. While it is true that women of today’s world, experience more freedom than before, it is important to know how second-wave feminism started and why it is a success. Women always have struggled to protect their rights from others. It is not just the right to vote, but also the right to work in almost all areas.

Many women and girls today are seeking professional education. Women are now able to work in many of the fields because of the freedom they have achieved through long struggle. In today’s world, we see women as Leaders, teachers or as a common worker in an organization. Today, women have achieved the freedom of choice and the right they always wanted. In the past women were deprived of many rights and freedom. Due to mainly be a male-dominated society woman was always bounded to their household. They were confined to only a few jobs which were assigned to them by either their husband or their father. They did not have the freedom to choose what they wanted to do. Women also did not have the right to education or the right to vote. In the essay “CEDAW: The Challenges of Enshrining Women’s Equality in International Law.” Lauren Bock Mullins talks about how Women were not treated as equals to that of their male counterparts. They were always subjected to harassment and torture if they did not listen to their father or husband. In recent years alone, the government has begun to focus on women and their rights because of pressure from civil society and international organizations (Mullins 259). In the past, women were always ignored or were invisible to the government because their voices were completely suppressed by their family men. Due to illiteracy and lack of access to other cultures, women themselves lack recognition of their unfair treatment. But this situation slowly started changing when women have slowly realized that they deserve better than the treatment they were receiving them.

In recent years, we have certainly entered a new era of women’s rights. A large-scale awakening of gender-based inequality and suppression of femininity, followed by a worldwide campaign to restore our human rights. The women’s rights movement in the United States is related to liberation and the civil rights movement. Politicians will use the women rights provision as a prerequisite or point of negotiation, in order to defeat the liberation negotiations or to “disassemble separate but equal” policies. Therefore, it protects the rights of women from black equality. Unfortunately, the equality of women does not necessarily lead to the equality of women in color, especially black women. Violence against women and discrimination infringes on human rights around the world. Gender inequality and prejudice spread throughout the world, preventing women from fully understanding basic human rights to health and equality.

Discrimination against women often begins with concepts, especially in parts of India and South Asia. Girls can be regarded as the economic burden of the family compared to a boy in these countries. This is due to the small income contribution and dowry demand, which the girl’s parents should pay for the marriage of the girl. In this modern era, most of the countries worldwide recognize that men and women should be equal regardless of color and nationality. Many of them have developed discrimination and combating program for health services, education, and economic rights, including women’s land ownership. However, women are less likely to benefit from the benefits of economic development compared to beneficiaries of men. To an onlooker, it may seem that the struggle of American women is essentially over. It is a fact of American Society, and all functioning societies, that it will behave in such a way as to ensure its own continued existence. In accordance with post-modern Sociology, the system will move with us, against us, or despite us; instead of benevolence or malevolence towards individuals or groups, it is more interested in self-preservation. Therefore, when women as a group makes an advance in society, they have done so in a way that benefits society, but not necessarily women as a group.

As such, it can be noted that the struggle of women for equality in American Society is not over. Not if women are still stratified out of the upper echelons of society and kept from the decision-making processes that take place there can there be real gender equality? However, for that to happen, there must first be equality amongst the gender: women of all races and classes must first see themselves as equals before women as a group can be equal to men. Since the era of the 1960s, during the height of the Civil Rights Movements and also of the Feminist Movement, it appears that great social, political and economic strides have been achieved by women. This second-wave feminism of the 1960s, led by the National Organization of Women (NOW) had made supposedly made great strides for women. However, social change does not take place overnight, but rather takes a generation to feel its full effects. Between the second-wave feminism of the 1960s and the third-wave feminism of the 1990s, the social consequences brought about by NOW and the Feminist Movement began to be clear. The success of gender equality in the United States in the early 1900s, with significant achievements for equality. Despite these improvements, however, gender inequality in the United States remains in many forms, including women’s representation, participation in political life, employment discrimination, wage disparities, and unequal distribution of housing.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a growing number of problems for boys/ men, and the topic of discussion has contributed to education and prosperity. Since 1920, the fight against gender inequality has been the goal of several important legislation. It is proven that gender equality is very vital and fundamental since it is considered an effective way of addressing democracy and also promoting lasting economic growth. According to the essay “Gender Equality, Citizenship, and the EU’s Constitutional Future.” It is one of the founding principles of European Unions and even its future building block(Millns 220). This has therefore led to various causes in respect to equality between men and women since women are seen to be achieving more in education and also actively participating in the labor force than ever before. One of the causes of growing gender equality between men and women is that men and women are still seen to remain an elusive goal. This has therefore changed the mindset of the society over a significant period to view them as equal parts. Notice though the area of an address of the previous statement, a sizable minority of adults does believe the society still favors men over women. According to Aarushi Bhandari in her essay “Hungry for Equality: A Longitudinal Analysis of Women’s Legal Rights and Food Security in Developing Countries.” Even as that argument keeps its energy, the second cause of growing equality between men and women, is the one which addresses the stronger sense among the public, the stronger sense suggests, that both concerned parties do not operate on equal grounds, with respect to the workplace or areas of employment (Bhandari 432). This has made a majority of the American citizens to address their concerns to the concerned parties in the government with the aim of achieving gender equality. It is estimated that about half of American citizens believe that the government is paying men more salary than women, yet the job nature is the same. Others also support the subject argument by saying that, there is a gender gap in hiring and even offering promotions when it comes to top jobs.

In conclusion, the equality between men and women is mainly found in terms of human rights and especially those of women. Research has also been supported by the already discussed paragraphs, that gender equality mainly shows its interest in addressing issues of men and women having enjoyment of the same rights, resources, opportunities, and even same protection. It has also been shown that the promotion of gender equality will, at a greater extent, lead to various forms of developments or growths within the society and even the nation at large. These kinds of events may be in terms of economic development or even those that are of great importance to the citizens of a country although not grouped under the economic.

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