What do we Need to Face Gender Discrimination?

According to “The Tokyo Medical University entrance exam scandal: lessons learned,” the writer, Greg Wheeler, tried to describe the gender discrimination in the entrance exam of the Tokyo Medical University (TMU). The females were mistreated that the scores of these females were reduced by 20%. In the article, the writer also showed us how competitive it is to enter the TMU and how complex the TMU application process is. So, it was very unfair for females to have such a significant reduction in scores.

Females not only suffered from desperation but also bore economic losses because the application fee is a significant amount of money. The reason why TMU manipulate females’ scores is due to the social needs of doctors. Because of some physiological reasons?such as giving birth to baby and raising kids in the future, females are thought that they will not work as much as males in jobs?TMU and other medical universities prefer males than females to enter the universities, and then work as doctors in their hospitals to make more profits for the universities and hospitals. Since news reported, TMU has taken action to make up the losses that applicants in 2016 and 2017 suffered by giving the application fee back and giving a chance to females who succeed in the entrance examination. However, this solution is still unfair to applicants before 2016 because it is not the first time for TMU to alter the females’ scores. So, Greg Wheeler called on the universities and Ministry of Education to make the scores open to applicants to avoid altering the scores in the future and to guarantee equality between men and women as much as possible.

However, what causes gender discrimination? Just as what Greg Wheeler mentioned in the article, gender equality is a very complicated question today. Most time, the subject feeling influents the judgment of gender discrimination. So, there is no such clear standard to judge whether gender discrimination happens or not. Indeed, males and females are different in both psychology and physiology. Both men and women have something that they are good at, and they will take different types of jobs in the different field that they are good at. Men are powerful and fit for manual labor while women are careful and good at weaving. However, now, something has already changed. With the breakthrough in science and technology, the labor form has changed. Women not get an education, but also in charge of groups, which are benefit from social development. Since society developed, social needs had already changed. Women have more chances to mount the social stage and show their abilities. Since then, people pay much more attention to think about gender equality. However, the situation of gender discrimination is still severe. The number of women in management is particularly low. Moreover, we might still make fun of men who take jobs as a nurse. So, what can we do to reduce gender discrimination? This paper aims to show the influences of the government, our attitudes, and our way of dealing with gender discrimination on the decrease of gender discrimination.

For the government, some of the laws that mention gender equality need to be applied or promulgated. “I believe that the important dividing lines in society have moved away from gender towards lifestyle preferences, so legislation should in future ensure that people are free to choose their lifestyles,” as Hakim mentioned (2003). The law is the most powerful way to protect our right. If the law of gender is applied, we can easily judge and get compensation when gender discrimination happens.
Except for the government’s effort to ensure gender equality, we need to change our attitude to our cultures because of something that is not in line with modern society. Take China for example. Son preference has existed among most Chinese parents for centuries, and women were understood to belong to their families before and after marriage (Lee,2012). Thus, women were not important in the past and were thought of as belonging to their families.

The gender bias thus has led to inferior intrahousehold status for daughters and, consequently, to the biased allocation of household resources. (Lee, 2012) Moreover, for financial reasons, the traditions of co-residence with sons and son-dominated old-age care also prompted parents to invest in sons as long-term insurance (Hannum et al.2009). Those are incorrect opinions of gender but existed for a long time. We need to change our attitude because women have their thoughts and they can do even better than men in some fields. We need to identify that men and women are different. We need to stand to look at other people’s position, or at each other’s point of view to think about many things, not the case. Respect each other and think twice about the action you will take to treat others. Also, you need to change your attitude towards others with the development of The Times. Because of the changes in social needs and the development of technology, there are more and more things that both men and women can do that before. If you hold an old view of some changes, you will feel uncomfortable when you face something that is out of your understanding happens.

When the law is complete, and the thoughts that men and women are equal exists in your mind, you need to defend your rights or fight for your rights. When gender discrimination happens, many people choose to keep silence, ignore unfair things, which embolden the abusers to do unfair treatment again and again. Males and females need to turn to help when they receive such an unfair treatment from abusers. Try not to keep gender discrimination a secret and speak out what you suffer, which can help to contribute to gender equality.

References

1. Hakim C, 2003, Models of the Family in Modern Societies: Ideals and Realities, Aldershot: Ashgate
2. Hannum, Emily; Kong, Peggy; Zhang, Yuping, 2009, National Library of Medicine
3. International journal of educational development Vol. 29, Iss. 5, (September 1, 2009): 474-486.
4. Lee, M. (2012). The one-child policy and gender equality in education in China: Evidence from household data. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 33(1), 41-52. doi:http://dx.doi.org.kean.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/s10834-011-9277-9

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