English essay

Research paper-Why gender preference is a big issue

NASER ALSHRAFI

California State University, San Bernardino

Gender equality and it importance to growth and development of a country

Abstract

The world is faced with continued problems with regards to equal opportunities as well as decision-making powers for the male and the female genders. Women have been subjected to discrimination and a lot of obstacles that limit their economic participation as well as giving them fewer opportunities. Gender equality is a human right, and it is unfortunate that it has not been achieved on a global scale. For a long time, women have been unable to get a guarantee of their rights and as a result they have been unable to reach their full potential, (Beere, 1990). Attaining gender equality is not only focused on giving women equal opportunities but also ensure that international global goals are achieved, (Inglehart & Norris, 2005). When women and girls are empowered, this will have a positive effect on their health and productivity of their families and the result will be the creation of a ripple effect that benefits each and every individual. Gender can be defined as responsibilities that have been created socially with regards to the acceptable role that men and women play in the society. With gender equality, men and women are given equal opportunities for education, personal development and financial independence, (Brydon & Chant, 1989). When women are empowered, it means that their sense of self-worth will be increased. The empowered woman would have control over her life.

When looking at gender equality, there are a number of areas that can be focused on with the aim of looking at the issue in detail. To begin with, education is a key area that can be focused on with regards to gender equality, (Grown, 2006). The world has been able to make significant progress in the achievement of gender parity in the education sector. However, girls still make a large portion of out of school children compared to boys. It is approximated that a quarter of girls living in developing countries do not have the privilege of attending school. This might be as a result of some of these families not being able to afford school fees and other education-related resources that they may need to keep them in school. The result is that the girls are being relied on by their families for household chores that are considered to be their responsibility in the family.

One of the things that make the developing countries experience a single high return in investment is the prioritizing of the education of girls. This is because when a girl is educated, the odds are very likely that this girl will postpone getting marriage at an early age, (Beere, 1990). This girl will also be able to raise a smaller family with healthier children in addition to being in a position to send all of her children to school. In general, an educated girl is more exposed to the outside environment because she will have more income earning opportunities, participate in political process and the odds are very unlikely that she will end up being infected with HIV.

Another impact areas are the health and safety of women. One of the things that are becoming of a growing impact to a women's life is HIV/AIDS. When women have fewer education opportunities, this leaves them vulnerable to the disease because they are not only ill-equipped with the knowledge of the prevention of the disease but also unable to deal with the disease after contraction. The high HIV/AIDS prevalence is women can be attributed to other factors too such as unequal power with men sexual relationships or due to gender based violence. It is also important to mention that mental health is one other thing that greatly impact women, especially in developing countries. Having a limited access to infant and parental care could result to the women having developing complications during pregnancy as well as during the delivery process. This is one of the major challenges being faced by those countries where girls get married at a very early age when they are not mature enough for these life events, (Brydon & Chant, 1989). They are normally younger than 18 years old when they are subjected to parenthood situations.

The other area to be focused on when dealing with gender equality is women political and economic power. More than half of the world's population is composed of women. However, when this is looked at from the perspective of owning wealth, only 1% of the world's wealth is owned by women. In many countries, it is the case that many women and girls spend a lot of their time taking care of domestic chores and responsibilities that are unpaid activities, (Grown, 2006). The situation can even be worse in the case where women are not entitled to owning land or inheriting property. When that is the case, you find that these women remain dependent on their husbands or families because they have been completely stripped off their ability to get any form of income.

When you at the number of women involved in legislation in many of the countries in the world, it is very clear that women are outnumbered. This means that those women who have been able to beat the odds and make it to politics and running of countries are still faced with challenges such as decision-making challenges, (Grown, 2006). As a result of being in a male-dominated environment, their opinion and suggestion are not taken seriously by their male counterparts. This is the result of being outnumber by the males, (Beere, 1990). It means that men will always be able to make it through with their choices and opinion in the political realm because of having the numbers. For the whole world to be able to achieve gender equality, and then it is important to ensure that women have the same political participation opportunities just like men do. This will give them the chances and opportunities to actively participate in the running and decision-making processes of their various countries.

According to the recent ranking of the World Economic Forum, the US is ranked 19th with regards to gender gap index. Women in the elected members of Congress are less than a fifth. The report was a great indicator of the need for empowering women politically with the aim of being able to achieve gender equality. Moreover, the report also indicted that the greatest gender equality issues for the United States is empowering women politically. As much as the US has done a pretty good job in empowering women economically, there is little to be desired as far as political empowerment of women is concerned, (Brydon & Chant, 1989). The women's earning power in the US is 20% less than that of their male counterparts. It is also worth mentioning that the US has been able to experience more women being enrolled for a college education than men.

There is not a particular country in the globe that has been able to achieve gender equality. The countries that lead with the highest attempts of closing the gap are Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Iceland, Finland, and Norway. These countries experience a relative distribution of resources, available income as well as opportunities for both men and women, (Inglehart & Norris, 2005). Greatest gender gaps are being experience in the Middle East, Africa and the Southern parts of Asia. Interestingly, countries such as South Africa and Lesotho were found to be better placed than the US in terms of gender equality in spite of being in areas with greatest counts of gender inequality.

The benefits of achieving gender equality are beyond reasonable doubts. To begin with achieving gender equality will ensure that an organization can attract the top talent in any particular country, (Grown, 2006). This is because taking the opportunity to appeal to both men and women will result to the organization accessing the entire talent pool. When the organization is not attractive to women for instance, it will have the risk of not being able to attract the best talent to outshine its competitor with women becoming increasingly more educated than men like in the case of the US.

The other thing is that gender equality can go a long way in reducing a country's or organization's expense. One of the things that result to employee turnover is when the employees realize that there exist gender disparities within an organization. When these employees fell there are being treated unfairly, they are most likely to leave the organization. The result is that the organization will be forced to replace such employees. Replacing an employee mean undertaking the processes of recruitment and training from scratch. This will end up costing the organization more than it could have otherwise spent on ensuring that gender equality is maintained to avoid employee turnover.

In order to face the gender equality challenges, it is important to look at the root cause of the problem. Breaking gender stereotypes is one of the toughest things to do. The thing is that each and every individual might have been engaged in stereotyping at one time or another, (Beere, 1990). It is important to ensure that the society can overcome the stereotyping challenge. This will put the society in a better position to recognize the contribution of each and every individual irrespective of being male or female. The society should be able to create an environment where both male and female genders are evaluated on their individual abilities other than gender differences, (Grown, 2006).

As reported by the World Economic Forum, there exist a very strong relationship between the competitiveness of a country and how it educates and utilizes women talents, (Brydon & Chant, 1989). The forum emphasizes the fact that for a nation to be able to experience a more efficient use of the talents of its people, women empowerment should be given priority. This will in turn translate to the country enhancing its productivity as well as its economic growth as a whole.

In conclusion, countries need to ensure that they take care of gender disparities that they are facing. These disparities range from education to employment and political opportunities, (Inglehart & Norris, 2005). When a country has managed to deal with gender inequality effectively, this will then put it in a better position to compete favorably with other nations. Organizations also need to ensure that gender equality is taken seriously. This is because it is the effort of each organization or business that will be able to translate to a nationwide reducing of gender inequality especially in those countries experiencing very large gap indices.

References

Beere, C. A. (1990). Sex and gender issues: A handbook of tests and measures. New York: Greenwood Press.

Brydon, L., & Chant, S. H. (1989). Women in the Third World: Gender issues in rural and urban areas. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.

Grown, C. (2006). Taking action: Achieving gender equality and empowering women. London: Earthscan.

Inglehart, R., & Norris, P. (2005). Rising Tide: Gender equality and cultural change around the world. New York: Cambridge University Press.