Gender equity has been in practice for the longest time which mainly perceives women as inferior to men. For eon, women have had it difficult being independent and fighting for opportunities with men. This is because they are perceived to be unable to perform when compared to male colleagues. They get denied jobs after interviews even though they have all the necessary qualifications and may have their promotion please turned down by their seniors. They are instead seen as housewives who can perform house chores as well as raise children. Women also have to go through barriers such as raising a family and also as mothers for the next generation; this gives the men a head start and hence the reason why interviewers hesitate to hire them. This is a great issue that should be discussed as the country's economy may be missing the potential that women may provide when given a chance. This essay examines gender inequality as a societal problem and possible solutions towards ending the menace. To solve this problem, one way for ensuring gender equity is educating the inferior gender, which is the females. This will ensure that the society, in general, will be able to raise adequate capital as well as those involved will be able to work towards development. It is evident that when education provision is biased such, it favours males the average amount of human capital dramatically declines. This in turn negatively affects the economic performance. Countries that have high per capita income attribute this to gender equity where women also get fair rights to participate (Dollar and Gatti 1999). And lastly, authorities should also be able to focus on increasing the rate of school-to-work transition for the girls. This will ensure that they are able to influence the next generation. This is based on the fact that women are the main contributors to the next generation's welfare. Unlike men, they are a direct factor that influences the situation of the next generation. This can be seen since when women are educated there tends to be low infant mortality rates, low fertility complications and other factors that concern the society. It is also common that when women are in charge of the household's resources, most of them are dedicated to the offspring's health and education. Women are a source of a well-performing GDP if they are significantly included in the labour market. This is evident since those countries that embrace efforts towards establishing a gender equity environment have lower poverty incidences and thus a healthy economic growth. Research shows that when they are segregated because of their gender, there tends to welfare losses.
Background of The Study
Gender inequality is caused, basically, by differences in socially constructed roles for either a male or a female. In a typical household, the father is expected to go and toil so that the family will be provided with all its needs which include food, shelter, education and many more. On the other hand, the woman of the house is only expected to perform house chores and to take care of the children of the house ("Gender Inequality and its Causes – Women Unlimited," 2017). This is the perception of many societies, therefore, when a female decides to go out and work the society tends to hesitate in supporting her since it does not rank them highly as to be able to perform as the man. This is the cause of a stagnating economic performance since a part of the population has to go through barriers before it is able to help develop the economy.
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Wrong mentality is the first and significant cause of gender inequality as described above; this is where the society looks down upon their capabilities ("Gender Inequality and its Causes – Women Unlimited," 2017). Another cause is the lack of adequate education provided to the girl child. This makes them unable to compete with the other gender when it comes to opportunities.
Other causes include lack of empowerment to the women which should motivate them to strive higher ("Gender Inequality and its Causes – Women Unlimited," 2017). Tradition, culture, and religion also tend to put men above women when it comes to qualifications and abilities. All these describe men to have a rich history when serving their community when compared to women.
Domestic violence which is a result of gender inequality leads to increased spending on health care services. It also leads to the affected children performing poorly when it comes to school work, and they may be disturbed mentally. Women who are victims of domestic violence also tend to earn less than those who are not victims of such (Morrison and Bhiel 1999).
Outstanding economic growth is achieved when those who live in poverty are granted a fair chance to provide for themselves and their families. Only then will they be able to contribute towards economic development which they too can gain from.
The arguments for Supposed Solution
The gender inequality is a deep-rooted problem which mainly dwells in the minds of the of the community at large as both genders tend to believe that women are the weaker human species while men are the superiors thus, any biasness directed to the former is justified. However, even though this menace is a stereotype problem, several solutions can be employed in the effort to eradicate this negative stereotype. Below are some of the potential solutions which can be used for intervention.
• Civic education to sensitize the society that everyone has equal rights as the other person regardless of their gender. For this intervention, civilization is the key objective to assimilate the minds of the people who view the vice as justified to accept the fact that every human being has equal rights and should enjoy same respect from any other person. The education can be conducted through humanitarian groups to educate people on the relevance of viewing each other as an equal human being thus doing away with gender inequality stereotype. When the society learns to respect and support each other as people of the same level regardless of the gender, they family cohesion will be maintained, improved social life as well as an improvement on the country's economy since everyone will have equal rights and freedom to carry on with economic benefiting activities ("Gender Inequality and its Causes – Women Unlimited," 2017).
• Additionally, if the authority increased the chances of acquiring employment for women after school, this will be a motivation for young girls who will be yearning to gain financial freedom after school (Duflo, 2012). The initiative will develop a competitive spirit among children of both genders to work hard to outdo the other once, hence contributing to a more educated and working nation. In this case, education to women will have influenced changes to society at large.
Statistical Data
In 2015, the United Nation conducted a study on the differences between men and women in the following eight areas, eight areas - population and families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment and poverty ( Forsythe, Korzeniewicz & Durrant, 2000). The outcome revealed that women performed a little bit better than men, which can be attributed to the massive engagement by various stakeholders to ensure that women acquire better education as well as men. For instance, the number of girls reported to enrol in learning at all levels indicated that women were had a figure slightly higher than men globally, which show an improvement in advocation for education for women. Labor force sector has also been a field of discrimination for women in the last decades. For instance, according to a report by the World Bank in association with Asia Development Bank, the workforce in China statistics shows a significant difference between the number of men and women. In the year 2000, employment for men stood at 79% and 69% for women. This trend has not changed up to date as the current employment status in China remain high for men and low for women ( Dyar, et al., 2006). The report from the identified sources keeps on being updated making the information valid and reliable. The strength of the information contained in these sources emanates from the fact that these institutions invest highly on research, whereby they collect, analyse data from various research groups; thus, its reliability is guaranteed.
Ethical Outcomes That Result from Your Solution
Gender inequality brings about various ethical outcomes just like any other phenomenon. In that case, my proposed solutions are not exceptional and are prone to causing ethical issues to form the negatives to the positives. One of the positive outcomes of my proposed solutions is ending discrimination and corruption ( Mammen & Paxson, 2000). It is true that discrimination propagates corruption in the effort to buy favors. For instance, in a job market where both men and women present equal chances of recruitment, it means that there exists an equal competition for all genders. But if the trend of hiring men to take most of the positions in an institution was prevalence, then women will seek other corrupt means also to have a share of the job market. For this reason, if education for women was more emphasized such that they prove to have equal or even more qualifications for a job requirement, corruption will be a thing of the past.
Secondly, education creates job opportunities which result in a boost in economic development. For instance, if more women were educated, there would be a rise in industrialization, some of which would be owned by women, thus creating employment for other women as well as acting as role models for young girls to motivate them to aim high in life ( Duflo, 2012). More employment opportunities result in an improvement in the overall GDP which signifies growth in the economy of a particular country.
On the other hand, equal education for males and females, as well as sensitization of gender equity, may have diverse results. Education requires intensive funding, without a promise of securing a job in the future. In the effort of procuring a better education, low-income families end up selling properties and other possessions to push their children through colleges and universities. Occasionally, this may drain the family of their possession rendering them poor. Subsequently, if these children do not get assumed in formal employment after school, they may be frustrated and result in unethical conducts such as prostitution and other activities.
Conclusion
From the above, it can be seen that gender inequality is quite a critical topic of discussion that should not be taken for granted. When the disparity is left to run for long, it will lead to the women being denied their rights as well as an increase in incidences of sexual violence towards them ("Gender Inequality and its Causes – Women Unlimited," 2017). It should be the priority of relevant authorities to empower, educate and implementing policies that aim at bringing a balance between the two genders. It can be seen that almost all parts of the society are bound to benefit if gender equity is implemented; this includes the future generation as well as the state of the economy.
References
Costa, J., Silva, E., and Vaz, F., 2009, The Role of Gender Inequalities Explaining Income Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Evidence from Latin American Countries. International Policy Center for Inclusive Growth Working Paper No 52. UNDP: Brasilia.
Dollar, D., and R. Gatti (1999). Gender Inequality, Income and Growth: Are Good Times Good for Women?, World Bank Policy Research Report Working Papers 1, World Bank: Washington DC
Duflo, E. (2012). Women empowerment and economic development. Journal of Economic literature, 50(4), 1051-79.
Dyar, C., Harduar, P., Koenig, C., & Reyes, G. (2006). Microfinance and gender inequality in China. International Economic Development Program, Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.
Forsythe, N., Korzeniewicz, R. P., & Durrant, V. (2000). Gender inequalities and economic growth: A longitudinal evaluation. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 48(3), 573-617.
Gender Inequality and its Causes – Women Unlimited. (2017, May 27). Retrieved from https://www.womenunlimited.org/gender-inequality-and-its-causes/
Mammen, K., & Paxson, C. (2000). Women's work and economic development. Journal of economic perspectives, 14(4), 141-164.
Morrison, A, and Biehl, L., (1999), Too Close to Home: Domestic Violence in the Americas. IADB: Washington DC. References
