The issue of women’s equality emanates from that of gender equality where there have been concerns and creation of awareness to ensure equal access to opportunities and resources for females just like their male counterparts. Various regions around the world have been struggling with the challenges resulting from the issue of gender equality and particularly women’s equality where women have isolated and discriminated when it comes to decision-making and active participation in economic matters. According to Goss (2013), women’s equality entails the recognition and appreciation of the concept that describes both genders as equal despite their differences with regard to sex. In this regard, the concept of women’s equality considers different needs, aspirations, and behaviors held by women. The concept of women’s equality does not imply that women have to become exactly the same as men but they ought not to be subjected to discrimination based on gender differences. The achievement of women’s equality is largely dependent on the ability of both women and women to access and exercise the same opportunities and rights across various sector of the society such as decision-making and economic participation. Moreover, women’s equality requires women to be subjected to obligations and benefits that are enjoyed by their male counterparts without undue prejudice or discrimination (Vahid, 2017).
The issue of women’s equality in relation to the classical ethical theory of utilitarianism finds its basis on the notion that certain principles or variants ought to be maximized and distributed equally across the society irrespective of gender differences. The findings by Ma and Safra (2017) indicate that theorists and writers have often been critical when it comes to utilitarian ethical considerations. In this regard, most theorists argue that utilitarianism plays a major role in influencing the justification of high levels of inequality experience between men and women. The aspect of women’s inequality has been continuously propagated by pro-inequality and pro-capitalist individuals who are largely preoccupied with maximization of pleasure and happiness resulting from high levels of inequality. Gregory (2013) observes that aspect of women’s equality falls short of being beneficial to women and young girls if it fails to achieve broad social and economic gains to most people within the population.
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The argument by Goss (2013) indicates that most societies have become stronger by embracing greater gender equality where women’s equality has been largely prioritized. On the contrary, gender inequality has been widely associated with a myriad of social ills such as poor social interactions, gender-based violence, teenage pregnancies, abortion, poor academic performance and lower level of life expectancy among others. Most social challenges and ills emanating from the issue of women’s inequality have a considerable level of connection with pleasure, well-being, and happiness among member from both genders in the society. The views made by Arntzenius (2014) suggest that utilitarianism and perfect gender equality may not be able to agree and function together. A perfectly ideal situation where individuals from either gender within a given society have equal share of opportunities, responsibility, power and economic status is not likely to be realized. However, that does not imply that justice and equality with regard to utilitarian terms in a society is completely unrealistic.
Vahid (2017) posits that the application of deontological ethical theory to the issue of women’s equality plays a significant role in highlighting the ethical considerations associated with gender discrimination against women that has been prevalent in different societies around the world. In such societies, women are usually denied equal opportunities with their male counterparts when it comes to education, marital and economic empowerment. For instance, lack of women’s equality in some society has led to cases and situations where young girls have been denied equal opportunities to access quality education from schools and learning institutions of their choice. Even though the issue of women’s inequality may be considered from the perspective of ethical consideration, it remains to be an unethical behavior when it is analyzed from the point of view of deontological theory. Justice and equality in the society demands a situation where a sense of fairness and equality prevails when it comes to scramble for the limited economic and social opportunities. The argument by those looking at things in the society from the deontologist’s perspective indicate that the issue of women’s inequality should be addressed effectively in various sectors for a society to be considered as one that exhibits good and acceptable ethics on gender matters.
Various instances associated with breaches of ethical behaviors exist in relation to failure to uphold the aspect of women’s equality within the society. One of such breaches involves sexual harassment and mistreatment of women in different sectors of the societies where there are social interactions with their male counterparts. For example, women often fall victims of sexual harassment offenses perpetrated by men at their various places of work. In this regard, women are often considered by men as the “weaker sex” thus increasing the levels their vulnerability to instances gender-based harassment and sexual discrimination. There are also instances when men in management and corporate leadership positions take advantage of women by purporting to create equal job opportunities for them instead of hiring individuals based on merit irrespective of their gender (Gregory, 2013).
Arntzenius (2014) identifies the issue of gender pay gap that has continuously been widening as the other aspect that amounts to a significant breach of the ethical behavior in the social, career and economic sectors of the society. Previous studies have shown that men are increasing paid higher remunerations and salaries than women performing the same roles and tasks in various professional fields such as teaching, legal and engineering. The relativism perspective of ethical issue surrounding the aspect of women’s equality plays an important role in enabling people in the society to recognize and appreciate different views by other people on things that constitute morality and immorality. To that extent, Goss (2013) argues that there is no moral consideration or judgment about the required ethics in gender equality that can be regarded as being universally valid. In women’s equality, the perspective of cultural relativism explains that moral actions and ethical behaviors ought to remain subjective owing to the diversity and uniqueness that often characterize different communities and societies around the world.
The application of the relativism theoretical perspective on societal matters surrounding the issue of women’s equality refutes the existence of one set of absolute facts regarding the conduct that constitutes ethical behavior among individuals of different gender in the course of their interactions. The classical ethical theory of utilitarianism would assist people in thinking about ethical or virtuous behaviors by highlighting the importance of understanding that the general desire of happiness is not only a good thing but it is also attainable to everybody. Moreover, the utilitarian theory enlightens and empowers people towards practicing ethical and virtuous behaviors by explaining what actions are considered to be acceptable if they result in good consequences and satisfaction in comparison to alternative actions. To assist people in thinking about things that constitute both ethical and virtuous behavior, the theory of deontology plays a critical role in creating a broad understanding regarding judgments regarding choices of morality and the applicable criteria in arriving at acceptable conducts in the society (Tsalikis, Seaton & Shepherd, 2001).
References
Arntzenius, F. (2014). Utilitarianism, decision theory and eternity. Philosophical
Perspectives , 28 (1), 31-58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/phpe.12036
Goss, K. A. (2013). The paradox of gender equality: How American women's groups gained
and lost their public voice . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Gregory, R. F. (2013). Women and workplace discrimination: Overcoming barriers to gender
equality . New Brunswick, NJ [u.a.: Rutgers Univ. Press.
Ma, S., & Safra, Z. (2017). Fairness and utilitarianism without independence . Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00199-017-1093-5.pdf
Tsalikis, J., Seaton, B., & Shepherd, P. (2001). Journal Of Business Ethics , 32 (3), 231-246.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1010700308774
Vahid, H. (2017). Deontological Conservatism and Perceptual Justification. Theoria , 83 (3),
206-224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/theo.12118
