Author: Andre Coleman

Gender reflects the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that are considered apt for men and women in any society. Mostly the terms gender and sex are not differed and taken as closely related terms. Sex relates to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women while gender refers to cultural differences rather than biological ones between men and women. Male and female are sex categories while feminine and masculine are gender categories.

Moser (1993) says that the differences between women and men within the same household and within and between cultures are socially and culturally constructed and can be altered over time. These differences are mirrored in social roles, responsibilities, access to resources, social limitations, opportunities, needs, perceptions, views, etc. Thus, gender does not take only women, but considers both women and men and their interdependent relationships and responsibilities.

Reversal

A reversal can be taken as change whether the change is a positive or negative against the prevailing trend. It is a change from one state to the opposite state turning the situation into an opposite direction or situation.

Gender Roles

A gender role defines the appropriate social and behavioral norms adopted by men and women in a social setting. Gender roles vary from culture to culture and traditions and roles can change over time even in the same cultural settings. Gender roles are cultural and personal to determine the speaking, dressing and communicative styles of males and females within a society. These cognitive frameworks are deeply embedded within the minds of males and females to define the masculine and feminine roles. Various socializing agents like parents, peers, teachers, television, movies, music, books and religion influence determining the gender roles within a society. Parents are the biggest factor to decide the gender roles especially of their young offspring.

Parents usually treat male and female infants differently. Expectations for males and females are set in a very early age. Traditionally, boys are taught how to fix and build things and how to earn for household and girls are taught how to cook, sew and manage the household. Children then receive parental and social approval when they conform to gender expectations and adapt themselves to the cultural and conventional roles which are reinforced by the additional socializing agent, media. In other words, gender roles and the values pass from one generation to the successive generation in a society.

Linda L. Lindsey and Sandra Christie (n.d.) say that as long as the girl infant is wrapped in the pink blanket and the boy infant is wrapped in blue blanket, the development of gender roles gets started. The pink and blue colours are the first indications given by the society to distinguish a female from male. As they grow up, the other cultural factors assure the distinction to remain intact. Girls are given dolls, doll houses and tiny stoves to pretend run a whole household system while boys are given toy tools to construct buildings and toy weapons and tanks to wage wars. In the teen and adult age, girls buy cosmetics and clothes while boys buy sports components and stereo components that is a result of gender role socialization. Commonly the gender roles espoused in childhood remain constant in adulthood.

Gender Roles in Pakistan

According to a Gilani Research Foundation survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan (april 27, 2009), majority of the Pakistani males and females have distinct roles to play in the society. In the recent years although women’s status and role has been uplifted beyond being a housewife, the priority is still given to men in politics, education, employment, and related walks of life.

Dr. Rakhshinda Parveen (n.d.) expresses that the constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan dictates equal rights for men and women. However, men are more equal than women in reality. The reality shows women in lower status than men in every sphere of life whether it’s education, food, health care or freedom of choice of partner. According to the Human Development Report 1999 of UNDP, the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) rank of Pakistan among 185 countries is 100. This rank determines the empowerment of women on a country basis. This measurement results in unequal status of women in economic resources, participation in political decision-making and economic decision-making. In spite of the fact that the Holy Quran dictates the equal rights for women wellbeing and development, women have always been the main target of rights violation in the Muslim countries. The typical subjugated image of Pakistani women reflects the centuries old patriarchy deeply rooted in the sub-continent. Although, emancipation and empowerment has always been documented in the legal documents, this has not come to the reality to its full extent yet.

The two fundamental perceptions establish the gender relations in Pakistan that women are inferior to men and that a man’s honour is determined by the actions of women of his family. In the Muslim societies, women bear the honour of the family name. To ensure that honour, they are not supposed to dishonor their families, their mobility is limited and they have restrictions on their behavior and activities and have very limited contact with the opposite sex. Women are constrained to have “Purdah” (veil) to restrain their protection and respectability. “Purdah” creates physically and symbolically different spheres for men and women by separating their activities. Mostly women spend their time at home to do homely tasks and go out only for serious and approved reasons. Social life generally revolves around the activities of men in society. In the most parts of the country, except in Islamabad, Karachi, and wealthier parts of a few other cities, those families are considered shameless who do not restrict their women. “Purdah” is practiced according to the family tradition, class and rural or urban residence but men and women do not mix freely anywhere without serious reasosn. The most extreme restraints can be found in parts of the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan, where women are not allowed to almost leave the house before they get married and are not allowed to meet the unrelated men and they cannot contact with their male cousins on their mother’s side, because these men are not classed as relatives in a strongly patrilineal society. In the rural areas of Punjab and Sindh, gender relations are relaxed because women are equally responsible with men fosr transplanting, rice seedlings, weeding crops, raising chickens and selling eggs. When a family aspires a higher status, it entails stricter ‘purdah” as a first social change. (Jone Johnson Lewis, 1994)

Some urban women, residing in the close-knit communities in the old cities of Lahore and Rawalpndi, generally wear a burqa(fitted body veil) or a “chadar” (loosely drapped cotton cloth used as a head covering and body veil) when they leave the homes. They usually live in a multistory (havelis) building constructed to accommodate large extended families. The places where people do not know their neighbours, there are less restrictions on women’s mobility.

Reversal of Gender Roles

In the modern times, the old perceptions of a patriarchal society are destabilized that has shifted the earlier unequal power dynamics between males and females and has resulted in the empowerment of women over men. The traditional gender roles have given a way to totally reversed roles to reserve the rights and emancipation of women. Now a days, wives are earning as much as 20% more than their husbands in the whole world that dictates the changing power dynamics that shows that women have got the power to harness the economic power upsetting the old traditional patriarchal beliefs. Traditionally, the women used to need physical protection and economic stability provided by men to save their submissiveness. (Kandiyoti,1988). The traditional patriarchal hierarchy has been shattered and resulted in females patronizing their male counterparts in courtship.

Modern women have become more educated and successful, that education and awareness has empowered women resulting in displacing men from their gendered position in society. The emergent trend of educated women out-earning their partners has led to changes in social perceptions and household roles. It has gradually shifted the institutionalized and privileged status of males in society. If women become the breadwinners, the domestic order shifts automatically to men because there is not any other option and this can give both men and women a sense of purpose and identity.

Alongside the empowerment of women, the emasculation of men redefines the masculinity and femininity which has determined the gender activities of society. Men, who have become domestic, have redefined the masculinity by entitling them as “providers” who provides not only economically but also emotionally and logistically. The traditional notion of masculinity of a father has been limited to begetting protecting and providing for children. The difference between what is masculine and what is feminine is what is determined by the gender roles adopted by both the genders. However, by bearing the role of childrearing and household chores, the masculinity of males comes into question that results in confusion in the individual male’s social identity. As a result, unemployed husbands preserve their masculinity by claiming that they are still provider if not economically but emotionally as they spend more time with their children than their own fathers. (Liza Mundy, 2011)

Deccan Herald (2012) conducted a research to study the effects of massive social changes on gender relations. The study has found that men today want babies and commitment, while women are more likely to want independence in their relationships. The study was conducted on over 5,000 American adults and the results revealed that more than half of the single men wanted to have children as compared to just 46 percent of women. The results showed the effects of the growing gender role reversal.

History of Gender Roles Reversal

The gender ideologies have changed since 1970s. Women became aware of their rights and emancipation with the emergence of feminist movement in 1970s. In 1960, 19 percent of married women with young children were in the paid labour force (U.S. bureau of the Census 1999). By 1998, the ratio of working women was up to 64 percent. This movement of mothers into the work places in the time span of 40 years left a profound effect on the attitudes towards the working women in the public and private spheres. The most of the American men approved and expected their wives to be active in working outside homes as the paid labour force. At the same time the provider role ideology continued to have great effects on males and females. The modern men and women are more receptive for women participation in working places than they were in 1970s. The nostalgia for breadwinner/homemaker family can still be found but more in men than women. Although some men resent the constricted definition of masculinity that narrows their role as economic providers, they stick to their roles as emotional providers among their children. (Teresa Ciabattari, n.d.)

A minority of U.S men resisted changes in women’s roles that could result as harmful for children and family life. These rapid changes in the roles of women have resulted in the widening gap between men’s and women’s attitudes. There is a larger gender difference in attitudes than it was 25 years before. (Teresa Ciabattari, n.d.)

Reversal of Gender Roles in Pakistan

Gender roles have not been altogether revolutionized in Pakistan but have still been treading the way to transform. The contemporary socio-political and economic conditions in Pakistan are restrained in the paradigm of patriarchy and capitalism. The envoys of women rights movements have been shouting out loud the revolution in the gender roles that has resulted in women working in every field of life. Women have come out of their spheres at home to take part in the tread of progress but they have instigated some initial stages yet and have a long way to trek on. (Pak Tea House, 2012) The women of Pakistan had confronted great challenges in the early 1990s such as increasing practical literacy, gaining access to employment opportunities at all levels in the economy. This development promoted a change in perception about women’s roles in society. Women status in society gained public voices from within and outside the political process.

The twentieth century has seen various attempts to bring social and legal reforms to improve the Muslim women’s lives in the subcontinent. Islam has played very important role to develop the rights of women since partition.

Muslim reformers in the nineteenth century introduced women education to ease some of the restraints on women’s activities to ensure women’s rights under Islamic law. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan organizes the Mohammedan Educational Conference in the 1870s to endorse modern education for Muslims, and he founded the Muhammadan Anglo- Oriental College. Many of the early proponents of education improved the status of women education by initiating cooking and sewing classes initially in a religious framework to advance women knowledge and skills. Still the literacy rate was very low as in 1921, there were only four out of every 1,000 Muslim females were literate. (countrystudies.com, n.d.)

Different organizations have been developed for the betterment of women’s rights. The Gender and Development (GAD) was introduced as a replacement to the Women in Development (WID) approach. Both organizations aspire to construct the gender equality and tackle the subordination of women in the home and in the public sphere. WID was established in the late-1970s, when it was acknowledged that women were left at the sideline in the process of development and progress of country. WID tended to examine women in isolation while GAD developed the female gender roles maintained by many facets of society, community, economy and not least of all, men. Gad aims to empower women to increase women self esteem, to encourage women organizations. (Jenny Mason, 2009). GAD challenges the social norms which dictate the women subordinate position to men. The educational gender gap in Pakistan is the result of the specific historical, political and cultural forces. (Jafar, 2002)

The movement for independence from the British colonization in 1947 was very significant for women who challenged their traditional, domestic gender roles in the male patriarchal society to actively participate in the fight for common Muslim rights. (Jafar, 2002) During the period from independence to the beginning of Zia ul-Haq’s rule in 1977, there was a coalition between the women’s movement and the state with a common goal to create a modern Pakistan by equalizing women’s rights: by granting them government jobs and increasing educational rights for women. (Jenny Mason, 2009)

In 1977, General Zial ul-Haq overthrew the government of Zulfiqar Bhuto thinking it to be un-Islamic and aspired for Pakistan to “return to Islam”. General Zia ul-Haq emphasized the dichotomy of Islam versus the West. This Islamization approach appealed many anti-colonialists and nationalists who supported patriarchy in the country. They accentuated the symbol of Pakistani women as traditional and a symbol of honour for their male partners. Women were taken as ideological boundary makers between Muslims and the western World. (Jafar, 2002) These laws and norms moved women to the private sphere and those who continued to work in the public sphere were portrayed as the symbols of moral decay.

In spite of Zia’s efforts to restrict women’s liberty in the public sphere, the women’s movement in Pakistan continued to develop during his rule. The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) was established in 1981, which fought for the policies created by Zia and their promotion gained international attention which placed a negative pressure on Zia’s government which helped to avert the further discrimination of women’s rights. After the suspicious death of Zia in 1988, Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Ali Bhutto, was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Pakistan which was a big step towards the growth of women in Pakistan. (Jenny Mason, 2009)

Although today women’s rights’ movements and organizations are active in fighting for gender equality, only few are willing to touch the family traditions and honour. Others tend to remain traditional when it comes to the family honour and name.

Islam as well as Pakistan’s constitution has dictated equal rights for man and woman but the society greatly violates women rights. Despite all these violations, Pakistani women have elevated their status in society with the help of some organizations, enlightened groups and government. It has happened just because of the increase in awareness of girls’ education

Now in Pakistan women are working everywhere as in schools, colleges, universities, offices, factories, hospitals etc. they are students, workers, teachers, doctors, nurses and pilots. Pakistani women have proved to do whatever they are capable of despite all the hardships they face in society. These working women are seeding a silent revolution in Pakistan. A silent social revolution has seeped in with rising number of women joining the workforce and moving up the corporate ladder in Pakistan. (Fehmina Arshad, n.d.) They are doing everything from pumping gasoline and serving burgers at McDonald’s to running major corporations. Women now hold 78 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly. The cultural norms regarding the women in the workforce have been changed.

Despite all the enlightenment and development regarding the rights of women and their being in the workforce, the society has still been captured into the old shackles of conservatism and the working women have to face criticism and condemnation from some for being bold enough to stand up for their rights. Working women are always blamed for being poor mothers and condemned to bring a bad name on the honour of the family in Pakistan. (Fehmina Arshad, n.d.) Despite women taking earning responsibilities, men do not take any attention about household chores. Women have to bear outside as well as inside home responsibilities.

Pakistani Television Dramas (History)

The Pakistan Television Corporation or PTV is Pakistan’s first national television broadcaster. PTV transmitted its first live program on November 26, 1964, in Lahore. Pakistan started its broadcasting from a small pilot TV Station which was established at Lahore from where first transmission was beamed in Black and White with effect. Television centres were established in Karachi and Rawalpindi/Islamabad in 1967 and in Peshawar and Quetta in 1974. (Rafay Mehmood, 2011) Pakistani media has played a foremost job in programming many unforgettable Pakistan classical dramas which inspired the generations in the past history. PTV started the tendency of making classic dramas with the help of intellectual writers, powerful direction, and multitalented actors.(Anum saulat, 2010)

The decades of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s have seen the tremendous success of dramas and telefilms in the Indian Subcontinent. There was only one TV channel, PTV, at that time which had touched the peak of success in drama making. PTV telecasted many popular dramas like ‘dhoop Kinary’, ‘ankahi’, ‘tanhayian’ and ‘dhuan’. The whole concept behind telecasting such dramas is to present a well prepared family drama with a strong script to provide a clean environment. The credit of such classic dramas goes to the brilliant story writers like Haseena Moen, Seema Ghazal, Ashfaq Ahmad etc. Their stories mirrored the heart touching issues of society. This was the magnificent time for Pakistani classic dramas which won many national as well as international awards. (Anum Saulat, 2010) The most famous drama serials of this time include Khuda Ki Basti, Unkahi, Tanhaiyaan, Akhri Chatan, Zair Zabar, Aangan Terha, Fifty Fifty, Studio Dhai (2-1/2), Studio Ponay Teen (2-3/4), Andehra Ujala, Sona Chandi, Uncle Urfi, Taleem-e-Baalighan, Alif Noon, Waaris, Dhoop Kinare, Sunehray Din, Alpha Bravo Charlie, Ana, and block buster serials like Pesh, Dhuwan, Kath Putli, Wafa Ham Nibhaein Gai, Bandhan, Kaghaz Kay Phool, Muqqdas, Bint-e-Adam, Malangi, Sawan, Sheela Bagh, Tinkay, Aisa Bhi Hota Hai bhar, rasta de zindgi, and many others.

Many programs were very popular even in India. Indian streets used to become deserted when few of the most popular Pakistani TV dramas were broadcasted. Although Pakistan and India are always at daggers drawn with each other, still the dramas of PTV were very popular and still are studied in the acting academies in India.

In the early 90s, the private produces entered the territory of Pakistani TV for the first time and presented some phenomenal programs such as drama serial ‘Jaal’ and ‘Kashkol’, cooking shows like ‘potluck’ and sitcoms including ‘family Front’ and ‘Teen Bata Teen’ that enthralled the viewers for a long time. Though Indian programs like ‘CID’ and Ekta Kapoor’s ‘Hum Panch’ created a small cult of their own but the local channel STN and PTV kept the countrol. Whether the field was drama , sitcom or crime stories, the 1990s gave a tough time to Indian Programming because of the quality, cultural relevance of the local dramas and because the access to the satellite channel wasn’t easy In Pakistan and was considered a luxury. (Rafay Mehmood, 2011) As the sun was setting on PTV’s golden era, Family Front’s Sumbal, Nusrat and Bobby; Alpha Bravo Charlie’s Faraz, Kashif and Gulsher; Samsung VJ’s Faisal Qureshi, Jawad Bashir, Ahsan Rahim, Amna Khan and Ahmad Ibrahim; Teen Bata Teen’s Lucy, Johnny and Shaffu became a cult icon and are still remembered for their brilliant performances to make the characters everlasting. (Shiza Nisar, 2010)

There came a time starting from 2001 when Indian dramas showed on a channel, Star Plus, were immensely popular that they not only attracted the women but also children started watching them. But now Pakistani dramas once again have touched the peaks of fame. Indian dramas got famous because of the glamour and family politics shown in them. These dramas affected the Pakistani cultural norms values and traditions so badly that the living styles of the viewers became Indian and they corrupted the society as they were so unreal. They showed the unrealistic lives of industrialists, elites and landlords through glamour. In the start Pakistani dramas started copying their style but soon they turned back to their own identity with the arrival of new competitive private producers in the industry.

With the realization that the Indian dramas had corrupted the society, these drama makers extinguished the Indian elements from the productions to follow their old trends of limited episodes and powerful story line. Many writers started writing many powerful stories for different TV channels like Geo, Hum TV, PTV, ARY digital. (Anam Saulat, 2010) Now a day, expression in media has resulted in a lot of channels and variety of Pakistani dramas for the viewers and every channel is now struggling hard to provide the audience with the best dramas ever. This competition has aggravated them to make good serials which reflect and mirror the true picture of Pakistani culture and traditions. Because of this sudden revival of Pakistani dramas, the audience loves the new dramas very much. (Shiza Nisar, 2010)

The modern dramas that have gained popularity are ‘meri zaat zarraye be-nishan’ ‘Ainee ki aygi barat’ series on Geo and , ‘nur pur ki rani’ ‘malaal’ ‘wasal’ ‘nur bano’ ,qaide e tanhai’, ,humsafar’ and many others on Hum TV. These dramas are realistic with powerful direction and script. They mirror the societal issues that actually exist in the society. Moreover, dramas like ‘wasal’, ‘ishk junoon deewangi’ ‘doraha’ and ‘malaal’ focus on the problems that are faced in a marriage because of modernity and reversal of gender roles. These problems do prevail these days. The reason why the ratio of divorces has increased is well depicted in these dramas. People should be well aware of the bitter realities that prevail in society. (Anum Saulat, 2010)

Reversal of Gender Roles in Pakistani Dramas

The electronic media in Pakistan has become an avenue for women to be seen shoulder-to-shoulder with men where they can work as diligently as they can to be an active part of the society. However, the role of women in our media seems to be heading in a direction where only their looks and attractiveness can be rewarded. (Zirgham Nabi Afridi, 2010)

Most of these dramas revolve around the family, especially women, often as independent individuals and most often as mothers, sisters and wives. The majority of Pakistani dramas today are a strange mix of progress and retreat. Some of the serials hold a few liberal, progressive and gender-sensitive messages, most of them emphasize patriarchal values existed in society. The Pakistani dramas reflect two main streams to depict the gender roles. One is to portray women as dependent on their male partners in a male patriarchal society. Women are shown being brutalized by men, slapped, beaten up, disgraced and ill-treated and men are depicted as the decision makers of the family, who simply dictate women what to do and what not to do. The other stream is to show the women indulged in working shoulder to shoulder with men to be an active participant in the progress of society. They are well aware of their rights and can stand for their liberties if ill-treated but the working women are also portrayed negatively who are the main source for a home breakup. It is rather difficult for the general viewing public to understand the contradictory messages lying within the modern day drama. Working women are depicted as strong and independent, yet also negatively portrayed as cunning (In Durr-e-Shawar the male lead, Haider, laments the fact that his wife, Shandana, is a working woman). (Tasneem Ahmar, 2012)

Television dramas can be considered as important tool to propagate gender equality. The dramas depicting equality of gender roles do not expose the overt victimization of women in them. Female characters in these serial are strong, independent and intelligent. How women are portrayed on TV is linked to the prevalent trends set by the management of entertainment television channels. The women who have reached the top in management struggle to change the prevailing trends. They act like new trend setters. Sultana Siddiqui, for example, established a policy that no woman will be slapped in the dramas aired on the TV channel she heads. Moneeza Hashmi, as managing director of the state-run television in Lahore, supported extensive programming intended to guarantee the women’s rights and gender equality. After she left, the policy unfortunately seems to have disappeared. (Bushra S, 2012)

One usually obtains their gender roles usually through social interactions rather than obtaining it genetically. When humans are born, one are endowed with a small concept of gender. Manners and proper behavior is mainly learned through the social interactions with others and also the relationships with one another. Our gender identity is build through the interactions or experience from our parents, media, people from school, work or at home and also society can influence our gender identity. Depending on how we are raised greatly affects on how one acts as they grow up. The media can influence every aspect of one’s life, their lifestyle, fashion, physical appearance, and also behavior. Society has the power to change the behavior and people’s point of views way more than what genetics or biological can.

The genetic make-up for all living beings mainly humans are usually born with might affect their physical abilities, but one usually learns how to act in specific ways by just watching the people around them. An example of this would be that when boys of a young age watches cartoons or anything that involves a male aspect, theses young boys are usually influenced by the characters or what they see on television. Usually these characters are portrayed to be in a violent and aggressive manner, which cause these children to act what they see. On the bright side mainly super heroes are the ones that influence young boys the most such as Superman,

Spiderman, Iron or even Batman and they are usually portrayed to be a strong, very athletic and brave hero which can influence a boy’s every action.

In cartoons like these there is also a downside to it to where boys are depicted to be destructive and usually aggressive as well to a point where it suggest that males should be very competitive to one another. Children at younger age are also more vulnerable to be influenced by television when compared to an adult due to the maturity level of one another. Not only just the boys also the older males are influenced by today’s media, televisions, music and society. An example of this would be the music artist Eminem where he wants males to be very violent and rebel against homosexuality and also be dominant towards females. Usually the younger teens are influenced by this because of the lack of maturity to make their own choices or decisions and these young males are gullible to a point where they are influenced by what they see. There was a Columbine massacre or incident in 1999 that proved that the boys who killed all those innocent students derived all of their ideas from certain movies and television shows. This proves that teens at a very open age that can be easily manipulated by society to act in predictable or spontaneous ways.

According to Diekman, author of “Stereotypes as dynamic constructs: Women and men of the past, present, and future.” states that “typical characteristics for women are piety, submissiveness, and domesticity, while authority, and social behavior, are traits commonly held by men”. When girls are young, they are usually given a Barbie doll to play with and are expected to grow up as the ideal Barbie girl who is very beautiful looking and supposedly very feminine. Girls are usually less athletic when compared to boys due to their genetic make-up; they just tend to not be athletic. Due to this genetic unfairness between males and females, parents would not treat each gender the same way when it comes down to sports. The boys are usually taught to be very aggressive because they are more athletic and competitive than girls while on the other hand girls are encouraged to express or release their feelings and its ok for them to cry openly. Boys are never encouraged to cry or complain about anything. They are taught to replace the feminine feelings of fear and sorrow and replace them with excitement or anger. Boys or males in particular use the phrase “be a man” referring to being tough or strong and one that never shows his emotions.

Children can also be influenced by their peers to act in specific ways at a very young vulnerable age. One can be made fun of easily if they are usually doing things that don’t suit

their gender. An example would be if a young boy or any male would easily be made fun of if they like to play with dolls, like shopping or just play in the kitchen. The society and media shows what types of things that certain gender should usually be doing for each gender. On television, it would usually have specific types of clothes, toys, jobs, etc for each of the genders and what they think each gender should follow. Due to these social influences, males and females act the way one does because of how society taught one to grow up to be. As for careers men are the dominant one because of how they can handle tougher jobs than a woman. Women are depicted to be caring for others or cooperative with anything and also just less valued. Woman careers are preferred to usually be models, nurses or even housewives.

According to InfoRefuge on an article about Gender Roles and the Media, it states that “our society continues to respect and represent men more than women in every aspect of our daily lives.” People were raised by the society to think what men and women are capable of. Due to these circumstances these are usually the reasons why men mainly get “better” jobs than women do and also have a better chance of getting jobs in the work force. Gender stereotypes are everywhere and still occur today. For example, it is not acceptable in this society for a female to coach a men’s sports team at any type of level professional, college or either high school team male oriented teams. This is a huge deficit and disadvantage because of the fact that females too can be amazing coaches sometimes way more superior to most males and therefore the players would miss out the chance from learning and gain experience this coach. The female coaches also suffers from not gaining or they miss the opportunity to coach these male players and are often force to pass down their knowledge to just female players. Society is unfair to judge solely on one’s capabilities on gender. Therefore theses better jobs that usually pay a lot, females are solely at a disadvantage of getting the job due to their gender which is unavoidable.

Another influence that society has on one is when people begin to date. There are certain specific behaviors that are supposedly expected by each gender because of the social influence, custom and usage in society. Men are the ones that should be expected to pay for the date, drive and also ask the girl out and many more outdated manners that guys should usually do for a woman. Women on the other hand, also have a specific role in the dating game. When two people get married, society assumes specific roles according to their gender. Men are expected go to work to pay for the bills, put a roof over their heads and also put food on the table. According to an article on CliffNotes on gender stereotypes, it states that “Traditionally, the female stereotypic role is to marry and have children.” This means usually women are the ones staying at home to take care of the children or plainly be a housewife. These stereotypical roles are starting to deteriorate because of the fact that it’s society’s standards. Women are far more important that what society depicts, they also have the same capabilities as any other man or human being. They could also be working or doing the exact same thing as man could or even better. There are no biological or physical abilities that hold men and woman to these assumed roles in society.

Humans are born knowing which gender they are, but one learns their gender identity through the interactions of what we grow up with and learn how society expects them to act. There is no possible way that one could learn what one believes in and behaviors through biological influences; society has a much stronger influence on the way people act solely based on gender. Everyone in this world is born with some kind of innate ability on how to act relative to gender, but the way on is raised, how one interact with others and also the influences that the media has is what influences one’s gender identity.

“Gender is the division of people into two categories, “men and women”. Through interaction with caretakers, socialization in childhood, peer pressure in adolescence, gendered work and family roles, women and men are socially constructed to be different in behaviour, attitudes and emotions (Borgatta. E.F. andMontgomery, R.J.V,2000,p.1057).

HOW DO WE LEARN TO ACT AS MALES OR FEMALES?

We learn to act as males or females through:(1) gender roles

(2) gender identity

(3) gender socialization

WHAT ARE GENDER ROLES?

Gender roles are the roles that society assigns to men and women based on their gender. They especially influence relationships between men and women

Womens’ lifestyles are changing to accommodate new careers, education and family structures, and their role in society is being adjusted accordingly. Education has evolved from providing them with skills necessary for building a family and managing a household into a more broad, extensive education that benefits them in a variety of careers as well as allows them to reach a higher social status as educated members of society. In secondary schools, teachers who provided female students with homemaking skills have switched to more intellectual courses like physics and biology.

Bitter feminists around the world were often heard blaming men for the current state of the world, but it should be realized that part of the future of the twenty first century, is determined by how much women corporate with working with men to influence the direction of the nations of the world. There is the link of the relationship between female literacy and independence growth where the level of female literacy is higher and the dependency growth is lower. The twentieth century has been the dawn of a new era for women in the world. They have evolved and broken many barriers in social status and education level. Stemming from backgrounds that were tough and limited where they were maids, field labourers and cooks, they have definitely matured, transitioning to higher and more meaningful roles in society. Their determination and push for social equality has had a major role to play in the development of the world. This development is a major factor responsible for the state of the economies in the world today. Women have graduated from being mainly domestic workers to that of doctors, athletes, and Prime Ministers. They are also specializing in jobs that were once only occupied by men, for example, filling the position of managers, engineers, safety-officers and welders just to name a few. Young girls and women living in these modern times must take advantage of the opportunities provided and use the resources that are available to them. Women must become less dependent on the opposite sex and strive to earn their own in terms of possession and finances etc.

Women are venturing out and challenging themselves but some of the men have occupied traditional female roles and at a slower pace, for example, men have become hairstylists, cooks house-keepers, baby-sitters etc. Traditional hierarchical organizations are a thing of the past. In the working environment, the strategies used by women to reach mid-management levels are preventing them from breaking through the glass ceiling. To be successful, both men and women must be able to get excellent results through people-oriented leadership practices. They become self-disciplined, ambitious and are likely to embrace a visible, take charge and influential approach to their roles. Contrary to common stereotype, women are better team players than men and are better at communicating and keeping people informed; are able to put the success of the team first, using influencing skills rather than authority to accomplish objectives. As far as leadership values go, co-workers rate women higher in such skills as hiring the right people for the job, developing and coaching subordinates, and organizing, monitoring and controlling the work of others. They are also better at creating a vision and setting clear direction and high standards of performance.

Even though women’s decisions are of high quality, they continue to be viewed as less objective, less flexible and lower in emotional control than men. Their more forthright communication style, may appear less polished and diplomatic than men’s when dealing with those above them in the hierarchy. In the future, there should be transformational leadership for regional and national renewal for sustainable development using methods by the media, including church women and social welfare organizations and communications programmes on the concept and practice of a new kind of leadership, which is gender issues, and expectations in leadership and improving the capacity of various interests groups in understanding and analysing issues from gender perspective through seminars, workshops and public as well as community meetings. At a regional level, steps of the process of assigning people to do different tasks , must take place as well as setting up a monitoring framework and specific demands should be developed and implemented. From this a new culture will emerge when building positive relationships, command authority and interacting with the world. Everything involving women has changed and will continue to do so over the next decades. In every arena, women have continued to excel and have definitely made a dramatic difference in the world.

WHAT IS GENDER IDENTITY?

Gender identity refers to the feeling that one is male, female or transgender. Many things contribute to the formation of gender identity, including society, family and factors that are in place before birth. Transgender individuals may have the genitals of one sex but a gender identity, usually associated with the other; example, a person born with a penis who feels female may identify as transgender.

According to Paul Connelly (1998), a study showed interesting insights into the relationship between gender and ethnicity. I t was seen that children in schools, though young brought the ways of thinking about masculinity, family and ethnicity into the school arena. I t was found that teachers at these schools were more likely to criticize the behaviour of black boys than other children, and for this the boys were sent outside for deviant behaviour, were singled out and instructed to stand by a door or wall, or even the outside the staff room during playtime. These boys were stigmatized for being black and were accused of being part of “race” crime and gangs. Their black sisters were perceived as potential disruptive children, likely to be good in

sports and also singled out and punished. On the other hand, the South Asian boys were seen as immature rather than seriously deviant. Their behaviour was viewed as silly rather than a threat, and according to the teachers, they were described as passive, conformists and vulnerable. They

were not able to express their masculinity as their performance in sports was not good. However, they preferred to focus on school work. The South Asian girls appeared to be more hard-working and obedient than the boys and compared to other girls. The teachers encouraged the girls to focus more on their school work which in turn caused them to be very competitive with other girls in the school. This study shows how gender and ethnicity interact in creating identities among children, also some of the ways this might influence educational achievement in schools as well as showing how these children create the gender identities found in schools.

WHAT IS GENDER SOCIALIZATION?

Gender Socialization is the process of learning the social expectations and attitudes associated with one’s sex. Through this process, sociologists explain why human males and females behave in different ways; they learn different social roles, for example, girls learn to wash and keep a home clean and boys learn to clean the backyard and put out the rubbish.

Socialization is the primary means by which human infants begin to acquire the skills necessary to perform as a functioning member of their society, and is the most influential learning process for a child to experience. Though the variation is materialized in the customs and behaviours of societies, the most fundamental expression of culture is to be found at the individual level, which can only occur after the individual has been socialized by the family, extended family and external social networks. This process of both learning and teaching is the way in which cultural and social characteristics are continued and passed down to generations.

Sociologists, such as Durkeim, noted the relationship between norms, values and roles during socialization. The following are the different types of socialization:

PRIMARY SOCIALIZATION

This occurs when a child learns the attitudes, values and behaviour suitable to individuals as members of a particular culture. For example a child witnessing his/her parent giving a derogatory opinion about a minority group, then the child would automatically think that behaviour is acceptable and continue to have this opinion about minority groups.

SECONDARY SOCIALIZATION

This socialization refers to the process of learning what is acceptable behaviour as a member of a smaller group within the larger society. It is normally associated with teenagers and adults, and involves more minute changes than those which occurred in the former socialization; such as, relocating to a new environment or society.

DEVELOPMENTAL SOCIALIZATION

With this process learning behaviour is done in a social institution or social skills are developed.

ANTICIPATORY SOCIALIZATION

Anticipatory socialization refers to the process of socialization where a person “rehearses” for future positions, occupations and social relationships, for example on the job training (O.J.T).

RESOCIALIZATION

This refers to the process of discarding former behaviour patterns and accepting new ones as part of a transition on one’s life. It occurs throughout the human life cycle and can be an intense experience with an individual having a sharp break with the past, and needing to learn and be exposed to radically different norms and values. An example would be a religious convert internalizing the beliefs and rituals of a new faith. An extreme example is the process by which a transsexual learns to function socially in a dramatically altered gender role.

ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION

This process involves employees learning the knowledge and skills necessary to assume their organizational role. As they are new to the institution, they become socialized by learning about the organization and its history, culture and procedures etc. They also learn about the skills needed to do the job, their work group and formal procedures and informal norms. Socialization functions as a control system in that newcomers learn to internalize and obey organizational values and practices.

WHAT IS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviours and tactics used by one person over another to gain power and control. This may include verbal abuse, financial, emotional, sexual and physical abuse. Domestic violence occurs in heterosexual as well as same-sex partnerships, and crosses all ethnic, racial and socio-economic lines.

Domestic violence has many forms of which there are five:

PHYSICAL: which is inflicting or attempting to inflict physical injury. Examples of these are, grabbing, shoving, slapping, hitting, arm-twisting, kicking, punching, stabbing, shooting. Physical abuse can also be used to deny access to resources necessary to maintain health, such as, medical care, hygienic assistance, forcing alcohol and other drug use.

SEXUAL: Forcing or attempting to coerce any sexual contact without consent, for example, marital rape, forced sex after beating, attacks on the sexual parts of the body. Another method used is attempting to undermine the victim’s sexuality, such as treating him/her in a sexually derogatory manner, criticizing sexual performance and desirability and accusations of indidelity.

PSYCHOLOGICAL: this involves instilling or attempting to instill fear, example, intimidation, threatening physical harm to self/victim, threatening to harm/kidnap children, mind games, destruction of pets and property. There is also the method of isolating or attempting to isolate the victim from friends, family, school/work, example: withholding access to a phone, constant “checking up”, undermining victim’s personal relationships.

EMOTIONAL: undermining or attempting to undermine the victim’s sense of worth by using constant criticism, belittling victim’s abilities and competency, name-calling, insults, put-downs, silent treatment, and undermining a partner’s relationship with the children.

ECONOMIC: this involves making or attempting to make the victim financially dependent. For example, having and maintaining total control over financial resources including the victim’s earned income, public assistance if any, withholding money/access to money, requiring accountability and victim giving an account for all money spent.

COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF THE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY AND THE GENDER SCHEMA THEORY

The social learning theory of Bandura specifies the importance of observing and modelling the behaviours, attitudes and emotional reactions of others. Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from this, one is able to understand how the new behaviours are done.

Aggression is one type of behaviour that can be learnt through models. Through a lot of research, it was found that children become more aggressive when they observe aggressive or violent models. Bandura stated that there were conditions that an individual requires before successfully modelling the behaviour of someone else. The person must first pay attention to the model in order to be able to remember the behaviour that was observed, then must be able to repeat what was demonstrated. Finally, motivation is needed to complete modelling a behaviour. Modelling helps to increase the frequency of similar behaviours, for example, a girl noticing her friend excelling in dancing and then she may try to excel in singing as she does not have the skills for dancing. Most of the time persons engage in certain behaviours because they believe they can put them into action successfully. As a result, it can be said that the person has ‘high self-efficacy’. Persons who have high self-efficacy tend to be better and often achieve more at whatever they pursue.

In contrast, the gender schema theory (Bem 1981) focuses on the role of cognitive organization in addition to socialization This theory postulates that children learn how their cultures and societies define the role of men and women and then internalize this knowledge as a gender scheme or unchallenged core belief. This scheme is then used to organize subsequent experiences. Children’s perceptions of men and women are thus an interaction between their gender schemas and their experiences. Eventually, they will incorporate their own self-concepts into their gender schema and will assume the traits and behaviours that they deem appropriate for their gender. So, even with children learning from modelling behaviour and also learning how their culture defines the roles of male and female, what is internalized and is actually modelled are very different in terms of positive and negative behaviours and roles.

INTERVIEW OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVOR TAKEN ON 5/4/2011

Question: Is this your first experience of Domestic Violence?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When did you notice the signs of Domestic Violence?

Answer: I was twenty, there were subtle signs from the relationship. The other person was ten years older than me.

Question: When did you decide to seek help or did someone call for help for you?

Answer: I called for help myself.

Question: Were there others in your family who were also abused?

Answer: No.

Question: How many incidents have you experienced with Domestic Violence?

Answer: Only one, but many were built into it.

Question: Is this prevalent in your family?

Answer: Yes, my mom and my two sisters went through it.

Question: Which organisation did you contact or go to for help?

Answer: I called the police after being beaten and raped, then went to hospital and subsequently a safe house in Piparo.

Question: How did the organisation protect you?

Answer: I had police security on 24 hour shift in Piparo in 2004, then the same in a safe house in Port-of-Spain.

Question: What have you learnt from this experience?

Answer: “You never know your strength. Pay attention to the smallest signs, pay attention to what is said in jest”.

Question: What stood out for you from this experience?

Answer: Having a relationship with God is what is most important. Knowing that it has a God and having a relationship with God are two different things.

Question: What would you advise young people to do to avoid this situation or what to look out for before taking action?

Answer: Look for signs of the person keeping you away from friends, belittling you and telling you ,you are not good enough. If you’re hit once don’t let a second time occur and the perpetrator saying ‘look what you made me do’.

Question: Has this experience affected your psychological thinking about men?

Answer: Yes, I don’t have patience with men.

Gender bias exists in the content, language and illustrations of a large number of children’s books (Jett-Simpson & Masland, 1993). This bias may be seen in the extent to which a gender is represented as the main character in children’s books and how that gender is depicted.

Numerous studies analyzing children’s literature find the majority of books dominated by male figures. For example, Ernst (1995) did an analysis of titles of children’s books and found male names represented nearly twice as often as female names. She also found that even books with female or gender-neutral names in their titles in fact, frequently revolve around a male character. Many classics and popular stories where girls are portrayed usually reflect stereotypes of masculine and feminine roles. Such gender stereotypes are prevalent not only in mainstream children’s books but also in Newbery and Caldecott medal winners. Children’s books frequently portray girls as acted upon rather than active (Fox, 1993). Girls are represented as sweet, naive, conforming, and dependent, while boys are typically described as strong, adventurous, independent, and capable (Ernst, 1995; Jett-Simpson & Masland, 1993). Boys tend to have roles as fighters, adventurers and rescuers, while girls in their passive role tend to be caretakers, mothers, princesses in need of rescuing, and characters that support the male figure (Temple, 1993). Often, girl characters achieve their goals because others help them, whereas boys do so because they demonstrate ingenuity and/or perseverance. If females are initially represented as active and assertive, they are often portrayed in a passive light toward the end of the story. Girl characters who retain their active qualities are clearly the exception (Rudman, 1995). Thus, studies indicate that not only are girls portrayed less often than boys in children’s books, but both genders are frequently presented in stereotypical terms as well.

WHY IS GENDER-REPRESENTATION IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE SIGNIFICANT?

Many researchers and authors argue that readers identify with characters of their own gender in books. Therefore, the relative lack of girl characters in texts can limit the opportunity for girls to identify with their gender and to validate their place in society.

The manner in which genders are represented in children’s literature impacts children’s attitudes and perceptions of gender-appropriate behavior in society. Sexism in literature can be so insidious that it quietly conditions boys and girls to accept the way they ‘see and read the world,’ thus reinforcing gender images (Fox, 1993). This reinforcement predisposes children to not question existing social relationships. At the same time, however, books containing images that conflict with gender stereotypes provide children the opportunity to re-examine their gender beliefs and assumptions. Thus, texts can provide children with alternative role models and inspire them to adopt more egalitarian gender attitudes.

Gender stereotypical roles are constraining to both genders. Just as girls are trapped in passive and whiny roles, boys and men are rarely described as people demonstrating emotions of sadness and fear, having hobbies/occupations that are not stereotypically male and in roles where they aren’t competing or meeting high expectations. These stereotypes limit boys’ and girls’ freedom to express themselves (Fox, 1993; Rudman, 1995) and pressure them to behave in ways that are ‘gender appropriate’ rather than ways best suited to their personality.

WHAT SHOULD TEACHERS KEEP IN MIND WHILE SELECTING CHILDREN’S BOOKS?

Ideally, all children’s books used in the classroom should have well-rounded male and female characters. However, teachers seldom have much control over the children’s books they use as their selection of books is often restricted to what is cheap, easily available, or contributed by parents and well-wishers. Despite these constraints, it is possible to take active steps to ensure the use of books that promote gender equity among the sexes.

One recommendation is to look actively for books portraying girls/women in a positive light with active, dynamic roles. Another suggestion is to look for books and stories that do not portray either gender in a stereotypical manner. Rudman (1995) recommends gender-neutral books where

*individuals are portrayed with distinctive personalities irrespective of their gender

* achievements are not evaluated on the basis of gender

* occupations are represented as gender-free

* clothing is described in functional rather than gender-based terms

* females are not always weaker and more delicate than males

* individuals are logical or emotional depending upon the situation

* the language used in the text is gender-free, etc.

Teachers can also choose books that have counter-sexist attitudes embedded in them, such as feminist texts that can help children recognize gender-stereotypical messages. Combining traditional and non-traditional books can also spark discussion of how genders are portrayed in different books (Jett-Simpson and Masland, 1993).

Regardless of the type of book chosen, the message of respect for both genders should be subtly contained in the texts. It is important to avoid books that have strident messages on gender equity, as children tend to reject books that preach. In Mem Fox’s (1993) words, “laboring the point kills the point of the laboring.”

HOW CAN TEACHERS USE CHILDREN’S LITERATURE TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUITY?

Before using strategies to identify gender stereotypes and develop gender-equitable perceptions among children, it is important for teachers to first recognize and articulate their own attitudes (Rudman 1995). Then they can guide children to be critical by using scaffolding strategies like the following:

* collectively analyzing gender assumptions in the text

* raising questions about main characters and their portrayal.

* asking children to reverse the genders of individuals, e.g., “What if Sleeping Beauty was a boy?” (Temple, 1993)

* having children guess a writer’s gender on the basis of the story they have just heard (Lawrence, 1995)

* asking children to use gender-neutral names in the stories they write and read this aloud to other students so that they can guess the protagonist’s gender (Lawrence, 1995)

* have children adopt the opposite sex’s point of view about a very gendered issue (Lawrence, 1995)

Children can discuss a novel by participating in the above activities in heterogeneous groups. It is important for teachers to support children’s group discussions by posing thought-provoking questions and facilitating student exchanges. McGowan, McGowan & Wheeler (1994) have described a number of children’s books that can be used as catalysts for discussions, and suggested different group activities for primary grade students. The authors have designed these activities for the purpose of promoting gender awareness and using them to explore issues such as: respect for yourself and other individuals, similarities and differences between boys and girls, traditional and non-traditional gender roles, gender stereotypes, and friendships between boys and girls. Along similar lines, Lawrence (1993) suggests getting older students to conduct surveys and create collages to sensitize themselves to gender issues they encounter in books they read.

Trites (1997) reminds us that during discussions with children, it is important to validate both feminine and masculine voices, and to listen to dissenting individual opinions. Teachers need to recognize that many children may have attitudes that are gender stereotyped only towards certain issues. Students need to be allowed to make choices that are consonant with their own personalities and which are self-empowering. It is also important to keep in mind that rethinking gender roles cannot be achieved in a day but is an ongoing process.

Introduction

Throughout history women have been portrayed as subordinates of men or the “weaker gender.” This essay explores the portrayal of femininity as the weaker gender through the discourse on pornography and femininity portrayed in popular culture. Its purpose is to broaden the understanding of femininity- gender discourse from the perspectives of pornography and femininity portrayed in popular culture. In order words, how does the perception of pornography and the portrayal of femininity in popular culture emphasise the weaker gender perception of femininity? Therefore, the purpose of this essay is clear but the lingering question is how it can be achieved. In this regard, the essay advances four propositions. The first section provides a conceptual understanding of gender and femininity for analytical discourse. The second section critically explores the femininity- gender discourse within a legal structure and questions like is femininity the weaker gender? How and why femininity is portrayed in this regard come up for discussion. This will also be discussed in relation to how femininity gendered roles disadvantages women. The section that follows critically analyses the law on pornography and femininity nexus. The third section critically explores how femininity is depicted in the media. The last is the summary and the conclusion.

What is Gender?

Gender can be defined in many ways. Sociologists contend that gender is a consequence of nature resulting from the effect of hormones, brains or genes of two different sexes.[1] However, this essay will explain Butler’s perspective and views on gender. According to Butler, gender is defined as a social construct formed through constant cultural reinforcement and rigorous regulatory practices.[2] Hence, gender is associated with how an individual takes part in certain manners of conduct. In order words, through everyday practices or actions, laws, dress codes, taboos, pornography and advertisement the conception of “essential” masculinity and femininity is developed. Butler asserts that gender operates from the cultural associations and values that the sexed body takes on.[3] This creates the concept of essentialism. Essentialism is defined as the “characteristics of persons or groups which are largely similar in all human cultures and historical periods, since they are significantly influenced by biological factors.”[4] Through the course of essentialism, gender roles are created in the society and are related to an individual’s sex. Gender essentialism often creates stereotypes in relation to the behavioural pattern that should be exhibited by men and women. The problem with this is that the perceptions of gender is not fixed and changes from culture to culture, society to society as well as generation to generation and within these confines changes and evolves. Therefore, the rationale behind social constructs of masculinity and femininity being associated with a particular biological sex is void. Butler asserts that “taken into its logical limits, the sex-gender distinction suggests a radical discontinuity between sexed bodies and culturally constructed genders.”[5] For Butler, there is no need for a “doer” behind the deed’ but the “doer” be constructed through the deed.[6]

In terms of understanding identity, the distinction between gender and sex must be established. Hence, the concept of gender and sex has been used interrelatedly. While sex involves the biological aspects thus distinct and unchangeable, gender is a social construct formulated by the culture in which an individual lives in.[7] Therefore the labels “man” and “woman are biologically and socially different.[8] The importance posited on this distinction is that the biological fact of sex is merely a fact of interest as a result of the cultural importance attached to it.[9] This categorisation usually begins from childbirth and parents are required by the law to specify whether the sex is male or female. The traditional ideology concerning gender and sexuality involves the notion of heteronormativity which relates to the idea of heterosexuality as the natural and normal behaviour in the society.[10] However, sexuality is natural and normative if it if it fits into the context of heterosexuality.

Femininity

Shea describes femininity as the classified set of attributes, behaviours, mannerism, interests, expectations, roles and appearances that are associated with being female.[11] Under Butler’s view of repeated acts “appropriate” gender-specific roles are formed. Simone Beauvoir contends that “one is not born, but rather becomes a woman.”[12] She further asserts that the concept of femininity is actualised by consistently creating gender through interacting with individuals in a specific social context.[13] Women can be different things; they can be wives, mothers, lesbians, heterosexuals and criminals.[14] However, Butler does not allude that the individual can choose which gender he or she wants to enact but “the script is invariably already determined within a regulatory framework and the individual is given a limited number of costumes in which he or she is obliged to make a particular choice of gender style.”[15] Butler describes this act as “girling the girl”[16] it is important to note that though essential femininity relates to women, men can also exhibit “essential feminine traits” likewise women exhibiting “essential masculine traits”.[17] This alteration of society’s binary gender roles is described as gender nonconformity. Therefore, if a woman does not fit into this premeditated identity formulated by law and society her essence could be “invisible”. [18]

Gender Performance

According to Butler, gender is performative. She defines performativity by stating; “gender is in no way a stable identity of locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time [. . .] an identity instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self.”[19] She argues that gender and gender roles are social acts that an individual performs in daily life, the hegemonic versions of which underlay prevalent concepts of male as masculine and female as feminine.[20] Zimmerman further contends that a person’s gender is categorised based on how they perform it.[21] Therefore, the way society reacts to gender performances forms gender identification. Men and women in the society are required to comply with specific gender roles according to the sex in which they are categorized. Oakley states that gender roles have an important impact on human lives as numerous reports suggests that “gender are culturally rather than biologically produced”[22] Conclusively, individuals are taught on how they are expected to behave within the society. Traditional stereotypes associated with men described them as protectors, providers, openminded and aggressive whereas women were perceived to be weak, passive and emotional.[23] These stereotypes have shaped the way masculinity is seen as the stronger gender and femininity as the weaker gender. Hence, this essay argues that feminine norms regularly relegates women to subordinate or secondary roles and performing such gendered roles disadvantages women in the society. This aspect of the essay focuses on gendered objectification of women. Objectification described as the act of objectifying an individual is often significantly gendered (mostly towards females) and, vital towards the process of gendering a person and rendering them as lesser human beings.[24] In western society, the pressure on females to perform an ideal expression of femininity is so extreme that it is impossible for a woman to be adequately skinny, beautiful, submissive, sexy and conventional so as to be seen as a good woman.[25] Women tend to be dehumanised even in situations where they perform their gender roles according to hegemonic norms.[26] Ironically, they are being dehumanised for performing their gendered roles. Objectification acts as one basis against which the gender binary criticises women’s gender performance irrespective of appropriate performance of gender norms. They are constantly ridiculed as merely weak tools for emotional and sexual satisfaction of other people.[27] Performing gender tends to objectify women and this objectification goes beyond sexual objectification. Arguably, when a woman performs the role of motherhood, she is required to prioritise the needs of her child over that of herself thereby treating herself as an object through which the physical and emotional desires of the child are sustained. This can be regarded as an extremely gendered experience as society does not require fathers to give the same level of care and treatment a woman gives to a child. This can be considered as demanding because it requires placing a child’s needs ahead of the mother’s. Although, these occasions themselves are episodic, their repetition and reiteration in addition to the background discourse of “the good selfless mother”[28] provides a structure to legitimise the treatment of women as objects that nurture children into adulthood.[29] This can be partially attributed to social customs which dictate that good mothers take care of their wards and their failure to perform motherhood brings about punishments ranging from social alienation to government intervention and loss of parental privileges.[30]

Conclusively, feminist theories of objectification have classified it as a universal problem that mainly affects women. However, they mostly define it based on the constant repetition and reiteration of episodic experiences rather than why it occurs. Wilson contendsthat “By using Butler’s theory of gender performativity to analyse the structure of gender it seems that we can redefine objectification as a systemic occurrence that is significantly gendered and also important to the very process of constituting gendered categories.”[31]

Pornography

Several definitions of pornography exist from debates surrounding it. Joel Feinberg gives a broad definition of pornography as “sexually explicit writing and pictures designed entirely and plausibly to induce sexual excitement in the reader.”[32] Dworkin and MacKinnon state that “The bigotry and contempt pornography promotes, with the acts of aggression it fosters, diminish opportunities for equality of rights in employment, education, property, public accommodations and public services.”[33] This critique states that pornography is more than just a sexual fantasy but rather recognised discriminatory acts against women with damaging effects.[34] Williams asserts that pornography as a genre proves to be more about gender than sex.[35] Under UK law, there exist no definition of pornography instead it relies on the concept of ‘obscenity’.[36] Hence, pornography is regulated under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964 and Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 which establishes the criminality of pornography on “appropriate” pornography and “appropriate” sexual expression.[37] Section 1 of the OPA 1959 states “an article shall be deemed obscene if its effect or the effect of any one of its items is, if taken as a whole, tends to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.”[38] Therefore, the threshold test drawn from the case R v Hicklin[39] is “whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences, and into whose hands a publication of this sort may fall.”[40] In regards to this, section 63 of the CJIA 2008 outlaws the possession of an extreme pornographic image. It states that an image is ‘pornographic’ “if it is of such a nature that it must reasonably be assumed to have been produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal.”[41] Justice Stewart in the case Jacobellis v Ohio[42] commented on obscenity, stating that “I know it when I see it.”[43] Hence, what this depicts is that what may be perceived as obscene to a group may be normal to another. The deductions that can be made from the above Acts, shows that, Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998 will permit any action that does not violate the law against obscenity. This is rendered problematic as the messages pornography relays should not be protected under free speech, neither should the effect it ultimately has on gendered roles especially on femininity.[44] Hence, this essay contends that any form of pornography is harmful in the society as they send negative messages about gender roles. Scoular opines that “pornography is a political statement of women’s inequality rather than a sexual imagery for pleasure.”[45] However, Dworkin argues that the way pornography is seen to be sexual depictions and representations about sex indisputably emphasizes how the society views femininity.[46]

For the purposes of this essay, four elements of subordination of femininity will be discussed. These are; hierarchy, the dynamic of dominance and submission, violence and objectification. Foucault’s concept of ‘texts’ of pornography and society can be used in explaining the concept of hierarchy.[47] Men tend to define feminine sexuality through images and writings.[48] Fiedler states that “pornography is produced mainly by men for men, using women’s bodies as objects for male pleasure.”[49] Men through pornography tend to portray the female gender role as inferior and how it should be performed. Such characterisation has an adverse effect on feminine roles in the society as traditional social norms usually associates masculinity with certain traits (dominance, power, superiority) while femininity with (submissiveness, weakness, inferiority).[50] According to Dworkin “Pornography is the material means of sexualizing inequality and that is why pornography is a central practice in the subordination of women.”[51] Pornography is initially presented as a sexual imagery for erotic satisfaction, but in-depth assessment depicts that it is rather a political statement portraying feminine inequality. Scoular supports by asserting that, pornography is a powerful depiction of feminine subordination and inequality, societal degradation and emphasising the ‘phallocentric hierarchical power’ of men over women.”[52]

Inequality is sexualized; the relationship between masculinity and femininity is that of dominance and submission, which is constantly played out during sexual intercourse, which defines sex as a man being possessive or domineering and a woman submitting to a man.[53] MacKinnon believes that pornography is an ideal representation which displays masculine dominance and feminine submission, and describes it as a political campaign by the strong against the weak (males against females) that legitimizes, sexualizes and permits abuse against women.[54] Masculine dominance and feminine submission also exist in ‘soft-core’ pornography for example Vogue Magazine or Calvin Klein commercials where women are depicted as being desperate to be taken and used by men.[55] It is noteworthy that the dominant and submissive representation is not limited to only heterosexual pornography but also lesbian pornography. Arguably, some women prefer to play the submissive role, however, this is due to the mentality instilled by the sexist power structures that they are meant to enjoy these acts[56]. Deckha contends that females who claim to enjoy performing a submissive role do so because they have been brainwashed into believing that it is required of them to do so.[57] The argument as regards to lesbian pornography is that, even with the absence of men, this still represents the patriarchal power structure through the representation of the ‘butch’ lesbian controlling the ‘femme’ lesbian.[58] As explained earlier, there is a possibility that without the influence of the sexist power structure, these individuals might have different opinions as to what they actually prefer. Therefore, the constant repetition and reiteration of these constructed identities of masculine dominance and feminine submission tends to be classified as the ‘norm’ in the society.

According to Dworkin, not only does pornography cause violence against women, it is violence.[59] Violence towards women either in physical or psychological form tends to be the norm in modern society. Men believe that they can commit these acts, either as a means of enjoyment or an assertion of masculine dominance. Feminists believe that images of women being bound, tortured, raped, degraded or murdered for sexual stimulation and satisfaction creates a psychological link between sexuality and violence, and teaches men that women are ‘easy targets’, ‘masochistic’, ‘hypersexual’, and a sexual plaything, who derive pleasure from being pushed around, and that violence in itself is a sexual turn-on. Such portrayal teaches women to feel passive and helpless and to assent to victimization.[60] Reports from a research conducted in America on the commonness of verbal or physical aggression in pornographic contents show that of the 304 scenes studied, 88.2% included physical aggression and 48.7% of scenes contained verbal aggression with the perpetrators usually the male and the female being the victims.[61] Because of the way femininity is portrayed, people tend not to be interested in the fact that women are actually hurt even in violent pornography. Cole compares this by stating that “just as behind a facade of marital bliss there could be a battered wife, likewise, behind the appearance of consent and pleasure in pornography, there could be rape and violation.”[62]

Furthermore, numerous debates have emanated concerning if there is any correlation between pornography and sexual violence. In the case of Coutts[63], Jane Longhurst died during asphyxial sex with a man that had a tendency for extreme pornography involving rape, necrophilia and asphyxiation. After this incident, the CJIA 2008 was implemented to ban the possession of extreme pornographic materials.[64] From this, it can be perceived that this act was created because pornographic contents could influence people to commit sexual abuse. Barry emphasises that pornography can significantly influence human behaviour and numerous behavioural scientists support this position as witnessed in their dealing with sex offenders.[65] MacKinnon also opines by stating that the subscribers of violent pornography are also interested in practicing it.[66] Andrei Chikatilo, who was a Russian killer, responsible for the murder of over 53 women and children blamed pornography to be the cause of his suicidal behaviour[67]. The evidence above depicts that, there is a strong link between violence and men who watch pornography.

Fredrickson and Roberts define objectification as ”being treated as a body (or collection of body parts) valued predominantly for its use to (or consumption by) others.”[68] MacKinnon asserts that pornography tends to objectify women, exploit their sexuality for men’s pleasure, and portrays sex roles in which women are inferior, violated or subject to physical abuse.[69] Dworkin describes sexual objectification as occurring “when a human being, through social means, is made less than human, turned into a thing or commodity, bought and sold.”[70] Women tend to be inhumanely objectified and displayed as objects for the sexual satisfaction of men. For example, both men and women magazines are based around eroticised images of women viewing them as sexual objects basically used to satisfy or provoke the desires and attention of readers. The editor of a UK magazine Esquire stated in an article that women were objectified in various publications (both male and female) stating that “we provide pictures of girls in the same way we provide pictures of cool cars. It is ornamental.”[71] By using pictures of women primed for sexual pleasure amongst advertisement of fine cars and good scotch portrays women as commodities that can be easily bought. Arguably, a reason why people fail to link acts associated with pornography is because such acts are seen as ordinary in the society. Society tends to define the images portrayed by pornography as normal and ordinary, therefore, if pornography is seen as the ordinary, it cannot be harmful to women. In recent times, concerns have been raised about the objectification of women in society. Clare Short a former Labour M.P introduced a piece of draft legislation advocating for the ban of Page 3 of The Sun newspaper which Caroline Lucas had criticised “for normalising the notion that women’s primary function is to titillate men.”[72]Therefore, this raises awareness of the backward, damaging and hypocritical media treatment of female bodies and the society becoming more sympathetic of the plight of women’s objectification.[73]

Gender essentialism also exists in objectification. Collins believes that black femininity is differently represented from white femininity.[74] Black women are mostly presented to be “breeders, raped for pleasure and profit of their owners” in interracial pornography which is a recreation of the colonial slavery a period when black women were used as sex objects for the pleasure of white men.[75] This also reflects the hierarchical system of race as Walker states, “that where white women are depicted in pornography as objects, black women as depicted as animals.”[76] The portrayal of black women as animals reiterates their lesser status in the society. Therefore, whilst white women face gender objectification as gendered oppression, black women deal with both racial and gendered oppression. A critique against obscenity laws in the UK, is the inability to protect women from the violence and objectification which pornography portrays but rather focuses on what is regarded as “prurient interests.”[77] Conclusively, the way masculinity is portrayed in pornography influences male attitudes towards the treatment of women as the weaker gender. Jensen highlights that “the sexual violence and cruelty that characterizes much pornography, and to the evident pleasure that men take in viewing this material, evidence that there are serious problems with our understandings of what it is to ‘be a man’ today.”[78] Additionally, the similarity between the portrayal of masculinity in reality and in pornography is that to be classified as a real man, one is supposed to be aggressive, dominating and controlling. Green asserts that in gay pornography, where there is a female absence, there is a contention that one of the men performs the role which patriarchal sexuality assigns to women; ‘the role of receptivity’, ‘passivity’, ‘subordination’. This confirms that, we can have ‘women’ without having any females.[79]” The portrayal of masculinity in pornography has an influence on how men view women in society. Hence, it can be concluded that pornography certainly plays an important role in the construction of femininity as weak.

Popular Culture

James Rosenau defines media as “a label that is presently in vogue to account for peoples, activities, norms ideas, goods, services, and currencies that are decreasingly confined to a particular geographic space and its local and established practices.”[80] The mass media is one of the most universal and powerful vices influencing how men and women are viewed in the society. Intertwined through our everyday lives, the media integrates messages into human consciousness at every opportunity. Different forms of media convey images of the sexes, which disseminates biased, stereotypical, and limiting perceptions.[81] Hence, this essay argues that all forms of media sends negative subliminal and stereotypical messages about female gender roles in the society and the portrayal of an ‘ideal’ woman as shown in the media is harmful. In recent years, the representation of femininity in the media has constantly exploited women merely portraying them as trophies to be won or objects to be shown off. It has also established a standard of beauty that women are compared to either by men or by the women themselves. Swami asserts that “In patriarchal societies, the roles and privileges accorded to women are inferior to those assigned to men, and as such, sexism plays a central role in the continuing oppression of women.”[82] Reiterating the ‘beauty ideals are oppressive’ (BIO) hypothesis, the existent patriarchal structures and attitudes influences the relationship that exists between “sexist attitudes and the endorsement of beauty ideals and practices.”[83]

Craft asserts that physical features such as attractiveness and thinness are the requirements for women in news media rather than intellectual capabilities expected from their male counterparts. (Craft, 1988; Sanders & Rock, 1988).

The media creates an imagery of two that of women that exist namely the good women and the bad women. A good woman is supposed to be respectful and mainly focused on taking care of her home. Subordinate to the male gender, they are usually represented in films as victims, supportive wives and helpers. Though, women who defy the traditional roles are represented positively, this is done either by making their alienating career lives like Claire Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” whose career engagement in family matters was well portrayed while her career as an attorney was alienated. or feminizing careerwomen so as to align them with the traditional aspect of femininity. The producer of the show “Cagney and Lacey” Barney Rosenzweig complained, “These women aren’t soft enough. These women aren’t feminine enough” regarding the characters of the actresses thereby illustrating the media’s bias towards favouring traditional femininity. Faludi asserts that for female gender to be considered as successful, it is necessary to portray the traditional stereotypes of femininity and maintain an identity dependent on the male gender who

Introduction

Looking at migration through the lens of gender can show us how futile it is to try to divide up experiences of migration as either forced or voluntary, positive or negative, empowering or restrictive.

Gender is often mistakenly used to signify ‘women only’. The debate on the ‘women and gender’ question represents an attempt to introduce an analysis of how power relationships between men and women impact their lives. In the early feminist analyses, all gender references concerned women, men had no gender. Such analysis about the basis and the boundaries of the categories ‘woman’ and ‘man’ were problematised in post structuralist and post modernist frameworks of analysis. Gender, it is argued is not about women or men as separate and independent categories, but is a relational concept. It focuses on understanding how the terms of man-woman and masculine-feminine are mutually constituted and interdependent, that is, they presuppose each other’.

Migration is an enduring theme in human history and has its own pros and cons. In one-way migration and development are simultaneous procedures and is a part of every civilization. Migration/displacement has been occurring due to varied reasons, mainly political, social, religious, economic and environmental. In the earlier centuries migration was mainly driven by natural disaster, calamities and economic reasons. Industrialization and urbanization is another main cause of migration, which today is being further facilitated by globalization. Conflict, violence today seems to be never ending and so are its effects on human beings. However, till recently, conflict, war-torn victims and conflict induced displacement/migrant experiences were initially not been made a part of the accounts of war as they were seen to represent no real elements of valour. The need of the hour is to focus on the victims of conflict and make their experiences central to an understanding of the war story.

Migration/displacement is mainly perceived as being male movement with women either being left behind or following their men folks as dependents. However figures suggest that women have been displaced in almost the same as men. Despite the rising numbers of women, they are not given equal importance as compared to men since they are still not perceived as equal actors. A review of existing studies on displacement and rehabilitation reveals little information on the gender dimensions of the problem. Almost all analyses on displacement and policies on relocation assume the household or the family to be the smallest unit of convergent interests where all members share the benefits and burdens of policies. Yet there is evidence today that the burden of change is far greater for women and that they have even less access to the benefits of development than do men.

Migration however can generally be placed under two broad categories- Voluntary migration and Involuntary or forced migration.

Today when we talk of migration, forced migration seems to dominate the picture and hence is a major cause of concern.

In my paper my focus area would be gender and migration.

The term conflict is understood with broad framework that includes the entire spectrum of inter-state wars, internal conflicts, ethically driven insurgencies and secessionist movements. The main focus is on the consequences of these conflicts in terms of internally displacing people or rendering them as refugees, it is important to briefly address the changing character of warfare to understand its implications for causing forced migration.

There is a clear distinct shift in the emerging discourse on conflict analysis from traditional warfare military contests between nation-states to defend their territorial integrity and independence to the ‘new wars’ or intra state conflicts where the state is only one among many other players in a conflict that includes guerrilla groups, ethically mobilized armies and insurgencies.

‘Forced displacement is the clearest violation of human, economic, political and social rights and of the failure to comply with international humanitarian laws’. People have often been uprooted from their homelands due to political, religious, cultural and/or ethnic persecution during conflict. Displacement disproportionately disadvantages women, because it results in reduced access to resources to cope with household responsibility and increased physical and emotional violence.

International migration

In 2000 there were 175 million migrants in the world, meaning one out of every 35 persons in the world was an international migrant (including both refugees and international migrants).

Numbers of international migrants have more than doubled since 1960, and as a percentage of the world population have risen from 2.5 in 1960 to 2.9 per cent in 2000. A significant part of the increase was due to population movements following the disintegration of Czechoslovakia, USSR and Yugoslavia.

25 percent of all international migrants are in Asia, 23.3 percent in North America, 18.7 percent in Europe, 16.8 percent in USSR, 9.3 percent in Africa, 3.3 percent in Latin America and 3.4 in Oceania.

The Philippines is the largest exporter of migrant labor throughout the world, the majority of whom are women. Mexico is the second largest exporter. The majority is male who leave to work and earn living for their family.

In 2000 there were 17 million refugees in the world or 9.7 percent of all international migrants. While there are as many women as men in refugee camps, in several countries more men apply for asylum (UNRISD 2005).

Internal migration

Combined internal migration within China and India alone exceeds total international migration worldwide.

Internal migration in most commonly from rural to urban, from poorer to more prosperous rural areas is also significant and more common in some countries, for example India. Here where rural workers travel to more prosperous green revolution states, it accounts for roughly 62 percent of all movements in India 1999-2000.

In most in Latin America, women migrate internally in larger numbers than men.

Rural to urban internal migration in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) is still largely male-dominated, although women’s migration is on the increase, in part due to relocation of light industries such as textiles to areas where labor is cheap.

There are 25 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in more than fifty countries, half of these in Africa (UNHCR 2004)

GAPS & LIMITATIONS OF STATISTICS

Statistics on migration have their limitations. Irregular migration (that does not conform to legal requirements) is hard to document. The predominance of women migrating as “dependent spouses”, the invisibility of women’s labour (e.g. domestic labour), restrictions on their right to work and involvement in activities that are deemed to be criminal offences or against public order (e.g. sex work) mean that a higher proportion of women are statistically invisible and undocumented (UNRISD 2005). By far the most international migration takes place among countries in the southern hemisphere and goes largely unreported (GCIR 2005). In general, less information is available on internal than on international migration, and sex-disaggregated statistics on internal migration are particularly rare. Migration among African countries is possibly the least well-documented migration flow globally. More research and documentation has been done on gender and migration in Asia than in other regions.

Gendered movements: causes and impacts

Individuals may migrate out of desire for a better life, or to escape poverty, political persecution, or social or family pressures. There are often a combination of factors, which may play out differently for women and men. Gender roles, relations and inequalities affect who migrates and why, how the decision is made, the impacts on migrants themselves, on sending areas and on receiving areas. Experience shows that migration can provide new opportunities to improve women’s lives and change oppressive gender relations – even displacement as a result of conflict can lead to shifts in gendered roles and responsibilities to women’s benefit. However, migration can also entrench traditional roles and inequalities and expose women to new vulnerabilities as the result of precarious legal status, exclusion and isolation.

Migration can provide a vital source of income for migrant women and their families, and earn them greater autonomy, self-confidence and social status. At the same time, women migrants, especially if they are irregular migrants, can face stigma and discrimination at every stage of the migration cycle. Before departure, women can be faced with gender-biased procedures and corrupt agents. In fact, gender discrimination, poverty and violence, can provide the impetus for women to migrate or enable women to be trafficked in the first place. During transit and at their destination women can be faced with verbal, physical and sexual abuse, poor housing and encampments, sex-segregated labour markets, low wages, long working hours, insecure contracts and precarious legal status. And upon return to the source country they may be faced with broken families, illness and poverty.

EFFECTS OF MIGRATION

Migration, both international and internal, can bring gains and losses. Migration entails a complex, often contradictory class positioning, whereby a migrant might experience social upward mobility vis-a-vis the place of origin but social downward mobility vis-a-vis the host environment. If women are trailing spouses they may find it more difficult to establish a footing in the new community and maintain

their status within the family. Some women migrants experience downward social mobility by engaging in jobs that are beneath their educational qualifications – such as the numerous examples of domestic workers from the Philippines in Canada, Hong Kong, Europe and elsewhere.

NGO work on migration from mainstream and gender-focused NGOs has similarly been much stronger on migration in the context of conflict, including promoting and protecting the rights of women displaced by conflict. National-based organizations, including gender and women-focused organizations and migrants’ organizations, have focused on lobbying governments on emigration and immigration policies (including asylum) and working to secure and protect the rights of migrants including ensuring access to basic services and housing. Also, women’s organizations have placed a particular emphasis on preventing trafficking, especially trafficking for sexual exploitation, and on upholding the rights of those trafficked. Few organizations, including labor unions, are prioritizing work on trafficking for other types of labor exploitation, including those likely to involve men

METHODOLOGY

Closer interaction as research is considered to be an interactive process, a communal exercise where people, the subject of the research, are equally involved with the research process from the conception of research. The whole process, it is felt should eventually create a non-hierarchical base for intervention and sharing.

A variety of feminist research methods including ethnographic research, in depth interviews, dialogue, oral history, textual analyses, consciousness-raising techniques i.e., role-playing and establishment of networks and communication.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Are opportunities equal for both men and women in home country?

Do sex segregated labor markets mean only men can find jobs, or that job for women are restricted to less skilled and lower paid jobs?

What compels women to migrate? Is it poverty and seeking economic betterment or gender discrimination or violence?

Since displacement is a traumatic experience for everyone undergoing it, how does it affect women differently?

Are women migrants more vulnerable to exploitation and sexual violence?

What are the legal rights of the IDPs including men and women? And why they need protection for their rights?

What are the measures taken to help the dislocated migrants?

Do the IDPs get the guarantee of security anywhere they are?

Does migration change gender relations? And if so, in a positive or negative way?

HYPOTHESIS

Gender is an integral part of the migration process. The impacts of migration for women and men depend on many factors, all of which have gender implications. These include: the type of migration (temporary, permanent, irregular, regular, labour, natural disaster- or conflict-induced, independent or as dependent spouse); policies and attitudes of the sending and receiving countries; and gender relations within the household. Gender affects how migrants adapt to the new country, the extent of contact with the original country and the possibility of return and successful reintegration.

SIGNIFICANCE

Levels of development may lead to migration or encourage people to stay put. Migration has the potential to challenge and support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the same time. Yet migration does not feature prominently in development debates and the MDG framework. In fact it is only recently that the links between migration and development, and in turn the MDGs, have been recognized by both the migration and the development “communities”. Gender, in turn, influences how development and migration impact on each other. Gender dimensions of migration, it has been suggested, are important to the achievement of the whole range of MDGs and not just the gender equality Goal. Working for greater gender equality in migration not only benefits women migrants but also increases the development impact of migration, moving us closer to meeting the MDGs.

TIMEPLAN

I plan to submit my proposal by the end of December 2009. I will do literature review and analytical work on daily basis. Personal interviews with the IDPs will be conducted in November.

The ILO is the standard-setting agency of the UN working on migration (outside of conflict) and has two Conventions on Migrant Workers. While these conventions are not specifically gendered, ILO (along with United Nations Development Fund for Women [UNIFEM]) has a significant commitment to the rights of women migrant workers and has a strategy to mainstream gender in all ILO work. Their Gender Promotion Programme (GENPROM) has produced ‘An Information Guide – Preventing Discrimination, Exploitation and Abuse of Women Migrant Workers’ and 10 Reports on Women and Migration across 10 countries revealing that migrant women are not aware of their rights. The new ILO 2004 Action Plan on Migrant Workers includes specific coverage of women in domestic service and the informal economy who are most at risk of rights violations and falling outside of labour legislation.

Gender refers to a range of behavioural, physical and mental characteristics that people use to differentiate masculinity from femininity. The context of definition may take the concept as a synonym to sex, which means the state of being male or female. The term can be used to define social roles and gender identity among different individuals.

In the text, The Tale of Hong Kiltong, the story revolves around a man who raises beyond his birth circumstances to prove his masculinity among the people. Masculinity has a much far horizon that just being male or female, as the text reveals. The living circumstances of the young boy, Kiltong, who was not a very famous son, and his father wanted to kill him but when he realized that, he disappears to another land. His life story reveals another side of masculinity when he takes the role of fighting for the unfortunate. The concept of masculinity conveys the fact that ones behaviour is a reflection of whom they are. In the spirit of capitalism, Minister Hong wishes to eliminate his bastard son because he bore him with a maid-servant. This is the concept of masculinity in the society. The man has the power to have affairs with the maid servant without caring about the consequences. The presence of the other main wife does not bother, because women also understand their place as feminine, in the society.

The play, ‘love suicides’ also depicts aspects of feminism and masculinity regarding the lives of the two protagonists, Jihei and Koharu. By virtue of being a man, the society expects Jihei to be responsible enough to take care of the family, implying that masculinity regards to responsibility. The society also does not criticize Koharu for being a prostitute, but lays emphasis on the reckless life of Jihei who the playwright accuses of being as ‘worthless as a wastepaper…’ (Chikamatsu & Shively, 1991). The masculine aspect of being a man eludes Jihei. The reader also gets the feeling that femininity in the society is described as a pleasure provider since the society deems the lifestyle of Koharu as normal. To the society, prostitution is fine as long as it is a woman.

In understanding masculinity, there are three basic features that have been widely used, and they are evident in the text The Tale of Hong Kiltong, which Kiltong expresses, rather than by the virtue of just being a male. The first one is a definition feature, for instance, risk taking. Masculinity has been defined in the past and the present as characterized by risk taking. In the text, the aspect of risk taking is rampant, with Kiltong taking numerous risks by stealing from the rich to help the poor. Despite being wanted for the ‘atrocities’ he commits, risk taking produces him as a man. This implies that masculinity is not only being male, but also having such characters, meaning that there are females who as well manifest masculine characters since there can have been cases of risk-taking female. In the same respect, taking responsibility of situations as a feature can define masculinity. In this case, responsibility over other people was and still is the role of men in most contemporary societies, although in some societies, women have come up to challenge the believe; hence depicting their masculinity. The text, The Tale of Hong Kiltong opens by talking about the minister, who has responsibility over people, his wife, sons and maid servants. Responsibility is the defining feature of masculinity over femininity. Just like the minister, his son is also a vibrant young man whom despite being waned, takes charge of unfortunate people, and when he takes the government post, the people continue suffering; hence showing that he was directly responsible for the poor people. In the love suicide, Jihei does not fulfil his masculinity duties as a man, and lives recklessly ignoring his wife and children. On the other hand, his brother is responsible and runs around trying to prevent the death of his brother and Koharu. This is a depiction of masculinity. Jihei’s wife possesses what the society would refer to as femininity by being remorseful to the extent that she sacrifices her savings to save the life of Koharu. She is passionate and strong, portraying attributes of femininity and masculinity. Despite being a woman, she takes more responsibility of the family than her husband. This implies that the society had different views about responsibility as a factor of femininity and masculinity.

Normative standards of classifying feminists and masculine regards to using the characteristics of what men ought to do and what women ought to do in order to qualify to be in either group. Although this concept is widely accepted, it has a major loophole that masculinity can not be a one minute show. Going by this definition, an individual can depict characters of masculinity in a minute and resume the normal characters. This cannot define the individual as masculine. For instance, the Hong tradition expected the male to have several sexual partners, which led to the Minister having an affair with the maid-servant. This took place for only a day, which bore him a son. The one day affair may not be used to classify the minister as a masculine since he ended up declining the responsibility of taking care of the results of his one day masculinity show.

In love suicides, masculinity evades its normative standards if one is to analyse the life of Jihei. The only aspect of Jihei that classifies him under masculinity is the fact that he is the man of the home, but his actions in entirety, for instance, ignoring his family and his wife taking the responsibility, him being broke to the extent that he cannot redeem his lover and leaving it to his wife, among others, are the depictions that he has more of the feminine attributes that the masculine attributes.

The final landmark that defines masculinity as a distinct aspect is the semiotic approach, which depicts the symbolic differences between femininity and masculinity. In this case, masculinity is the opposite of femininity, meaning that being masculine is not being feminine. Symbolically, an example is that masculinity is marked by authority whereas femininity lacks the authority. In cultural analysis, this is the definition that was effective in stating the traditional gender roles of both sides. In the text, The Tale of Hong Kiltong, the minister is the symbol of authority and he has the power of command in the territory to the extent that he orders pursuit of his son. Masculinity under this aspect regards to the widely accepted relationships through which male and female accomplish their gendered lives. This implies that masculinity is a ‘place’ in the relationships and depends on the daily practices that fit them in their gendered lives and the consequences of the practices in terms of bodily experience, culture and personality.

The texts also reveal the fact that one can understand gender as a social practice that regards to the bodies and their social functions. This can be widely understood by the fact that the daily conduct is organized in relation to the reproduction sphere regarding to the structures of the body and the reproductive system. Despite this revelation, there is no relationship with the body biology because gender presents itself because of the lack of the link between sociology and biology. This aspect, gender relations, is the major aspect of the entire contemporary societies.

Femininity, in the society in ‘love suicides’, comes out as a sacrifice for the survival of men. For instance, Magoemon is ready to force a divorce between his brother and Osan in order to source funds to redeem Koharu and save his brother from suicide. Further, Osan is ready to sacrifice her savings to save the life of her husband and his lover.

Masculinity and femininity regards to the gender practice configurations, rather than being male or female. Understanding the role of male and female in the text, The Tale of Hong Kiltong, can help elucidate this aspect of gender. Understanding gender can take place through various aspects like understanding the course of individual life and their character, the ideology, discourse or culture, and the institutions in the society such as schools and work places. Therefore, the model of understanding gender can adapt power relations, production relations and cathexis, which regard to the characters surrounding sexual desires and the practices that define it, as the aspect of gender order.

The text reveals such aspects of gender through hegemony. The leadership of the Joseon dynasty seems to revolve around the Hong family and the male characters. Masculinity in this aspect is the gender practice configuration embodying an accepted answer to the problem of authenticity of the patriarchy guaranteeing the male dominance and their women subordinating them in their positions.

Subordination is also a feature of gender as there are gender relations that are specific in terms of dominance and subordination between groups. An example in the contemporary society is heterosexuality verses homosexuality.

Complicity is the complexity of the fact that despite there being few men supporting and maintaining the concept of hegemony, many are beneficiaries of the subordination by their women. This provision does not give men a chance for tensions or risks of being in the frontline to protect their positions.

Historically, masculinity and femininity as subsets of gender were distinct from each other by acts of violence and crisis. The structures tend to change with time in response to various factors including external pressures, and sometimes from internal pressures. The conflicts of interest between the two classes of gender have been streamlined by factions like women movements in the past. The socially defined unequal structures, which placed male and female in defensive and offensive positions respectively has met widespread resistance over time. Such battles may not lack violence; hence reducing the aspect of masculinity and femininity as a mere theoretical notion that can erode with changing times.

The system of dominance (in this case, male dominance) is characterised by violence and a measure of imperfection. The hierarchal system may not be legitimate, and the perpetrators employ violence in order to maintain the system. Extreme masculinity has proved fatal in the attempts to maintain dominance. There have been cases of sexual harassment, murder and domestic assault in homes and streets. This implies that in gender politics, violence is important in order for one to prove a point to the other group.

Femininity regards to the set of behaviours, attributes and roles associated with the female individuals in the society. The concept is a social construct, although it may include the aspect of biological functions. In behavioural traits, femininity included moral characters of empathy, sensitivity to other peoples’ problems and gentleness. The behavioural traits eliminate the aspect of biological disposition in defining femininity in the contemporary society because either gender has possessed the above character traits at one time or another in a social context. The original context of the definition of femininity encompassed emotional outlook of the female as a distinguishing factor from the male. The texts, love suicides and The Tale of Hong Kiltong present women as emotional characters who, by virtue of their gender roles do not have the audacity to reproach the male for their atrocities. Their emotional outbursts lead to some of them committing suicide for love in the ‘Love suicides’.

Conclusion

The texts provide numerous aspects of masculinity and femininity and depict both as important entities in the social settings of the texts. Femininity and masculinity were respected definitions of the roles of gender in the traditional society. Although the distinctive roles are waning, they remain important concepts in many fields in the contemporary society. Violence and crisis have been characteristics of the gender wars, with the male dominantly staying above the rest by use of violence to maintain their status quo. Feministic movements have arisen over time to challenge the demeaning roles of the gender classes, and through diplomacy, and most times violence, they have succeeded to some degree.

The representation of gender in the texts have been characterised by violence and emotional oppression in order to achieve the gender goals by the powerful masculine practices.

This section of the chapter discusses the overview of the study. It illustrates areas such as the background to the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, potential significance, limitations of the study, delimitations of the study, operational definition of key terms, and the organization of the study. It highlights how the research was organized and carried out to arrive at its final work.

1.1 Background of the Study

The issue of gender bias has become one of the most consistent violations of human rights, denying particularly women of their equality, dignity, security, self-worth, and has infringed their fundamental freedom. This endemic situation is prevalent in many developing countries of which Ghana is no exception. Mostly, the situation usually arises from considerable issues such as inequality in education, employment, and health outcomes. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there are a many discrepancies between sexes in education. Employment opportunities as well as wages and salaries tend differ greatly in developing countries (UNDP, 1995).

This situation tends to sideline women in many spheres of life. This is because they tend to be affected physically, mentally, psychologically and emotionally. Even though there have been interventions to ease the problem of gender inequalities in terms of education and employment, the encountering problems that tends to arise these days seems to be unaddressed. This is because; the limited number of female lecturers in tertiary institutions in the Ghana seems to be unchallenged. It is on the basis of this that, this present study seeks to examine the causal factors and effects of gender disparities in education and employment.

1.1 Problem Statement

The issue of gender with reference to education and employment in Ghana has resulted in limited human resource in terms of female lecturers in tertiary institutions. In Africa as a whole, women constitute 29% of Africa’s academic staff, compared to the global figure of 41%.In the University of Ghana for instance, 24% of females are hired as academic staff. This is not a fair representation compared to male counterparts in the university. (Mama, 2008). Rathgerber (2002) argues that African tertiary institutions were set up to meet the need of male students. This has resulted in few women making it into senior administrative or academic/managerial positions. There is a continual shortage of women in professional, administrative, and clerical jobs. Manuh (1984) argues that as a result of low education women in the formal sector usually receive lower salaries and have less opportunities of promotion than their male counterparts. Even though there are many implementation plans of addressing gender inequalities in terms of education and employment of staff, the problem still seems to be unaddressed. The question therefore is what measures are being taken in place to help solve the problem of gender inequalities in terms of education and employment especially with women who tend to be most affected. Upon this issue is the basis for the research questions.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are to the continuous impact of gender inequalities against women in Ghana

To examine the causal factors that account for the gender inequalities in university staff

To analyze the effects of gender inequalities against women in terms of education and employment

To make recommendations to help solve the problem

1.3 The Research Questions

The research will answer the following questions

What is Gender Equality?

What factors are still causing gender disparities in terms of education and employment in Ghana?

How has gender inequality affected women in term of education and employment in Ghana?

What are the governmental interventions towards gender equality in education and employment?

What are the people and community doing to minimize gender disparities in Ghana?

1.4 Potential Significance

This study will be very beneficial to the cause of women, organizations, societies and the country as a whole. Governmental agencies such as the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ghana National Labor Commission (GNLC) and even non-governmental organizations such as Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment (WISE), Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), etc in their field of work. Additionally, it will help policy makers to formuale policies that will reinforce gender equality in Ghana. It will also provide some supportive evidence for further research studies.

1.5 Limitations

The study will be limited because of the following

Time: This may poses difficulty in how accurate data will be collected and analyzed

Finances: Interviewing many people especially women and children will pose some difficulties.

Data Collection: Cooperation and commitment on the part of lecturers to grant interviews and answer questionnaires are likely to affect data collection owing to their busy schedules.

Distance and Location: Due to the distance and location between the universities some questionnaires are likely to be distributed while some would be interviewed and this could affect the validity of results.

1.6 Delimitation

About ten male and female lecturers will be interview. They will be in the range of the lecturers from different department of study within the university.

These participants will be selected through the snowball approach

There will be the use of constant comparison approach for the qualitative data analysis to analyze the data.

1.7 Operational definition of terms

Impact: Anything that affects individuals or a group positively or negatively.

Gender: A feature that differentiate between a male and a female

Equality: It is a way of treating a person fairly

Lecturers: People who are very high or occupy higher positions in an area of academics.

Tertiary: A high educational level

Institutions: A place where there are formal rules and mechanisms in achieving specific purposes.

1.8 Organization of Chapters

The study will be divided into five chapters.

Chapter 1 consists of the introduction, the problem statement, objective of study, potential significance, and limitations of the study and the organization of the chapters.

Chapter 2 reviews existing literature based gender issues in education and employment in the world and Ghana as a whole

Chapter 3 will cover the methodology

Chapter 4 consists of data presentation, analysis, and discussions of the main findings.

Chapter 5 concludes the research with summary, conclusion and recommendations and suggestions for further research.

Chapter 2
2.0 Introduction

This chapter reviews theories from other literatures in relation to the topic and outlines subheadings from secondary sources. The review of literature on this study is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the theoretical framework that informs the study. The second part deals with the empirical studies that are relate to the study. The chapter will help readers understand how gender issues have affected the society and the world at large. Issues discussed here also reveal the theories of other authors concerning the answering of the research questions about the topic. The literature on both divisions will be group under suitable headings.

2.1 Review of Literature
Theoretical Framework of the Study

Gender disparities tend to be very wide and high on the international policy agenda and the world at large. This situation has become an area of concern to many individuals, organizations and the society at large. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP, 2005) reports that there is a continual discrepancy in education and employment opportunities in terms of gender related issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gender disparities still persist in these economies which tend to affect their productivity and the economic growth of such countries. Ghana is not far from this example. This is because, in Ghana even though women make up 51% of the population, they only represent 39% of the economically active group that tends to show the conceptual biases and disparities with regard to the activities of women (Ghana Statistical Service, 1984). In all these circumstances, the women are those who tend to suffer greatly affected than their male counterparts.

Majority of women in Ghana continue to be disadvantaged in terms of education and employment opportunities. Several factors that cause this situation may include lack of education, and societal or cultural perception of women relative to their capabilities and needs.

On the issue of education research on gender studies proves that there is inequitable gender dynamics that reflects in students’ enrolment in most universities and colleges, opportunities, output, achievement and status (Mama, 2008). This assertion seems to be obvious because women constitute 25% of enrolled students while only 3% tend to assume professoriate level. (Ayayi et al, 1996). In recent studies women’s overall enrolments remain far below parity, about 30% of the total enrolment; specifically in Ghana constituting about 35% of enrolment (Ashewa, 2007). This makes education for females to lags behind that for males.

On the side of employment, gender disparities continue to exist in employment opportunities. Statistics on censuses and labor forces in terms of work have led to varying degrees of women being underestimated in labor force participation (Dixon-Mueller, 1985). In Ghana even though women make up 51% of the population, they only represent 39% of the economically active group that tends to show the conceptual biases and disparities with regard to the activities of women (Ghana Statistical Service, 1984). It is quite obvious to deduce that, this trend tends to affect productivity and economic growth of the country.

2.2 Empirical Basis of the Study

A close view of Ghana Christian University College shows that upon all the 34 lecturers in the institution, only two of them are females. (Nortety, 2010). This gender composition is extremely very low and do not show a trend in progress. In the University of Ghana for instance, the low numbers of faculty lecturers have improved slowly. Statistics shows that some department within the university still lack female lecturers especially Physics department, which were not employing females until 1990s. In both faculty and administrative staff, female senior lecturers have almost consistently been only 3.3% to 4.4% of the total staffing, while male lecturers constitute between 14% to 17% (Tsikata, 2007). Even in terms of lectureship rankings, women are disproportionately represented in the lower grade of lectureship. This is because while 79% of men are occupying higher lectureship positions, 20.3% of females are in lower lectureship positions (Tsikata, 2007) This situation has resulted from several factors but the consistent reasons are the fact that women seems to abandon their studies at the first degrees and the demands of their biological and social roles as wives and mothers. Fagerson and Jackson (2004) even confirm that women have been socialized to subordinate their careers in favor of their families. This situation does not seem to be different in most tertiary institutions. In other African countries, such as the Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda the available figures for the proportion of women employed as faculty members are as low as 12.4%, 17.6% and 19.7% respectively compared to their male counterparts. (Teferra and Altbach, 2003). This trend shows that only a limited number of females occupy senior administrative positions.

Defining Gender Equality

Even though, gender equality is broad issue on the international agenda there is no general accepted definition of the term. This is because it is broad concept that is best understood within the wider context of social exclusion that is the systematic discrimination of individuals based on characteristics such as sex, economic status, sex, race, ethnicity, language and even health status. The United Nations however defines gender “as social-cultural construct, and underscores the social relations between men and women, in which women are systematically subordinated” (UNESCO, 2002, p. 15). This definition points out that women are restricted and underprivileged in one way or the other. On the basis of this explanation, the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report on education in 2003 explains that gender equality therefore implies that male and females have equal opportunities to realize their full human rights and contribute to and benefit from economic, social, cultural and political development. (UNESCO, 2003). This therefore means that gender equality has wider circles of development to cover not only on education but also other aspect on development.

Key Terms in Gender Equality

According to the gender equality framework report by EQUATE (2007), three key terms of explaining gender equality were explored. They are parity, equity and equality. By parity, it meant that propositional representation of boys and girls in an education system relative to the population per age group. The UNESCO (2003) reports that parity can be attained when the same proportion of boys and girls have access to an education system, are able to achieve their educational goals and advance through different cycles. Subrahmanian (2005) said that achieving gender equality in education does not only means reaching parity in enrollments and increasing access to education but should be considered as a an outmost measure of progress.

By equity, the report explains that it is the process of being fair to male and females. In simple terms, equity does not mean treating all people the same because some people in one way or the other might be disadvantaged in achieving equitable outcomes in terms of learning. For example, people with disabilities are usually sidelined in many educational policies. On this basis the International Labour Organization (ILO, 2000) affirms that equal treatments should be not be different but there should be equal terms in rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities. The report stressed that parity and equity are therefore the measurable instruments in achieving gender equality in education. This is because; equity mechanisms such as scholarships have been used in achieving parity in educational enrollments rates.

By equality, the report explains that males and females have equal rights, freedoms, conditions, and opportunities for realizing their full potential in society. This simply means that women should have the same opportunities in life as men, including the ability to take part in the public sphere. The explanation however denotes a liberal feminist idea in the sense that preventing discrimination in terms of equal opportunities for women makes them to achieve equal status to their male counterparts. It is based on these differentiations and problems that the Beijing Conference in 1995 was held among national governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations and individuals to make and develop strategies on gender equitable and equality policies to narrow the gap between male and females and to give equal treatment and opportunities to women who tend to be sidelines in terms of development.

Causes of Gender Imbalance in Institutions

With many activisms, advocacies from individuals, businesses, governmental and non-governmental agencies, local and international bodies such as the United Nations Economical, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), International Labor Organization (ILO), and even world conferences including the Beijing Conference and the Millennium Development Goals which have sought to narrow the gap between men and women and to have equal opportunities, there are still causal factors that contribute to gender imbalances in many institutions in our societies and the world at large. The causal factors that contribute immensely to this gender imbalances include the following:

Absence of Gender Equity Policies in Institutions

One of the contributory factors to the cause of gender imbalances in higher institutions is the lack of gender equality and equity policies in most institutions in world at large. Bennett (2002) observed that in Africa, most of the tertiary institutions do not any forms of gender equity policies and even lack plans to increase female enrolments. He further stressed that even where interventions are being enforced, little attention has been received. Even though higher education institutions are obliged to respect and honor national, regional and international policy commitments to gender equality signed by their governments, these institutions by and large do not respond to these policies to achieve full intervention of gender equality policies. According to Bennett, 18 out of 24 gender units exist in most African university campuses undertaking research and activism functions. Such units are found in universities such as the University of Ghana, Ibadan University in Nigeria, University of Dar es Salaam, and University of Western Cape in South Africa in South Africa among others. In the University of Ghana for instance, these equity policies are old and have not generated much controversy (Ofosu, 2006). Ellison (2001) therefore stipulates that the establishment of structures such as labor markets, legislative policies, culture and politics are managed by men and they carry out these situations by employing men to come after them especially into positions of power. This therefore means that in terms of employment and education, men continue to dominate in such spheres. It is therefore obvious to assert that, the absence of these gender equity policies has resulted in limited female lectureships in many institutions.

Lower Admission and Female Enrolments in Institutions

It is easily seen in most African universities that female enrolments have been consistently low. In terms of admission, there has been low admission and enrolments because of inadequate and unqualified females to enter into tertiary institutions. With higher demand for education for both sexes, the preference for educating boys still keeps on going. Higher institutions for the girl-child education are however limited in countries. For instance, in Ghana there are more boarding secondary schools for males than females (Manuh, 1984). Manuh further provides that even in the mixed schools, there are more facilities in place for males than females. Although, there exits affirmative action in most tertiary universities to lower the cut off points for more females to be enrolled, the number is far below parity as to male students enrollments. With a lower cut off points for female students, Ayayi and other provides that there was an increase in enrollment from 21% to 27% in the Ghana between 1990 and 1999. Furthermore, “The net enrolment of children in primary school constitutes 68% in South Asia with 12% more than girls enrolled” (Bellamy, 1999 p. 55). A report from UNESCO (2002) also confirms that literacy rate for male and female adults were 92% and 80% respectively in East Asia, and this has reduced the gender gap. This means the low enrolments of females in education has become a global phenomenon. Considering African universities, in general women enrolment constituted 25% (Ajayi et al, 1996). This still explains that the number as compared to male students’ enrollment is far below parity. Contrary to this basis is the result of limited women in tertiary institutions.

Socio-Cultural Constraint on Women

Many socio cultural beliefs, values and practices have restricted many females from pursuing higher and advanced studies. The traditional factors arising and resulting into gender gap include less value of education for females, early marriages, and early value on motherhood, domestic labor among others. The problem can also be resulted from poverty, which is a major constraint on families finding it difficult to send their girl-child to school especially in the developing countries (UNESCO, 2002). In Ghana, the preference for educating both sexes tends to shift to males rather than females. This is because; certain roles such as childrearing, household chores especially washing and cooking of food, as well as work outside the home have been gendered. However, the prevailing factor affecting most on the gender gap in the traditional institution is as a result of marriage. Mostly the females are easily prone to early marriages with the view of giving birth early and maintain their family. However, these females who fall under the influence of early marriage find it difficult to maintain their homes. For instance, it is affirmed by Mehrotra and Jolly (1997) that women who are educated marry afterwards, have fewer children and even maintain themselves well and their children. They further argued that, such women also seek medical attention for children and themselves which will eventually lead to higher survival rate of both the women and the children. Many studies suggest that there are conjugal situations that are related to spouses in marriages, and over 90% of women tend to suffer abuses (Dobash and Dobash, 1979 and Schwartz, 1987). This specifically means that domestic violence against women usually happens within the context of societal framework where public, family and individual relations are based on male authority and power. Kabeer (1998) even states that the intrahousehold relations are indeed characterized by power. These and many others are contributory constraints and challenges that militate against education of females in our societies.

Insufficient Role Models

By and large all over the world, there are very less and few educated women occupying leadership positions and other professional careers to help encourage more females to enter into tertiary institutions and subsequently reach higher potentials in the educational ladder. It would have been a welcome development to have many women becoming writers, novelists, professors, lecturers but the trend of gender gap still remains the same. Presently, Ghana Christian University College can boost of only three female lecturers (Nortey, 2010). Nortey also confirms that only three females graduated in 2010 among eighteen students in the School of Community Development. In the School of Theology, there was no female representation. This gender disparity is most severe at higher positions and administrative levels in most universities around the globe. It is somehow clear that, the senior positions in tertiary institutions are mostly males. In the University of Zimbabwe, only a single woman is at the professor level (Ayayi et al, 1996). aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦

High Rates of Unemployment for Graduates

Unemployment rates of graduates in African countries are always in a recession. In many West African countries and Ghana in particular, owing to depressed economies coupled with academic programmes that are unrelated to the job market, unemployment rates for male and female graduates are usually high. This has contributed negatively to how most females do not make any attempts in getting into tertiary institutions. Even where there are employment opportunities, the opportunities for the males are usually higher than the females. In Ghana women accounts for 51% of the total population and 39% forms the economic active group. Women are generally given employment in lower levels economic activities such as trade, agriculture, small and medium scale manufacturing. There is therefore a deficit of women getting employment into formal sectors of the Ghanaian economy even after completing a degree. In 1984 with women constituting 51% of the populations only 9% of women were employed into managerial and administrative positions (Ghana Statistical Service, 1984). This shows a wide gap of gender disparity. In contrast, women who are even gainfully employed in the formal sector receive lower salaries and have less chances of promotion than their male counterparts as a result of lower levels of education (Manuh, 1984). Additionally, studies on gender discrimination indicate that female managers are more discriminated against male managers in promotional opportunities (Arnold and Shinew, 1988). In many institutions especially in tertiary academic institutions, there are virtually no strict mechanisms for dealing with occupational hazards such as sexual harassments. This makes most institutions to be women friendly and has contributed negatively to women moving into higher educational positions thereby leading into higher employment positions.

The table below shows the unemployment rates in terms of gender and age groups.

Age Group

Male

Females

15- 24

12.7%

18.7%

25- 44

7.3%

7.5%

45-64

4.8%

4.5%

Source: Ghana Statistical Service (Unemployment Rate 1984-2000)

This table therefore indicates that unemployment rates among females are high than males.

Effects of Gender Disparities in Education and Employment

Chapter 3
3.0 Methodology

This chapter will discuss the research design, the population and sample. It will also discuss the instruments to be used in the data collection, the procedure for data collection and the method for data analysis.

The research design

The research design for this research will be that of a survey. The survey method will involve data collection and analysis from key women personnel who holds executive positions in tertiary institutions. The data will be observed, classified and formulate hypothesis.

3.2 The Population

The target populations of this study are four tertiary institutions in Ghana such as the Ghana Christian University College, Valley View University, University of Ghana and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). This is because of there are limited number of women who are lecturers in these institutions

3.3 Sampling Procedure

In getting a fair response, the sampling procedure or technique will be to interview two women and male lecturers in to find out why there are few females in lectureship positions in the universities. The interview will be done with the help of recorder which will later be transcribed. Additionally, questionnaires will be prepared for those who are very busy and will be demanded from them when answered. Purposive sampling approach and the snowball approach will also be used since lecturers in one field of study will be able to direct you to a specific lecturer who lecturers in gender related subjects for the needed information for the study.

3.4 Research Instrument

The most effective instruments to be sued to collect the data are through questionnaires and the snowball approach. The questionnaires will be based on researcher’s objectives in an orderly manner in order to obtain a solution to the problem. In terms of the snowball approach, both the questions will be based on closed and opened questions. Recorder cassette is likely to be used for the interview. Observations will also be used by the researcher.

3.5 Data Collection Procedure

Ten questionnaires will be used for each respondent. The answers to these questionnaires will be solicited through one-on-one interview.

3.6 Data Analysis

For analysis, the outcome of the data collected will be analyzed, hypothesized and qualitatively interpreted.

Chapter 4
3.6 Data Analysis

For analysis, the outcome of the data collected will be analyzed, hypothesized and qualitatively interpreted.

3.7 Discussion of Findings

The findings of the data collected will be interpreted for easy understanding.

Chapter 5
4.0 Summary, Suggestions and recommendations

Based on the research findings, the findings will be summarized while appropriate measures will be suggested or recommended to eradicate or minimize the problem entirely.

4.1 Conclusion

It can be concluded that gender inequality is one of the violations of fundamental human rights. In spite of its numerous effects against women, laws are not effectively enforced to make the act work in practice.

The term gender is just a set of characters that tent to differentiate between female and male, especially in case of women and men. Depending on the context under discussion, the distinguishing characteristics differ from sex to social duties to gender identity as well. Some of the cultures have certain gendered-related social roles that ought to be considered distinct from ladies and gents. On the other hand, the social science at times look at gender as being a social construct and gender studies especially do, research in the natural science looks at whether biological differences in both females and males affect the human development.

The term organization has been defined as a container, an empirical object which has rigid boundary, and a set of structure with real levels as well as departments that are much static and different entity from the organization members. It has been just in the recent past, when scholars have added that, organizations are defined and constituted through members’ communication as a way of sense-making process. In one way, an organization need to be looked upon as a microcosm of the surrounding culture, and on the other hand, can be seen as an arbitrary point where various forces of culture transect (Mats & Yvonne 2009). It creation is through its naming, hence, an organization can be seen as a series of communication performances that is rooted and enacted in day-day discursive practices.

Important Issue Concerning Gender in Organizations

In general, why do women have lower wages, even when in the similar occupation as well as similar level, experience high rate of unemployment, taking many responsibilities in unpaid labor, strongly underrepresented in higher positions in an organization, and also lower expectations to promotions? It is true that, matters concerning gender need to be looked upon from a different point of vie. From the organizational perspective, there have been reasons that need to be considered about the effective use of human resources which originated from the current order of gender. As an effect, is there any reason for the management to consider gender when addressing the culture, practices and structures of the organization?

It has been shown that, more organizations are benefiting from women after knowing that, there position is actually low paid jobs, and the absence of ambitions which has been conventionally ascribed to women as well as their expectations in finding the fulfillment in the sphere of families, that has been facilitating the adaptations to several modestly skilled jobs that tent to be available in modern working life (Krone & Waldron, 1991). The presence of gender division in the workforce might be more advantageous for many organizations, as compared to taking equal chances seriously if the latter at least call s for major alterations.

On the other hand, it has been argued from the organizations point of departure that, the person’s sex has no importance as parse. Gender equality has never been in opposition to the culture of long workweek for the individuals who happen to be in higher positions or career tracks. This has been shown by current researches which are concluding that, females are giving more priority as compared to their spouses. Remaining in the majority of cases, organizations are drawing upon and reinforcing conventional gender patterns when providing encouragements and utilizing career-oriented individuals. However, the male breadwinner picture still supports strongly, the instrumental as well as career oriented gents working very hard for the organization (Asucraft & Memby, 2004). Such like complications need to be considered before making many assumptions that are interested in gender fairness in the organization. Even for the managerial positions, it might be much optimal for the organization if most ladies tent to be not committed strongly to promotions to top jobs.

Other than concentrating on rational arguments, like around objective interests and means to ends, it is much better to explore how individuals in organizations define the phenomena, as this means overstress broad patterns as well as the consistency whilst along with change. On the other hand, it is only gender discrimination and obstacles to the equal opportunity realization in work organizations that many have wished highlighted. However, it is only male dominance along with female victimization and lost opportunities that is to be concentrated on. An issue of interest is also the rich variation in the way in which organizations have been carrying out gender meanings, and how both female and male lives their organizational lives. It is not true that that work organizations are just representative of privileges accorded to men. However, it is true that, gents and ladies work companies can all bring about conformities, suffering as well as constraints (Kirby & Krone, 2002). All of them might experience joy and benefits conversely not only from wage labor but from day-day organizational life too. In other terms, the limitation on individuals in a certain organization, for instance, the pressure to give priority to work over their families, do not emanates from male dominations only, but also upon the working s of capitalism and the idea of organizations effectively along with competitive production of goods and services, making a high material living standards possible.

Exploring gender in organizations, the mapping of what is happening to both the gents and ladies at work place along with gendered organizations, looking at the company’s culture in terms of masculine as well as the feminine values, meanings and ideas, might lead to different stories being told. The perspective of gender in organizations perspective concentrates on gents and ladies as fairly robust categories and looks into the matter of how these issues are treated behave and or experience work along with life. The interests are normally din measurements and male and female group comparisons. According to Taylor, (1993) the idea of gender in organizations shows that, work place is even more than sites where the game of gender is played out. On the other hand, companies are looked upon as the inscribed by gendered meanings , structures and practices, which are characterized by the assumption along with values of either masculine or feminine nature actively ‘producing’ individuals in the organizations (Ganster & Thomas, 1995). Under this, more emphasize are on the construction processes, and how organizations like other social institutions are shaped artificially in some specific ways and in their turn contributes to the gents and ladies construction.

Most of the gender in organization stories, but somehow a few of these concentrating on gender in organizations, are explicitly and pro-women intentionally, that opposes domination of male, and aims at improving the women situations. Nevertheless, it is also believed that, it will be good if On top of this, address how ladies might act conservatively in connection to the quality ideals, perhaps against the interests they have and how the culture of an organization might impact most men in the negative way. To add on that, gender perspective in an organization might provide significant insights into how companies work, for instance, concerning the inter-alia, company strategy, leadership, organizational culture, ethic, groups, communication as well as corporate social responsibility (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978). This shows that, the approach goes beyond the questions that have been asked about the advantages and disadvantages of gender patterns for careers along with work conditions of both females and men.

Organization Theory and Gender

In real sense the field of organization theory covers a very large area and the field is still expanding. In the past, there has been an increase in the number of research having interest in gender and organizations to a level that, some have observed that the main stream of organizational is just male gendered, this in one way or the other has become something of truism. On the other hand, despite the fact that the recent recognition within the more critical strands, of the discipline, it will be good to emphasize that organization theory has from the past neglected issues addressing with gender (O’Donnell-Trujillo & Pacanowsky, 1983). Some of the workers who have been viewed either supportably gender neutral point of view, but in real sense, they are representing male point of view. This is based on the fact that, studies were carried out invariably on male employees by male researchers. In other words, from the perspective that considers only male and masculine concept of work and organization as very much interesting, though gender concepts have not been addressed ion other works.

In 1980s, the massive literature on organizational culture, were being driven by an interest in the meaning of life at the workplace, the issue of gender was hardly. Despite all these history, the importance of this field has in the recent past received much recognition. Currently, it is almost compulsory to include a section on gender in an ambitious overview of organizational behaviors. Despite all these, both gender in organizations as well as gendering of organizational along with the management theory of organizational analysis which has remained marginalized topics with mainstream organizational as well as the management theory that is still making assumption that both knowledge along with knowledge production are just trying to be gender neutral. The issue of gender for many seems to be a theme that has be included and ticked off, so that the expectations that ought to be addressed are made just in the name of avoiding critiques. Many have questioned the effect that might result due to the analysis as well as the interpretations made on the issue of gender in organizations. It is only few who have considered its effects on the knowledge developing process as well as the understanding of organizations of the issue that, it is only men have taken part in its production. The female sex of course in no way guarantees an interest when considering the issue of gender anymore than the male biological sex an interest in the topic.

The dominance in masculine in the academic life along with the organizations studied has had important effects on the forms of questions raised as well as the answers subsequently produced in the management and organization studies. Some subjects have not been considered in any way, they haven’t been considered from the gender perspective. In addition, there are these who are questioning if the assumption those organizations are neutral to gender, or the world its self is for men. Until recent, the case has been that, the manager is assumed to be ‘he’, though currently, it is perhaps only the senior executives that in most cases are assumed to being male (Kroman & Scott, 2005). As a result, it has been maintained that, it is the life of men and work of gents that has been considered as being the research standard, both within the human relationships school, strategic management research, cultural theory or any other school that individuals might think of, in the organizations theory. It is true that, this holds water in parts of science as well. Uncritically, research in most cases has been reflecting cultural believes. The North American traditional concept of leadership might be described as an imitation that is based on masculine ego-ideal, that glorifies the competitive, creative, combative, aggressive, controlling, as well as self reliant individuals. It has been argued that, the whole field of management has so far had a masculine bias; in addition, other researchers have added that, even more neutral theories like Maslow’s need hierarchy have similar biasness. Nevertheless, there have been some changes in the in the discourse on leadership and management, possibly including the issue of feminization, or in other words, at least de-masculinization, though some reality easily lag behind a changing world. There are those claims and results concerning gender studies that seem more important yesterday, than today or even in future.

It has been found that, gender perspective means the analysis of the significance, meaning and consequences of what culture defines as male as well as female ways of thinking, valuing, along with acting. It also means the analysis of the organizational practices that maintains the labor division between sexes. Vertical labor division depending on sex, can be connected to conceptions of masculine/feminine, that ascribes a gendered meaning to things that are contingent upon the cultural believes of what are the real orientations along with behaviors of both male and ladies

The usage of gender point of view on organizations would also result to a higher degree of sensitivity to contradictions plus ambiguities concerning social constructions and reconstructions of gender relationships and to what is considered as discrimination and equal opportunities at the work place level. It is much significant to stress that gender relationships are not structured statistically and defined and for all, however, are emergent and changeable. This has been used to account for overall societal degree and every day interactions in the workplace (Hess & Kramer, 2002). Despite the study of discriminating actions as well as gender bias in the organization, it is also much important to research on the elements of modern organization that has been producing tendencies towards equality between the sexes. This last concept has been neglected for long in gender studies. Though there are strong reasons for critical approach, but some current societies and several firms have social values along with rules that promotes the espoused interests and chances of ladies and do not only or majorly discriminate against them, even without the usage of special laws. Such social rules are of greater significance to middle class as compared to the working class ladies.

The current society praises itself for being meritocratic and most individuals in the west claim that, to be in favor of an ideology that provides unbiased chances to both sexes. However, the fact is that, this is sometimes restricted to lip service. The opportunities to choose the way of resisting norms as well as guidelines for acting and being in gender and avoid sex roles, gender norms are currently better as compared to in the past. The chances of organizations taking a progressive and rational role, needed not to be excluded as though it has some limits like, it might give ladies better employment options and promotions as compared to male, but does not in any way deal with wider issues like goals and values along with interests that the organization’s life is based on (Murphy, 2001).

Gender perspective will also mean dealing with ways in which both male and females are constructed as individuals, there formation plus reformation through social processes, their actions and life experience their support and discrimination. It will furthermore include broader views on organizations. Some of the ideals like profi8ts could be much related to masculine conceptions and gent rationality.

The limitations of interpretive powers of a gender point of view have been disputed by many, and as a result, it is not the best perspective for the study of all organizations and working life aspects. By being sensitive about the limitations of analytic and interpretive range of the perspective hardly mean that women need to adapt to their under-privileged in their working life, which previously had been influenced by very strong masculine dominance. A gender perspective din organizations also means the study of phenomena and concentrating on the basic questions that deals with rationality, like the aims and structures of the organization. The trick with this fact on the other hand is the interpretations of gendered meanings sensitively in non-obvious circumstances without generalizing organizational life through looking everything in terms of gender.

By considering the issue of gender out side organizations, it has been researched and the most argued facts are the typical and dominant trends and patterns that aim at a general image of gender in organizations, though diversity as well as multiplicity has received more attention in the recent past. However, diversity has been reduced to the consideration of gender, class plus ethnicity formula. In addition, it has been shown that, organizations differ much from historical and reproduced gender biases in social activities. It is just like how gendered meanings that have characterized different work fields, professions, functions and positions.

Many modern scholars have stopped looking at organizations and organizational theorization as being gender neutral, as an effect, they have abandoned any hypothesis suggesting that gender and organizational research are unconnected. Different authors as an effect have described the development of gendered organizations as an area of study, which needs to be taken as different from study from both organization researches along with gender studies. Fragmentation and distinction in these disciplines, composition and practices of gender, applied methods along with institutionalized academic professional practices on top of social networks, have encouraged divergence as compared to integration of organizational and gendered studies. Gendered organization field has included national, gender along with disciplinary inclusiveness, methodological and theoretical innovations.

Gender Studies

The issue of gender has been has been understood changed and developed differently in different cultural times and contexts. Gents, ladies and gendered practices have been dynamic since time immemorial. It is just in the modern world, that social science has been part of, and contributes towards, culture and thus impact on how gender understanding plus practices will be in the future times to come. On the other hand, Social science does not only deal with gender, but has been actively contributing to the construction of gender in organizations (Werhane, 1987). It has been argued that, it is cultural practices as well as social practices rather than genes accounts for the ratio of male to female or the reverse, in terms of full-time, part-time, wage labor, along with the unpaid homework, and in various occupations and hierarchical levels din different organizations. Social science on its part, fusses with cultural ideas to contribute to their developments.

It is true that all statements and reasoning concerning gender issues are informed by value judgments in organizations are never neutral politically. For instance, the study of gender is one of the political choices, as is of course none-choice. It has been found on the other hand that, refusing to divide up human beings into two sexes is much problematic. This is based on the fact that, by looking at the importance of the distinction as much troublesome in social science, this is because; it obscures the variations and misleadingly indicates that the male and female categories are homogeneous and universal.

It is one thing to assert that feminist organizations do not ride the coattails of larger critical ventures; as a result, it renders both independent of and integral to radical organization studies. The feminism organization scholarship has in a unique way contributed to individuals’ understanding of the relations amongst gender, power identity, discourse as well as organization in a company. According to different studies have shown that in an organization, discourse has been given at least four meanings, each having special attentions to micro and macro dimensions, namely; first, it means engrained habits of personal communication; secondly, it refers to the process of mundane interactions; thirdly, it also refers to the organizational form. Last but not least, discourse; means societal narratives. Scholars have come up with four ways of framing the relations among the discourse, gender as well as the organization. The first frame treats gender as a defining factor of human identity, and explains how it plays a role in [shaping interact ional tendencies. Frame two on its part, highlights the organization of gender identities around difference. The third frame pulls organizations out of the shadows explaining major pictures that frame 1 and 2 minimized, and at the end concentrates on individual entity. Last but not least, looks beyond actual locations of work and connected agencies, with the aim of paralleling discursive fields that interlace gender and labor. However, there have been little or no efforts that are underdeveloped within these frames, which can aid in unpacking the dielectric that exist between micro-and macro-level discursive processes.

It has been argued that, gender perspective assumes that, the domination of male or patriarchy in organizations is just a mechanism that forms the foundation of all sorts of miserable phenomena that legitimize in discriminatory critique. There are authors who have been criticized because of overstretching of gender perspective. Of course, it has been argued that, there is no single discrimination in human society is much more crucial as compared to male and female; hence, there is no area in an organization that is gender neutral. Due to this argument, everything bears reasonable gender meaning and reflects gender biasness, especially to the advantage of men (Stewart, 1981). Though this reasoning has been accepted, there are these who still insist on the problems with gender over-sensitivity in organizations (Ellis, Et al 1988). This is based on that fact that, everything can be perceived as having some gendered meanings or matters that are perfectly gender-balanced , or gender-neutral, does not mean in any way a gender aspect is worthy reiterating at all times. As a matter of fact, there are other aspects that might include some ‘grains’ of truth might be overstressed. Any perspective in an organization runs a risk of being used in one-eye fashion to, to reduce all phenomenon to issues of male and female.

There have been various reasons on the other hand that have stated the significance of paying much attention to gender over-sensitivity. It has been shown that, it is much important to become aware of the problems of overusing a certain perspective. The insensitivity to gender issues has been well documented and strongly reiterated by most literature dealing with gender. Gender over-sensitivity implies that, not to quickly disregard other concepts or possible interpretations. This means the, privileging gender over other factors in an organization, makes it the only decisive factor hence understanding gender becomes generalizing.

Minimization of Gender Over-Sensitivity

The different themes concerning gender over-sensitivity includes the connection of political function of gender studies, it might seem to be propaganda if political is stressed so much. The recognition and reiteration of equality tendency signs among women in an organization in an organization might end up weakening the case for female politicians, academics, along with risks of impoverishing the base for one’s career. Another aspect of gender over-sensitivity in an organization deals with seductive gender concepts and ideas. They might be used when accounting for or illuminating all types of phenomena. The ideas of about femininities along with masculinities might blinker the researcher, other than putting them under use for self-criticality and with open minded. This is based on the fact that, issues of gender involve much more of the researcher as an individual as compared to other subjects. There are also some terms which have much little to do with what is called true, or false, hence much impossible to ascertain the appropriate degree of gender sensitivity.

Even though there are differences between female and male, which are associated to things like sexuality, class among other factors, it will be good if research can add other forms of oppression. The meaning of gender needs not to focus mainly on gender issues and neglect issues and themes that are conceptualized din other forms. If individuals need to take the problem of over-sensitivity seriously, organizations need not to practice monologue, other than co-constructed dialogues. This is based on the fact that in many organizations, lack of communication has been linked to negativism among the coworkers, which might result to gender over-sensitivity. On the other hand, in dealing with organizational gender problems, organizations need to create a culture which in one way or the other assists its workers in managing emotions (Louis, 1980). This is based on the fact that, this needs to be a precondition of client employee relation, which enhances adequate service and product delivery. For instance, it needs to set proactive socialization culture, which leads to the uncertainty reduction for organizational learning.

Synthesis of the Readings

Organizations can be termed as containers, empirical objects, having rigid boundaries and actual levels and departments that are stationary and different from organizational members. Though, it has been criticized that little work has been done on impact of communication on benefit utilization, but the results can be reliable to in linking benefits accrued from it, provided that the right procedure and data collection procedure and practices were done accurately, because, if the research is reliable, then similar results will be reproduced in case of another study. In many organizations, lack of communication has been linked to negativism among the coworkers; this has been attributed to about the reasoning behind employee policies, and the programs that are entailed.

In most cases, organization performance is never monologue, other than co-constructed dialogues. Though co-constructed, political, relative and situational are all four traits in the firms performance, but they do not all influence emergent performance at the same time, why? It has been observed that, the possibilities of emergent quality performance are vested in the interplay between communicative resources, participant goals and personal competence. The issue of sense-making then is as a result of individual reflection degree on the elements interplay. The creation of supportive environment, it is climate for the implementation of policies, apart from putting it on paper. It is beneficial Communication has been seen as a very significant due to the fact that work-family benefits are being realized due to interactions.

On the other hand, in dealing with organizational problems, organizations need to create a culture which in one way or the other helps its workers in managing emotions. This is because this needs to be a precondition of client employee relation, which enhances adequate service and product delivery. For instance, it needs to set proactive socialization culture, which leads to the uncertainty reduction for organizational learning. However, the big question that mangers need to ask themselves is; what are the socialization processes that are facilitating emotion labor practices that are disturbing the turnover rates that often accompany working in human service occupations? In that connection, it is good for the company to lay down procedures under which new employees pass through during orientation.

Research has shown that that Gender and organizations are interdisciplinary studies that entail complicated arrays of theoretical and empirical projects. It has been observed feminist organizations renders independence of and integral to radical organization studies. Feminism organization studies have assisted in giving the relations among the following frames; identity, gender, power, disclosure and organization. It is true frames when combined normally elucidate environmental factors which are much helpful in shaping socialization, economic and institutional changes. On the other hand, there are no efforts within the discussed frames to reveal the dialectic between macro-and micro-degree discursive processes. Though the discussed frame fissures might be the key ones, but aren’t there any other fissures across the frames that can be identified that might be exclusive to gender.

There are many framing techniques that have been developed by researchers. Some of them like these basing on Giddens, have been developed by subjugated groups particularly. According to Clair, (2003) research has shown that women are unable to frame their experience just as simple misunderstanding, nor do they wholly embrace reification, the fact remains that researchers are just using subjugated group, hence the results cant be generalized on the whole group. In addition, it is good to identify, the research has identified the homorganic relations at the individual levels, but what are the relations at different levels of the society? Like interaction of women to co-workers.

Feminist argue that women are still facing great inequality gaps between males today around the world in the workplace. Women were not treated like a person with dignity that deserved respect from laws and institutions. People viewed and treated women as mere instruments, producers, caregivers, sexual outlets or agents of a family’s general prosperity (Nussbaum, 2000). Women in today’s society have achieved a lot since the 1950’s, where now women have been accepted into society. Since the early dates of civilisation, women have played a second class role in which they were and still are viewed as less than a man. The 1960’s and 1970’s were the essential decades for women in western society as it had led to the positive outcomes of women’s quality of life. For generations women in society have been repressed by the men in society, however over the past few decades women have been starting to create great social and economic changes and as well as at home. Creating changes in the social and economic sector created job opportunities and a better life. Women’s right activist (Roosevelt, 1913) had declared that the law had the ability to put women at equal foots to men, giving them the right to vote, work and hold property.

Though are many more women that now have access to their desired career paths; that had been previously denied in the past they are still being deprived of job opportunities. Males have started to take a turn on household duties in the past few years with some men becoming ‘house husbands’, yet majority of the household chores such as cooking and cleaning are presently still being done by the female in the household as it is still generalised as the woman’s responsibility. This leaves women with less time to focus on their work and advance to a higher position. In the case of a being a mother they have less opportunities of advancing in their workplace because managers or bosses are familiar that women will need more time off work and maternity leave to take care of their child, in some occupations giving maternity leave to women requires the employer to hire a replacement for the woman on leave, making the company spend more money. As a consequence of this; employers tend to hire more males over females.

On June 24 2010 marked a historical event for Australia because it marked the day that a Julia Gillard had become the first female prime minister of Australia. The gender gap is much wider than it was believed to be, because of the lack of educational opportunities in countries such as Canada contain 35% of Canadian women have not completed high school and 72% of the women had a median after tax income under $13 786 and earned 29% less than men, despite years of trying to close the gap between men and female, females are still deprived of equal employment opportunities (Hadley, 2001). Women in certain parts of the world lack fundamental support from their loved ones. They lack technical education, as they enter the workforce they face greater difficulties from their families. Females are prone to sexual harassment and or abuse in the workplace, and in many nations women are still not equal under the laws eyes (Nussbaum, 2000).

Females are still being undervalued in the workplace despite many years of struggle by advocates for gender equality both within the workplace and beyond it. In Australia and New Zealand 2011, the gender wage gap difference between men’s and women’s earnings for full-time hours sat at 18 and 15%. Federal industrial relations jurisdictions have raised hopes that there might be progress in attempts to remedy one aspect of pay inequality. (Cooper, Parker, 2012) Nussbaum’s capabilities approach suggests that in order to be a just society everyone is entitled to the fundamental requirements of life with dignity, as she specified in her ten central human capabilities. Nussbaum (frontiers of justice, 2006) suggests that “a society that does not guarantee these to all citizens, at some appropriate threshold level, falls short of being a fully just society”. This is seen when females have less opportunities than men to live free. With full responsibility for housework and child care, females lack opportunities for the cultivation of their imaginative and cognitive faculties. These factors take their toll on emotional well-being. Unequal social and political circumstances give women unequal human rights (Nussbaum, 2000)

Cooper (2013) argues that senior leadership positions are far from being feminised due to men dominating majority of the higher positions in the workplace. By utilising Rawls theory of justice as fairness into act it could create equal opportunities. The term “human rights” Rawls uses it that of internationally enforceable basic human rights, understood as important rights that all individual persons may validly claim, which he calls ‘the law of the people’. Rawls takes initial course towards deciding where a just system of international law would set the limits of states’ rights of self-determination and non-intervention creating a socially just society. Women in Australian society can benefit from Rawls’ distribution of primary goods as females will be able to gain the freedom and support that that deserve.

The struggle for pay equity is first and foremost a struggle to have the value of women’s waged labour formally recognised. Rosewarne (2010) redresses the disadvantage of women in labour markets is but one element in the larger process of challenging the institutionalisation of discrimination and of its effects in terms of economic, cultural and political disadvantage. Rawls argues that by implementing the principles of creating an internationally enforceable law which all decent societies can endorse as constituting the moral basis of international law and as applying to international relations among all societies can bring towards the idea of fair social cooperation amongst individuals, and citizens of equal political status.

CONCLUSION

Nussbaum (2000) categorises gender inequality to be strongly correlated with poverty. When poverty combines with gender inequality, the result is acute failure of central human capabilities for both men and women in society. Nussbaum’s capabilities approach lacks and needs a better developed account of a certain proper set of human rights, those that are internationally enforceable. The issue of inequality in the workplace can be approached by utilising Rawls theory of ‘Justice as fairness’ because it distributes the goods and services to not only the people who earned it but to the people who need it, it is a distribution of fairness. Rawls theory could be able to close the distance between men and women, by mutual cooperation’s and accepting the basic structure of society as it institutionalises equality in value. Closing the gap of inequality between women and men will not happen overnight, it will still take a few years’ maybe even decades to formally close the gap. It will not be easy, but women have been fighting for decades for equal rights and will not stop until there is not more inequality.