The problem of gender inequality in africa
Gender inequality is not new in traditional African society. This is in fact, not very much than it is now asserted in different countries. At present, in Africa mostly violated and then comes the rest of the world where gender inequality is perceived to bloom. Injustice given to the women seems to be increasing. In Africa, the most commonly occurring of rape in each three to six seconds. Considering the U.S., women are physically abused every 9 second, whereas in India, five thousand women are murdered approximately each year through the ceremony of dowry murder. In any case, this tragic event is the top of iceberg. However, Customs such as female genital mutilation continues as to be devastating many communities of practice; the British medical authorities and doctors warned that the first few weeks, in a recent immigrant to look at it.
Gender Roles
The activities of gender responsibilities, roles, and rights in a society of normal men and women appropriately follow. In Africa there is no single model of gender roles. Different cultures on the African continent, the role of men and women, many different ideas, although in general women are subordinate in public life and family life of the man. Such as gender roles, sexual behavior and sexual attitudes of different standards of conduct extensive in Africa. For generations, however, regardless of gender roles in Africa and sexual attitudes have changed, especially in the cities and in the West’s influence have been the strongest region.
African traditional culture has been clear that men and women have different roles in society. Girls and boys grow up; they know what kind of society they are growing in. Because of their livestock to boys, girls will be responsible for the firewood and water, while children hunting, girls will improve the strength in mainly the cooking. Then coming towards the marriage, the young men finds himself into a husband’s placed one of the leader of the community. Same goes to the women. Therefore, their life will want to live in this old model is more based on social norms and less based on personal desire.
Women’s and children’s vulnerability To HIV/AIDS
Worldwide, HIV / AIDS are the reason of death for many. The proportion of HIV and AIDS, led to women’s reproductive age. This caused by the change between the various regions of the world significantly. Women account for a lower proportion of people living with HIV. However, Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa are the main regions, where this ratio is quite high.
Sub-Saharan Africa
1985 led the sub-Saharan Africa with most of the HIV-infected people, because of their female. However, infection rates increased over the years and HIV and AIDS has surpassed the number of women and infection is still more than men. In 2009, some 12 million in the sub-Saharan, most of the women infected with HIV and AIDS patients compare to about 8.2 million citizens. UNAIDS estimates, about three women of all the contaminated with HIV lives in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the world where the majority of heterosexual HIV spread occurs during sexual contact areas. Since women are double, they are more likely to obtain than from a man of unprotected heterosexual intercourse in HIV-infected partner, women disproportionately infected in the region.
Women and children
Mother to child transmission (MTCT) is a problem, directly affecting women. Women when documents in pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding the baby of the virus. UNAIDS said that in the last of 2009, an estimation of two and a half million children (15 years old) infected with HIV, most of them will be infected if not treated their mothers. They could live up to maximum 27 years of age; the high numbers of children would possibly not live to their adult life.
Drugs can minimize a gain of about 40% of the HIV virus from mother to child less than 2% chance; they cannot be used in different areas of the world. In the ongoing years, pharmaceutical companies have been substantially lowered, such as AZT and nevirapine drug, which in developing countries to prevent mother to child spread of HIV to help prices. However, due to limited human resources and poor infrastructure, many women still do not get these drugs.
Women who are victims of sexual violence were at higher risk of HIV infection, and lack of condom use rape and forced nature means that more women vulnerable to HIV infection immediately. A South African study concluded that their partners who are beaten or dominated by women more vulnerable to HIV infection, a woman who was not. Another couples in India found that the spread of HIV, not only in a very abusive relationships largely occurs, but abusive husband. HIV infection is more likely than non-abusive husbands.
Social difference in Africa
Social and economic policies favored by the colonial state men generally. Since independence, the role differences in men and women, and even the laws as a result of greater. Thus, women lag behind others in education, literacy, and in getting good jobs.
In the current world women, the third world especially, has given an unfair treatment. No wonder the major international issue has been the gender inequality. In Africa, the gender inequality is worse than the previous few decades ago. Obviously, the West may bring a lot of benefits, but gender equality is not one of them.
Economists have generally focused on the per capita income as the main indicator. In mainstream economic theory, education is often represents a key aspect of human capital, with a positive factor into the production function. Men and women with lower education, lower level of human capital transformation. Therefore, in theory, have a direct impact on women’s education from the income (or growth). There are also some strong arguments to support economic growth beyond the direct impact of female education more positive impact. These measures include the mother’s health, children’s health and education, and fertility effects. In general, support the existence of such indirect effects, higher female education to make women more informed mothers, thus helping to reduce child mortality and malnutrition. Increasing the proportion of educated women may also help to reduce fertility. In general, female education is negatively related to low fertility and low birth rate is related to dependency ratio. Conversely, low dependency ratio is associated with higher income.
Power relations between men and women in Africa
In many of the African countries, men have been given the part to be the political and business leaders, community development and women at the forefront of the leadership of the family. Women’s groups, thousands of people scattered all over. These people have proven time to time, that unity is real power. Always being the sources of economic power, which in turn makes them much-needed self-esteem. In China, many people were unable to provide the leadership was mainly due to the requirements of professional and downright laziness and apathy. This has left de facto decision-makers in the home of the woman. However, women’s economic barriers greatly limit the decision to leave the economic power of the people as decision makers. Those who are decision-makers do not have time or inclination to make informed decisions.
Today, it is not uncommon for teenage girls to be married, widow inheritance by force and with other ‘property ‘ along. Wife-beating is a very part of our modern life too. The impact of this violence seems unstoppable. However, this is just despicable violence against women, many of the unjust. The United Nations estimates, in each of Africa’s farm sixty-six Eighty percent is borne by women. Many girls in these areas had to drop out of school, because priority is given to boys. Reason for its existence is that the meager resources should take care of children, because they are the ones who will always be with their parents.
Gender role effecting African women
Learn how the people of different gender are expected to act as a growth in any important part of society. In Africa as elsewhere, men and women have traditionally been in the family and the community and the work they do different roles.
Africa’s first economies were based on hunting and gathering wild food. Some societies, such as in the Kalahari Desert! Sai Kung and in the Congo (DRC) of tropical rain Linmubati, survived to modern times is almost entirely unchanged. Through them, scientists have been able to study the ancient hunting and gathering way of life. On the biological and the theory of the early development of human society and hunting meat emphasized the importance of the role of men. Today, however, researchers know that women in many of the early social major economic producers. Between 60 and 80 percent of the outcomes of the existing hunting and gathering societies, calories consumed by people, roots, grains, nuts, honey and other food collected by women.
This pattern did not change after caught agriculture, much of Africa. Today’s women about 60 to 80 percent contribute in agricultural labor. In most rural areas throughout Africa, the role of agriculture in different men, one is by a specific gender-related tools and methods that the truth. Ax is considered a tool for men, because men clear and ready to land. They also plow the fields. Hoe is reserved for women, who grow, harvest, processing and storage of crops. Women also used for the production of the family, including access to water and firewood, food is often involved in the most remote tasks, responsibilities.
Shift in the colonial period generally cash-based economy to benefit more men than women in Africa. In most cases, the colonial officials have acknowledged the authority of men, not women, they were men of business. Women are still an important producer, but often they are produced by her father, husband, brother or sale. The men enjoy women’s work from the belief that income has not completely disappeared in modern Africa.
As colonialism continues to consolidate its land in Africa, women’s contribution to family farming that is less important, because the importance of their role in food production is more lucrative cash crops controlled by men, cast a shadow. Second, by introducing the negative effects of colonialism, women’s labor wages directly affect women, because they must be legal in certain circumstances, for the European plantation economy of wage labor. While forced labor, physical and sexual abuse is often committed by African women for their crimes. Therefore, further damage to plantation work and the ability of the well-being of women, for productivity, because they previously had in the past.
It is clear that colonialism has led to women’s economic independence and their social and political decline in a certain social status. Colonialism in Africa, despite the successful pre-colonial men taught the centuries, this feeling is generally unfounded sense of superiority in non-Islamized women of African countries do not have a strange sense of superiority. Obviously, even today, in modern Africa, women still want to continue with the life of slavery and abuse, because they are women. However, I with great pleasure, once again, we have witnessed a rise in female consciousness and self-confidence for women to say no to social contempt and disrespect. Today’s women, as they have refused to accept the colonial era prison, regardless of their racial injustice.
Conclusion
As Africans strive to restore respect and dignity of African women’s position, even more than she enjoyed in the past, depending only when a country allows respecting the dignity of women and treated fairly. The real development, may occur when we consider women as mothers and primary caregivers in the human front. Therefore, they are nurturing and building, we are building throughout the country and continent.
There is a gap between men and women to fully appreciate the far-reaching; we must acknowledge this basic fact. Gender inequality is not a pain, but many women and men have different life on the range of the girls and boys. It also needs to revisit and closely scrutinize some of our lessons from past experience tend to work. There is no good reason to give up understanding that women’s empowerment to improve the impact of the voice and influence of women does help to reduce gender inequalities in many different types, can also reduce women to conquer men suffered from indirect punishment. However, the growing inequality in the birth rate, basically to ask questions, much more complex. When women in some areas like the boys and girls have their own strength, the resulting inequality on the correct call for the broader needs of the birth rate of women’s organizations comes it would be the addition to at least consider other possible effects.
Somehow in dealing with some of the new – “high tech” – face of gender difference, in the form of inequality, there is a need to go beyond just the agency of women, but to look also for more critical assessment of received values. When anti-female bias in action (such as sex-specific abortion) reflects the hold of traditional masculinity values from which mothers themselves may not be immune, what is needed is not just freedom of action but also freedom of thought – in women’s ability and willingness to question received values. Informed and critical agency is important in combating inequality of every kind. Gender inequality, including its many faces, is no exception.
