North America
In her TED talk, Cecile Richards presents the progress that has already been made. However, she also brings to attention that “we have come a long way, but not long enough”(Richards). Richards suggests the divide between men and women is still quite wide and while it is important to celebrate what has already been accomplished, it is no time to be satisfied. Richards presents a slew of startling statistics. The United States leads the world in maternal mortality races, and women make 80 cents as compared to the dollar that a man makes. Even in high-paying fields like medicine, female physicians with the same qualifications earned 24.7% less than their male counterparts, while the national average is 19% less.
Similarly, Roxane Gay in her book “Bad Feminist” highlights a similar problem. Male power is ingrained in our pop culture as well. Gay shows that “in his single ‘Blurred Lines,' Robin Thicke sings soulfully about giving a good girl what she really wants--buck-wild sex-- even if she can't come out and admit it”(Gay, 187). A song that was adored on the radio, a song to which elementary to college students spent summers whistling to, maybe even humming on the way to religious service, is probably classified as rape. However the song made it to number one on the Top Billboard Chart, unscathed. This is just another example to how accustomed we have become to cultural gender injustices. |
Asia
India could be described as two-faced. It may have the fastest growing economy in the world, but it presents immense wealth along with the stark reality of extreme poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor is ever-widening; therefore, there exists two distinct lifestyles. Those that can afford to leave the country, which generally represent the wealthier elite, are also the ones that inhabit towns like WWP. Nonetheless, the “gender conditioning presents itself at a young age. Kyle D’ Souza, a nine year old boy from Mumbai, India says that the 'best thing about being a boy is being sporty'”(National Geographic). Young D’Souza has already recognized that boys are the sportier of the two sexes. The idea that men are more athletic is the not the fault of some boy but an idea that has a part of Indian culture.
Old Indian texts such as the the Vedas and the Upanishads designate classes for men in society. More specifically the warrior class is known as the Kshatriya, which does not allow for women to be warriors. Women are allowed to learn the tactics and weapons of warfare but not allowed to practice it. Therefore, can a nine year old be blamed for thinking boys are “sportier”? The hypocrisies are numerous. In her Washington Post piece on “Why India’s Modern Women Say It’s a ‘Burden’ to Be Female”, Vidhi Doshi dissects the role that the modern Indian woman plays in the home. These women are often women that later emigrate to the United States. One of her interviews was with a woman who recalled her ironic experience - “her mother’s anger on learning she was a lesbian, despite being a gender training expert”(Doshi 3). By coming out as a lesbian, the woman in question no longer fit the ideal standards of an Indian housewife. When Doshi proceeded to interview various men throughout India she received a similar answer. Women were considered “shock-absorbers”, an image that reminds you more of a pillow than a person. A young woman specifically described that women of the house are “absorbing all the tension and keeping the peace”, ultimately displaying the expectations that exist for women, but not for men (Doshi 3) |
Africa
erhaps due to its sheer size or various parts of immense infrastructure and development but also parts with the opposite, Africa presents with similar parallels to India. Regions where cities have been established showed different results than local villages. A South African woman that currently resides in West Windsor Plainsboro describes her experience as that following:
"I have been surprised (and not pleasantly so) at the deep structural and embedded misogyny I experience in the USA. There appears to be a desperate clinging on to some 1950s ideal that terrifies me in a country supposedly leading the 'free' world: from its election of Donald Trump (who is deeply misogynistic himself) over the far more capable female candidate, to the way the US taxes reward traditional family units, to the always news reporting happens on females, and to the subtle assumptions about female and male roles I encounter in social experiences. In South Africa, I never felt a glass ceiling, never felt like there was an issue if a female partner brought home more income than her man, and if you are considered capable, there was no reason you couldn't achieve something (obviously this attitude varies across cultural lines but for the most part, the Constitution is 'lived'). I've never felt like I needed to be a feminist in SA. Here in the USA, you can welcome me to the Keep RBG alive forever brigade. Sad, and hope it changes." As described, there seems to be a worsening of gender roles in the United States versus South Africa. This is contrary to the popular belief that nations that are not as developed do not have a sufficient establishment of values to support a lifestyle of equality between men and women. In contrast, in a National Geographic interview, Lepeyok Kagote from Kapitir, Kenya said that "the good thing about being a boy is having a penis"(National Geographic). Perhaps the most surprising part of it all is that Kagote is a 9 year old boy. He is seated in front of a small village hut wearing a simple cotton robe. At such a young age he is capable of understanding the power of being a man. When the existence of the patriarchy is ingrained at such a young age, it suggests that they have become a part of society; these beliefs are a norm. Therefore when immigrants enter the United States, such value blend, bringing witness to the society that we have created today. |
Europe
Europe’s inequality originates as early as the Greek and Roman periods. Both societies were patrifocal; although Roman women were held to some standards, the ideal womanhood was motherhood. The Medieval period began with some surprising liberalities - monastic life not only sheltered women from sexist perceptions but also gave them an education that set them on the same pedestal as monks. However, eventually, nuns were restricted in their movement and education, eventually culminating in the belief that women were unholy and possibly even witches. (Shaw 24).
The 1700’s gave rise to Mary Wollstonecraft, commonly known as the “grandmother of modern feminism”; she argued for education and exposed the encouragement of physical beauty for the sole point of pleasing men. (Shaw 45). It was not until the mid-19th century that expectations of women began to change. It took until 1906 for the first European country, Finland, to give women the right to vote. This leads us to today, in which women are advocating not only for gender equality but also for sexual violence and reproductive rights. |