HURDLES IN ACHIEVING A GENDER EQUAL WORLD...

 

Welcome my readers! Hope you all are doing well in this madness. So, whenever we talk about an issue, we start by introducing it, talking about its various forms and then we come to the reasons and causes behind the issue. Likewise, in today’s blog, I am going to talk about the hurdles in achieving a gender-equal world.

Education is something that, according to me, has the power to change the status quo and quiver up those sitting at pedestals. Such a powerful tool of change is seldom accessible to women. Many girls do not get to complete their schools, they are married off at an early age or just asked to do household chores. When girls start menstruating especially in villages in India, their education opportunities are cut down and they are mostly confined to their homes. Lack of access to education to women as equal to men is one of the greatest hurdles towards attaining a gender-equal world.

When we talk about education, it's essential to talk about the job opportunities too. There is grim job segregation worldwide, wherein, women and men are expected to do certain kind of jobs, inherently different from each other, and even for the same job and equal amount of work, females are paid less as compared to their male counterparts.

Also, lack of representation of women in politics makes it difficult to frame laws that will benefit women and take women’s issues like paid period leaves, maternity leaves, gender equality laws, laws regarding protection from gender-based violence to the parliament. Women continue to be underrepresented in government and political parties and this lacuna creates inequality among different genders.

In one of my first blogs, I had discussed the strict laws that are there but the dreadful implementation of the same results in women being unsafe and increased inaccessibility to justice. Lastly, I feel that in any society it’s the social conditioning that we all have been going through for ages, which is the main cause of gender inequality. It’s the society’s mindset that women are somehow subservient to men and they must not, at all cost, rise above men. But we, the proponents of feminism, do not want women to rise above men, but to come to equal standing to men in all sectors and walks of life.

I really enjoyed writing this blog particularly as it gave me time to introspect our environment and reflect on the inequities present in the system. Would really love it if you all think about what all could be the reasons for gender inequality and how can we create safe and equal spaces for women. Signing off for now.

With love,

Pragya Nolakha