Main causes of gender inequality
What are the causes of gender inequality in our society? Rather often in African countries, one can observe discrimination of rights and freedoms of women, one of the main reasons why this still happens is gender inequality.
Source: Getty Images
How often do you hear the phrase “gender inequality”? What does it mean? Furthermore, how can this phenomenon ruin lives of people? In this article, you will find out the definition of gender inequality and its primary causes!
Gender inequality in our society
Nowadays, you can still observe the old traditions following step-by-step the development of modern society. In the past, the primary role of a woman was defined as being a wife, and a mother, who kept the fireplace and ran the house.
Moreover, you can still observe the employers who give their preference to male employees rather than to female workers. Why does it happen so? Let’s find out! But first, we have to understand the meaning of a notion “gender inequality”.
What is gender inequality?
Source: Getty Images
Definitions.net states that this term denotes the unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender. The term acknowledges that men and women are not equal due to cultural, biological, and psychological norms. They are treated disadvantageously under the same circumstances.
Top 8 gender inequality causes
There are factors, which directly influence the opportunities of women and men in society: the right for well-paid work, proper medical care, education, and creating a family at the right age.
Source: Getty Images
Here are 8 primary causes of gender discrimination:
- Religious matters (preference for boys).
- Bad mentality. Most people still think that women are too weak to perform serious work and obtain top positions.
- Rigid culture and traditions.
- Educational level and illiteracy.
- A lack of enough empowerment.
- Unequal pay for equal (and even bigger) work if compared with men.
- Poverty (makes women do low paid job, one of the reasons why they got involved in human trafficking and prostitution).
- Lack of medical care.
9 widespread examples of gender inequality in our society
Source: Getty Images
- Education. Many of the girls and women in African countries have never stepped inside a school.
- Economic independence. Even if some women were allowed to visit the school and get an education, they still face a problem of inequality when participating in the labor market. They work hard but are paid lower wages. It happens because women are thought to be weaker employees if compared to men.
- Illiteracy. Due to a lack of education, about 774 million people around the world cannot read. 61 percent of them are girls. A child of a mother who is illiterate has fewer chances to survive the age of five. Illiteracy is the primary reason why they cannot gain the necessary knowledge and help their children to cope with diseases in the right way.
- Infant life expectancy. Due to some cultural matters, many tribes give preference to male children. The girls are provided with fewer survival advantages. That’s why one can observe a high risk of child mortality of girls between the ages from one to five years.
- Access to medical care. Most of the mothers in developing countries, which have problems with gender inequality, give birth to their babies in improper conditions. The men get both necessary medical care and vaccination.
- Human trafficking. About 71 percent of the total human trafficking rate is accounted for women and girls. In most cases, they trafficked with the purpose sexual exploitation.
- Women leadership positions in government. Gender inequality is one of the key reasons why you do not see a lot of women in administrative organs.
- Child marriages. This problem destroys not only the hope for a happy future but isolates the young girls from the world and the opportunities, which are accessible for men.
- Violence against women and sexual assault. Women often become the victims of violence and sexual assault both at work and home.
The only way out of the gender inequality problem is expanding women's rights, freedoms, desire to get education and work. Balancing the genders will lead to perfect cooperation of labor opportunities and harmony in the society as well.
Source: Legit.ng
