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Gender Inequality
Man and woman are both equal and both plays a vital role in the creation anddevelopment of their families in a particular and the society in general. Indeed, thestruggle for legal equality has been one of the major concerns of the women’s movementall over the world. In India, since long back, women were considered as an oppressedsection of the society and they were neglected for centuries. During the national strugglefor independence, Gandhi gave a call of emancipation of women. He wrote – :I amuncompromising in the matter of women’s rights. The difference in sex and physical formdenotes no difference in status. Woman is the complement of man, and not inferior”.Thus, the first task in post-independent India was to provide a constitution to the people,which would not make any distinctions on the basis of sex. The preamble of constitution promises to secure to all its citizens- “Justice- economical, social, and political”The constitution declares that the equality before the law and the equal protection of lawsshall be available for all . Similarly, there shall be no discrimination against any citizenon the ground of sex . Article 15(1) guarantees equalities of opportunities for all citizensin matters of employment. Article 15(3) provides that the state can make any special provisions for women and children. Besides, directive principle of state policy whichconcern women directly and have a special bearing on their status directly and have aspecial bearing on their status include Article 39(a) right to an adequate means of livelihood; (d) equal pay for equal wok both men and women, (e) protection of health andstrength of workers –men, women, children and Article 42 provides for just and humaneconditions of work and maternity relief.It is really important to note that though the Constitution of India is working since morethan fifty-seven years – the raising of the status of women to one of equality, freedom anddignity is still a question mark In India, since independence, a number of laws have been enacted in order to provide protection to women. For instance the Dowry prohibition Act 1961, The EqualRemuneration Act 1986, The Hindu Marriage Act 1956, The Hindu Succession Act 1956,The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, the commission of Sati(prevention) Act 1987, Protection of the Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, etc.But, the laws have hardly implemented in their letter and spirit.The sense of insecurity, humiliation and helplessness always keep a women mum. Our whole socialisation is such that for any unsuccessful marriage which results in suchviolence or divorce, it is always the woman, who is held responsible. Cultural beliefs andtraditions that discriminate against women may be officially discredited but they continueto flourish at the grass root levels. Family relations in India are governed by personallaws. The four major religious communities are – Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Parsieach have their separate personal laws. They are governed by their respective personallaws in matters of marriage, divorce, succession, adoption, guardianship andmaintenance. In the laws of all the communities, women have fewer rights than that of man in corresponding situations. It is really that women of the minority communities in
 
India continue to have unequal legal rights and even the women of the majoritycommunity have yet to gain complete formal equality in all aspects of family life. This is basically the problem of gender inequality. But what is this problem and how this can besolved.
As An Concept
Gender Inequalities refers to the obvious or hidden disparities among individuals basedon the performance of gender. This problem in simple term is known as Gender Biaswhich in simple terms means the gender stratification or making difference between a girland a boy i.e. a male or a female. In making biasness among the gender India has 10thrank out of 128 countries all over the world which is shameful for us . But this problem isincreasing although government has banned the pre-natal sex examination. In India (inthe older times) this problem is mainly seen in the rural areas because many rural peoplethink that the girl child is burden on them. But now this is also being seen in the urbanareas i.e. in offices, institutions, schools and in society. The afflicted world in which welive is characterised by deeply unequal sharing of the burden of adversities betweenwomen and men. Gender Inequality exists in most part of the world, from Japan toMorocco, or from Uzbekistan to United States of America (as stated earlier).However, inequality between men and women can take very many different forms.Indeed, gender inequality is not one homogeneous phenomenon, but a collection of disparate and interlinked problems. The issue of gender inequality is one which has been publicly reverberating through society for decades. The problem of inequality inemployment being one of the most pressing issues today. In order to examine thissituation one must try to get to the root of the problem and must understand thesociological factors that cause women to have a much more difficult time getting thesame benefits, wages, and job opportunities as their male counterparts. The society inwhich we live has been shaped historically by males.However, in many parts of the world, women receive less attention and health care thanmen do, and particularly girls often receive very much less support than boys. As a resultof this gender bias, the mortality rates of females often exceed those of males in thesecountries. The concept of missing women was devised to give some idea of the enormityof the phenomenon of women's adversity in mortality by focussing on the women whoare simply not there, due to unusually high mortality compared with male mortality rates.In some regions in the world, inequality between women and men directly involvesmatters of life and death, and takes the brutal form of unusually high mortality rates of women and a consequent preponderance of men in the total population, as opposed to the preponderance of women found in societies with little or no gender bias in health careand nutrition. Mortality inequality has been observed extensively in North Africa and inAsia, including China and South Asia.
Types Of Gender Inequalities
 
There are many kinds of gender inequality or gender disparity which are as follows:
1. Natality inequality:In this type of inequality a preference is given for boys over girlsthat many male-dominated societies have, gender inequality can manifest itself in theform of the parents wanting the newborn to be a boy rather than a girl. There was a timewhen this could be no more than a wish (a daydream or a nightmare, depending on one's perspective), but with the availability of modern techniques to determine the gender of the foetus, sex-selective abortion has become common in many countries. It is particularly prevalent in East Asia, in China and South Korea in particular, but also inSingapore and Taiwan, and it is beginning to emerge as a statistically significant phenomenon in India and South Asia as well.2.Professional or Employment inequality:In terms of employment as well as promotionin work and occupation, women often face greater handicap than men. A country likeJapan and India may be quite egalitarian in matters of demography or basic facilities, andeven, to a great extent, in higher education, and yet progress to elevated levels of employment and occupation seems to be much more problematic for women than for men. The example of employment inequality can be explained by saying that men get priority in seeking job than women.3.Ownership inequality:In many societies the ownership of property can also be veryunequal. Even basic assets such as homes and land may be very asymmetrically shared.The absence of claims to property can not only reduce the voice of women, but also makeit harder for women to enter and flourish in commercial, economic and even some socialactivities. This type of inequality has existed in most parts of the world, though there arealso local variations. For example, even though traditional property rights have favouredmen in the bulk of India.4.Household inequality:There are often enough, basic inequalities in gender relationswithin the family or the household, which can take many different forms. Even in cases inwhich there are no overt signs of anti-female bias in, say, survival or son-preference or education, or even in promotion to higher executive positions, the family arrangementscan be quite unequal in terms of sharing the burden of housework and child care. It is, for example, quite common in many societies to take it for granted that while men willnaturally work outside the home, women could do it if and only if they could combine itwith various inescapable and unequally shared household duties. This is sometimes called"division of labour," though women could be forgiven for seeing it as "accumulation of labour." The reach of this inequality includes not only unequal relations within the family, but also derivative inequalities in employment and recognition in the outside world. Also,the established fixity of this type of "division" or "accumulation" of labour can also havefar-reaching effects on the knowledge and understanding of different types of work in professional circles.5.Special opportunity inequality:Even when there is relatively little difference in basicfacilities including schooling, the opportunities of higher education may be far fewer for young women than for young men. Indeed, gender bias in higher education and
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yh03

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reply04 / 19 / 2009
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