Gender, Class and Race Inequalities

By Jan Michael P. de Asis

Everybody in this world is born equal. They are born naked and are given equal
chances to live or die. In their everyday existence, they always look upon themselves as
beneficiaries of fair and just treatment given by their environment in order to meet the
demands of daily living. This argument seemed to be ideal and perfect in a world where people
try to put themselves always at an advantageous position and always see to it that they are
always on top which may give them convenient life. If a person who has been motivated to
fulfill his personal desires and interest and has the power to make it happen, it will create a
ripple effect leaving the rest of humanity in partiality and bias. It is the aspiration of this paper
to present a strong argument on the notion of this manifestation in gender, class and race.

Gender Inequalities

There has always been a big disparity in the gap between male and female in the
world right now. Although there are attempts to bridge this gap, the void to fill is still enormous
in such a way that women are still given unequal treatment because of the machismo mentality
that has been maligning our consciousness for a very long time. All of these are attributed to a
cause which cannot be easily altered and which was claimed by Khan (2015) that “the root
cause seems to be the culture because it is through culture that we come to know who men
and women are and what kind of relationship do the two have with each other”. Put it simply,
the established relationship has been strongly influenced to look how women are treated as
the weaker sex and should not be given equal opportunities as men do. To further substantiate
this point, 70% of the one billion people living in the poverty line right now are women which
may result to other problems concerning education and health. Although in the Philippines, this
may not be entirely the case but still, this manifestation can be detrimental to society [if not
addressed] because girls who are deprived of these commodities are expected to suffer and will
be at the losing end of the battle. The following are evidences to this claim:

a. Women in Education
Women are deprived of quality education around the world. Although the case
might be different in our country but generally it was asserted in Mccune (2014) that
“women make up more than two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults, and access to
education is especially a problem.” Because of the lack of information on how to live
their lives, it was further stressed that “female rights are also compromised due to
limited awareness of what they should be entitled to, which could only be remedied
through greater access to education (Mccune, 2014).” Clearly a violation of basic right
for women has been committed and the situation is even worse in the rural places from
 which unwomen.org (2018) noted that “more than 35% of all poor rural women lack
basic literacy skills.” This is primarily because their access to education is limited and
thus might have incur consequences which was also presented by unwomen.org (2018)
that “women might have problems with their employability or their ability to work; their
ways of making decisions; which may lead them to low paying jobs, decreased social
well-being and increased health consequences [which will be discussed later]”. It is
indeed unfortunate for women to be deprived of learning and be able to uplift
themselves and be part of a literate public and be able to share their views about the
world.

b. Women in Health
Women are also deprived of health services from the moment they were brought
by their parents in this world. Culture may also dictate that men are preferred to be
children as they will continue the family’s surname and having female in the family
simply means a commodity whose value is realized if they can get a rich husband. None
of these seemed to matter if women are not healthy and it was even reported by the
Philippine Commission on Women (2014) that “in 2011 [as reported in the FHS Family
survey], out of 100,000 mothers who are expected to give birth, 221 mothers died
during pregnancy and childbirth or even shortly after childbirth”. This was further
supported by unwomen.org (2018) who reiterated that “in low income countries, less
likely 38% of rural women are to give birth with a health care worker than those of
urban women which might lead to increased chances of life-threatening situations,
severe-bleeding, infection and maternal mortality”. This situation may likewise be
disadvantageous for women and their soon to be children since they cannot enjoy such
services.

It may infer that the situation may not be applicable to the Philippines; however
in MacPhail (MacPhail 2015), it was even noted how the good result of being a Global Gender
Gap Report Topnotcher in 2014 [as we ranked 9th out of 142 countries], was over shadowed by
how “gender inequality persists in economic opportunities and political empowerment, where
the Philippines ranked 24th and 17th respectively. The Philippines’ ranking for labor force
participation was even lower, at 102 out of 142 countries. This is due to a female labor force
participation rate of just 53 per cent, which is extremely low compared to a male participation
rate of 81 per cent.” This in turn may reflect how the rest of the world continues to discriminate
women and be able to put one’s interest forward without thinking of the possible
consequences that may be incurred if these problems are not solved immediately.
Class Inequalities

If gender inequality is rampant, class inequality is even worse. The world at this point
looks at India where its caste system has been at the forefront of this issue and has been putting its
citizen to selection depending on their social status in the society. In the Philippines, although one can
say that the government has been exhausting all means to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor
still a big percentage of our population still remained poor and cannot uplift themselves. This is the
reason why the gap still continues to worsen. It is like a pyramid where the majority are the poor who
remains at the bottom while the selected few who are rich remain at the top and feel comfortable in
every situation and will do their best to stay there. Let the following evidences prove this argument and
support what has been putting our country [and probably, the rest of the world] in suffering and chaos.

a. Poor choices leading to a poor future

As a person is brought forth into this world, he is nurtured by his environment whether
he becomes successful or not. Studies show that class inequalities may affect the kind of future
of a person. For example, if an individual belongs to the higher stratum of the society, his needs
will be provided and will be nourished with the right principles in order to further improve his
life. This somehow is influenced by how his family have been living their lives and have been
preparing for how they will teach their children become independent and responsible for their
own action. A child [of a family with an average income] for instance, at his early age is being
given the privilege to open a bank account where he can start saving his own money and be
able to plan what is going to happen in his future. He is being sent to high paying schools to get
quality education and may lead to earning a degree that may land him a good paying job. This
cycle that happens to that person may likewise be repeated and be able to further their status in
life. On the other hand, if a person who was empty-handed from the start may experience the
exact opposite of what has been presented because his needs are not provided, his family is not
well educated, his lessons about being independent and responsible is not well – supported and
his bank account is never been initiated [since the money that may be used in his savings may
be used to fulfill their family’s personal needs first]. The motivation of this person may be
 dampened already [because of the situation] unless he is very eager to make the right choices
and be able to sacrifice for himself and may make his life better. Although he may enter a free
public school with limited resources because there are no fees to pay, the situation may change
for the better if he decides to do the right thing in spite of hurdles that he has to conquer. This
has been the story of those who manage not to make excuses of their circumstances. Instead of
just going with flow, they manage to change direction and as to what Robert Frost in his poem
“The Road Not Taken”, this person managed to take the one less traveled by, and that has made
all the difference.
b. Individual mindset toward entrepreneurship
The Filipino culture after the Spaniards has been influenced a lot by our tendency to be
dependent on our conquerors and thus develop our feeling of inferiority and lack of self-
confidence to stand on our own. Through time, this was inculcated in the minds of the
succeeding generations and later on developed to become the habit of dependence on what has
been provided to us and thus started our consumer mentality from which has been exploited by
the selected few who continue to feed this thinking that becoming an entrepreneur seemed to
be a Herculean Task and may not be done by Filipinos. Therefore, we ought to stay in the world
where we just consume and not produce our own products unless we have been persuaded by
our own experiences, struggles and hardships of becoming an entrepreneur and thus change
one’s status in life. It was only in the last ten years that the idea of entrepreneurship has been
reintroduced to our system since it has been running in our blood even before the Spaniards
came [remember how we trade with the Chinese through the barter system]. It so unfortunate
that as of today nine of the ten richest men in the country are not full-blooded Filipino as Forbes
(2017) mentioned the names of Sy, Gokongwei, Razon Jr. Tan, Zobel de Ayala, Consunji, Ty,
Caktiong, Tan and Ang among all other billionaires across the country. The Filipinos had just
been contended to simply go and be the consumers leaving these tycoons richer and making the
rest of us poorer.

In order to bridge the gap and address the social inequalities, a paradigm shift is expected.
This means Filipinos need to refocus their priorities and make sure to train themselves [including their
children] to make the right decisions and alter their mindset from a consumer to an entrepreneur in
order to climb the status and make the gap a little shorter.

Race Inequalities

This topic has been a melting pot of different opinions whether one calls it discrimination
or bias. In all parts of the world, people have been expressive when they felt like they were misjudged
by others based on the color of their skin, their ethnic group or even their race. It is very important to
seek ways on how put an end on this and by presenting evidences on its manifestations here in our
country or even overseas, this last section hopes to make the reader understand the importance of
keeping oneself as authentic as possible without compromising impartiality towards others.

a. Inequalities toward one’s culture

 Sometimes, Filipinos have tried to discriminate themselves over what has been their real
identity. This happens when one figure out that other cultures are better than what we have
because we have been trained to think that ours is far less superior than the rest of all the
cultures of the world. At this point, every time we try to play a Korean Pop Song or drama or
even try to imitate the latest dance craze, we neglect the big responsibility of being fair to
ourselves because of our preferences over other cultures rather than our own. Forgetting one’s
roots over other cultures signifies how we have transformed ourselves from becoming authentic
natives of the land to transforming into a copycat of other cultures. This may be hurtful but
when a child sings Korean love song over our native folk songs, something must be done to
address the issue so as to clear the essence of one’s identity as an impetus to fight racial
discrimination in ourselves leaving us to love our brown skins over the white complexions that
we kept admiring from the western culture that’s why our convenient stores are full of
whitening agents and products. Figuratively, our skin has surpassed different struggles and has
been a living proof that being dark skin doesn’t automatically mean being not beautiful because
we can firmly advocate that one’s essential characteristics should not be bounded only by the
color of the skin, or the type of language one speaks of and the kind of culture one loves. But
rather is focused on the idea that what we have as a Filipino culture is enrich with values and
standards which are worthy of emulation by other countries because of its vast and vibrant
characteristics that are equal or perhaps even better than any other culture there is.
b. Inequalities toward other culture
Because of our insecurities brought forth by the colonial mentality that we have acquired
from our conquerors, we have been made to realize that what we have right now is more than
enough and will require to look into our consciousness on how should we treat other cultures
with prejudice. This is how apartheid has maligned the United States before which has been
revolutionized from the time Afro-Americans were treated as slaves up until they elected their
first black president a couple of years ago. It was indeed a struggle of proving, believing and
making things happen from the time Rosa Parks stood for what she believed is right and
boycotted the Montglomery Bus Company, from the speech that catapulted Martin Luther King
Jr. to where he started to dream how black Americans have endured racial hatred and now
enjoys the benefits of the struggles of long journey of inequalities. It has been evident that in
order to avoid such undertaking, one should think of loving more than hating, understanding
more than judging and unifying more than dividing. It is only through that kind of believing that
we can see that as individual we are unique creatures of God who is capable of wonderful things
more than what the human mind could have ever imagined. It is on this note that we need to
see the brighter side of things and look into ourselves as part of world fabric that makes us
unique and wonderful both inside and out.

The world is indeed full of inequalities. The list goes on and on and it is up to us how we
will react and live our lives to the fullest. One famous quote to support this was mentioned by the John
F. Kennedy who said “there is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are
wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.” At the end of the day, it still depends
on how you live your life. If a person is discriminated because of his or her gender, let justice finds its
way by fighting for what is right. If a person is judged because of his class or social status, let
perseverance finds it way to prove the misconceptions. And if a person is treated with partiality
because of his race, let the truth speak from within that no matter happens, a person is uniquely
beautiful as he is God’s wonderful gift to this world. And that he shouldn’t bother whether he or she will
be liked or not for as long as he appreciates who is, there is somebody up there watching over.

References:

50 riches man in the philippines. (2017). Forbes. Retrieved July 20, 2018, from
https://www.forbes.com/philippines-billionaires/#48fa7f1d7776

http://www.pcw.gov.ph. (2014, May 13). Retrieved July 18, 2018, from

http://www.pcw.gov.ph/statistics/201405/statistics-filipino-women-and-mens-health-and-
family-planning

http://www.unwomen.org. (2018, February 28). Retrieved July 15, 2018, from

http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/multimedia/2018/2/infographic-rural-women

Khan, U. (2015, November 10). www.studylecturenotes.com. Retrieved from

www.studylecturenotes.com: http://www.studylecturenotes.com/basics-of-sociology/gender-
discrimination-definition-types-examples
MacPhail, F. (2015, March 15). Is gender inequality really so low in the Philippines? East Asia Forum.
Retrieved July 19, 2018, from http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2015/03/21/is-gender-inequality-
really-so-low-in-the-philippines/

Mccune, E. M. (2014, June 6). 10 examples of gender discrimination. Seattle, USA. Retrieved July 17,
2018, from http://www.borgenmagazine.com/10-examples-gender-inequality-world/

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_f_kennedy_400130?src=t_inequality