Gender Inequality and Norms

How many of us have been the victims of the constructs of the society? Isn’t it absurd that although women make up over half our population, decades of research finds that they are still underrepresented in so many fields and places. It comes as no surprise that the gender gap is still wide open in several different areas, as shown in the global data — whether it be in city planning, transportation travel patterns, public bathroom design, in the workplace or in medical studies.Just how long will it take to achieve gender equality around the world?

Gender has become an overused and unnecessary way to categorize different entities, from the colors that are chosen for us to the games we play to the activities we participate in, to a point where we end up losing our own true identity. These stereotypes and biases based on our gender have floated around us since eternity; these are often sabotaging in nature and are casually passed off in conversations fleetingly. They give us an ugly glimpse of how the society wishes to function along the predisposed gendered structure, without deciphering or decoding them.

In a society that clearly demarcates differences between the sexes, youth whose conduct is inconsistent with one’s gender are at risk for social sanctions. (Ram, 2014)

The sexism and prejudice portrayed in our society today is often unconscious — and as equals, we need to be more mindful of when we are unconsciously playing out social conditioning. Through social conditioning that was largely unconscious, we’ve been trained to be blind to the odd fact that most of our mentors and teachers are women, while so many of our leaders are men. Statistically, this doesn’t make much sense, but it is a sign of sexism operating on a subconscious level in our society. Likewise, through social conditions, and sexual double standards, women are discouraged from asserting their autonomy and men are discouraged from expressing emotional openness. Gender and sexual development is very effective on not just young children but also adults, it affects them both physically and emotionally. This is directly proportional to a deteriorating mental health and other side effects, because society restricts people from achieving their full potential by imposing gender roles on them.

The United Nations has listed gender equality as one of the basic tenets of human rights. However, the grim reality is that women are still victims of a patriarchal society that discriminates against women, stopping many oppressed girls from growing into their full potential. Women are still more prone to violence, child marriage, health issues, educational issues, and workplace discrimination compared to men, despite having the same potential for creativity and leadership that successful men have displayed in the past. Many in our country, from society to government also believe that women’s issues have ceased because they have access to education and employment unlike the previous generations. Does this really solve the issue when sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence and so many other incidents involving women are still frighteningly prevalent?

Sexism in the workplace is tremendously prevalent today; women have to deal with lower wages, lower chance of promotion, and the unfair perception they are less competent and confident. And while the gender gap in paid work has narrowed only slightly in developed countries, these have increased in emerging economies such as that of our homeland, ‘Pakistan’. Despite the supposed development, policy changes and talk of equality, experiences of laboring women show that their challenges have multiplied, both at work and at home, with longer working hours and greater reliance of unpaid work. Women shoulder a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, resulting in one of the biggest gender gaps between men and women; they are 10 times more involved in household chores, child and elderly care than men in Pakistan. This keeps them out of economic activities anddue to more involvement of women in unpaid care, their participation in the labor force and workforce has declined significantly over the years. In Pakistan, many policies enforced by the government have paradoxically served to disincentive employers from hiring women and reinforced gender biases in the absence of similar provisions for the other sex. Coupled with socio-cultural and safety challenges, it isn’t difficult to visualize why women in Pakistan have been leaving the workplace in droves.

Gender harassment is by far the most common type of sexual harassment. It refers to ‘‘a broad range of verbal and nonverbal behaviors not aimed at sexual cooperation but that convey insulting, hostile, and degrading attitudes about” members of one gender. (Fasting, 2016)

Women usually are used as a sexual amusement for men in pornography; this creates some gender issues that are generally not addressed in our society. Many women in the displayed content do not consent to having their videos published online and are forced into the industry. Sexual violence is one of the biggest crises that people of all genders face however violence against women, which is an extreme manifestation of gender inequality and systemic gender-based discrimination,has become exceedingly common nowadays. According to research articles, 35% of women globally and 72% in Pakistan are likely to experience sexual assault once in their lives. This is often a result of unequal power distributions between men and women and is also strongly influenced by cultural factors and values.Women are also significantly more vulnerable to intimate partner violence because they cannot leave their houses and get time away from their partners. For many people, when they hear about such sexual assaults, their first instinct is to question the victim and point out what they could have done differently. Victim blaming has become so normalized, people often slip into the cycle of victim-blaming without realizing it,thus it is important to engage in healthy conversations about sexuality, consent, and sexual boundaries; every person deserves to feel safe in the places where they live, work, and play.

Because gender-based discrimination has historically interfered with women’s professional success and continues to hinder their social mobility, gender bias against women is an obvious and central impediment to gender equality. Thus, the focus on gender discrimination against women — and not men — makes sense from a historical, cultural, and political point of view. (Manzi, 2019)

Often, we become so distracted by the endorsement of discriminations against women, we turn a blind eye to the sexism against men in our society. In the contemporary age, people don’t understand that misandry (defined as the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against boys or men) is as socially dangerous as misogyny. Men often face discrimination but do not deem appropriate to talk about it, a major reason behind this ideology is because they are expected to suppress their feelings and not be too expressive.Contrary to the popular belief, global study claims that males receive the raw end of the deal with harsher punishments for the same crime, compulsory military service and more deaths at work. Additionally, in certain fields, especially the so-called “pink-collar jobs” such as nursing, teaching and social work, male discrimination is a huge problem and a barrier. With men, it also seems, we get a little uneasy when they express feelings of sadness, anxiety, fear, etc. We’ve been taught for so long that men and boys need to tough it out and that they won’t survive among their peers if they seem even the slightest bit weak or emotional. Due to which, men begin to think that they may not be as likely to ‘succeed’ in a culture that praises stomping out emotions rather than being expressive.

The gender stereotypes present in our society today havedeveloped largely because of the ingrained gender-biased messages we hear growing up. These can be extremely harmful to a person’s self-esteem and gender identity and the issues that develop as a result, are vastly incongruous. It is important that we understand the originof these messages as a lot of them are rooted in discrimination towards people of a specific gender. It’s vital that we deconstruct the core beliefs that these negative messages have made us think about ourselves and others; we shouldn’t have to live bound to other’s stereotypes of gender.