Challenges of Social Inclusion: Gender Equality, Inequality, and Human Rights

What is the Gender equality?

Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including economic participation and decision-making, and when the different behaviours, aspirations and needs of women and men are equally valued and favoured. The United Nations regards gender equality as a human rights.

What is the Gender inequality?

Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles. Gender systems are often dichotomous and hierarchical; gender binary systems may reflect the inequalities that manifest in numerous dimensions of daily life. Gender inequality stems from distinctions, whether empirically grounded or socially constructed. Gender inequality is also called the problem of women.gendergender rolesGender systemsdichotomousgender binary

Lack of Mobility Although there have been numerous protests, women are still forbidden to drive in Saudi Arabia, and must rely on their fathers or husbands to get from place to place. Similarly, in countries like Egypt and Bahrain, husbands have the right to stop their wives from leaving the country while other countries require written permission from a husband to travel.

Freedom of Marriage According to the UN, 40 percent of young women in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are married by their 18thbirthday. Child marriage not only increases the chance of complications of giving birth that often prove fatal, but also contradicts the fundamental human right of choice of partnership. In Pakistan, women are expected to accept arranged marriages and refusal can lead to honor killings that typically go uncontested by the government.Child marriage

Discriminatory Divorce Rights In most of the Middle East, countries are governed by religion-based ideals. As men are typically viewed as superior, they can divorce their wives relatively easily and even through merely oral renunciation. Women on the other hand face many more challenges. In Lebanon, abused women do not even have the right to file for a divorce unless an eyewitness is willing to testify.

Citizenship With the exception of Israel, Iran, Tunisia, and parts of Egypt, women in the Middle East do not have the right to pass citizenship on to their children while men have the ability to not only pass it to their children, but also to their non-national wives.

Frontline Combat While allowed to participate in the army, women are still not permitted to serve in frontline combat in the UK, Turkey, and Slovakia.

Custody Rights In some countries, the courts automatically grant custody rights to the father and women are left without any means of financial support. For example, in Bahrain, family laws are not systematized, enabling judges to deny mothers custody of their children.Bahrain

Violence Unequal legal rights make women increasingly vulnerable to violence. One of the most obvious forms of violence against women in the world today is that of spousal rape. Indias recent ruling that rape laws do not apply to married couples clearly illustrates the sexual subjugation and violence that women unfortunately remain exposed to.recent ruling

Professional Obstacles Even in developed countries women are at a disadvantage when it comes to salary, especially in the workplace. Despite attempts to debunk the wage gap statistic, women nevertheless only earn only 77 percent of what men earn for the same amount of work. At this rate, it could take a full 45 years before the wage gap disappears.

Restricted Land Ownership Women are often at a disadvantage in countries that acknowledge customary or religious law where socio-cultural traditions effectively prohibit the ownership of land by females, even if their constitution claims equal rights. In many countries like North Sudan, Tanzania, and Lesotho, land ownership and control tends to go to the male head of the household. In Zambia, women and men are allowed to acquire a registered land title, but customary land tenure is also recognized making it unlikely for a woman to be allocated land without the approval of her husband.

Access to Education Women make up more than two-thirds of the worlds illiterate adults, and access to education is especially a problem in Afghanistan where groups that oppose female education attack many schools. Female rights are also compromised due to limited awareness of what they should be entitled to, which could only be remedied through a greater access to education.Afghanistan

Reasons for gender inequalities in India Patriarchal society Son preference