Today,
the majority of countries acknowledge that ensuring gender equality is not just
an axiomatically humanistic objective, but is also a purpose that spells
profits and economic growth for them. Hence, modern societies identify gender
equality as a desirable objective to strive towards. The assumption that gender
equality is currently lacking can be affirmed by general observations of the world
– female genital mutilation still occurs, and the persistent abuse of women in
many countries shows that women are not being given due respect as a form of
gender equity. However, recent trends and precedents show that imbalances
between the genders are being corrected. Hence, gender equality is plausible
and will likely occur, even if it takes an extended time.
The
most intuitive reason behind the inequality of the genders is the biological
difference between men and women – the inherently greater physical strength men
possess has meant that many women have historically been treated as the weaker
gender, both literally and figuratively. Hence, they are viewed as the gender
with less significance and importance. The biological differences between the
genders cannot be resolved, so it is claimed that gender equality can never be
achieved. However, the issue of equality between the genders is analogous to
the issue of equality between the races – instead of striving to homogenise the
human population, we should instead strive for equity in the treatment of
differing social groups. Therefore, the objective should be to grant each gender
equal agency, and ensure all have equal means to obtain what they deserve as
human beings. For all intents and purposes, the muscular advantage men also have
means less and less in today’s society. Advancements in technology have largely
leveled the capabilities of men and women today, vis-à-vis the military
conquests and agricultural economies which men had the clear advantage in.
Hence, what both genders today can achieve is largely independent of the
physical strength advantage men possess. On this front, gender equality has
indeed been achieved.
In
ancient civilisations such as the Chinese, Japanese and even the United States,
females were seen as the inferior sex. Their cultural roles as homemakers and
the primary individual in the household caring for the children have long been
entrenched, up until today. Cultural norms dictate that they should be
subservient to men, and not enjoy the same rights and liberties as men do – in
Saudi Arabia, there is overwhelming social pressure against female drivers, and
all females must be accompanied by a male adult whenever they step out of their
doors. Hence, it may seem as if this cultural rift between the two genders
prevents women from ever being equal to men. However, there has been progress
made over the years, demonstrating a trend which heads towards eventual
equality between the genders. In the 1960s, women in the USA spent about ten
hours on childcare, forty hours on housework and ten hours on paid work weekly,
while men spent forty hours on paid work and ten hours on housework and
childcare combined. Now, women’s paid hours have tripled, and the time they
spend on household chores has halved – comparatively, men’s hours spent on
childcare tripled and their involvement in household chores has doubled. This balancing
act has been incrementally advanced due to improvements in household
technology, such as the advent of the washing machine, dishwasher and the
microwave, which liberated women from spending countless hours on household
chores. At the same time, these technologies made housework more palatable for
men, reducing gender disparity in household involvement. Increasingly, fathers
see their significant, unique role in the upbringing of their children, and
societies acknowledge this. This can be seen in the growing trend of granting
men paternal leave – Norway grants all men non-transferable twelve weeks of
paternity leave. These are optimistic trends, as they point towards growing
equality with regards to the cultural expectations of each sex.
Skeptics
also argue that women often face an unfavourable pay gap as compared to their
male counterparts, and are often forced to sacrifice the work-life balance when
they have children. Such an occurrence is worrying, because financial
independence represents power and capability in our materialistic world. Hence,
the numbers suggest an unstable power asymmetry between the genders in our
society. Despite this claim, there are reasonable explanations for the
imbalance – the discrepancy is due to a lower proportion of women working,
leading to lower average income. If the metric was instead a skill-for-skill,
hour-for-hour measurement of income, on average women now earn 98 cents for
each dollar a man earns. This is huge leap from the past, when working women
were frowned upon. Hence, the problem nowadays is no longer a lack of
recognition of the female workforce’s contributions, but rather a disproportionate
number of women choosing to sacrifice the work-life balance upon having
children. In this regard, there is good reason to believe that the situation
will improve. Women today enjoy greater liberty over their career and life
decisions, by initiating the breaking up of traditional work-hours – from nine
to six. Until recently, this rigid schedule employed women had to abide by discriminated
against women who played a significant role in raising their children – they
were forced to choose between their jobs and the need to bring up their children,
and many chose the latter. Since the 1990s, women have been campaigning for
more flexible working schedules that revolve around their responsibilities at
home, with increasing frequency. Hilary Clinton, the USA’s ex-Secretary of
State was insistent on working at home, after she had dinner with her family,
and Sheryl Sandberg, current Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, goes home for
dinner daily at 5.30pm. These successful individuals have begun to break down
traditional workdays’ rigidity, so that working adults, male and female alike,
no longer have to treat family commitments and working commitments as mutually
exclusive options. As a result, both genders have increased capabilities to
pursue an even work-life balance, so women no longer have to bear the brunt of childcare,
a burden which has typically caused them to sacrifice their financial
independence. This in turn would lead to more capable individuals, especially
women, who can choose to further their careers and contend with men for the top
managerial and executive positions at the workplace. With these highly feasible
changes at the workplace, some of which have already been set into motion, it
is not difficult to envision a future when gender equality is indeed an
achievable aim.
Ultimately,
the world has been moving towards the point where the arbitrary occurrence of
gender is no longer an obstacle to what any individual can achieve, and will
likely continue down this route. The impatient, hastily drawn conclusion that
attempts to manage gender equality have not borne any fruit is parochial, as it
fails to acknowledge the considerable progress societies have made so far. Admittedly,
more needs to be done to bolster the fight against gender inequality, but there
is reason to be optimistic that this goal will be achieved eventually. In
essence, gender equality is indeed possible.
