Gender Equality And Gender Roles

Ever since I was little I have been told to behave like a girl. This phrase has constantly been repeated by all my family members, friends, and even strangers. At a young age, gender roles can be very confusing. However, society makes sure to place boundaries and acknowledge differences between both roles. Even before we are born, as soon as our sex is discovered we are given a gender role and colors that we are supposed to wear in order for society to distinguish between boy and girl. Girls must wear pink and “girly” colors such as pastel colors and boys must wear blue or neutral colors. Girls are also supposed to play with dolls and their accessories such as kitchen sets, since young age girls are taught to be traditional housewives. On the …show more content…
In 1995, at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, 189 nations agreed to an ambitious Platform for Action that called for gender equality for women in political, civil, economic, social and cultural life. After almost twenty years later, progress has been made. According to Deputy Director R. Tulchin, the gender gap in primary education has closed. Many countries that once had laws that permitted unequal treatment of girls and women have been replaced by laws that recognize gender equality. However, after all, the progress, significant gender gaps remain. Many countries still lack laws safeguarding women’s rights and even where the laws are strong, implementation and enforcement often lag. Social norms have a big influence on gender equality and it is hard to change it. Millions of girls around the world are living in communities where child marriage is culturally and traditionally accepted according to No Ceilings data, 1 in 4 girls worldwide was married before age 18 and if the trend continues, 140 million will become child brides by 2020. And this is something that I have witnessed coming from the Dominican Republic, a third world country where women are expected by society to be a housewife by a certain age or otherwise they are considered to be “too old”. Women and men are living longer than ever. And HIV infections are declining, females aged 15 to 24 have a …show more content…
Women’s economic opportunities continue to be limited by their disproportionate role in unpaid work in the home. Women in every country are still overwhelmingly responsible for housework and the care of their family. This is often referred as the “second shift”. Why is it the mother “fault” when things are not going right in the house? Why can men and women hold the same house responsibilities? Or better yet why can men be the ones responsible for taking care of the children and maintaining the family/household? Also, why is it that we can talk about a man “mothering” a child when the mother is not present, but we do not refer to single mothers as “fathering” a child. I come from a country where people are very religious and traditional they have strong beliefs about women being just useful to be housewives. On the other hand, men are only responsible for the hard work they should “macho”. They are the one in charge of bringing the food to the table. It does not matter if they don’t spend time with their families as long as they are bringing money to the house. However, if by any chance a woman decides to go to work outside her housework she is immediately categorized as a “bad mother” because she is leaving her child alone and even if she is leaving her children in the custody of a family member no one can take care of her children like the mother will. If the children behave inappropriately and if “God forbid” any