Introduction:
Gender inequality towards women in Sierra Leone can be described as inequitable or impractical compared to the equality of women in developed/western countries. The roles women are expected to play are general expectations such as cooking, cleaning, and staying at home with the children, leaving women in Sierra Leone with very little to no chance of stepping out of these expected roles to prevent being stigmatized or possibly killed (Luna 2016). According to the Social Institutions and Gender Index, “despite legislative changes that have increased women’s legal protection, women continue to experience discriminatory practices.” Their rights and position are largely contingent on customary law and the ethnic group to which they …show more content…
With these policies implemented, females will be more represented and schools and narrow the gender gap between males and females and increase the enrollment rate of females in schools. Richard Maclure and Myriam Denov stated how “a policy of rapid post-war educational expansion, with its emphasis on increased girls’ access to schooling”, will no longer support “the diminishing systemic discrimination against girls and women”, and how “preoccupation with rapid school expansion is far more likely to reinforce a deeply structured patriarchal social system that perpetuates female subservience at local and national levels” (Maclure and Denov). Women can benefit from these measures in that these policies will be promoting/encouraging them to obtain the education they desire and help break them out of the cultural norm of being pushed on the back burner and seen as non-important to actually living a life they would want to live with no outside party interfering. Another approach that can be taken to improve the level of gender development in the country is to lower costs of education/make it affordable for the specific families who just can’t afford it or those who are simply excluded from education due to economic reasons. Since one major reasoning of why females were not …show more content…
Prior to this case study I was aware of some inequality between males and females in most developing countries but never really understood what it is females go through day by day as a forced lifestyle. Being that I am a female and I am Sierra Leonean, now I view the inequality and unjust treatment of females in the developing world as a major problem that needs an urgent solution. What intrigued me the most was how females weren’t seen as priority enough to receive even the basic education level and were taught to be housewives from a very young age. Everyone should be entitled to an equal amount of opportunity in the developing world and gender shouldn’t be a determining factor of who is allowed/gets the better education. What surprised me the most were the cultural norms that accepted this unfair decision of females not being able to attend schools because of their gender. Most times culturally, family supports you to be the best you can be and reach the highest amount of education, whereas here it wasn’t the same case. As seen throughout this case study, I’ve learned that there is a significant difference of gender inequality in the developing world than those of western, more developed countries and displays just how there needs to be a change in this
Gender inequality towards women in Sierra Leone can be described as inequitable or impractical compared to the equality of women in developed/western countries. The roles women are expected to play are general expectations such as cooking, cleaning, and staying at home with the children, leaving women in Sierra Leone with very little to no chance of stepping out of these expected roles to prevent being stigmatized or possibly killed (Luna 2016). According to the Social Institutions and Gender Index, “despite legislative changes that have increased women’s legal protection, women continue to experience discriminatory practices.” Their rights and position are largely contingent on customary law and the ethnic group to which they …show more content…
With these policies implemented, females will be more represented and schools and narrow the gender gap between males and females and increase the enrollment rate of females in schools. Richard Maclure and Myriam Denov stated how “a policy of rapid post-war educational expansion, with its emphasis on increased girls’ access to schooling”, will no longer support “the diminishing systemic discrimination against girls and women”, and how “preoccupation with rapid school expansion is far more likely to reinforce a deeply structured patriarchal social system that perpetuates female subservience at local and national levels” (Maclure and Denov). Women can benefit from these measures in that these policies will be promoting/encouraging them to obtain the education they desire and help break them out of the cultural norm of being pushed on the back burner and seen as non-important to actually living a life they would want to live with no outside party interfering. Another approach that can be taken to improve the level of gender development in the country is to lower costs of education/make it affordable for the specific families who just can’t afford it or those who are simply excluded from education due to economic reasons. Since one major reasoning of why females were not …show more content…
Prior to this case study I was aware of some inequality between males and females in most developing countries but never really understood what it is females go through day by day as a forced lifestyle. Being that I am a female and I am Sierra Leonean, now I view the inequality and unjust treatment of females in the developing world as a major problem that needs an urgent solution. What intrigued me the most was how females weren’t seen as priority enough to receive even the basic education level and were taught to be housewives from a very young age. Everyone should be entitled to an equal amount of opportunity in the developing world and gender shouldn’t be a determining factor of who is allowed/gets the better education. What surprised me the most were the cultural norms that accepted this unfair decision of females not being able to attend schools because of their gender. Most times culturally, family supports you to be the best you can be and reach the highest amount of education, whereas here it wasn’t the same case. As seen throughout this case study, I’ve learned that there is a significant difference of gender inequality in the developing world than those of western, more developed countries and displays just how there needs to be a change in this