Essay Sample on Contemporary Social Issue Relating to Gender

Introduction

Women empowerment has been a social issue that the society has been analyzing on the way that it can be achieved with a good number of people claiming that the measures highlighted in its support should not be implemented at all. The concept involves the women recreating and elaborating on what they can achieve, and accomplish these activities in circumstances that they had been denied before. It enables them to redefine the gender roles providing them with the opportunity to make a selection between alternatives that are known to them. There exist stereotypes on this topic, assumptions, and it the lack of empowerment can be seen as a problem to the modern society.

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Stereotypical factors have led the issue of women empowerment being a major debatable issue with a significant portion of the population feeling that if women are given the platform to perform, they will change the normal gender roles (Sultana, Jamal and Najaf 2017). These stereotypical issues are raised mostly by men who feel that women will become a threat to the normal way of life where men seem to have the controlling power. There is the idea that women are supposed to be at home, raise the children and the look after the family affairs. They are not supposed to be out there helping in the building of the economy. This issue leads to them failing to attend to their education practice meaning that they lack the necessary qualifications for employment in certain careers. There exist negative attitudes and stereotypes in the professions that women can join. Women are discouraged from engaging in employment opportunities that are described as "dangerous" in their lives which in truth they are not. In some of the cases, these are jobs that are well paying, and they are left for men. The women are encouraged to undertake the low paying ones that are considered to be easy and simple. Any woman who is found to work in the "dangerous" job is observed as having undergone against the social and societal norms. These negative attitudes tend to hamper the women's ability to achieve their potential in their career profession. They are viewed as being weak when it comes to leading a group of people, and they are, therefore, discouraged from applying for high positions in companies. The retirement age seems to be different where in some cases, women can retire at the age of 55 and men at 60 years, and this deprives women five years of employment which is not fair to them. They retire before they get to the point that they can be promoted to a higher position of power.

It is often assumed that women are the weaker sex and there is a good number of activities that are handled by men that they cannot accomplish. Therefore, to them, it does not make sense to present the women with the opportunity to empower them since they will not manage to undertake the responsibilities assigned to them. Additionally, others believe that women become uncontrollable when they are empowered and presented with the opportunity to develop themselves economically, socially and financially. Therefore, it is assumed that for women to become submissive, men must ensure that their socioeconomic status is low, have low earnings power and they have low education level. It is often claimed that women are their own worst enemies and it is thus stated that if they are empowered, there is a high chance that they will not undertake any programs that will be intended to help the women or society (Sundstrom, Paxton, Wang and Lindberg 2017). They will find ways of bringing down other women that are above them at the workplace meaning that their empowerment will only lead to destruction rather than to build the community.

The lack of women empowerment is a major societal problem that the people in authority should work towards finding a solution to and ensure that women are given the platform to express themselves and unleash their potential. An economy manages to enjoy many benefits when the women status is improved as opposed to when they are oppressed and discouraged from taking part in activities that can help them develop. It can be stated that when they work, they assist in the development of an economy and this is notable with the developed world like the United States, Europe among others. In these countries, the women have equal and sometimes even higher rights than men meaning that they are usually presented with the opportunity to challenge men in all the fields. In these countries, women are allowed to work and even hold a high position based on their qualification. The laws and cultural norms allow them to undertake any form of training that they feel they need to keep them at a better position of raising the quality of their lives. When there is a reduction that exist between the men and women labor force, it can be noted that the economy grows at a faster rate. In the states that cultural beliefs and practices limit women from getting empowered, their economy tends to lag behind considering that the number of workers that facilitate the growth is low while the dependents are many. Raising the volume of earnings that is controlled by women tends to improve the family living standards and quality of life that is enjoyed by a family (Cornwall and Rivas 2015). This is because women have a better way of managing funds than men. The levels of poverty tend to decrease when the number of empowered in a community improves. They manage to pool funds together no matter how small the kitty might be and they join forces to start economic activities that can enable them to earn some good amount of money. They use the earnings made to support their families, the education of their children thus getting to raise the family's livelihood.

Political stability is crucial to the growth and expansion of a country's economy, and sometimes things turn for worse when it is only men that are in a position of power. They easily trigger wars, and most of the causalities are women and children. However, when women are empowered, and they rise up the political ladder, they always do everything within their power to ensure that wars and fighting do not erupt with the desire to protect the women and children who are not in a position to fight back when they are attacked. The level of investments tends to rise with improved stability an indication of the many benefits that a country enjoy if it manages to support the programs that will ensure that the girl child is given an equal opportunity to the boy child. These benefits that are enjoyed as a result of women empowerment is an indication that the suppression of programs that facilitate the improvement of the women lives is wrong and the authorities should find ways of ensuring that this does not happen (Peeters and Ateljevic 2017). Some of the procedures that can be adopted to fulfill these objectives may include ensuring that they have access to quality education and be allowed to achieve the heights reached by men. They should be given the opportunity to hold a position of power and managers of big corporations.

Despite the fact that the lack of women empowerment is a major issue that is affecting millions of women worldwide, they need to ensure that they utilize the opportunities presented to them in the right way. Men are the heads of the family and women are supposed to offer a supporting role to ensure that there exist a tight knot and an element of togetherness in the family system. However, trying to engage in unfair competition with men is wrong, and it should not be entertained at all. Respect is one of the utmost value that should exist in a family system where men and women are supposed to care for each other and not engage in activities that will make the others angry and feeling undervalued (Doepke and Tertilt 2018). Therefore, as much as women are calling for empowerment, they need to understand that to a certain extent, they contribute to men viewing their empowerment as a threat to the peace stability in the society. A small number of women who have managed to improve the quality of their lives have used their position to undermine and humiliate men leading to others in society to fail to support the empowerment process. They need to convince the world that they should be allowed to improve their life by always acting in good faith after accessing good education.

References

Cornwall, A. and Rivas, A.M., 2015. From 'gender equality and 'women's empowerment'to global justice: reclaiming a transformative agenda for gender and development. Third World Quarterly, 36(2), pp.396-415.

Doepke, M. and Tertilt, M., 2018. DP12593 Women's Empowerment, the Gender Gap in Desired Fertility, and Fertility Outcomes in Developing Countries.

Peeters, L.W. and Ateljevic, I., 2017. Women empowerment entrepreneurship nexus in tourism: Processes of social innovation. In Tourism and Entrepreneurship (pp. 94-109). Routledge.

Sultana, H.Y., Jamal, M.A. and Najaf, D.E., 2017. Impact of Microfinance on Women Empowerment through Poverty Allevation: An Assessment of Socio-Economic Conditions in Chennai City of Tamil Nade. Asian Journal for Poverty Studies (AJPS), 3(2).

Sundstrom, A., Paxton, P., Wang, Y.T. and Lindberg, S.I., 2017. Women's political empowerment: A new global index, 1900-2012. World Development, 94, pp.321-335.