-
Objectification and Exploitation of Girls and Women by the Mass Media and the Social Media
Objectification of Women by the Mass Media From the early nineteenth century, in television, films, printed and television commercials, and music videos, sexual objectification and exploitation of women became an increasingly growing trend. Along with objectification, different industries also started using a false and unreal image of women’s physical appearance, body image, and beauty. Today, hypersexualized and unrealistically perfect female forms are associated with products, services and programs across television and computer screens, billboards, glossy pages of magazines, video games and social media. Girls and women are dehumanized and portrayed as a commodity in these advertisements, music videos, and films – women’s bodies are used to sell everything from…
-
Patrilocality: Roots of Gender Discrimination in Many Countries
In Patrilocal societies, women move to their husbands’ house and co-reside with husbands’ parents after marriage. Gender gaps in personal autonomy, education, health, and division of labor are more prominent in families and societies which are strictly Patrilocal. With marriage, almost all the girls who live with her husband’s parents and extended family, lose a great deal of their freedom, decision making power and autonomy. A girl is expected to follow the rules and norms, sometimes strict and irrelevant, set by her husband’s parents. Often, the choice of a girl’s lifestyle, starting from food habit to dressing sense and even the way she behaves or talks are questioned,…
-
Gender Discrimination in Access and Consumption of Food Across Cultures
Equal access to food and nutrition is one of the core human rights. Yet, in several cultures across the world, women do not have equal access to food. There are strange taboos, discrimination and restrictions imposed only on women about the quality and quantity of food consumed by them. In most of the countries in Africa and Asia, women usually eat after feeding the male and children, as a tradition. In families where there is the scarcity of food, women usually eat only leftover food or a disproportionately lower quantity of food every day. In many countries, especially in rural areas, women are not supposed to eat in…
-
Male guardianship in Saudi Arabia
What is the male guardianship rule? Women in Saudi Arabia, irrespective of their age, education or employment status, must have a male guardian, typically a father, brother, husband or uncle (mahram). Women are treated like second class citizens in Saudi Arabia. All females, girls, and women are forbidden from traveling, conducting official business, or undergoing certain medical procedures without permission from their male guardians. Women are not allowed to leave the house without a male accompany. The ownership of a woman is passed from one man to another, typically from the father or the brother to the husband. Women are treated as possessions of their male guardians.…
-
Systemic Gender Discrimination Across the World
Women in many parts of the world still have a very little or no choices on their own lives. Historically, no country in the world had similar rights for men and women in all the areas. Women had to fight for equal rights and privileges in every aspect – starting from voting rights to rights to inherit their father’s property, or even to drive cars! Over the last 50 years, many reforms have improved women’s legal rights. But, according to a World Bank Report, even now in over 100 countries, women are restricted from doing certain work solely because of gender discrimination. Out of 173 countries, only 18 are…
-
In Search of a Safer Place for Women
Last June, soon after coming to the United States, I joined a non-profit Organization, Rape Trauma Services, for a training to help and support the survivors of sexual assaults. This training and the subsequent experience of working as a sexual assault advocate and counselor changed my whole perspective of the status of women in western societies.
-
Domestic Violence Against Women Across The World-Where Are We?
Do you know that wife-beating was legal and a very common practice in almost all countries prior to the mid-1800s? Most legal systems viewed wife-beating as a valid exercise of a husband’s authority over his wife? Women and children were seen as ‘belonging’ to a man, therefore controlling of his wife and children in the form of physical violence or punishment by a man were acceptable in religious and civil laws of all societies. Legal Documents from the Medieval Age from different regions support wife-beating was legally allowed to ‘control, correct, support and instruct’ the wife by her husband. During the 1800s, wife beating was extremely…
-
Menstruation Exile in Nepal: Another Horrific Social Evil Revisited
In January 2019, a woman in Nepal died in the ‘menstruation hut’ with her 2 kids. They died of possible suffocation or carbon monoxide poisoning from the fire they lit to warm the hut in the freezing cold! Women in Nepal are forced to live in animal sheds or secluded huts in inhuman conditions, during menstruation. Chhaupadi or menstruation exile is a century old practice in Nepal, where women are banned from entering their own house, meeting any people, eating good or nutritious food and participating any social and religious events. This was not the first death of a woman in her menstruation exile in Nepal; there…
-
Breaking the Tradition of Enduring Pain
It is strange to see how we face testing time in life due to gender bias. It is there right in front of us, right from our workplace to our personal space. The major influencing factor being hundred percent tolerance – a quality the women have always been admired for. I have seen the previous generation of women, who followed all the traditions and rituals, trying to please others. They did gain a peaceful life but at the cost of their own dreams. So what is the punch line for our generation? Women have to be 100% tolerant and always have to be at the receiving end. They…
-
How to Get a Job When You Have Never Worked Before
Many women, despite having a good education and advanced degree, are not economically independent. Women, in many societies never get a chance to have a career for various reasons. Some families do not allow a daughter or a daughter-in-law to go out and work. Sometimes, women themselves do not take their professional life and the value of economic independence seriously when they are younger and agree to get married and stay at home until they realize the importance of being self-independent. There are of course women who take a career break for raising their kids or to stay at home when the kids are younger. Sometimes, getting back to…
