Eliminate Gender Discrimination by Building Self Awareness

Gender discrimination and gender based inequality exist almost in every society and is a major cause of violation of human rights of women and girls across the Globe. Gender equality is one of the sustainable development goals of United Nations. Humanitarian Organizations and States around the world have taken up several initiatives , movements, campaigns and educational programs to eliminate gender discrimination from the society.

Every girl and woman in this world are entitled to equal rights and access to education, food, healthcare, political and social justice etc as that of a men. Unfortunately, that is not the case in any society in the world. Even in the most developed countries in the world, women are exposed to many gender based discrimination and violence. Every society and culture has their own clarifications-be it social, political, cultural or religious, in favor of violating basic human rights of women and girls.

We dream of a world free of gender based discrimination and gender based violence. This is possible only by spreading awareness ,education and engaging people from all walks of our society. It would be really effective, if along with spreading awareness about gender equality, all individuals who care for this cause also THINK and PRACTICE gender equality in their personal lives. Gender discrimination are not always associate with very violent or extreme outcomes.

The success in eliminating gender inequality lies to a great extent in accepting the fact that it exists in each of our life, in each and every family and household, sometimes in a rather subtle way.

Let us all start with these 4 small steps to increase our awareness level in identifying and accepting the gender biases affecting our individual lives first —

#1.  Irrespective of your gender, ask yourself, pay attention to your own life, to your family members and surroundings to find out any signs of gender based bias and discrimination.

#2. Do you and your partner,your mother and father, brother and sister, son and daughter enjoy the same rights, privileges, roles and responsibilities, opportunities in their every day lives, towards perusing their career goals and education, expressing their social and political views or leading their lives the way they want?  If not , then do you think their ‘gender’ has a role to play in it?

#3. Then ask yourself what is your role in it. You might or might not have an active role in it, but you would most likely have some passive involvement in that.

#4. Think what you can and can not do to eliminate these gender based biases which are currently existing in your life or in the lives of people around you.

Let us initiate this journey with building our self realization and self awareness around this issue. Together we can make this society a much better and safer place for women and girls.

The basic idea behind this practice is accepting the fact that we ALL have some direct or indirect role in promoting gender inequality in the society.  For example , whenever we think of sexual misconduct against women ,  we think of preventing these incidences by restricting our girls from going out, wearing certain dresses, or going to parties etc. But the problem lies with the boys and men around them who abuses and assaults women. How often do we talk to our boys about behaving and treating women with respect rather than telling the girls and women about what not to wear or where not to go to prevent sexual misconduct ?

Remember, You Too have a responsibility. Let us know if you have any concerns around these issues, any help or any support you may need to carry forward something you wish to do to practice gender equality in your own life. We are here to extend our support and guidance to you to be a change maker in the society. Please read this Step By Step Guidelines for Men to Fight Against Gender Discrimination to access more resources about being actively involved. 

Share your story with us at equalityrightsof@gmail.com.

#womenempowerment #genderequality #humanrights #genderdiscimination #YouToo #womensrights