I'm Back: The Second Essay "Gender Equality"
Composed on September 2020
Gender Equality Creates Better Societies
By Sifaul Lutfiyani
Will men and women be truly equal? Gender equality has been our issue for a long time; the equality of men and women in politics, economic, personal, and social are spoken up from time to time. Unfortunately, there are still some societies that are disposed to limit the movements of women. Women do not get enough trust or support for their capability from people, so they have fewer opportunities to develop themselves than men. Furthermore, gender equality movements are reckoned as threats for men as those who mostly have more influence on societies. Therefore, those are often either limited or banned at all; consequently, women tend to depend on others and have lower prosperity than men. UN Women (2018) mentioned that women accessing financial institutions are less than men; they are those who are most likely to suffer from poverty. Also, since women are inclined to hold a smaller role in society, their rights as the parts of it are most likely to be unfulfilled. UN Women (2018) reported data that show a multitude of discriminations toward women related to jobs, such as legal restriction for women from having the same options of jobs as men, prevention for women to work in some occupations, and a legal right for husbands preventing his wives for working. However, there is no law to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace in some economies. If this keeps on happening, women will become the left aside parts of society. As a result, it will lead to different problems that impair society’s balance due to inequality. Gender equality should not be seen as a problem, mainly for men. Instead of building any kind of competitive atmosphere between men and women, we better look at the synergy and collaboration of both to improve society by giving them equal opportunities.
First, men and women should have an equal chance of educations to improve their abilities. Those are significant for men and women related to the skill and knowledge which are needed to do particular jobs. Nevertheless, there are still several people who think that educations are not extremely important, especially when it comes to women. The research showed that home situation, culture, and finance are mostly the reasons why students left the study programs (Saveriens, 2011). Particularly for female students, one of the biggest causes is that society leaned to think that women will not have a bulk role in society, so they do not need to have an exemplary education level. They lack support from their parents, friends, and other people around them. Saveriens (2011) revealed the data that show male-dominated programs have a larger number than women-dominated programs. It depicts the condition that men have more privilege to access education than women. The limitation of women's education will badly affect their ability to be developed. Educations to acquire specific skills dealing with jobs that are following rapid technological and digital transformations are vitally significant for women's health and prosperity, as well as widen the opportunity for women to participate in the formal labor market (UN Women, 2018). It is why we need to give them opportunities to explore themselves through education. Female students are mostly more academic and than male students though both have a similar score on IQ tests. It is because female students are inclined to put more effort into their studies than male students who are disposed to only rely on their ability (Layfield, 2018). It shows that women seem to be more excellent than men in certain aspects, such as persistence and precision. The combination of these excellences and education will help women to procure more opportunities to achieve a better future by opening broader chances to get more proper jobs. Accordingly, women may have better prosperity so that they can be independent more easily. Besides, Educations can be the beginning of ways for women to contribute to societies in a bulk role by collaborating with men in more influential sectors. Hence, societies will get more power in optimizing their potency by utilizing both men's and women's proficiencies after their educations.
Second, both men and women should have an equal opportunity for every job. The more vital the occupations, the more essential roles can be held in society by that. Apparently, until recent times women are still behind men in terms of the opportunity to work. UN Women (2018) noted that even though educational attainment in OECD countries has increased by about 50% in the latest 50 years, women in the majority do not find any better labor market outcomes for the education gains. Therefore, women have less participation in the labor market than men around the world; they are more likely to be unemployed than men. It is why giving women more opportunities to work in the fields where men work is extremely necessary. Unfortunately, until now, there are still some specific jobs that are dominated by men. Begeny et al. (2020) stated that Women remain underrepresented in several professions, including numerous fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. Regardless of this inequality, women may show better performance than men in specified sectors. For instance, what happens in journalism. More women are working in media, but they do not play an equal role in the reporting process. The parts on which women are in charge the most are presenters; yet, there are only about 29% of them write the news that is disposed to be soft issues (White, 2009). In fact that women may observe more thoroughly than men since they can see the details better than men, so it is easier for them to investigate complicated cases. Another exemplification is when women work as detectives; they are most likely to solve the riddle that requires instinct and precision. Here, we can see that women have the potency to be very valuable for society if we can treat them appropriately. A good illustration of this is when a male detective and a female detective are solving a complicated case. Then, the female detective works with her ability to see the details; the male detective moves with his general point of view to frame the problem. It is easier for them by working together and combining those two skills. Therefore, the collaboration between the male and female-specific competencies makes the work more efficient. For these reasons, gender equality can make society grow better through the improvement produced by the synergy of men and women in doing particular things besides lift women's prosperity by letting them get a more proper job as their self-supporting to live independently.
Third, men and women should have an equal opportunity to lead societies. Recently, power and decision-making remain overwhelmingly dominated by men (UN, 2020). Netburn (2009) reported that even though women are considered as just as competent as men now, they are not seen as assertive enough to ascend into leadership roles. For instance, in the governmental sector, there are only 24.3 % of all national parliamentarians were women, 11 are serving as Head of State, and 12 are serving as Head of Government (UN Women, 2019). From these abundance imbalances, we can see that people's view toward leadership is still leaned referring to men. Whereas, there are some benefits that society can get if women sit in a strategic place. Successful females represented higher scores in the traits of resilience, energy, and empathy. These drivers allowed women to understand their subordinates and colleagues better, bounce back after failures or rejection, and persevere with their efforts for long periods despite persistent challenges (Caliper, n.d.). To exemplify, since the leader herself is a woman, she has incremental concerns toward other women than a male leader. Thus, a female leader can help women to speak up for their rights and help them to fulfill them through her policy legally. Accordingly, the decision will be more powerful to be obeyed by society. Therefore, the gender equality rate in many fields will rise. Not only in the government sector but also in the economy, women are pretty trustworthy to be leaders. UN Women (2018) mentioned that companies increase their organizational effectiveness and growth after the increasing employment and leadership opportunities they give to women. Being a leader can be said as the most critical way for women to fight gender equality issues, particularly when it comes to the fulfillment of rights. If women can occupy the strategic places of society, it will significantly lift the rate of women's independence that then leads to increased prosperity. The collaboration between men and women in leadership will make the policy balanced without strengthening any gender as well. Thus, it will also decrease the different problems caused by gender inequality. As a result, the synergy produced by the unification of male and female leaderships will give society wiser and fairer policy leading to a better and healthier environment for both men and women.
In conclusion, gender equality can bring great things to society through the collaborations and synergies of men and women. For that, men and women should have equal opportunities in everything in society. However, until the current time, women are still less than men in almost every field. Women have less access to education, healthcare, economic, and are under-represented in decision-making at all levels (UN, 2020). Thus, women are those who mostly have a lower quality of life in society due to the lack of chances they have. For these reasons, people need to give them more opportunities to be equal to men in every sector. Society should let women access their educations as high as men, let them work where men work, trust them to lead the people as to how society trusts men to do it. Not only to fulfill their rights but give the women these opportunities also will give society good benefits such as the increasing levels of development, improvement, and efficiency. It is because society can get advantages from men’s and women’s strengths in every field they are collaborating. By that, gender equality does not only solve the problems of women but benefits all people as well. It means there will not any sides will be lost out, which here the closest ones are men, preferably, they will also take the advantages as they are also parts of society. To make all societies in the world conscious of these things may take a long time as how gender equality may also take such a long time to be achieved. The current rate of change shows that the global gender gap will still be far from us for another 100 years (UN, 2020). Still, it is possible to happen. All we need is those who have realized how crucial this issue is may start doing their actions. Those who have the power to help women get their rights may contribute to the movement. Changing societies’ stereotypes toward women may be difficult, but they will open their eyes if they see the proof. Therefore, giving women opportunities to prove themselves through educations, jobs, and leadership will help them a lot in showing their qualities that are also very valuable for society. UN (2020) mentioned that legal reform, strengthening gender-responsive social protection and public service delivery, quotas for women’s representation, and support for women’s movements are all strategies that have made a difference and should be enhanced for the benefit of all. All in all, if gender equality exists, it is not only women who will get the advantages, but also men as part of society. It is why gender equality has enormous potency to make societies grow better.
References
Begeny, C. T., Ryan, M. K., Moss-Racusin, C. A., & Ravetz, G. (2020). In
some professions, women have become well represented, yet gender bias
persists—Perpetuated by those who think it is not happening, 6, 4-13. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba7814
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(n.d.). What makes a woman successful in leadership? Women in
Leadership: Increasing Corporate Collaboration, Innovation, and Goal
Achievement. https://caliper.com.au/women-in-leadership/
Layfield,
Savannah.(2018, Nov 24). Why do girls get better grades than boys?. Education
Elephant. https://educationelephant.ie/back-to-school/why-do-girls-get-better-grades-than-boys/
Netburn, Deborah. (2019, July 19). It’s official: Majority of Americans think women are just as competent as men, if not more so. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2019-07-18/women-more-competent-than-men-study
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