The concept of being “equal” can be defined as treating all individuals with the same respect and without discrimination. Throughout history, the gender role of women has been questioned and scrutinized in comparison to the gender role of men. Thus the notion of sexual equality plays an important role in determining the treatment of women. The central claim of this paper is that women should be treated equal to men. According to the human rights act 1998, every human has the right to equality therefore there is no reason for women to not be treated unequally (Human rights act, n.d.). I will also argue that women are not naturally inferior to men as this is a social stigma believed (Chambers, 2006).
Singer (1975) defined a human person as individuals who are able to create moral reasoning. Hence there are human rights to identify what is moral. Women have these same rights regardless of their gender as they too are considered as moral human beings (Whipps, 2011). There is a right to equality established in the human rights act 1998 thus the unequal treatment of women is deemed immoral.
However Sharp (2012) puts forward a view that women do not have the intellectual capacities to make moral decisions. It is believed that there is a psychological difference between the sexes and that women have a more hyperactive imagination than men (Conley, 2009). Therefore preventing them to implement moral reason. Since Singer (1975) definition of a human involves the ability to make moral decisions, women would not be considered as humans due to their intellectual capacity. Nonetheless to counter argue, women’s hyperactive imagination is also viewed as an advantage as it actually can perfect their ability to reason thus implementing a mental superiority (Conley, 2009). According to Holy Scripture, both sexes were created in the image of God. Thus depicting the notion