...Gender Equality in South Korea Women and men share many physical characteristics and mental abilities, but why are men more valued than women even today in many cultures around the world? It has only been a few decades since women started gaining gender equality and power in selected parts of the world. South Korea, which is a very small country with a population of 49.78 million used to be one of the most gender-conservative country, preferring men over women for centuries. Despite this long history of male dominance, the biggest irony that shocked the world and the media recently was that the first female president was elected in South Korea on December 19th, 2012. Park Geun Hye, becoming the first female president, proved how much South Korea has changed over the past decades and one of the biggest reasons why this change and transformation was possible was due to the fast growing economy in South Korea. South Korea became one of the world’s fastest-growing economies from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. For a small country that was invaded and followed by a three decade long occupation by Japan, and then the Korean War (Korean civil war between North with USSR and China and South with NATO), South Korea was war-torn and impoverished for the first half of 20th century. However within a decade, South Koreans worked harder than ever before to create a successful country. South Korea and is now ranked 15th in the world by nominal GDP and ranked 12th by the purchasing...
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...Gender Equality Women have faced major discrimination when it comes to work and sometimes in education. Women decades ago had a wide range of opportunities denied to them due to their sex. Women have always been looked upon as the weaker sex and men as stronger and as the rulers. Women years ago were not seen as individuals, they were basically their husband’s slaves. Women were the ones to stay home, make dinner for their cranky and tired husband, look after their children, clean the house and answer to their husband. It was pretty safe to say that women were never the ones that over ruled this society, but “there have been huge changes…” (182) in gender equality. Gender equality has changed dramatically over the years and the shift toward gender equality will continue over the next years to come. It all started in the 19th century something important was born and it was the birth of the women's rights movement. Women were tired of being the “caregiver[s]” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage) while the men were the “breadwinners” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage). Women had to do change things around because they could not live the same life they were living. Many of the “women were suffering under the dominance of men in their lives” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage). It was time for women to fight for “gender equality in family and society economics, social, cultural, and educational fields” (Gender Roles Within American Marriage). It was not easy for...
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...Making gender equality a reality The history of the world serves as a testimony that, in the days of yore, men were considered as the bread-winners and women as the nest-builders. As far as women were concerned, they were entrusted the responsibility to transform the brick-made house into a love-made home. The men had only to support the family financially. In fact, the women were stigmatised as homely-made furniture in the eyes of men. Unfortunately, this patriarchal trend still prevails in this so-called revolutionized world, where women are, once again, characterized as inferior. If the world has really undergone a revolution, then why this corrupt attitude towards women has not yet changed? However, the law has as its main motive to preserve and promote human rights, and gender equality is the crux of those rights. Gender equality does not only stand as a process of equal valuing of the roles of women and men, but more precisely, as a practice to overcome the obstacles of prejudices so that both sexes are subject to the economic, social, cultural and political developments of the society. It simply aims at equal perception, equal empowerment and equal responsibility in all spheres of life. One can be surely flabbergasted to acknowledge that achieving gender equality necessitates the presence of men; those men, because of whom, the word gender...
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...How gender is related to disadvantage in the UK Introduction Gender is the socially ascribed and constituted version of what is thought of as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’, and the relations between (Olsen et al, 1990). From time in memorial gender inequality has been a prevalence social hitch and has largely been practiced towards women around the world effecting different aspects of their life. The aim of this essay is to discuss how gender inequalities have evolved in recent decades in the UK. To achieve this, I will commence by presenting a historical insight into gender inequality, identifying the roles and expectations of women and men in society during this period. I will then identify the different forms of inequalities experienced by the genders and how these inequalities have evolved in recent times. In order to fully understand the extent of these inequalities I will discuss the sociological perspectives on the social problem, looking at the works of earlier sociologists and Marxist scholars Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels. I will then identify the policies implemented by the UK government to eradicate all sort of disadvantages associated gender from society and its effectiveness in abolishing the social problem. Finally I will conclude by identifying the benefits and possible boundaries of the UK government’s policies that have been developed to fully eliminate gender disparities from society. For far too long, women have tolerated unfairness at the hands of male...
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...Transgender Rights, Equality, and Respect Jamie Hogan Transgender issues and rights seem to be at the forefront of media for the first time ever. While Caitlyn Jenner has been met with excessive criticism, she is the main reason this topic is so popular in the media this year. Many people seem to be frustrated with hearing about her, but I will use her as an example to make the topic more easily understood. Every time I see an article about her, it is followed by countless comments calling her “Bruce” and using the incorrect pronoun. This also happens on every other article I have seen about anyone who is transgender. While some people are doing this intentionally, there are many people that identify transgender people inaccurately simply due to lack of knowledge. It is not a common topic and so I wanted to help educate as many people as I could about what it means to be transgender. Transgender rights were already an important part of my life. I was friends with three people that are transgender. My best friend from high school is one of those people. I remember when she told me she wanted to become a girl. I did not react in a surprised way. I just told her “Do whatever you need to do to make you happy. That’s the only thing that matters.” She told me she loved my reaction because I did not act like it was a crazy idea. She said it was like she told me she like pasta, like it was a totally normal thing to say. Although she was my first transgender friend...
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...Her father was a self-taught doctor who believed strongly that Mary and her four sisters deserved equal rights and equal education. Mary was one of the first and only women ever to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor (“Mary Edwards Walker." Encyclopedia of World Biography). The biggest boundary that Walker faced was gender equality. The author also writes, “Walker refused to back off from her lifelong insistence that women deserved nothing less than full equality with men” (Mary Edwards Walker." Encyclopedia of World Biography). Walker did not give up on her dreams, just because she is a woman. “Walker challenged the social and cultural mores of the Victorian-era middle class to their limits and in the process out-raged the sensibilities even of those who believed themselves tolerant and progressive" (Mary Edwards Walker." Encyclopedia of World Biography). Walker did whatever she needed to prove that she could be just as good as the male scientist, even if she had to challenge everything and...
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...LGBT Equality With the recent legalization of gay marriage in California and Maryland the ever-present debate about same sex marriage has been intensified. It seems that every year there are a couple of events that make some people celebrate the progress in the fight for equality, and others disapprove of these happenings and say that decisions like these will take the world to chaos and disaster. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community has always fought for equality and, in recent years, there have been many milestones in the fight towards equality. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of opposition to the idea of marriage equality and LGBT parenting. Religious beliefs are one of the primary reasons for people to oppose the idea of gay marriage and ideas of homosexuality being natural in general. In addition, strong ties between Religious institutions and governments create an environment where it is hard for members of the LGBT community to get the same legal standing as their heterosexual counterparts. In many countries homosexuality and acts of homosexuality are considered crimes. In some countries, like Iran and Saudi Arabia, being gay is punishable by death (Foreign Policy). People have the right to marry the man or woman they love and have a family with them. Unfortunately, this is a right that is reserved for heterosexual couples, mostly because of religious mentalities and traditions. Governments should legalize same sex marriage and adoption, because...
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...Women in the Middle East 1. Introduction 2. Before Islam 3. After Islam 4. Marriage 5. Education 6. Modern Day -Examples from different Arab countries -Arab Spring 7. What’s next? 8. Citations 1. Introduction Over the course of history, women in the Middle East, not so much different than around the world, haven’t been attaining all their full rights and haven’t been quite satisfied with the status of gender equality that the world continues to lack. The Middle East has its more than enough share with this ever-continuing phenomenon. The situation changes with every passing day, as it is affected by our effervescently changing political and social status. Religion has played an enormous role in the matter, as did politics, economy, and social standards. Women’s rights have increased and decreased soon before it was satisfactory enough. This continues and will continue to happen until women find themselves satisfied in our men-driven society. In order for one to judge the current and possible future status, we must understand the past and how women’s rights evolved to become where it is right now. 2. Before Islam Women before the dawn of Islam had practically no legal status in opposition to the traditional and standard tribal laws. Their own fathers sold them to their husbands or legal guardians; they had no choice in the matter and could be left at anytime according to the spouse’s will. They had no private property or rights...
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...Ever since the beginning of time, Men have always been perceived as superior to men and society nowadays continues to treat women even in the workplace, The glass ceiling however is mostly used to describe the limitations imposed on qualified women in the workplace. Woman who is graduated from bachelor degree has less chance to apply the work due to the gender. It has conducted me the question about gender inequality at workplace is still in the society. B.The purpose of this paper is to show that women nowadays are afforded more opportunities than in the past and the role of women in the workplace. 1. Society has changed over time but a glass ceiling is still, The glass ceiling symbolises a variety of obstacles. C. There are 3 main...
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...societies with matriarchal patterns in Asia, Africa, America and Oceania. None of these is a mere reversal of patriarchy where women rule -as it is often commonly believed -instead, they are all egalitarian societies, without exception. This means they do not know hierarchies, classes and the domination of one gender by the other. They are societies free of domination, but they still have their regulations. And this is the fact that makes them so attractive in any search for a new philosophy, to create a just society. Equality does not merely mean a levelling of differences. The natural differences between the genders and the generations are respected and honoured, but they never serve to create hierarchies, as is common in patriarchy. The different genders and generations have their own honour and through complimentary areas of activity, they are geared towards each other. This can be observed on all levels of society: the economic level, the social level, the political level and the areas of their worldviews and faiths. More precisely matriarchies are societies with complementary equality, where great care is taken to provide a balance. This applies to the balance between genders, among generations, and between humans and nature. The differentiated rules of matriarchal societies have been meticulously researched regarding existing societies of this type. Merely historical facts will not reveal how matriarchal people thought and felt, how they conducted their politics and how...
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...In the past century, there has been a dramatic change in how the world views women and their roles in society. Specifically, how life for Canadian women has changed and how women from different cultures and countries each face unique problems in being respected and treated as equal members of society. Women have gone from being valued only as housewives in the fifties to CEOs in modern times. This is a remarkable achievement which should have come sooner. Although, even in today’s society women are still subjected to unfair and unjustified prejudice, stereotyping, sexism and conservative old fashioned gender role ideas. Women were believed to be passive and weak which is a complete contrast to how most of the world views women today. When compared...
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...Throughout history, women have been portrayed as the passive, subdued creatures whose opinions, thoughts, and goals were never as equal as those of her male counterparts. Although women have ascended the ladder of equality to some degree, today it is evident that total equalization has not been achieved. Simone De Beauvoir, feminist and existential theorist, recognized and discussed the role of women in society today. To Beauvoir, women react and behave through the scrutiny of male opinion, not able to differentiate between their true character and that which is imposed upon them. In this dangerous cycle women continue to live up to the hackneyed images society has created, and in doing so women feel it is necessary to reshape their ideas to meet the expectations of men. Women are still compelled to please men in order to acquire a higher place in society - however, in doing this they fall further behind in the pursuit of equality. All people are forced to see themselves as society has shaped them, both male and female. Although progress for gender impartiality has been made, it can still be said that societal maxims enforce the incorrect notion that women are inferior to men. In matters of economics, women are offered far fewer employment opportunities, and I believe that this can be validated by the fact that many women have been conditioned to; marry well and let him take care of you; Unfortunately, this is often times a tempting choice, and as a trade-off women are content...
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...companies also believe that women are not suitable for executive jobs either. Young women of today, who plan on having a career as well as a family, accept that they will eventually have to make sacrifices in their career rather than their husband. This has led women to believe and say that “They Can’t Have it All”. The main reasons why women end up saying “They Can’t have it All” is due to factors such as unequal share of roles, an improper work-life balance, lack of flexibility, gender inequality and the lack of women executives and/or leaders in today’s society. In order for all of this to improve and to allow women “to have it all”, flexibility must be implemented into the workplace. Women should also assert equal housework in their home with their significant other. These two reasons alone can allow for more women to advance in the work place while still being a mother. This will help encourage and inspire young women to pursue executive, leading roles in which will eventually improve gender inequality. 1.0 Introduction ( why women can not have it all ) Prior to industrialization, women were held responsible to one role; being a housewife. The women’s role of being a housewife included caring for her family, managing household affairs and doing housework. However, in today’s society, more and more women are entering the...
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...English 11 CP 11 May 2016 The Fight For Equality In Women’s Sports Sports. A pastime that clings to some like a parasite-- a ravenous curse that you cannot shake, and leaves others falling asleep on the couch. No matter which view defines a person, sports are an integral part of our society and our everyday lives. For as long as sports have been popular, men have been in the spotlight-- glimmering and physically menacing gods made solely for running a ball down a field-- but now a challenger has come to challenge their throne: Women. Women have consistently sat on the sideline while men have done it all, but now they want a piece of the action. It has not been the easiest path, much of society has attempted...
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...These patterns of inequality can be interpreted through four major sociological angles: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and feminism. The term media is the plural of “medium” and is commonly found in association with the process of communication. “The mass media include newspapers, motion pictures, radio and television” (Curtis 304). These forms of communication have influenced in a greater scale society with the advance of technology in the last decades. The age of mass communication has made it possible for people to gain access to far more information than any society ever had. Information is indispensable to an advanced and complex civilization to the point of becoming a commodity for which individuals are willing to pay for. However, this commodity has not been a convenient tool when enhancing social values that promote social equality. In fact, it has become a crucial agent in determining various trends of inequality; being social class discrimination and gender discrimination key aspects that foster those patterns. During 1950s structural functionalism was constantly used in studies of mass media, enabling sociologists to examine the role of media institutions (Curtis 305). Sociologists such as Lasswell and Wright established that...
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