Gender And Gender Inequality

6. How have educational and vocational programs for Indian women influenced birth rate and infant mortality? How have India’s population growth trends influenced access water and food production?

In this short video and article on the topic of gendercide, reporter Elizabeth Vargas travels to India to found out from the people of India personally why there is such a shortage of females. She discovered that although aborting a fetus of a female child is illegal because of the shortage of females, families still continue to abort them because they don't want the burden that the baby girls brings. Vargas also discovered that illegal sex determination clinics can be found just about on every street. Men and their families also the wives to have sex determination tests and abort the baby if it’s female.

The gender of a person is the masculine or feminine attributes of that individual with respect to the psychological and biological role in society. (Magar, 2009) A gender role can be defined as the way that a person lives in society with respect to its lifestyle. It can be argued that over time the major differences between men and women’s gender roles have faded. In the past traditional roles have been based in their society by their biological orientation. (Magar, 2009) Gender roles can also be described as the behavior and attitudes that are expected of men and women in a society. (Faqs.org, 2011) Although different cultures impose different expectations, many cultures have the same basic gender roles.

India’s statistics are similar. According to the BBC “In 1961, for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven, there were 976 girls. Today, the figure has dropped to a dismal 914 girls. Although the number of women overall is improving (due to factors such as life expectancy), India's ratio of young girls to boys is one of the worst in the world after China. Many factors come into play to explain this: infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children. But campaigners say the decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening, and they talk of a genocide”.

The behaviors and societal norms we associate with male and female are socially constructed. As Dr. Thompson states in the film “boys and girls are far more human and far more the same than they are different.” However,

There are difference between sex and gender, and as time passes they become better known. Sex is known as male or female. Sex refers to the biology, the differences of chromosomes and hormones; internal and external sex organs of individuals. Gender is known by the terms “masculine” and “feminine”. Gender refers to the characteristics of a society or culture that are defined as either masculine or feminine. Gender roles refer to the characteristics and behaviors that different cultures attribute to the sexes. The evolution of gender norms happens by culture and region, and over time, there has been less of an emphasis on biology so much to explain differences between men and women, just know society shapes different outcomes and expectations

Many people confuse the definition of gender and sex. “Gender, on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, and characteristics that people ascribe to different sexes. Sex is a biological concept, determined on the basis of individual 's primary sex characteristics.” (Blackstone) Society gives social cues on the appropriate behavior for each sex. For example, women are to exert more feminine traits such as being dependent, emotional, passive, innocent, nurturing, and/or self-critical. On the contrary, men should be more

Such expectations or stereotypes leads to the belief that men are better suited for certain things and women are better suited for others, being that society has appropriated and defined what is appropriate “behavior”. Because of this idea that society

Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.

In her paper on the biological differences in cognition between men and women, Doreen Kimura suggests that the social differences between genders arose out of biological necessity (Kimura 46). Even so, it is difficult to argue that social factors do play a large part in gender in society today. A closer look at both biological and social perspectives will reveal more about the processes that determine gender roles.

People in India show a strong preference to not spend time raising girls. The sex birth ratio in India is one of the worst having 112 boys for every 100 girls born. Gill and Mitra-Kahn believe the reason for this lack of girls is due to

Gender is often related to how we are perceived and how we are expected to think and act, usually due to the way that society is organized, and in fact has little to do with our biological differences. Feminist Sociologist Ann Oakley states ‘most of the debate about gender differences is angled at proving that women are/are not different from men, rather than proving that men are/are not different from women. If this facts needs explaining, it is enough to point out the bias of our culture is still patriarchal…’ (Oakley,

Gender inequality is a critical issue that affects more women than their male counterparts all around the world. Gender inequality is a form of legal discrimination towards women’s rights. In order to progress and grow as a community and society, gender equality needs to be acknowledged. According to LISTVERSE, the top ten “extreme” examples of gender inequality towards women that exists around the world today, specifically in the Middle East and North Africa, are being forbidden from driving, having clothing requirements, having limited access to divorce, education, and travel, being victims of violence, lacking custody rights, being denied citizenship, being in sexual subjugation, and female infanticide. An example of female infanticide is that the normal ratio for births in India should be 950 girls for every 1000 boys. However, some regions report numbers as low as 300 for girls (Rushfan). The 650 number gap in the expected to actual number ratio represents all the girls that were aborted or abandoned due to societal or cultural gender inequality towards infants. China is another example of female infanticide. China’s government only allows one child per household in order to not overpopulate the country even more. Parents who want a boy but end up getting a girl neglect and abandon their daughter to try again for a son. The idea that so many parents would abandon their child based on their gender calls for a social change in culture and

Abstract— One of the most developed in the 3rd world countries is republic of India. Even as India has witnessed unprecedented economic growth in the last decade the conditions of millions of Indian women and girl children continue to be deplorable .The unbelievable fact is that India stood in 2nd place in female infanticide( very after china) in Asian continent. Infant female babies have been killed or left to die because they are female .This practice is called Female infanticide. Intentional killing of an infant in womb of a mother is called female foeticide. Every day a

It is regrettable that female infanticide and foeticide are rapidly decreasing the female population throughout India. The main factors that is responsible for the increase in the incidence of female infanticide and foeticide is the low status of women, son preference, and the practice of dowry across all casts groups.