Kwame Anthony Appiah's Missing: 163 Missing Women

Throughout History, women have been permanently oppressed and treated as subordinate to men. They have been considered mentally weak and biologically inferior. The power of their opinion has been limited and in many situations ignored, being condemned to live in that condition for several years. Therefore, we can conclude that the only responsible for strengthening this characterization of women’s inferiority is our society.

Women have always been treated lesser than men and by looking at other cultures we see that woman have little or no power compared to men. Men have always been seen as the dominant gender. Countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Nepal, and many other countries, women are treated less than men. Some of these countries won’t let women get an education, and those who do choose to find education will likely get kidnaped or raped. In other countries, women who don’t get married young get sold to human traffickers. And in most of these countries, pregnant women don’t have the proper healthcare to deliver a baby which spikes the death rate for women and infants. As for men, they don’t need to worry about this since men are

In the world today, women have a say in what they want to do and things that they desire to do. Back in the day, before the 1800’s, women had to be submissive to their male counterparts and do according to what was required of them. In the end, this led to the demeaning of the woman and the concept that women were inferior to men. Even though this concept and perception changed, there have been some countries and regions of the world that have not yet recognized the equality that women deserve. Such areas do not allow women to vote, attend school, have a say in the community, and the women are at the mercy of their husbands, fathers or male superiors (Hartmann, Susan M).

Sociological imagination highlights how society places the two sexes in unequal positions of wealth, power and privilege. It is therefore very useful to look beyond the gender itself and see the global issues associated with it. There are differences regarding the type of gender in different countries, the levels of gender inequality and the amount of violence that are necessary to maintain both systems of difference and domination. Women were always viewed as weak, sensitive, dependent and unintelligent so the society formed a view that they have to sit home, do the housework and raise the children. They were always considered less skilled, incapable of doing a hard work and even now women are more likely to be paid less than man. Women are more likely to be abused and they are less likely to have access to formal power. According to the United Nations, “At least one in five of world’s female population has been physically or sexually abused by a man at some time in their life” (UNFPA, 2000: p. 25).

In Sayyid Ahmad Khan’s, “The Rights of Women”, she introduces the idea of how developed countries, like England, believe that both men and women receive equal treatment, yet it’s evident that this is not true. Thinking back to any point in time one can come up with a multitude of ways women’s rights differ from men’s. For instance, in many cultures women exist only as the child bearers, homemakers, and wives/servants of their husbands, nothing more. Why? Because many men rationalize their ideas about women by enlisting physical and mental explanations as to why women are less superior than men. The idea that men hold more intelligence and strength, while women assert a more passive and caring nature, accounts for much of this inequality. Khan paints a picture of this inequality proclaiming, “A women is like the left hand and a man the right hand.” Essentially, women are less valuable than men, they are only to do simple tasks and help the man with the things he cannot find the time to do. This, in turn, creates a hierarchy of sex with men always inhabiting the top rung of the hierarchy ladder.

Since the early times, women were pictured as “intellectually inferior to men but also a major source of temptation and evil” as well as the weaker sex (WIC). For example, Pandora, in Greek mythology, was a woman who opened a forbidden box which then unleashed sin, plagues, and unhappiness into the world. In the early 19th century, women were only allowed to work in factories or, otherwise, stayed at home and did domestic work; the only professions that was acceptable for them to do was to become a teacher or a writer. In the 1920’s, women gained the right to vote. Throughout history, there has been many issues between the male and female genders, most significantly with the female gender, but, the rights of women have soared since the early times of history.

Ann Levine and Naomi Neft's article "Women in Today's World" asserts that although the status of females in developed countries has vastly improved with society's movement toward a more gender-equal condition, the majority of women remain in a dire state of oppression. Women are more impoverished, illiterate, unemployed, and more destitute than men. In spite of some women's improvements under developed countries' more progressive, gender-equal regimes, education, literacy rates, employment, civil rights, health, and public representation remain substandard for most of the world's females.

In 1984 Barbara Smith spoke of a Third World feminist movement: “And not only am I talking about my sisters here in the United States-American Indian, Latina, Asian American, Arab American-I am also talking about women all over the globe. . . Third World feminism has enriched not just the women it applies to, but also political practice in general.” (Smith 1984: 27) The struggle of many women in the Unites States and around the world is a product of the long legacy of colonization of the land, the people, and the history of people around the world by western, Christian, white men. This legacy has produced a fetishized image of the women of color in the U.S., as well as, in third world countries. This fetishization led to the creation of false

Throughout many civilizations men have almost always been viewed as the superior gender. Society has often perceived men as stronger, smarter, and better when compared to women. Many women during the 1900’s began to speak out against these predominate views of sexism. They strew away from their subordinate occupations of mother and house keeper, and began to make decisions for themselves. It was a struggle for women to gain the support of society.

In order for the world to change, there needs to be brave people that make the change happen. Thanks to hundreds of influential men and women we have improved our world.. They only needed to believe in themselves and in this world's potential in order to fight for their cause. In this men’s world, influential women have worked twice as hard due to their impressive determination to make a change.

The oppression of women unfairly condemns half of the population from having equality solely because of gender. There is no reasoning or proof that women cannot be just as productive as men, yet they are oppressed into being inferior to men. Not giving women equal opportunities as men doesn’t just effect women, “the loss to the world, by refusing to make use of one-half of the whole quantity of talent it possesses, is extremely serious” (Mill, 83). There is no reason to withhold opportunities and education from half of the population because it does nothing to benefit the greater

Women suffer an unequal representation in society, however a growing awareness of this is leading to change. The mid 1960’s saw an uprising, a revolution in society that shaped New Zealand and moreso the world ever since. Over 50 years has passed since the feminist movement was introduced into societies around the world, with many different cultures regarding the work they have done to combat womens rights and gender inequality is sufficient in todays world. However this is not the case, although the world is a far cry from the 1960’s in terms of gender inequality, many issues still remain.

An analysis of example can be derived from the aforementioned discriminatory sexist roles in India that prior to globalization highly favored the male population verses the female population. The female population in India has previously been less than second class citizens. Indian women's cultural roles have been previously defined by traditional customs that are centuries old and no longer apply in this day and age. Previous to globalization, Indian women were to take total domestic responsibility. They were not allowed formal education as the majority of teachers and pupils were male, and the chances of a female remaining chaste was slim in those settings, and related to tradition, females

Throughout history, countless acts of gender inequality can be identified; the causes of these discriminating accounts can be traced back to different causes. The general morality of the inequity relies on a belief that men are superior to women; because of this idea, women have spent generations suffering under their counterparts. Also, a common expectation is that men tend to be more assertive and absolute because of their biological hormones or instinctive intellect. Another huge origin is sexual discrimination; even in the world today, many women are viewed by men as just sex objects rather than a real human being with

Throughout this paper I will focus on the phenomenon of the gender imbalance in Asia. I will begin by assessing the current situation and researching the various causes which have led to it. I shall then analyse the possible consequences to follow and conclude with an outlook to the future.