Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh PDF

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The assignment was assigned to mainly focus on Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh and what role family and society can play to eradicate it....

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GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN BANGLADESH THE ROLE OF FAMILY & SOCIETY

NORTH SOUT SOUTH H UNIVERSITY ANT-101 Introduction to Anthropology Sec: 02

Submitted to: Dr. Bulbul Ashraf Siddiqi (Bsq) Lecturer Department of Political Science and Sociology Date: 23-04-2018

Submitted by: Nishat Tasnim Alam ID#1510011030

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Introduction Gender Discrimination or Gender Inequality or Gender Disparity or Sexism are similar meaning. It is actually the idea and condition of that men and women are not equal. Gender discrimination implies unequal treatment of a girl and a boy based on their sex or gender. Basically girls and women are the main victim of gender inequality than the boys and men. Beside illiterate and lower class society, the educated society is not far from this gender inequality. It is a big issue of society not only in Bangladesh but also in international arena. Gender discrimination is a term that is socially constructed and which is learned from family and society. Mainly the process of gender disparity is a miss concept created by the narrow minded people of the society. It completely depends on how people think, act and accept the fact of masculinity and femininity.

Causes of Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh In Bangladesh, gender disparity starts with birth. But sometimes before the child is born. In our country majority of the population is still illiterate. The light of education has not still reached in some areas of country. Many people, mainly villagers but some upper class family still believe that girls are burden and boys are blessing. In our society there are some people who do test of pregnant woman to know about the fetus is boy or girl though its illegal. If they find the children who is going to born will be a baby-girl, they abort the fetus. The main cause of this heinous activity can be superstitions and some conservativeness. But in case if the child born they do not care about the girl misbehave with her because she is a girl. Whole life the girl suffers for her gender even though it is not her fault at all. This also cause the want for a boy child and result in population increase. They think boys will take care of them when they will be no longer able to work and become old. Another possible cause of gender inequality can be that our society is dominated by the males and they think that women are not capable enough to do any work as they are physically very weak than them. They always want to restrain women so that they cannot become independent and self-reliant.

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Gender Discrimination in Different Sectors 1. Gender Disparity in Relationships: Gender disparity in relationships has been growing over time. But majority of relationship’s, the power is under male control. Males evenly try to subdue and discourage women if they try to do something by their own. Women cannot easily express their idea or feeling to men because they always feel the fear of being discouraged and dejected. Gender equality in the couple relationship was related to higher levels of physical activity amongst both men and women (Annadale and Hammarström 2015, para.19). Nowadays couples are more likely to be co-operative and want to share ideas. But even though somewhere the difference between men and women is not dispelled. 2. Gender Discrimination in Parenting: Parenting plays a vital role in enrooting the discrimination or disparity between a girl child and a boy child. It totally depends on parenting how they shape an infant into a grown up person. In our culture its very natural that fathers are responsible for earning and mothers are responsible for household chores and rearing children. From the very beginning the child started to learn how they have to behave according to their gender. If a father is taking care of children and mother is going out for work this phenomenon will not be supported by our society and people will through negative thoughts to that family. Thus this lead to learn gender inequality in family and the child started to make differentiate between a boy and a girl. 3. Education: Women and young girls are more disadvantaged than men in regards to education. Girls often suffer gender discrimination both within school and within the communityfrom teachers, parents and peers (Nabil,2014). Education is basic need for all and its main purpose is to make people literate. But educational institutions are proclaiming the gender issues. In classroom teachers prefer boys as class captain than girls just because they think that boys have the leadership quality. If girls do better than the boys, they are not being encouraged rather they have to hear harsh words of society. This types of lines break down a girl’s morale and they feel neglected and unwanted. The sitting arrangements is schools are separated for boys and girls. This also shows discrimination among boy and girl. And this may also create an ideology among girls and boys that they are different from each other in every viewpoint and can never be equal.

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4. Career: The gender gap also shows up in professional sectors. The discriminations they face at their workplaces include unequal wages, sexual harassment, shortage of rest rooms as well as toilets, absence of maternity leave. They are facing these problems in both the formal and the informal sectors (Uddin,2016). In Bangladesh there lies a gigantic disparity between male and female in terms of empowerment. Females have to do more struggle than males in our society to establish themselves. They face lot of problems in her whole career as they are still considered physically weak and their working arena is restricted due to socio-cultural and religious conservations. 5. Inequality in Health and Care: Healthcare is another area where girls and women face problems for their gender. In educated society it is considered important as equal as the male about female’s health. But in rural and uneducated society they do not bother about the women’s health. In our rural society women’s eat after the men and they do not get the proper nutrition because of shortage of food for them. Marriage at early age and getting pregnant is very harmful for a girl but rural society does not know about this for this girls are often face serious health issues.

Effects of Gender Discrimination Gender disparity is mainly the consequence of lack of education, poverty and sometimes for the prejudice. As female does not get the chance to express themselves neither in family nor in the professional sector that’s why our country is lagging behind than the other countries around the world. Females are the half of our population and if this half are keeping far from working this would be harmful for our society as well as economy. Napoleon cited that “Give me an educated mother, I shall promise you the birth of a civilized, educated nation.” This line defines that how important it is to educate a girl. Without an educated mother the nation cannot produce a civilized citizen to run the country. Proper health care of women can gift a vigorous child to the society. As discrimination is common fact that’s why female do not get proper health benefit. Rather males are always being prioritized in every sector. This cause early death of females.

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Role of Family and Society in Gender Discrimination Bangladesh suffers from gender discrimination and is present at all community levels. We can see that gender discrimination between women and men is quite strong. In Bangladesh, women are dependent on men throughout their lives: fathers, husbands, and sons (Nabil, 2014). Gender discrimination is a fact that is created by the society and the people living in this society, so it a learning process. Children are very good at imitating. They learn what they see. So, the practice of treating both boys and girls equally should be started from family. Culture also plays vital role in terms of gender inequality. Our family and society does not support the idea of women empowerment and their independence. As a result, girls remain restrained from becoming self-dependent which is not good for any society. Confining girls and women from becoming updated getting out a negative for a nation which cause our country fall behind from development. Family and society is important to stop such actions so that women get the opportunity to contribute in the development process of country equal as men do.

Ways to Eradicate Gender Discrimination To improve the condition of our country it is necessary to focus on the ways of removing gender inequality from our society. Importance of eradication of gender gap knows no bound. 1. Making Education Discrimination Free: Both boys and girls should get the equal opportunity in terms of education. Not only boys should be encouraged but also girls should be motivated because they both are the treasure of the society. If girls get the opportunity they can do better than the boys. 2. Empower Mother: Give women the opportunity to prove themselves. Make the way easier for them to work in any sector. An educated and empowered mother can guide her child in the right way. 3. Give Proper Value to Female: Give women the right to express themselves. Only males will get the chance to present their idea and decision in not loyal. Both should get the proper scope to participate in planning and decision making.

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4. Encourage The Process of Working Together: Both should keep the mentality of working together. We all know a common proverb that “Unity is strength.” If men and women start working together by forgotten the imparity then they can achieve a lot of success. 5. Stop Violence Against Women: Domestic violence should be stopped against women. Men should respect women and show honor to their existence. 6. Stop Early Marriage: Early marriage of girls should be banned. Statistics shows that in Bangladesh 50% of girls are married before the age of 18 and 30% of them become mother which is harmful for their health. It should be stopped for the benefit of our nation so that they can complete their education. 7. Stop Sexual Harassment: Another serious issue is in our society girls are not safe because of sexual harassment. This is one of the reason that they are married at the very early age. If this can be removed than parents can get some relief and will stop giving marriage earlier.

Conclusion Gender discrimination is the unfair treatment of society because of gender. Based on someone’s gender judging a boy and a girl is absolutely wrong. It has reduced to some extent but still it exists and make a lot of people suffer. Only education and side by side progressive thoughts of people of society and family can eradicate this type of injustice. For the sake of development of the country we have to treat equally the half portion of our population which belongs to women.

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Bibliography 1. Annadale, E. and Hammarström, A. 2015. Gender Inequality in the Couple Relationship and Leisure-Based Physical Exercise. A Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal 10(7) [Online]. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4510391/ [Accessed: 15th April 2018] 2. Bush, S. 2016. The Parenting Gender Gap: The Different Ways Men And Women Parent. Huffpost [Online]. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sharon-bush/theparenting-gender-gap-_b_11430888.html [Accessed: 15th April 2018] 3. Ferdous, J. and Rahman, K. M. 2011. Gender Inequality in Bangladesh. Available at: http://www.unnayan.org/documents/GenderRights/gender_inequality_in_bangladesh.pdf [Accessed: 15th April 2018] 4. Hunter, C.2016. Live Q&A: How can we accelerate the march towards gender equality?. The Guardian, (10th March) Online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/globaldevelopment-professionals-network/2016/mar/03/live-qa-how-can-we-accelerate-themarch-towards-gender-equality [Accessed: 17th April 2018] 5. Nabil, N. A. 2014. Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh: Beyond Writing!. Available at: http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/gender-discrimination-in-bangladesh--beyondwriting- [Accessed: 16th April 2018] 6. Uddin, J. 2016. Most women face gender-based discrimination in workplace. Daily Sun, (1st May) [Online]. Available at: http://www.daily-sun.com/arcprint/details/132878/Mostwomen-face-genderbased-discrimination-in-workplace/2016-05-01 [Accessed: 16th April 2018] 7. Westhof, D.2011. A perspective on gender equality in Bangladesh [Online]. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Gender_paper_Final_2011_Low.pdf [Accessed: 16th April 2018] 8. Zarar R, Bukhsh M.M. and Khaskheli W.A. 2017. Causes and Consequences of Gender Discrimination against Women. Arts Social Sciences Journal,8.(277) [Online]. Available at: https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/causes-and-consequences-of-genderdiscrimination-against-women-inquetta-city-2151-6200-1000277.php?aid=90685 [Accessed: 17th April 2018]...