Sexual Harassment and Socioeconomic Limitations - Essay Example

Gender Disparities In One Amazing Thing, Divakaruni explores the meanings and implications of womanhood in a society divided by social class, gender, and race. Gender issues, including sexual harassment and socioeconomic limitations, cannot be easily separated from social, economic, political, social, religious, and cultural systems and practices. Gender discrimination is an important issue because it assigns different rights and freedoms to men and women, as well as uneven gender norms and expectations, which result to their unhappiness because they cannot be with the people they love and be the person they want to be. In One Amazing Thing, Divakaruni argues that gender discrimination produces women who are unhappy with themselves and their lives because of the gender norms and expectations that hinder them from developing their abilities and taking risks for their loved ones. Because of gender discrimination, society defines womanhood that clashes with personhood and without personhood, happiness and self-development for women are elusive. Gender discrimination, despite state policies that promotes gender sensitivity and equality, manifests through gender norms, including son preference, which devalues the value of women as daughters who can be happy for who they are. In “Explaining Son Preference in Rural India: The Independent Role of Structural versus Individual Factors,” Pande and Astone studied the reasons for son preference in rural India. They concentrated on son preference as an effect of interest, and they theorized that a person’s son preference is a product of a complex process that the society, the household, and the individual factors shape. They investigate these factors that affected son preference from the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their sampling included 50,136 ever-married women. Findings showed that social norms, household and individual factors impact the decision to prefer sons over daughters. The same practice is evident in One Amazing Thing. Mohit’s parents do not want him to marry a Chinese woman, whom they think does not deserve to marry an affluent rich Indian man. Their preference for the son superseded their preference for their son’s happiness. One can only imagine what a woman feels when she realizes that because she is a daughter, she is less than a son. The love of her parents will always be inferior. Then when she grows, she becomes aware that this problem goes beyond her house. It affects the entire society, or rather, it infects the whole civilization. Being a daughter is her first state of defeat; it is the defeat of being a daughter, which will eternally turn her into a second-class citizen. Gender discrimination produces unfair gender norms and expectations that delimit women’s capacity for self-development. Mrs. Pritchett wants to feel loved, but she feels it is too late for she married a self-centered man who is unaware of her needs as a woman. She has not developed her personhood because of her restrictions as a woman. These experiences are unique to women because of their womanhood. Their patriarchal society produces unfair perceptions of women. Gender prejudice drives discrimination that turns women into slaves of men, and as wives, they are slaves of their husbands. Those who are poor are worse off. Mangalam experiences sexual harassment, though this gives her power over a life of poverty. Nevertheless, her experience shows that because she is poor and a woman, she cannot attain the kind of life she wants to have. Sexual harassment is common in patriarchal countries, especially among the working-class women, since they are often powerless against these male sexual predators (Gupta 95). Being a woman and being poor are the worst human conditions because they prepare women for a life of servitude, and with servitude, disappointment looms. Middle-class women are trapped in middle-class norms. They are afraid of what their society will think of them if they challenge the norms. Working-class and poor women cannot rock the boat. They are already struggling for their survival. If they become vocal because of women’s rights, they might lose everything, including their lives. They can only stay where they are- disempowered women trapped in the pernicious cycle of poverty and gender discrimination. Aside from gender discrimination’s impact on self-growth, unhappiness is a key outcome too. Uma shows that she can oppose her racial group’s gender norms by her sexual relationship with her boyfriend, Ramon. Nevertheless, somehow, her conservative society criticizes her. Jiang could have married someone she loved, if not for racial and gender discrimination. These are women who cannot find happiness because of their gender limitations. They are forced to conform, or they will face stigmatization. Either way, they are losers. They do not own their bodies and minds because the society controls everything. They can only go with the waves. If they fight it, they cannot be entirely happy for discrimination will haunt them until their spirits are gaunt with hopelessness. Not all gender norms are bad, assert supporters of patriarchal structures. Jiang is able to find happiness with another man who is the same class and race. If she can find happiness this way, then others should not complain. These supporters believe that traditions support gender norms. Traditions must be protected at all times because traditions have formed lasting social relationships. But can a society be called good and flourishing, if its women are languishing in its broken dreams and deficient identities? Women should be able to flex their wings and attain their personhood. If it means being dewomanized, then so be it. Or else, they will be miserable and incomplete at the same time. Happiness is a choice, so they say. Women in patriarchal societies know better. They do not have choices; without choices, they cannot be happy. As women, they are nonpersons. They have no rights and freedoms. They are not human beings. One Amazing Thing argues that being a woman is not amazing when all society wants is to control her. The only amazing thing is a free woman, who can make choices and become who she wants to be, without social norms and criticism, without the hindrances to her personhood. Works Cited Divakaruni, Banerjee Chitra. One Amazing Thing. Penguin Books India Limited, 2010. Print. Gupta, Rakesh. Women and Society. Delhi, India: Kalpaz, 2005. Print. Pande, Rohini P., and Nan M. Astone. “Explaining Son Preference in Rural India: The Independent Role of Structural versus Individual Factors.” Population Research and Policy Review 26.1 (2007): 1-29. Print. Read More