Gender discrimination - Essay Example

Traditionally, men had better opportunities in life; but this has changed with modern girls and women having better opportunities albeit with many challenges than women in the past (Girls Inc 1). Feminist advocates have fought against social traditions and cultures that devalue and treat women as lesser human beings, and they have achieved valuable gains all over the world (Chesler 3). Their fight has highlighted some of the challenges and disadvantages women continually face. This has made it possible for the legislation of laws against gender discrimination.

In the modern world, prestigious and powerful positions are obtained through quality education and this has traditionally been used to deny women these positions. In the past, education for boys and girls was different with women being predominantly trained on child rearing and housekeeping despite being intelligently at par with men (Deberg 1). This practice still exists in some parts of the world where the girl child is denied education based on worthless religious, social, or cultural norms.

Without an education, women are restricted to low paying unskilled positions; and when married become inferior to the male who provide everything. This lack of independence is discriminatory and purely meant to make women submissive to the men. The modern woman, however, is sexually discriminated in employment promotions, benefits and leaves of absence because of her gender with the majority of the populace in the society having entrenched mentalities that women are the weaker sex supposed to be under the dominion of their male counterparts.

The society has developed cultures based on the biological differences between men and women with each gender having specific roles, responsibilities, and expectations to be fulfilled (Haeberle 1). These cultural roles are discriminatory to women who are only