Gender and Sexuality, Race and Ethnicity - Essay Example

Gender and Sexuality, Race and Ethnicity Gender and sexuality studies are a field that analyses issues to do with gender identity as well as gendered representation. It encompasses women’s studies (concerning women, feminism, gender and politics), and men’s studies (Kraybill, 2010). Therefore, gender and sexuality would refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. Gender and sexuality are two forces, which shape every aspect of human life. The sense of the equal enjoyment by women of their general human rights remains an important aspect. The Universal Declaration and the human rights treaties prohibitfavoritism on the grounds of gender (Cohn, 2009).Women and girls continue to suffer from gender discriminations such as physical abuse, discrimination, education, discrimination at work and discrimination in the family law. However, the changing role of women in modern society has played a big role in averting gender discrimination. For instance, women and found it difficulty in determining their full rights in matrimonial scenes. Occasionally, the women folk has turned up as the victims in these marriage arrangements (Cohn, 2009). For example, in many cultures, women have found themselves victims of arranging or forced marriages by men. At the end of the day, these measures taken by masculine gender on their feminine folks, results into sexual abuse. In the same note, polygamy is also another cause of discrimination. Women waking up to find another man in the same marriage arrangement she helped to nurture without notice is against her rights (Williams & Dellinger, 2010). In order to mitigate all these inequities, women have risen from the voices of empowerment to fervent activists. Through unceasing fight to have equal rights in marriage, many marriage legislations have come into effect. The creation of Article 16 of the Universal Declaration that men and women of full age, without any limitation as a result of race, nationality or religion possess the right to marry and to conjure up a family, has gone a long way to prevent women from discrimination. The provisions of the law also have guaranteed women that they have the right to that marriage, during the marriage, and dissolution of the marriage (Cohn, 2009). Unlike the chauvinistic discrimination stance, now women have free and full consent to choose who marry.These activism roles assumed by women have greatly salvaged their rights hence discrimination, because of sex or gender is a villainous act. Discrimination at the place of work has worked against women's rights for so long as men continue to monopolize the opportunities (Cohn, 2009). Women have found their position through the provisions of law, to actively engage in serious studies and assume the positions of power in order to champion for the rights of those underprivileged women. The law provides that, under the Act 23 of the Universal Declaration, without discrimination, women have the equal right to equal work, and equal pay. Through the platform of empowering from fellow successful women, those who are disadvantaged have taken this advantage to claim their right (Williams & Dellinger, 2010). By doing so, women have worked against the traditional perception of the masculine society that sees women as not able to assume some positions and not others in a working environment. In addition, women have risen to command the Human Resource positions and avert that notion like in industrialized countries, where women have to bear with a salary that comes with their positions. Again, in these commanding positions, either as managers or human resource managers in a company, the voice of women in providing the same platform as men in promotional terms, bridges the gap of discrimination (Cohn, 2009). As a result, today’s women find it easy to choose the kind of work they would feel like doing contrary to the cultural mentalities or educational discrimination (Williams & Dellinger, 2010). The current global woman lives in a society that would respond to her needs of learning and earning a job, of whichever position, away from the house keeping bondage, which limits their development opportunities. Moreover, because of their sexuality, women have lived with the denied right of their education. The masculine society views women as not suitable for quality education, rather a means they can sell off to marriage and earn wealth. This comes as a proof by the limited number of girls enrolled in schools compared to boys (Cohn, 2009). In many countries, women in power have ensured that education becomes part of the universal rights for every child irrespective of gender and race. Their advocacy is that women are not supposed to stay at home as housekeepers or delve in hard labor while men are in classes. The women in influential positions of power fight hard to ensure women do not get substandard jobs because of their low level of education (Williams & Dellinger, 2010). Through this mechanism, women have overturned the chauvinistic discrimination ideologies men rode on their expense. Martin Luther King Jnr remains one of the notable Americansin the 20th century voice on Race and Ethnicity (Duffy, 2011). Martin understood better that in the ‘all-welcome’ society like America was, the unprecedentedsocial interaction of people, the issue of discrimination in relation to gender, race or ethnicity was ruinous to the American society. He famously equated this with the idea of non-violence, and non-annihilation. Martin Luther fought fervently for equal human rights, with zero discrimination (Duffy, 2011). One of his famous speeches on ‘I have a Dream’ said that he would love his children to face judgment, not because of their race or skin color but through their contempt of their character. By such terms, Martin was against the white American discrimination of the blacks, who had no right to marriage, education, work, or even voting. Luther King pointed that everyone (regardless of color, race, and ethnicity) was responsible to extend to the other the freedom and rights deserved (Duffy, 2011). Through such remarks, Martin Luther meant that whenever discrimination occurs with a particular individual or people of a certain ethnic society that society cannot be complete. He said that, a man could not isolate himself without suffering insufficiencyhence showing the significance of the other person, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. Martin wanted a free society that took every other’s right into full observation, not discrimination. To some greater extend, Martin Luther’s policy was the idea of assimilation of the American people and forge a unitary society despite their racial differences and ethnicity background. In this policy, he meant that the power bestowed in one community’s culture would eventually provide diversity as compared to the indigenous culture of the other (Duffy, 2011). This would not have happened if the rights of every American (black or white) lead the way. Martin’s ideas that no one can become what he wants to become unless the other person becomes what also he/she desires to become provides the platform of how important each individual’s rights are. One would assertively point out that Martin’s proposition inclined more into allowing every human person in America to enjoy his/ her rights (Duffy, 2011). Even though the recent actions in the world against a certain race or ethnicity have stained the faultlesssplendor and buoyancy of King’s Dream, universal human rights remain to be the first priority for all individuals inthese forms the very foundation of anything that an individual can do in a society. Guaranteeing full human rights and freedom to everyone means that the society would mount high and hold closeto one another as brothers and sisters, despite their difference in ethnicity, color,or race of one’s skin. Fighting for the rights of all made Martin a hero in every sense of the word (Williams & Dellinger, 2010).His philosophy helped change the world in the 20th century through poking all what hailed the global society, not American in particular, but also other parts of the world (Duffy, 2011).To him, discrimination was not a vocabulary that is existent in human co-existence. References Cohn, S. (2009). Race, Gender, And Discrimination At Work. New York: Westview Press. Duffy, M. (2011).Making care count: A century of gender, race, and paid care work. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press. Kraybill, D. B. (2010).Concise encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press. Williams, C. L., & Dellinger, K. (2010).Gender and sexuality in the workplace.Bingley: Emerald. Read More