A Step Back in Time; Gender Inequality
The Future is Feminist. You may have heard the saying before, but before we get into how we can make that happen today, we need to reflect on the past and dig deeper. 🔑
The first thing to understand is that gender inequality is not a present-day issue. Although women still struggle for equal rights around the world, studies show that gender inequality is actually rooted back to over 2,500 years ago.
The Stone Age (lasted until 3,300 BC) 🗿
Gender inequality during the stone age? This is when it had supposedly began.
A study made in 2017 analyzes 2,500 year-old teeth that were found in the Central Plains of China. When examining these teeth, researchers were able to show the types and amounts of various elements in the dentin, which was able to reveal information about the life and diets of these individuals.
“We already knew this time period showed increasing inequality between men and women. What we were able to find is that these differences were even evident in what people ate and how they cared for their children, such as gender differences in how long babies were weaned and then the foods they were fed as children.” — Dr. Miller; University of Otago
This study led by the University of Otago showed dietary differences between sexes in early childhood and continued over their lifetime.
Males would typically eat the traditional crop and animal products while women ate foods such as wheat and soy. This led the researchers to two conclusions:
- Wheat is less nutritious than the traditional crop, and although it isn’t significantly less healthy, this indicates that males and females had already started eating and socializing separately during this time.
- In later historical records, wheat (which women had relied on during the stone age) was then considered a “poor man’s food” indicating that these were possible signs of inequality.
In addition, a study made in 2019 shows signs of gender inequality in a later time period during the Stone Age as well (The Neolithic Period). Archaeologists looked at 21 different sites, which collectively contained more than 500 buried individuals to analyze.
When determining the sex of these graves, they found that men were over-represented in the quantity of graves. This meant that there were an excessive amount of male graves compared to women and children.
“The quantity of males cannot be natural,” says Cintas-Peña, an archaeologist who helped to examine these graves.
This had indicated that women and children didn’t afford the same likelihood of acquiring a formal burial as a male in this time period. The types of objects that they were buried with were also different. Men were buried with arrowheads and projectiles, while women were buried with ceramics.
Not only were these signs of gender inequality, this had shown that males and females were treated differently during this time period, which was over 8,000 years ago.
Gender Inequality Today 🌍
Although we’ve made progress since then, gender inequality is still a pressing issue in today’s society.
Gender inequality remains a large issue in underdeveloped countries. Much of the gender inequality in third-world countries is caused by the normalcy of cultural norms that tend to favour men.
Some of these norms may revolve around education, and the result is a lack of education in girls who live in underdeveloped countries. Girls in these places are often prevented from attending school because of poverty and work demands at home. This leads to the outcome of higher rates of child marriage amongst girls in this situation.
Most of these women live the rest of their lives as housewives, with little education, and for some, none. If you were someone in this situation, and managed to get a job, you would be paid far less than your male co-workers.
This creates an endless cycle of poverty, wage gaps, and gender inequality.
However, we often associate gender inequality only being an problem in underdeveloped and third-world countries. Gender inequality is still an issue in first-world and second-world countries as well.
Gender issues in the first world may include things such as the gender pay gap, or unequal job opportunities. This is a huge issue and here are some statistics:
- Canadian women are paid $4.13 less than their male co-workers.
- In the United States, a women earns 82 cents for every dollar a male makes.
- In Russia, a woman earns 75% of what a male earns.
These statistics are alarming, and it’s not all that women face today. Women have to live with a lack of political representation, gender stereotypes, lack of religious freedom, and much more.
So how do we stop this?
Action Plan 🏃🏻♂️
Our goal as a group is to help promote gender equality, and educate ourselves for the greater good. As young individuals, it may seem hard to make much of an impact, and so I’ve created an action plan with 6 efforts you can make in your daily life to help solve this issue.
Read on.
1. Speak Up 🗣️
The most effective way to promote gender equality in your daily life is to speak up when you see or hear signs of gender inequality.
2. Donate 💵
Making a small donation to the Canadian Women’s Foundation or any other non-profit organization helping this cause is a small but impactful way to reduce gender inequality.
3. Spread Awareness 🎤
Whether it be posting online or just talking about the issue, spreading awareness is an amazing way to help promote gender equality.
4. Challenge Stereotypes ❌
Gender stereotypes are generalizations of a certain gender that are unfair and often inaccurate. You can help to discourage this by challenging gender stereotypes in your daily life and discouraging it when you see them.
5. Listen & Reflect 👂
Research has proven that we all have pre-existing stereotypes on a variety of topics. The first step you can take is to acknowledge these assumptions and to challenge them.
With combined efforts, we are one step closer to having an equal society. I hope this article shed light on this important issue, and provided ways you can help to contribute to this cause.
Before You Leave 👋
This was one of the first articles I’ve wrote. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I would love to gain some feedback!
If curious to learn more…
Check out these links!
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/genderequality/ https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/women/wrgs/pages/wrgsindex.asp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliza-ahmad-669951171/
