Potentials Of The Civil Society And Caveats

Throughout History, women have been permanently oppressed and treated as subordinate to men. They have been considered mentally weak and biologically inferior. The power of their opinion has been limited and in many situations ignored, being condemned to live in that condition for several years. Therefore, we can conclude that the only responsible for strengthening this characterization of women’s inferiority is our society.

In the world today, women have a say in what they want to do and things that they desire to do. Back in the day, before the 1800’s, women had to be submissive to their male counterparts and do according to what was required of them. In the end, this led to the demeaning of the woman and the concept that women were inferior to men. Even though this concept and perception changed, there have been some countries and regions of the world that have not yet recognized the equality that women deserve. Such areas do not allow women to vote, attend school, have a say in the community, and the women are at the mercy of their husbands, fathers or male superiors (Hartmann, Susan M).

Women empowerment means to identify all kinds of oppression based on gender roles and to face it. This process has two dimensions: individual and collective. At the individual level, access to information about gender role and its social source lead women to seek for their autonomy and freedom. When they realize that the female social being is a social construction, nor a changeless reality, they can better indentify

“Women often work more than men, yet are paid less; gender discrimination affects girls and women throughout their lifetime; and women and girls are often are the ones that suffer the brunt of acute poverty” (Africa News Service). Oppression shows unjust behavior between men and women very clearly considering their roles in everyday life, for example, women show plentiful potential during hard working hours yet still have to struggle to pay bills and stay out of poverty. Even though women have gained little, but more respect, The Crucible takes place in a time period in which women only have to stay home, cook, and care for the children while the men farm and do real jobs out of the house. Some ladies decide not to take action while others believe women should be able to do anything a man can do, a call for justice is what is needed to start a revolution for females

It’s shocking to think just over a hundred years ago women in the UK had very little rights, they couldn’t vote, they were excluded from higher educational institutes and working outside the home was unheard of. In the mid 1990’s the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) used the phrase “Poverty has a woman’s face” to indicate that women make a disproportionate percentage of the world’s poor. In the exact same report (UNDP, 1995: 4) they also revealed that of the 1.3 billion living in poverty 70 percent were women. Peter Townsend et al (1987) argue that

Gender, Ideology, and the Daily Lives of the Poor , the opposition between those of the upper and

Gender inequality remains a major barrier to human development. Girls and women have made major strides since 1990, but they have not yet gained gender equity. The disadvantages facing women and girls are a major source of inequality. All too often, women and girls are discriminated against in health, education, political representation, labour market, etc — with negative repercussions for development of their capabilities and their freedom of choice (http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii).

Conceability to access to power is very limited and stiffed, but they still try to choose paths or achieve their goals within masculine society (Laura, 2009). On the other hand, agriculturalists women in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from unequally in the distribution of lands and resources although they should contribute in the household expenses while they get less than men do, and they work the same as men do. For the classical system their issues is more about society role, but in Sub-Saharan Africa, women could have economic challenges out of that inequality. “According to sex role theory, we acquire our gender identity through socialization, and afterward, we are socialized to behave in masculine or feminine ways. It is thus the task of

Civil society provides the freedom for citizens improve the US government and fight for the common good. This is a fundamental element in a democratic government because through the “rule of the people”, the government succeeds in protecting individual rights and establishing a just society. US efforts in developing civil society in other countries has been successful, such as countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America, but not in the Middle East. The US wants MIddle East countries to have a civil society because countries that have similar forms of governments and ideals help make strong allies. The Middle East hasn’t transitioned due to Middle East countries’ mistrust and resistance to adapt Western concepts, and rejecting any US funds because it will cause them to transition from an authoritarian rule to a democratic government like the other countries.

In the 1990’s foreign donor agencies enabled the formation of new women-oriented NGO’s. Self help groups such as Self Employed Women’s Empowerment (SEWA) have played a major role in the advancement of women’s rights in India. Many women such as Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan have emerged as the leaders of local

Hegemonies, as Ortner uses them, relate the whole social process to specific distributions of power and influence (Ortner, 145). Gender is not always the most important axis to examine power in society; sometimes the power could be distributed along a different axis such as age or economic class (146). The gender hegemony, which seems to couple with an economic hegemony, is seen in Jennaway’s distinctions between what people believe and what actually happens in the society. There is an idea of gender parity across the sexes, yet women are subordinated in practice (Jennaway, 33-4). Men have a higher status and more economic security (59). Women do the housework and care for the children while still doing other jobs that they are able to secure (49-51). Women are not only subordinate within the confines of their household, but they are muted in society. Women are represented in the sankapan only by men; it is only after menopause that women may gain some social power and a political voice of their own

Gender equality in this area is important because it encourages women’s financial freedom which, according to United Nations Women “sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth” (2015). It also encourages women to demand the same equal status in society and rights that men have. Women, when included in the economic sphere are empowered to demand rights that have systematically been denied because of their sex, such as access to reproductive services. According to Baxter and Kane “women’s dependence on men is a crucial factor in shaping both men and women’s gender attitudes and discouraging women from developing gender attitudes that diverge from men’s. (1995). In other words, part of the reason why gender biases exist is because there has been little differentiation between men’s and women’s identity, and by extension the rights that are attributed to each group. Gender is socially constructed, and while each society constructs this identity differently, it is often in ways that “curtail women’s rights and freedoms, limiting them largely to the family and preventing them from assuming roles in the public sphere” (Jaquette, 2009). Associating women’s identity in this way, is why, the majority of work in the private sphere is done by women, for little to no pay. If women are able to assume roles in the public sphere, for the most part they

The modern world has resulted in earnings, wages and salaries for the women similar to that of men, but the women are continuously facing inequalities in the work force (Andal 2002). This can be attributed to the pre-established notion that women shall not be given access to finance or communication with the world outside of the home which is highly unethical and unfair (Eisenhower, 2002). In the past, they were considered as the underprivileged ones which were not thought of having equal rights but this fact has changed now. For instance, the status of women can be explicitly defined as the equality and the freedom of the women.

Historically, most cultures have considered women to be inferior to men. Much has been done recently to change this, yet many women still face oppression, especially in developing societies. Thus, this freedom is usually associated with affluence. However, in Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo includes assertive diction and contrast to suggest poverty can actually increase the independence of women.

“…women’s rights and women’s being have always been taken for granted, nicely and safely tucked away under the bed of patriarchy. Silence was the virtue of women and passivity their garner, but it was not always so. Traditional societies in pre-colonial times had spheres of power and influence for women in closely-knit organizations that helped them maintain a