Major Gender Equality Problems and 10 Solutions

Back to: Gender, School and Society- Unit 1

Gender is one of the most common ways of organizing the social life of human beings. Parents assume boys and girls to be different ever since infancy. In the 1970s, the feminists viewed can the notion of gender as a ‘construct’. Hence, Gender can be regarded as a socially constructed concept used to differentiate men and women and assign them different roles and responsibilities, and so on. Social construction refers to the knowledge created and assumed by social institutions rather than possessing any inherent truth on their own.

Major Gender Equality Problems

The major gender equality problems are as follows:

Pressure

The differentiation of roles between men and women may lead individuals to feel pressured as they may not be able to do things according to their personal preferences.

Performance

Since gender roles are ingrained in human beings from early on, they can affect the performance of men and women causing them to perform according to the expectation of society when they can do better.

Burden

Women have more burdens than men as they are expected to be caring, nurturing, and do all the household work even when they may have a job while men are not expected to do the same.

Discrimination

The difference in gender roles has led to numerous cases of discrimination towards women such as child marriage, domestic violence, and the like.

Mental Health

Boys are assumed to prefer blue rather than colors like pink and if they are seen to like the same, they are often called feminine, or they are assumed to have a mental problem that may go on to affect their overall mental health.

Pay Gap

In many professional fields, there is a huge pay gap between men and women. Even when they may be doing the same work, men get paid more. This can cause frustration among women and for a long time, there has been a demand for equal pay.

Promotion

In their work field, men are the more popular choice when it comes to promotions than women. This leads women to not get paid for their worth and to ensure equality the government must develop facilities that can offer equal treatment to individuals of all genders.

10 Solutions for Reducing Gender Equality Problems

The 10 solutions for reducing gender equality problems are as follows:

Reduce Pay Gap

The pay gap can be reduced and both women and men should be given equal pay based on their work.

Financial Investment in Schemes and Programmes

From education to career opportunities, the government needs to ensure that every individual has a secure future.

Funding

The government can fund households with a girl child to reduce discrimination based on gender.

Community Participation

Awareness about the consequences of gender discrimination must be spread in the community and everyone must participate in combating the same.

Women Empowerment

Not just men but women must also start empowering one another so that they can advance more.

Equal Opportunities

There should be equal opportunities for all individuals regardless of their gender.

Reduce Stereotypes

Several stereotypes related to men and women such as men are engineers and women are nurses must be stopped.

Parenting

Parents should stop differentiating the likes of girls and boys such as saying pink is for girls and blue is for boys.

Share Household Work

Boys should participate in the household work equally as girls.

Attitudes

The attitude of believing that men are superior to women must change. Developing an empowering mindset is a must to bring a positive change in society.

Several measures are being taken to combat gender discrimination in today’s age but there are certain places where it still exists. Therefore, taking steps to prevent the same is necessary.