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Lack of Choice between Countries

The troubles that girls and women encounter in their lives are a result of inequality due to being discriminated in all spheres of life: education, marriage, workplace, and health in developing countries. This makes us question why there is a lack of freedom for females between various countries? In terms of education, although sexism is apparent in the education system in the United Kingdom, young girls still have the choice to attend school and pursue a career. However, educating young girls in developing/poor countries is a global issue which needs to be tackled immediately.  Whether an individual is eligible for education shouldn’t be driven by a child’s gender, yet statistics show how globally, 130 million girls are not in school and approximately 15 million girls will never experience entering a classroom (Paddison, 2017). The lack of choices for these young girls is despicable, and the fact that they don’t have the same opportunities as men and young girls in ‘stable’ countries shows how equality still doesn’t exist in developing countries. Others have it worse than some which shouldn’t be the case regardless of culture, class or race (Paddison, 2017).

Recently, attention has been paid to the concerns of impartiality in education between different countries. South Asian and African countries are targeted as one of the many to suffer from gender inequality therefore leaving girls and women with a lack of choices.  In Ghana, inequality in education for females can be worse as those who live in an urban dweller and are financially stable receive better education whereas rural individuals who are poor get either zero or less education (Senadza, 2012). That being said, Pakistan is presented as 143 out of 144 countries that suffer from inequality with the educational sector being the lowest in society (Feroz,2019).  One prime contemporary example of gender inequality in Pakistan is the case of Malala Yousafzai who got shot for attending school and standing up for her rights in education (Biography,2018: 3min 17). All she ever wanted was to pursue a good career in the future and be educated however, men in Pakistan were completely threatened by the idea of a woman having more power. Equality amongst females and males will be accomplished if the state takes action to close this gender gap by stopping gender stereotypes, which is extremely hard for places where culture has an impact as well as gender (Ostby, et al., 2016).

As education is off the list of choices for females, marriage (from child marriages, to force and arranged) becomes the number one priority and expectation from them amongst cultural communities. There is this belief that a female should only stick to ‘household labour’ and ‘look after their husband’, hence why education is seen as meaningless for females (Senadza, 2012). By getting married instantly, it prevents females from make crucial life choices and allows males to have power over them. For example, in poor countries, families often depend on the man to provide financial stability making them the primary breadwinner which means they become a priority whilst women/young girls are left to get ‘married’ despite being too young or not ready (Senadza, 2012). Females who get married young regularly have no form of status or power during their marriages and within the household thus are more likely be victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, other forms of abuse and isolated from friends and families. Due to the cultural norms and values, young girls and women believe that this form of violence or men being higher than them is justified, which is appalling (Senadza, 2012).

Discussions have found that gender differences have its origin in poverty. Gender differences erupts due to a combination of various factors such as culture, race and religion hence why a gender gap persists becoming a continuous cycle. The fact that this cycle has been repeating for decades in these developing countries and nothing has been done about it makes women of colour question when will things actually change? When will there be more awareness on these issues? Why are we not taken as seriously as others?(Senadza, 2012)

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Beauty Standards between Countries

You’d think pulling young girls out of education and instantly ‘forcing’ them to get married thus having a lack of choices for them would be the end of victimising females in non-western countries, however, this isn’t the case as the cycle of abuse continues. Cross-cultural beauty standards for females and societal outlooks associated to women in 2019 still consists of gender inequality. Females are denied equal opportunities based on their skin colour and physical appearance. Opportunities such as education and being ‘good enough’ to be someone’s wife is subjected to beauty standards that cultures have imposed which in some cases are unachievable, thus pressurising females to look ‘their best’ by completely recreating their identity (Berry, 2011).

Asians and Africans (females) are mainly faced with an evaluation (especially before and after marriage) on their physical appearance, stating that females would look better if they didn’t have their ‘ethnic feature’ or evidently looked similar to the ideal ‘westernized Caucasian appearance’ (Berry, 2011). A cultural persuasion exists in society to refuse ‘otherness’ (Berry,2011).  In these countries, men do experience some form of social appearance directives however, this is not even close or on the same level of pressure that females experience throughout their lives. It has been statistically found that females, cross-culturally, obtain several attempts to altercate their appearance to meet the cultural standards and standards of what men want- which shows the level of power males have in these countries (Berry, 2011). Whilst there is a norm of what constitutes as ‘beautiful’, there are cultural variances on what comes under the beauty category. This means each culture has different set of norms, values and preferences, and therefore society defines what is considered ‘beautiful’ (Berry, 2011).

Colourism is a global issue and historically is a legacy of slavery, which affects women/young girls daily. ‘Whiteness’ or having light skin is considered a crucial aspect in female beauty amongst Asian and African cultures. There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of skin whitening products and advertisements in Asian and African markets for women (Li, et al., 2008). Statistics show that 77% of females in Middle East, Africa and Asia purchase products to whiten their skin colour. In other countries such as Thailand and India, skin lightening, and bleaching products equate to more than half of the dermatological market (Nadia, et al., 2018). For example, in Pakistan a skin lightening product called ‘fair & lovely’ is popular amongst girls and women to westernize their appearance and make them ‘suitable’ for marriage. There is this belief in Pakistan that if you’re not ‘fair’, the chances of getting married and being successful is very low or non-existent. Others are told that if their skin isn’t ‘pure’ they will lack a ‘bright future’. In India, having white skin is classed as being part of a high class and cast (Li, et al., 2008). That being said, in India, ‘whiteness’ and ‘paleness’ are concepts that relate, “signifying distinction, between, and collusion with, the historical myths of paleness associated with feminine discourses of beauty, and ‘whiteness’ as an imperialist, racialized value of superiority’(Li, et al., 2008:444). A study which was conducted by the Human Relations Area many years ago found that amongst 312 different cultures, 51 skin colours were presented, and the lightest skin colour was preferred out of the many (Li, et al., 2008). This itself shows why females are pressured into meeting the cultural beauty standards.

It has been found in these cultural countries that even when a woman or young girls get married, abuse is thrown at them by men, in-laws and society in general for not portraying beauty standards set by that particular culture/country. From the stages of childhood to adulthood which is a crucial period for development for females, discrimination and stereotypes as result of colourism can not only impact the lives of females in a negative way but can result in a lack of opportunities in comparison to men (Nadia, et al., 2018). In a Guardian article, ethnic minorities respond to their colourism experience. A Bengali woman was told as a child that it will be very difficult and hard for her to get married and find love due to her skin colour, which stuck with her and is a memory that she can’t erase. Furthermore, a Ghanaian woman stated that  colourism is an issue that affected her massively. She stated that skin bleaching was an ongoing issue in African countries however, this has increased more with the rise of social media(the Guardian, 2019).

Colourism is a feminist/gender inequality issue as whilst females are scrutinized for their physical appearance, men (of colour or not) are permitted to have dark skin without having to change their appearance. This does not impact them in a negative way which shows the power they hold. Dark skin guys who have been brought up in black families are allowed to refuse females who have identical features and the same colour as them without any fear of being criticized (the Guardian, 2019).Moving from educational sector, women still have a lack of choices when it comes to their own physical appearance between countries.

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Feminist Perspective/ Why is this happening?

Feminists are the first to voice that a number of females have been eliminated from universalist theories (Okin, 1994).  Other feminists have noted that whilst a lot of theories are up to date with sexism or omission, they have excluded class, race, religion, and poverty. White middle class and upper-class feminists have disregarded or reacted insensitively towards problems that women of colour, different cultures and religions face in other countries (Okin, 1994).  In terms of black women, history has assembled black females sexuality and femininity as being deviant in comparison to White women who have been represented in a positive manner (Carby, 1982). Black and Asian women continually question, and battle ideologies targeted towards them on a daily basis (Carby, 1982).

Radical Feminists explanation behind gender inequality in developing countries is a result of the state’s dependence on females for biological reproductive jobs(Stromquist 1990). Females are not prioritized due to being assigned the reproductive jobs. This means that, the state put men first and improve their education instead (Stromquist 1990). A feminist intersectionality theory now exists to refer to the experiences of ethnic minorities, working class females and compare it to those who are ‘privileged’, which can explain gender inequalities between countries.  The term intersectionality was established by Crenshaw in 1989 who explained that whilst those in western communities deal with only sexism, others have to deal with race, ethnicity, class, disability and culture on top of that (Chulu, 2015).

Feminists have found from studies that intra-household differences are found to aggravate the vulnerability of females. They argue the reason why gender inequalities in these developing countries such as Asia or Africa exist is due to the ‘son preference’. They have voiced that this is varied by social class as poor families have the tendency to discriminate more between sons and daughters than affluent families. Feminists argue the reason why this is happening is because females in developing countries experience gender differences in households, and ‘decision making’, in public policies and in legal codes. As there is an absence of property rights, females are vulnerable to gender inequality and poverty (Chulu, 2015).

Feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche states that in developing countries females are raised in a way to provide for the delicate egos of men (Bylanes,2017). Females are taught to belittle themselves, to make themselves lesser than the man. She further states that females should not have ‘too much’ ambition or have goals to be successful as having any form of power will intimidate the man (Bylanes,2017). Feminist Mobalane Sotunsa argues that many problems that are a concern and important to western feminists tend to have a lack of cultural significance to African women, especially in developing countries (Bylanes, 2017). She states that whilst feminism is an amazing belief for equal rights, it should be catered to all women and culture should be put into consideration. As Adichie says, ‘Culture does not make people, people make culture. If it is true that full humanity of woman is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture’ (Bylanes, 2017:1).

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Reflective Piece

Using Gibbs 1988 reflective model, I will express my thoughts, progress and concerns that I experienced during this project. In order to accumulate this blog, I had to think of a clear issue that I could develop throughout the blog, which I found quite stressful. Out of the many gender inequality topics, my initial thought was to pick a topic that I could relate to, hence why I chose ‘exploring cultural gender inequalities between countries’.  The reason why I wanted to look at gender inequalities in different countries was because I went to a non-western country previously and saw some of the differences amongst females and males. Having seen this, I wanted to research further and explore the reasonings behind it. One aspect that I found quite challenging was thinking of topics for the three blog entries. Initially, I wanted to do my first blog on education, then on forced/child marriage and the last one on female genital mutilation. I came to the realisation that as these three topics were strong, this blogs ultimate focus would be unclear thus why I chose brand new topics. As I knew what my main focus was (lack of choices between countries), I began to research academic journal articles, newspaper articles and documentaries.

Before the creation of the blog, I was feeling quite overwhelmed and anxious due to the fact I’ve never written a blog before. I didn’t know in which way the blog was meant to be written, eg academic style or not as formal. As this became a huge worry for me, I met up with one of the tutors and expressed my concern and she explained to me what the blog must have in it. Whilst creating the blog, I had mixed feelings, from feeling satisfied as I found a topic, to very distressed during the research process and the time frame that was given. After writing the blogs, I am feeling relieved that it is done however at the same time worried to see whether I have met each criteria. One thing that I enjoyed whilst writing the blog was reading articles and seeing different viewpoints relating to my topic. As I am a female and woman of colour, it was eye opening to see the lack of choices females have in different countries.

However, the research process was frustrating as there was a lack of journal articles/sources that focussed on gender differences that females experience in non-western countries.   It was difficult to find specific journal articles and took a long amount of time to find it as I had to dig deeper. Aside from this, I found writing the structure of the blog quite confusing, however doing my research by looking at various other vlogs, I hope that I tackled this difficulty. I think planning my time and effectively sectioning how I would write/prepare for each section went well. I created a plan, for example I focussed on the outline for a couple of days and then the first entry and so on. This allowed me to manage my time but was far more relaxing as I was able to use my initiative effectively. The reason why the research process didn’t go well during the start was because due to the lack of perspectives on this situation, it was hard to search. As this process was difficult, I had to read a numerous of articles and use the bits that related to my blog the most hence why quite a few references were used. Overall, I enjoyed the experience of making a blog as it was something different to what I have done before and definitely made me more confident.

References: 

 Berry, B. (2011) ‘Beauty Standards, Cross-Cultural.’ Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Women in Today’s World,pp. 140-144

  Bylanes, K., (2017). ‘Of Feminism and African Culture’. Nigerian Tribune.

  Carby, H. V., (1982). ‘White Women Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood’. pp. 110-128.

  Chulu, J. (2015). ‘A Feminist Perspective that Poverty is Gendered: Do Women Have Lesser Access to Resources in Comparison with Men?’. SSRN Electronic Journal.

  Feroz, R. (2019). ‘Gender inequality in Pakistan’. [online] Daily Balochistan Express. Available at: https://www.bexpress.com.pk/2017/07/httpwp-mep5f0gk-8ry/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].

 Gibbs, G. (1988). ‘Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods’. Oxford: Oxford Further Education Unit

Huber, J., (2015).’ On the origins of gender inequality’. Routledge,pp. 1-117.

  Jayachandran, S. (2015). ‘The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries’. Annual Review of Economics, 7(1), pp.63-88.

  Kinias, Z. and Kim, H. (2011). ‘Culture and gender inequality’. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 15(1), pp.89-103.

 Li, PH, E., Min, H. J. & Belk, R. W., (2008). ‘Skin lightening and beauty in four Asian cultures’. ACR Nortg American Advances, pp. 444-449.

 Biography. (2018) Malala Yousafzai, Activist. [online] [Accessed on 30thOctober 2019] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6by9NEhT9GM

.Nadia, C., Dlova, N. & Diedrichs, P. C., (2018). ‘Colourism:a global adolescent health concern’. Current opinion in pediatrics, 30(4), pp. 472-477.

 Okin, S. M., (1994). ‘Gender Inequality and Cultural Differences’. Political Theory, Vol.22(1), pp. 5-24.

 Ostby, G., Urdal, H. & Rudolfsen, I., (2016). ‘What Is Driving Gender Equality in Secondary Education?Evidence from 57 Developing Countries, (1970-2010)’. Education Research International, pp. 1-18.

 Paddison, L. (2019). Educating girls: the key to tackling global poverty. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/opportunity-international-roundtables/2017/oct/04/global-poverty-child-marriage-education-girls [Accessed 28 Oct. 2019].

Ridgeway, C. L., (2011). ‘Framed by gender: How gender inequality persists in the modern world’.  Oxford University Press., Volume Vol.16, pp. 181-187.

Senadza, B. (2012). ‘Education inequality in Ghana: gender and spatial dimensions’. Journal of Economic Studies, 39(6), pp.724-739.

Stromquist, N.P., 1990. ‘Gender inequality in education: Accounting for women’s subordination’. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11(2), pp.137-153.