Women politics and rights - Essay Example

Women Politics and Rights Introduction From local to global levels, the leadership of women and their participation in politicsare always restricted by several factors over time (Chng, 2002). As voters, women are always underrepresented. Women discrimination and underrepresentation still continues to be experienced in the world even after they have been found to be in a position to take charge as leaders and act as agents of change, and even their right to participate in democratic national governance. Women are always faced with various challenges in their pursuit to take part in national and international political arena (Chng, 2002). There are cases of structural barriers that are shown via discriminatory laws and many offices still limit the possibilities of women in running for various office positions. Capacity niches state it clearly that women are always less likely than their men counterparts to have access to good education, up hand contacts, and the resources that are needed to become effective leaders in the world (Collins, 2009). It has been observed that women from all over the world continue to be greatly marginalized and they are always denied chances to participate in the world political stage that is always a result of discriminatory laws, gender stereotypes, and low levels of education (Collins, 2009). The discrimination also happens as a result of lack of access to health care and lopsided effect of archaic poverty on them. Despite the challenges, there are cases of individual women who have overcome the challenges and have made it be successful in politics and the society at large (Chng, 2002). Female education Female education refers to the complex set of debates and issues that are related to the education of women across the world at all levels starting from primary to tertiary education. Female education touches on issues of gender equity and equality, access to proper education and how this is connected to the alleviation of poverty that women tend to experience (Chng, 2002). Female education also involves the issues of single-sex education and that of religious education. Most feminist movements have over time promoted the importance of all the issues that are linked to female education making the topic to be wide and making the issues to be narrowly defined by the scholars (Collins, 2009). Female education may include issues like AIDS education that equips the ladies with first-hand information on how to prevent them from being infected and affected by the deadly HIV infection. Although, in some areas, women have made it in education more than their male counterparts, like for instance, in the US in 2005/2006, a total percentage of 62 of women obtained associate degrees, 58 percent attained bachelors degrees, 60 percent masters and 50 percent got their doctorate degrees. Again, the education of women with disabilities has also improved with time (Mettler, 2000). There have been calls to improve the level of education of the girl child because it has demonstrated an ability to have clear effects on the economy and the general health of young women and it improves the prospects of the women’s’ community (Osanloo, 2009). The improvement of women education leads to the reduction of infant mortality rates, as educated mothers tend to take greater care of their babies compared to the mothers who do not have any knowledge. In the developing countries, about half the population of girls do not have access to secondary education with statistics showing that, each extra year in the academic ground leads to an increment of the girl’s lifetime income by about 15% (Mettler, 2000). The improvement of women education leads to an improvement in the living standards and that they lead together with those of their parents because women tend to direct all their earnings to their families as opposed to men. Despite all the benefits that are associated with girl education, there are barriers to them accessing it all the same and almost in all the countries in the world. Some of the reasons that make girls not to attend school in some of the African countries like Burkina Faso in an example include the lack of private toilet facilities for the girl child making it hard for them to go to school (Mettler, 2000). The disadvantage of high rates of tertiary education attendance by girls has enabled women to take their paths towards professional careers thus enabling them to have access to better-paying jobs. It is through education that women tend to increase their levels of health status and their awareness too (Osanloo, 2009). Advancing the levels of women education and also offering to them advanced training always leads to later periods of initiation to activities that relate to sexuality, delays the age of getting married and also leads to delay in the age of getting the first child. All these aspects lead to an increment in the possibility of educated women to remain single for their lifetimes. Being single is accompanied by some effects like lack of children and an increasing level of long-term partnership (Mettler, 2000). Temperament movement ending with sales of alcohol Between the period of 1820 and 1860, America experienced the rise of feminine conduct ideologies and an ideal womanliness known as the cult of domesticity. The elements of the code provided people with the socially determined policy for middle-class families. The cult led to the privatization of the options of women to work, options for education that of articulating their opinions and even that of supporting reforms in various sectors of the economies (Osanloo, 2009). Some of the arguments that relate to biological inadequacy led to the conclusions that women were not in a position to actively and effectively take part in the fields of commerce, politics and even in public service offices. The party of domesticity enhanced their responsibilities in different areas. It was written that, to matters that are of concern to the education of the children involved and all the questions that relate to the morals of the children, then the influence of the mothers is considered to be very enhanced (Osanloo, 2009). From this group, the way in which middle-class women tend to respond to the issues of drugs and alcohol abuse in America demonstrates how the cult is both empowered and inadequate. Early in the 19th century, the abuse of alcohol was a key challenge for many of the American men. The problem was largely seen as a fall of the morals in the society and it led to the destruction of many families (Stetson, 1995). Thus, the cult felt it be important to talk about the issue in order to defend their families from collapsing. The mothers took the responsibility of combating the problem of alcoholism and, as a result, they had to bring up their little boys with a lot of care and responsibility. After attempting for a period, the women realized that they were not in a position of dealing with the problem when confined in their homes (Osanloo, 2009). After the realization, some of the women stepped outside the sphere of domesticity in a move to try to stop the sale of alcohol. These women used included those of protest, engaging in prayers and the use of ethical suasion interfered with diffidence (Stetson, 1995). The women went ahead, mobilized the society and presented to them what they expected from them and shun away from excessive taking of alcohol. The effort of these ladies ended up failing because the family system that they were in did not allow them to be out of their homes for long and they went back to their houses (Stetson, 1995). Suffrage movement Women suffrage refers to the right of women to take part in elections and participate in any electoral office. In Sweden, women had limited powers to vote together with other countries all over the world in the 19th century. It is due to the limited freedom of voting that women had led to the formation of both national and international organizations in a call to coordinate the efforts of women to obtain their voting rights. One of the major groups that were formed during this time was the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1994 (Stetson, 1995). In the year 1893, the self-governing British colony of New Zealand gave all the adult women within its boundaries the right to vote together with the Australian state followed suit in 1894 and gave women the go ahead to stand for political posts in their offices (Tilly & Gurin, 1990). The following years witnessed a number of British colonies changed and gave their women the right to stand for electoral positions and vote from 1902, though the move did not completely eliminate the discriminatory restrictions put against women until the year 1962. Finland was the first European country to come up with the concept of women suffrage followed by some part of the Russian Empire. Russia made history by electing the first ever-female Member of Parliament in their 1907 election. In 1913, Norway offered full suffrage for all the women in the region but the states of Africa did not grant suffrage to its women up to until World War 1 (Tilly & Gurin, 1990). In Europe, France granted the freedom in 1944, Italy followed in 1946, next was Greece in 1952, in 1959 was San Marino, Monaco did the same in 1962 and Andorra followed in 1970. Other late adopters of suffrage were Switzerland in 1971 and Liechtenstein in 1984. In Portugal, women were granted suffrage in 1931 but the practice of gender equality in voting was given to them in the year 1976 (Tilly & Gurin, 1990). Most of the nations in north and South America offered suffrage to its women sometimes just before the Second World War with Paraguay closing the chapter of the last Latin American countries to offer suffrage to its women in the year 1961. After the Second World War, the UN encouraged womens suffrage and there were conventions that were directed towards eliminating all the forms of discrimination done towards women (Stetson, 1995). Conclusion There are several reasons that explain why women do not have political powers and they include the gender gap that brings inequality in the access of resources between women and men. The gap tends to divide the country in most of the ways that relate to the primary requirements of persons living in it. The gap is most pronounced in the healthcare and the education signs and they have been seen to be diminishing with time. These make political equality between men and women remain a dream in most of the countries. In many cases, people have consideration to be the property of men and were denied the right to vote, head any office and any right to own property until recently and the gap still exists up to date. The gap exists due to reasons like gender roles that clearly explain and states what women can do and what they cannot do. Cultural norms are another reason why women are not allowed to go to top political positions because the norms hinder the ability of women to achieve bigger access to power. Sexist policies also form the factors that make it hard for women to make it to top political positions. The women representation by the media is another element that makes it hard for women to make it to politics. In most cases, the media acts as a means of carrying and expressing cultural norms and stereotypes. In an example, men are given priority in taking part plays where they take lead parts in television shows. Most of the TV programs portray women as victims and that notion has penetrated to most people in the society thus viewing them as a weak being who cannot make it lead other people. References Chng, H. (2002). Separate and unequal. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Collins, G. (2009). When everything changed. New York: Little, Brown and Co. Mettler, S. (2000). States’ Rights, Womens Obligations. Women & Politics, 21(1), 1-34. Osanloo, A. (2009). The politics of womens rights in Iran. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Stetson, D. (1995). Human Rights for Women: Women & Politics, 15(3), and 71-95. Tilly, L., & Gurin, P. (1990). Women, politics, and change. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Read More