The authors tell us that men and women treated so differently in developing countries."Why is acid thrown in women's faces, but not in men's? Why are women so much more likely to be stripped naked and sexually humiliated than men? Why is it that in many cultures, old men are respected as patriarchs, while old women are taken outside the village to die of thirst or be eaten by wild animals?" Half the Sky, p. 67
What things would have to take place to change this?
Women are often the target of acid, oppression, and murder because they are a much softer target than men.
ReplyDeleteWomen on the average are by far less aggressive than men, and although this is a valuable trait for social cohesion, it is a very undesirable trait to have in a conflict. After all, the aggressor wants to do as much damage as possible while at the same time taking as little risk as possible, thusly by attacking women he attacks his enemies while taking very little risk since women are by and large more docile then men. Men are much more likely to fight back and that is why women are the target.
If women were to start fighting back, the calculation of the aggressor will change. He will change his tactics and stop victimizing solely women. However that is not the end game, the end game would be a strong corruption free law enforcement, were the aggressor would rot away in jail.
KC5728
In order for things to change anything bad done to women must be lawfully enforced. Women are targeted unfairly sometimes because they are inherently easier targets than men. Most women have a harder time defending themselves and therefore are targeted by men with oppression and murder.
ReplyDeleteAs I sad before laws having to do with murder and oppression must be enforced better and perhaps harsher. The authorities should make an example of someone who breaks the law and hopefully it will result in less crimes committed.
In order for these evil acts to be changed, the social and political status of women must change. Women feel like they are so low in society and so therefore, they cannot do anything to change this. However, if all of the women who were mistreated organized and formed an alliance with one another, they could possibly start a movement for the rights of women. Women need to be recognized in these societies as social equals so that if one were to harm a woman, it would be just as equal to one harming a man.
ReplyDeleteKC9132
Changing this would be an extremely difficult and long process but it could be done, politically. Most country's foundation is the political system and for anything to change, action must be taken in this way. Some way or another a woman, or a man greatly sympathetic to this cause, must make their way up in the political system. That way changes could be made to public policy declaring men and women as equals and effectively change the system from the inside out. It would also take a considerable amount of support from fellow women and other supporters of the cause.
ReplyDeleteKC2858
Women have to stand up for themselves and be confident in themselves - all of which can be achieved through education. If women are educated and are able to speak for themselves then men will not look down on them and society would not disrespect them and will treat women as their equal. Women also have to come together and support each other in order for people to respect them and acknowledge one another as equals.
ReplyDeleteKC9626
Things such as the International Violence Against Women Act are taking place as an attempt to reduce and eliminate violence against women. In addition to this, education regarding violence and women should occur more in these countries. Women should also be educated on how they themselves should stop being the cause or part of this problem. Many women themselves are involved in these events, believing that what they are doing is correct when in reality it isn’t.
ReplyDeleteKC6711
I think the reason why these things happen is because people in those societies either believe in sexism or have no power to change it. People actually accept that women are inferior and less valuable than men so women who are victims of this cruelty have a hard time standing up for themselves, especially if they are poor and uneducated. If every one valued women as much as men, these things probably wouldn't happen and if they did, it wouldn't be based solely on gender. But it turns out that even women share those opinions. Meena's brothel owner was a matriarch who tortured girls herself and would even have her own daughters serve customers. It is really hard for me to understand why women and girls are treated so miserably in these countries. But unfortunately, I'm afraid it would be hard to change that anytime soon....
ReplyDeleteSexism has existed for centuries. Discrimination for race, social class and especially sex are prevalent in many modern societies still today. Woman rights advocates have struggled for sexual equality. However, they still have not achieved that. They have made a prodigious amount of progress towards breaking the glass ceiling but are still not there yet. The perception of the ideal person is a man that is strong, intelligent and can provide for his family. Females have always worked in the backdrop of the males life. Women have been marginalized to cooks and maids whose primary objective is to raise proper children. It is fair to say that women should be equal but the truth is that with equality they will face adversity.
ReplyDeleteKC9445
Women have often been the victims of societal oppression in many cultures. Although the United States has moved toward equal right opportunities, there are still many cultures where women are still taken advantage of and faced with unequal treatment. In order for this to change society as a whole must go under a reconstruction and decide that they value equal treatment of women. An example of this may be seen by the United States and our history. The U.S. was one of the first to implement movements for womens rights and womens suffrage. Although it did take time, the U.S. eventually decided that womens rights and equal treatment was a priority and decided to move forward with it. This is what many of these societies must do in order to move forward toward and equal opportunity society. They must first decide that equal rights and opportunities is a priority and then move forward. Once this is done, they make take examples of the U.S. or other equal rights places of how to implement equal treatment and move toward and equal society.
ReplyDeleteKC0180
I believe that women are treated poorly in third world and developing countries because of the fact that abusive men go unchecked and they can abuse women without suffering consequences. Third world countries have to rise up and realize the importance of protecting the women that reside there. Until there is a commitment from the governments and the men that sit there idle and allow it to happen it wont change.
ReplyDeleteKC3383
Women are treated unequally because they are easy target for abuse. Women are viewed as unequal to men culturally for many decades to a point where every women have a mindset of being inferior to men. Due to this inferiority mindset, they become target of abuse to men. Also men keep suppressing women from fighting back by humiliating them or abuse them physically. This is unfair to women, and many organization have tried to erase this cultural belief. However, women have to stand up and fight for themselves.
ReplyDeleteKC0084
In order to eliminate the superiority complex men have, regarding their power over women, we need to provide more schools for girls and create programs that provide financial assistance for women. If we educate more girls, girls will learn to respect and stand up for themselves. This will result in a domino effect among the female community, and they’ll join together and fight back. One reason why men assault girls is because they think they’re safe from any repercussions, such as imprisonment. With the increase in education, however, more woman will feel empowered and report crimes. Men will then start to fear the repercussions, and this will hopefully cause them to respect women as human beings.
ReplyDeleteIt was shown, in Goretti Nyabenda’s case, that programs, acting like banks, are effective in altering woman’s role in the family. The CARE program, for example, inspired Nyabenda and other women to become more independent, money-makers. Nyabenda, once abused daily by her mother-in-law and husband, started making her own earnings and became the sole provider for her family. She gained more respect from her mother-in-law and husband, as well as those around her.
I believe women are treated so poorly in these third world countries is because of the country's social structure. Typically, women are often viewed as inferior to a man, which is wrong, in these countries. Possibly due to the difference in physical stature and strength or perhaps even reproductive capability( setting forth a mindset of basic responsibility required of women revolving around house/home work and child rearing.) The people were born into a society (within their country) where males were socially superior to females. Men grew up believing they were entitled too treat the women around him poorly, in both a physical and psychological sense. The women also grew up in the harsh face of gender bias, while nothing or too little had been done to combat such injustice. In order for a change to happen women need to become more assertive of their rights within these countries. Laws must be passed that evoke harsh punishments on abusive men, and protect women's rights. With those laws must come a new crowd of government officials within the country that would actually enforce those laws and support gender equality.
ReplyDeleteKC8718
Men are seen as having more value. They are the breadwinners, they take care of the family, and they are seen as doing the harder jobs. Women are seen as sort of having it easy and as objects to be looked upon as used as men see fit. I think both men and women should be educated about gender. I wish we could switch men and women's roles so that they would spend a while in each others shoes and then maybe they would appreciate each other.
ReplyDeleteKC6203
Women are treated so differently in these developing countries because of how the country is set up. Most likely men hold all major parts of power so women can not get their say in. In these countries men are abusive and suffer no consequences for their actions. After a while of this happening it becomes the norm and people accept it. Also women are less aggressive than men and if they start fighting back through a movement or something than things will change slowly.
ReplyDeleteKC4448
I believe that women need to come together and stand up for themselves. Also I believe that society should better understand the social stereotypes they place on women. Women have been oppressed for so long, and people just need to realize that they are being wrongfully mistreated all over the world and that something must be done about it. Women get acid poured on their face, sexually abused, and that just is not acceptable in today's society.
ReplyDeleteKC9828
Throughout history, in developing countries women has been an easy target for harassment and oppression. As shown in America, when the nation was still growing. Women were treated differently than men and their value in the society was belittle in the men's perspective. I believe in developing countries, men are automatically place in a higher hierarchy than women due to physicality.
ReplyDeleteThe things that have to take place in order for women to gain respect and the proper treatment in developing countries is aid from United Nation and unionizing. The UN should assist third world countries in women mistreatment as in trafficking and sexual harassment because they should feel obligated to help. The author stated over 6 million of women are trafficked across the world. Thus, this does not include the trafficking within the country itself. I believe unionizing will be efficient because there is strength in numbers. During America's women movement, thousands of women joined together to fight several flaws within the law. I think if women in third world countries join as one to fight the obstacles that they face everyday their society will experience change over time.
Women are often the target of physical abuse due to the fact that they are typically seen as subservient to men, that men have dominion over them and can do as they please with their perceived property. Men are in power and those who hold the power have more of an ability to oppress those below them. It is quite ignorant to think that abusing women accomplishes anything, unfortunately the power of fear overwhelms reason in many of these cases.
ReplyDeleteKC 5896
ReplyDeleteMI 4084
ReplyDeleteIn many cultures around the world men are respected more than women. They are given more rights and allowed to participate in more things. However, when this idea is created that men are more important than women, it causes other problems, such as abuse. Women are often mistreated by their husbands and all men in a variety of ways. This problem has increased when trafficking began. Women are kidnapped and forced into having sex with any man that pays enough. It is defiling and horribly wrong. The women quickly stop even trying to fight back. These are not separate issues, but rather one immense problem that the idea that men are better than women is believed around the world.
ReplyDeleteFC9846
KC 4084
ReplyDeleteFor customs that treat women worse than men to be changed, women would have to defend themselves as equal to men and not allow for this violence to happen. They could change this through political revolution such as Americans did throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and eventually gain equal rights so that things such as acid throwing would end.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the cultures of the people doing these acts would have to change as well. This would probably happen with the political change as well. If cultures began to appreciate the contributions that women give instead of humiliating and abusing them just because they believe men are "superior," such terrible acts of violence would end.
KC8026
In order for these ideals to change our society must change. Ironically i believe that men need to be hypothetically kicked in the balls. We (as men) place ourselves on a plateau of greatness that in all actuality doesn't exist. As a man i more than comfortable enough to say that women can do anything we can do, either at the same level or even better. Before society can change men must change and fix their idiotic alpha male ideals. That's why men demean women and make them feel inadequate when in reality we need women much more than women need us.
ReplyDeleteKC6336