Women Roles

Women Roles

Introduction

            The roles of women in society today have had a tremendous change and are making a great impact in the society. Originally, women’s contribution to society was only limited to taking care of their houses and their households while the men took control of everything else. Women have advanced in many aspects subsequently gaining power in political and professional arenas. Roles have interestingly changed from one generation to the other. For instance, more women are graduating from college as compared to the past where they would be force to get a job after schooling for a short while. The change in societal roles for women is impacted by the fact that women are now educating themselves and forming their own rights movements to fight for their economic, social and political status. Modernization and technology have also opened up new possibilities for women’s improvement around the world.

There has been a major change in the structure of most families that have been paralleled by alterations in gender roles especially for the women. Women are more included in the economic provisions of a family which means less participation in domestic roles. Males are more intensely involved in family responsibilities especially taking care of the children. Work and family lives have an influence on each other as men and women are both involved in earning for the family as well as caring responsibilities.

Women are now seeking and gaining employment in places other than their homes unlike their grandmothers and some of their mothers. For instance, in the year 2011, women in the U.S made up half of the workforce for the first time in history. Women are defying all the odds and playing major roles in many crucial fields such as being chief executive officers, and company presidents. They are venturing into professions such as medicine, law, business and politics; jobs that were only seen to be fit for men in the past. Even the women working in blue collar jobs such as sweatshops and factories have more options and are more autonomous and independent than they would have been had they stayed at home. Formal paid work today has more women than it has ever had at any point in history. They make up 40% of the global laborforce, and 43% of the agriculture laborforce

Arguments

            Over the past decades, the number of women in the workplace has been on a constant increase as they entered the economic market to supplement the men’s earning capacity that had been lost in the two world wars. This change has been brought about by movements such as equal opportunities legislation and feminist movements. Women generally perform better in the workplace and evidence shows that companies with a higher number of female board members have a better performance than those with fewer women. Increasing the number of women in the workplace also has an increasing effect on the GDP of the country by up to 21%.

Women’s rights to take part in the decision making process of their countries is established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Accountability and transparency in the government is achieved when women are empowered and their political, social, and economic status is improved. When men and women equally participate in decision-making, a balance is achieved which strengthens and promotes democracy and its functions as well as reflecting the society’s composition. Failure of women to actively participate in active decision-making leads to inability in achieving development, peace and the goals of equality.

Women’s experiences at the workplace and labour market is however contradictory in the sense that despite the fact that more of them are working, they are still offered less payment than the men with few rights and little protection. Such cases are rampant in the informal employment sectors and the part-time jobs and are driven by the necessity to have two wages in order to make ends meet. Gender equality is still uneven and statistics need to incorporate employment, equal pay, and political representation of both genders so as to make the right conclusions.

Women are held back by traditional gender roles and pressure to conform to them. One of these societal pressures that they have to conform to is the marital status. For instance, women are less likely to gain employment when they have a spouse or partner especially in the emerging and developed economies. This is because women are seen to be less productive and of little value at the workplace. As a result, there has been overrepresentation of women in jobs that are usually perceived as low value and unskilled especially those dealing with caregiving. Such preconceptions can be challenged by job evaluation, public outreach and education.

In spite of women making big strides in the workplace, there remains a subtle gender bias that could easily go unnoticed. Women are adversely treated in a number of settings starting from the boardrooms, office hallways and other unconventional work environments such as the art studio, a problem that the law has failed to address. Male workers are often in the limelight as they garner more recognition and attention as compared to their female counterparts. As a result, they are likely to miss important opportunities and are more prone to scrutiny. Female workers are often portrayed by the media in a manner that is diminishing, condescending, demeaning or belittling their contributions to the workplace. It is this kind of gender side-lining that  accumulate and end up creating barriers and obstacles to the advancement of women.

Women play a great role in resolution of conflicts as they make half of each community and peacebuilding is a task of men and women altogether. Every member of the family is affected when women are excluded from peacebuilding since they are the central caregivers of the family. Women are also peacekeepers, mediators and relief workers and have played a major role in resolving conflict.

Counter-arguments

            There has not been any significant change brought about by the involvement of women in public matters. This is because most of the women are shy and do not have the confidence to be at the forefront in public matters, As a result, men ended up doing all the work while women are warming their seats. It is very few women who have the confidence to stand tall and inspire change. Women are additionally incapable of making viable decisions for reasons that their minds are preoccupied with a lot of issues such as taking care of their families and conforming to societal pressure. For this reason, they are rendered unable to make sound decisions at the work place or in any important situation regarding the public.

As regards to women being side lined at the workplace and other unconventional places, women are only given tasks that they can comfortably handle without too much pressure. Tasks are distributed according to a person’s capabilities and women are only tasked with whatever they are capable of. Conflict resolution is also not a task that can be bestowed upon women as they often come out as emotionally weak beings with too much compassion and empathy which renders them incapable of making unbiased judgements during conflict resolution. Women should maintain their initial responsibilities of staying at home and taking care of their families as they are not strong enough like the men to handle tough issues in the professional arena, public matters as well as the job market.

Rebuttals

            There are a lot of visible changes ever since women started to participate in matters that concern the public. For instance, companies that are operated and run by women are seen to be more prosperous and successful in terms of profits and integrity. The country’s GDP has also increased ever since women were incorporated into formal employment. Women, just like men are capable of making viable decisions as they are all equally human prone to distractions which could make them biased during decision-making. It has however been proven that women are at a better position of dealing with their personal issues and separating them from work and business. This gives women an upper hand in being better workers and conflict resolvers than men.

Conclusion

            Women have considerably showcased their leadership abilities on different platforms such as the public office, informal organisations and the community. Their efforts are however being stifled by negative stereotyping and socialization through the media, who constantly try to reinforce political decision-making as a male domain. Structural and attitude barriers that deter women from taking part in economic and political decision-making need to be addressed at regional, national and international levels because they give a reflection of the attitude of a society towards women. Government institutions, corporations and organisations should make full use of female talents as policy makers, diplomats, company presidents, chief executive officers, top-level managers and negotiators.