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           GENDER DISCRIMINATION

The Key:

The key to emancipation and empowerment of women essentially lies in the proper understanding of the origins of the gender discrimination in the first place. it’s a very deep rooted problem  and  must have started with the growth of human civilization itself.

Origin of the Problem and birth of the institution of marriage:

The human females were disadvantaged in matters of hunting, gathering and protective skills and capabilities during pregnancy and while raising their infants. The women needed outside extra help to manage for their food, water and shelter,  protect their fetus, the new born child and their own person. They must have depended on the goodwill of the society, which was itself in the process of settling. Their evolutionary maternal love instincts, unparalleled and unique as they are, must have compelled them to   settle in the bargain for anything to extract this favour; she was made to suffer in exchange for the help that was essential for their very survival. This must have necessitated the need for regulating the ownership and care structure for the ‘would-be-mothers’ and their infants.

Institutionalization of gender discrimination:

 The males were biologically in the position to dictate harder terms on their counterparts. This must have led to imposition of chain of restrictions on the young womenfolk ready for bearing children. The hard realities of the socio-biological evolution of mankind for such a long period made women dependent and subservient to the menfolk.The standards of social and religious morality that got evolved were more stringent against the womanhood than the male gender. The gender discrimination got institutionalized.

The moral standards:

 The women turned physically, biologically and psychologically more vulnerable to be exploited by their men counterparts. So much so that many societies rendered them as inferior gender and their rights were drastically curtailed in all social matters and decision making processes. Most social and religious institutions suppressed their rights and made them subservient to male folks; even to the de-humanizing scale in some cases. This all she had to suffer in order to realize her evolutionary instincts of maternal love so essential for the perpetuation of human species on earth!

The social evils, vices and discriminatory practices:

 The physical and biological vulnerability on the one hand and the unfavorable standards of social morality on the other, led to the evolution of many  social evils, vices and  practices that plagued the societies world over. For example:

  1. –   Turning women in to second class citizens: no voting powers in many countries; no property rights in many societies; unequal civic laws; patriarchal society, etc.
  2. – Making women subservient to husbands and men folk: The concept of   Pati Parmeshwara, husband as god; Sati Pratha, the system of widow burning; Kanya Daan, donation of daughters as brides; keeping women under viel except before their husbands; Depriving them of choosing their own partners; Obeying their husbands, brothers and parents were made part of morality for women; Depriving the decision making role of women, etc.
  3. Treating women as commodities: Trafficking in women; Flesh trade; Prostitution, etc.
  4. Prohibiting widow re-marriage; inequality with respect to re-marriage of widowers and widows; polygamy; torturing or killing women not bearing children or giving births to girl children alone; denial of right to young widows  to lead a respectful life in the society by putting lots of restriction on their movements, dressing, eating and  participating in social celebrations and festivals. etc.
  5. Putting complete onus of morality on women; Treating women as impure when they become victim of sex related crimes; aborting the female foetus; female infanticide; sex abuse; child marriages; discrimination in matters of girl education and health care; dowry related issues; honour killing, torture and related acts of brutality; bride burning; ill-treating female and female child while in prison, captivity and inside orphanages; doubly punishing the women victim of rape or molestation by curtailing her rights to decent married life; putting lots of restrictions on inter-caste and inter-religious marriages, etc