Women's Roles Around the World PDF

**Chapter 7 (Cont'd)** **Reading 1** **Women\'s Roles in Different Parts of the World** The roles women play around the world continues to evolve. While westernized societies have seen women actively achieve gender equality, other less developed countries see women fighting for basic human right...

**Chapter 7 (Cont'd)** **Reading 1** **Women\'s Roles in Different Parts of the World** The roles women play around the world continues to evolve. While westernized societies have seen women actively achieve gender equality, other less developed countries see women fighting for basic human rights. Women were often forced to adhere to the strict stereotypical roles that were given to them, but many have begun to break from those roles in the last 100 years. Access to education has opened women\'s eyes around the world to the realization that they deserve to follow their dreams without having to face gender inequality. Sadly, not all women enjoy the right to education and their roles are, therefore, determined by their specific culture, religion, and sometimes ancient and severely outdated traditions. It seems like common sense that women should be entitled to the same opportunities as men, but there is still a great deal of social resistance in many regions of the world when it comes to offering an equal playing field. As we celebrate International Women\'s Day on March 8, let us look at how different parts of the world shape the roles of the women that live there. Let this offer insight into how far women have come and the struggles they still sadly face in many parts of the world. **Western Societies** Women in westernized societies like Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States have come a long way in terms of gender equality in the past 100 years. While most women in the past played the role of homemaker and wife, the expectation for them to play this role has since changed dramatically. It is now almost expected that women will enter the work force and almost any career path is an option for them. Women are now elected to lead nations and have shown they are capable of becoming anything from astronauts to sports stars. Women in westernized societies enjoy most of the same rights as men, including things like the right to vote, drive, and ability to own land, access to education, and protection against violence. The gender pay gap is narrowing and many countries such as Canada and Sweden are seeing women nearly equal representation in government. It is becoming increasingly common for men to stay at home and be the primary homemaker/carer while women work to provide for their family. European countries like Sweden, Estonia, Iceland, and Norway (to name a few) have in recent years replaced maternity leave with a more gender- neutral paternity leave policy. These things may seem like basic human rights that should be enjoyed by all women, but sadly those not living in westernized societies often lack many of these freedoms. **Remote Tribal Communities** While gender roles will vary greatly depending on the tribe and region, women in tribal communities often face the harshest conditions and are generally restricted to the ancient roles women were expected to play. Many tribes, especially in regions like Northern Africa, have refrained from integrating into modern society, instead holding onto their tradition culture. Men are trained to be warriors while women learn to gather food, cook, clean, and bear children. Tribes such as the Maasai (one of the oldest tribes in Africa, present in Kenya and Tanzania) are most often patriarchal and relationships tend to be polygamous. Women will share a husband, and there is often a large age gap between young women and their older spouse. Things like genital mutilation, extreme body modification for beauty, and outlandish rituals are also common in tribal communities around the world. Places like Papua New Guinea see tribes amputate women\'s fingers to mourn the death of a fellow tribe mate, while some women in the Cameroon will disfigure their breasts as this part of the body is seen as shameful. **Developing Nations** Although there has been some progress when it comes to women in developing countries gaining more freedoms, many still face a long uphill challenge in regions like South America, Africa and Asia. One of the biggest hindrances to women in developing countries is the lack of access to education, which has sadly resulted in women accounting for two-thirds of the world\'s illiterate population. Women are often expected to adhere to more outdated roles, where they stay at home, cook, and care for children. In developing nations, you find more instances of child brides, arranged marriages, and early pregnancies which can often lead to complications due to lack of proper medical treatment. Tragically, sexual and physical violence against women, as well becoming victims of sex trafficking is also more common with often less harsh punishment for perpetrators. It is also more common for women to fall into poverty in these nations, as there are fewer employment opportunities available to them. **Matriarchal Societies** Who rules the world? Girls! While the Amazons may have been a mythological band of women who ruled Themyscira (Wonder Woman reference), there are many matriarchal societies around the world today where women are in charge. And many scholars believe that this is the way human society originally was; millions of years ago women were revered as high priestess, though sometimes around 3,000 BC the balance of power shifted over towards men. Today, a Chinese ethnic group known as Mosuo sees children take the last name of their mother and property is passed down through the female side of the family. Women of the Minangkabau of West Sumatra are the same, and while led by a male chief, it is the women who have the power to choose and remove him from power. Similarly, the Bribri of Costa Rica, Garo of North East India, and Nagovisi of New Guinea are all matriarchal societies. While most matriarchal societies are home to both women and men, there are some which are female- only. The Umoja tribe in northern Kenya has actually all out banned men, and is a refuge where survivors of gender-based violence can establish a safe existence. The world is an increasingly safe place for women to travel, and in fact, recent studies suggest that women travel solo a lot more than men. Don\'t forget to take out comprehensive travel insurance if you\'re one of them! *Source:https://www.insureandgo.com.au/travel-hub/women-roles-different-parts-world.jsp* **Reading 2** **Women\'s work? Challenging gender roles in the Philippines** \"We forget our tiredness when the kiss is there.\" Nikki van der Gaag reports from the Philippines on a partnership that is changing ideas about men\'s and women\'s roles in the home. There is a bright red advertisement on the road from Tacloban airport to the town. It has a photograph of a woman with pale skin and red lipstick and it reads: \'Give a woman the right color lipstick and she can conquer the world.\' As in most countries, there are lots of ideas in the Philippines about what a woman should look like, how she should behave, and what she should do and not do. Irene Chu, Chief Administrator to the Mayor of Tacloban, told us: \"We have a joke here that when you get a wife, you also get a cook and a cleaner and a nanny, laundress and maid.\" However unfunny the joke, it is clear that ideas around men\'s roles as breadwinners and women\'s roles as housewives remain very traditional. Faye has three children aged 14, 12 and 9, and a baby in a sling. Her husband is a construction worker and she calls herself the \'mother of the community\'. She says: \"Most women here believe a woman\'s role is to stay home and take care of the children.\" Nestor is a community elected official. He says: \"As a Filipino, our culture is that the woman should be the one to do everything.\" But in some households, this is beginning to change. Oxfam and Unilever, with its Surf laundry brand, have a partnership supporting the Women\'s Empowerment and Care initiative (WE-Care) to challenge notions about unpaid care work, making it clear that care and domestic work makes a valuable contribution to society and should be shared work, thus dismantling deep-seated gender inequalities. As domestic work usually goes uncounted, WE- Care is also building evidence on unpaid care, and trying to influence policy. The partnership between Oxfam and Unilever supports WE-Care in the Philippines and in Zimbabwe, and WE-Care has worked in the same way in eight countries as well. But they are busy from early morning until late at night, so any activities like this that might raise some money have to be done in their spare time, of which there is very little. \"We do it on a Saturday, when the men can look after the children,\" says Shienna. There is little day care even if they could afford it, and only after the age of four, something else we discuss with the local government officials. Shienna\'s community, like many others we visit, identifies water collection as the main thief of women\'s time. Often it is so far away that they spend up to three hours a day fetching water for drinking or walking to the nearest laundry point. The programme is collecting evidence on the time spent on activities like water collection, and on who does what in the household through a Household Care Survey, and working with communities to provide their own assessments, with a Rapid Care Analysis, both developed by Oxfam. Governments can support this evidence base. Irene Chu promises to look into including a question on unpaid care in their next household survey. Nestor says that as a result of the project, his behavior has changed a lot: \"Before every day when we woke up, my wife used to bring me my coffee at 5 am. Now I wake early and bring her coffee. I didn\'t use to help with the laundry and now I do. My children now also share the care work. I have learned that it is not good if the women do all the work. My wife is very happy. And she hugs me more,\" he says with a smile. Jeanette, who lives in the same community as Nestor, says: \"It used to be a stigma if the husband shared the housework. Now we share it and work closely together and it has helped me to become a better mother.\" Arlene, from a fishing community in Eastern Samar, the neighboring province, agrees that sharing the housework improving relationships: \"When men and women share what there is to do, they have a better relationship. Men also have a long day as a fisherman. They are tired too. But we forget our tiredness when the kiss is there.\" Marino, a fisherman from the same community, says: \"Women have a lot of things to do. Their tasks should be reduced. Men should help with the laundry if they have time.\" There is much laughter when his wife Vilma is asked if he puts his words into practice. She purses her lips and jokes: \"Sometimes\". There are more jokes about men doing the laundry and getting the clothes very clean but, in the process, pulling them apart because they scrub so hard. There is general agreement in all the communities we visit that younger people - what they call \'millennials\' are better at this sharing than their parents. Modelling a new way of running relationships in the home is something that can be passed on from parents to children, as Nestor points out: \"This learning we can do for the next generation,\" he says. \"They will not think it strange that a couple share the tasks in the home. There is a new learning. The millennials will have different attitudes about this sharing between men and women. Every person is responsible for a better future.\" Edgar Orencio, project manager for Sikat, a local organization that is one of the partners in the WE Care project laughs when he tells the women: \"This project is to give mothers time to put red on their lips.\" Maybe they will also have time to earn a living, have more leisure time and even change the world. But not because of the color of their lipstick. *Source:* *Van de Gaag, N. (2017, October 17). \"Women\'s work? Challenging gender roles in the Philippines. Retrieved from https: views-voices.exfam.org.uk/2017/womens-work-challenging-gender-norms-philippines/* **Reading 3** **Women in Southeast Asian** **Women in Pre-Modern Southeast Asia** The 11 countries of Southeast Asia include over 550 million people. Despite great linguistic and cultural diversity, the region is characterized by the relatively favorable position of women in comparison with neighboring East or South Asia. This has been explained by several factors: traditionally, kinship was traced though both maternal and paternal lines; a daughter was not a financial burden because of the widespread practice of bride price; a married couple often lived with or near the wife\'s parents; women had prominent roles in indigenous ritual; their labor was essential in agricultural, and they dominated local markets. Over time, however, the rise of centralized states and the spread of imported philosophies and religions (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity) increasingly privileged males and stressed female subordination. Although such influences were most noticeable among the elite, the strength of local traditions was always a moderating force. **Women and Colonialism** In the nineteenth century Southeast Asia\'s economic resources and strategic position between India and China led to increasing European involvement. By the 1890s the entire region except for Siam (Thailand) was under European control. In some areas women were recruited as cheap wage labor on plantations (tea, sugar, tobacco, rubber) and in processing factories. At the village level colonial regimes strengthened the male position as head of the household and \"reformed\" customary laws that had given women considerable autonomy. Similar trends can be found in Siam, the only non-colonized country, where legal codification strengthened patrilineality. These developments encouraged a preference for sons rather than daughters. Nonetheless, women were still influential in community life, at times even leading anti-colonial rebellions. Increasing female literacy (especially in the Philippines) and exposure to Western feminism encouraged elite women to confront issues of gender inequality. From the late nineteenth century nationalist movements developed across Southeast Asia. Male leaders focused on political independence, but educated women were equally concerned with polygamy, divorce, domestic abuse and the financial responsibilities of fathers. For the most part, however, politicized women accepted the male argument that attention to \"female\" concerns should be delayed until after independence was attained. Yet despite active involvement in anti- colonial movements, sometimes as fighters, but more often as strike organizers, journalists, couriers and clandestine agents, women were viewed as auxiliaries rather than partners. Such attitudes were still evident in the independence movements that exploded after the surrender of the Japanese, who occupied most of Southeast Asia between 1942 and 1945. **Women in Contemporary Southeast Asia** The end of World War II signaled the demise of European colonialism in Southeast Asia. Theoretically, the independent states that emerged over the next 15 years were committed to gender equality, but this has rarely been translated into reality. In recent years the number of women holding public office has increased, especially in local government, but only in the Philippines has female representation in national government risen above 10 per cent. When women do manage to enter the political arena, they often find themselves marginalized in a male-dominated culture, with real power remaining in men\'s hands. The few individuals who have attained the highest political offices (such as President in the Philippines and Indonesia) have done so because they are the daughter or wife of a famous man. They have not become advocates of women\'s issues, for this would risk alienating their male colleagues or the male electorate. Greater female involvement in politics is impeded by the way candidates are recruited as well as entrenched attitudes that see women\'s primary role as that of wife and mother. Gender stereotypes that favor males over females are often reinforced in school textbooks and are sometimes encouraged by religious teachings. For example, Buddhists still believe that rebirth as a woman rather than a man indicates that less merit was accrued in past lives. Southeast Asian Islam has traditionally been very tolerant, but over the last 20 years there has been greater stress on \"correct\" dress (notably head covering) and public behavior. Although all Southeast Asian countries except Laos and Vietnam have signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and have made advances promoting gender equality, it is difficult to change the preference for sons, especially in Vietnam with its strong Confucian heritage. It is not easy to generalize about the economic position of Southeast Asian women because of the gap in development between Timor Lorosae, Cambodia and Laos (among the poorest countries in the world), and prosperous Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. Nonetheless, the continuing acceptance of the idea that a woman can generate and control her own income is still evident, although women receive less pay than men for the same work and the options for unskilled workers are limited. In poorer countries and impoverished regions this is apparent in the prevalence of prostitution and the disturbing trafficking of women. From the mid-1960s, however, as Southeast Asian countries gradually shifted to export- oriented economies, lower-paid women have become essential to factory work. In consequence, women have been more active in labor movements. As overseas domestic workers, they have also been increasingly important to national economies, remitting large amounts of money to their families. Because of world-wide shortages, qualified women can find employment abroad in skilled occupations such as nursing. Obtaining vocational skills and academic qualifications is far more possible than hitherto as Southeast Asian women gain greater access to education. With the exception of Cambodia and Laos, the numbers of women progressing to post-secondary training is also rising, and in Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines there are more female graduates than males; the rates for Vietnam and Indonesia are almost equal. The expansion in education has contributed to the blossoming of female-oriented Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) since the 1980s, which have given the knowledge and organization skills that equip them to argue for issues. Despite the region\'s economic, political and cultural diversity, Southeast Asian countries generally fare well in measures of human development. The heritage of relatively favorable gender relations and the resilience and pragmatism of local societies indicate that Southeast Asian women can look towards a promising future. *Source:* *Andaya, Barbara Watson (2021). Women in Southeast Asia, Center for Global Education. Retrieved from \