Kaidi Wu

110.03

Essay Final

Mar 4, 2012

Women live freely with dignity is not impossible

Since god created Adam and Eve, men have always been seeing as the symbol of power, responsibilities and high level. Instead, women seem to have lower society level, and frequently do not benefit equal rights like men do. Back to ancient China, women was being dominated by men for thousands years due to their lack of autonomy and dignity. In America, women did not have the rights to vote until 1920. As time goes on, women’s rights has been getting more and more attention, people are realizing women’s rights are important for the society, an imbalanced society cannot be called a good society. Encouragingly, women’s movement has been successful in many ways. Women in Saudi Arabia got the rights to vote and run in elections, people in South Korea are abandoning the idea of male preference. As the society develops, women are more educated and the traditional thoughts of women will be changed. A world in which all women can live freely and with dignity is inevitable.

The economic problem makes women have more advantages to achieve the successes. Men’s advantages such as Physical strength and the abilities to do heavy work made men were doing really good in the past. However, according to the article “ The End of Men”, women are more likely suitable in postindustrial economy. Women are programmed to find a good provider and to care for their descendants. In addition, women have the social intelligence, and the ability to sit still and focus, also compare to men they are more flexible, of all which has brought women to another social level in postindustrial economy. While economy develops, women are able to have savings and to be well educated. In an advanced society, the way to survive is to keep increasing the knowledge; the more knowledge people have the higher social level they get. In developed countries, women usually have more rights than women who are in developing countries. In the article “ How Economic Development Helps the World's Women”, Global Women’s Index has shown women benefit the most rights in Europe, such as Sweden and Norway. In contrast, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran are at the very bottom of this rank. Moreover, as women get richer, they are able to get higher education to improve their social stats and get more rights, which is hard for women who are in a bad financial situation. Imaging a woman cannot even support her basic life cost, how can she to look for more rights and not worry about how to continue the life. Allowing women to work has also raised their social levels to certain points. As more and more women enter the work force, they are able to have money to do the things they want; unlike they have to rely on the men in the past. Many women were suffering by not allowing to work in the past, so they had to depend on their house holder, who is usually a man, but since women can be financial independent, they will no long to rely on others. All of which makes women become more completive and suitable in nowadays economy.

On the other hand, social modernization has played a very important role in women’s movement. As a society develops, people’s minds are getting more advanced and more open. The acceleration of social modernization process, great changes have taken place in the daily life of the people, and it also helps women get more rights even in the strict country, like Saudi Arabia. Their King Abdullah announced that women in Saudi Arabia have the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, which is an extraordinary development in this country. In the article “How Economic Development Helps the World's Women”, Florida talks about the different situations of women in developed and developing countries. In a more advanced modernization society, women are face less discrimination and have more opportunities. Also, the development alone plays an important role in driving down inequality between men and women. The way of treating women in a country also reflects levels of tolerance, openness, and diversity in a society. The better women are being treated, the happier they will feel. Ronald Ericsson, who is a biologist, found a way to identify the male and female sperm, so that people can easier to chose either have boys or girls. However, in the 90’s more families want to have a girl instead a boy. The old thoughts of having girls are a bad thing is changing alone with society’s development. Like China, South Korea is a country that being influenced by their traditional culture, most people want to have a boy in order to continuities their family name and let their children to take the responsibility of their family. The situations of women who had a baby girl are even worse. They were often being abused and treated, as domestic servant. Until, 1970s and ‘80s, under the government’s pressures, this was changed, women were allowed to enter work force. A new law was published to protect women to keep custody of their children after a divorce and meanwhile, they also have inherited property. Monica Das Gupta, a demographer and Asia expert at the World Bank, believes that the male preference is over in South Korea. This has proved nothing is unchangeable, it just depends on whether people want to chance it or not. With social modernization, the social value system is more and more pluralized, and personal restraints are decreased.

As the saying goes, a good beginning is half done. The continued modernization will minimize the marginalization of women. Men used to have the advantages to work better in many industries, and they have been dominating many important industries for centuries. However, women are taking over in nowadays. Based on the reaches, the ability to set and focus are letting women to earn 60 percent of master’s degree, about half of all low and medical degree, and 42 percent of M.B.A.s, and 60 percent of all bachelor’s degree, which is a great step for most women to achieve a better life in their life. The high educations and social intelligence directly cause women to get a better job. Looking back, men were the one and only source of income in a family. Nonetheless, the fact of women are dominating the 13 job categories out of 15 has changed this situation, and overthrew the rumor of women cannot work as good as men. Many people may think women can only work certain jobs, like health care. Yet upper class women are also entering work force, and creating domestic job for other women. People are often seeing the cause and effect as a circle, once they have a good start, then usually they have good results at the end, and vice versa. Women in Saudi Arabia have the rights to vote, which is a significant meaning to them, even though it was just a start and progress slowly, but compared to the pass, women were not even allowed to drive and go abroad alone, this was a qualitative leap.

For all above, in this world, advantages and disadvantages exist side by side. Men are stronger and faster, women are more scrupulous and patient, but everyone is equal. Judging someone based on his or her gender is just not sensible. There is not only white and black, if people are so judgmental, then they will lose many highlight of happiness in their life. The world is changing, women not only can live freely with dignity, but also they will achieve a higher and better goal. However, Rome was not built in a day, the progress of women getting more rights takes time, the situations of men in the world are very positive, in the near future, people will see equality between men and women in harmonious society.

Work Cited

Rosin, Hanna. “The End of Men.” Global Issues 11/12. Ed. Robert M. Jackson. New York:    McGraw Hill, 2011. 195-199. Print.

“Women in Saudi Arabia to Vote and Run in Elections.” BBC News. The BBC, 25 Sep. 2011. Web. 17 Feb. 2012.

Florida, Richard.  “How Economic Development Helps the World's Women.” The Atlantic Cities Place, Matters. The Atlantic Media Company, 12 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2012.