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.
