One would hope that everyone was treated as equals, with the same rights and privileges, but this is not always the case. Whether we admit it or not, people do assign certain " gender roles", where women are the home makers and care givers while the men go out to support the family and are the " breadwinner's". In certain culture this may be reinforced by words like " tradition" but it doesn't say that you can't evolve your thinking and adapt to situations, actually nearly all cultures encourage learning, tell me this how can a women improve her knowledge if she's not allowed to leave the house. The simple answer is that she can't. But you see it is not culture that enforces these stereotypes, it is the society we live in.
In some cultures they would even go as far as aborting female fetuses because in that society a girl baby is desired. This has become a common practice, as the technology has become more widely available to find out the sex of the child. In parts of India this would be used to perform " selective abortion" as a girl would be thought of as a burden and not being able to achieve as much as a boy. This is a cruel practice that has been banned, but as it is difficult to determine that this is the reason, it is still widely practice.In India doctors would advertise this technology as cost saving, they could save 50,00 rupees in dowry if it was a girl. This might feel as though it's not murder but it is just as vile, by thinking that having a girl would cost more is a inhumane way of raising a family.
Even in places where they do not have the technology to determine the sex of a child, once they find out that the child is female it will be killed. In some cases this will be ritualised. Female Infanticide is " the intentional killing of baby girls over the preference of baby boys".
This has lead to a population of far more boy to girls, and this situation is not restricted to India as some parts of China suffer with the same predicament, China has had a "one child pollicy" as they think this will help with overpopulation but as they also have a preference towards boy babies, this would often mean that the number os girl baabies being born would suffer. In January 2010 the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has forecasted that within a period of 10 years 1 in 5 men would find it hard to find a bride due to the alarming death rate in young women. This kind of mindset is not only found in poverty stricken parts of the world, as some of the more wealthier and more educated people still fall prey to the assumption that a boy has more value than a girl.
People's perceptions are what have to change, as it is their perception of girls that has been somewhat distorted. Education alone will not help if females are still restricted in certain aspects of their life, like the workplace.The workplace should take some responsibility for reducing a women's role as in the workplace a women is still worth significantly less than her male counterparts and there are fewer female managers that earn the same as the men.
Gender inequality is an historical issue and cannot be overcome overnight. But in order to change how the wider world looks at you, it may be far easier to start in your local community, it only takes a few like minded people to come together and change things for the good.
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