Gender Roles in Cross-Cultural Context and Influence on Women’s Rights

Gender Roles in Cross-Cultural Context and Influence on Women’s Rights
Name
Course
Instructor’s Name
Institutional Affiliate
Date
Gender Roles in Cross-Cultural Context and Influence on Women’s Rights
Introduction
Ethiopia recently made headlines across the world following its leadership’s appointment or rather the election of its first female speaker for the nation’s House of People’s Representatives. The appointment makes for one of the historical events marking the continent’s growth towards the recognition of both the male and female genders as equally capable of holding powerful positions. Other countries across the world, such as Liberia, Croatia, Germany, and the United States boast of landmark achievements in the effort to establish equality between both genders and the binary individuals. The world celebrates such events or occurrences as victories over the oppressive patriarchal societies that have long denied women access to leadership positions across the social, political, and economic aspects of the global community. However, women’s achievements across the diverse dimensions of society should not evoke such reactions of celebrations or unique recognition from society as they currently receive. Effective implementation of the human rights provisions would function to provide equal opportunities for all without any form of bias. Like their male counterparts, women should have equal access to the social, political, economic, and cultural amenities available in society for development at both the individual and community levels. Unfortunately, such is not the case for a majority of societies around the world and thus being a norm to celebrate women’s success as foreign or unusual occurrences. The extent of the excitement or celebrations over the same differs from country to country or across the different regions around the globe. The disparities build on the premise of the diverse cultural backgrounds and their definitions of the gender roles of members of their societies across the divide. The differences are also indicative of the biased implementation of human rights as equality would function to provide equal opportunities for all and thus to appreciate all people for their achievements as capable human beings irrespective of their gender orientation. Provided herein are a comprehensive analysis of gender roles across the diverse cultural backgrounds and their influence in the actualization of women’s rights. An outline of the various aspects of gender roles including its definition in different cultural contexts is further provided for enhanced understanding of their influence on the actualization of women’s rights.
Gender Roles in Cross-Cultural Context
The Western Countries, for instance, are often perceived to be model societies on matters concerning the provision of equal rights for all through their orientation to democratic ideologies. Nonetheless, even the developed countries of the West still suffer some elements of a violation of women’s rights or biased implementation and exercise of human rights. The disparities witnessed in the dispensation of human rights across the gender may be as a result of various reasons existing within the diverse social constructs of communities around the globe. Among the reasons for biased actualization of human rights is the cross-cultural definition of gender according to social practices of the different communities (Webster, 2016: 20). In essence, the social practices mold or rather determine the roles by members of both genders and thus subjecting them to the social constraints imposed by the cultural orientation or demands of societies to which they belong. It is, therefore, important to understand the different social practices as embraced by societies across the world and their influence in defining gender within the equally diverse cultural contexts. Social practices refer to the daily human activities performed as an individual or as a group in different places within the confines of a given community or society CITATION Web16 \l 1033 (Webster, 2016). Activities such as cooking or herding of livestock when performed daily establish a physical or mental routine that forms an identity for an individual or group of people undertaking such tasks.
The social practices play a significant role in determining or defining the way of doing things within a given cultural orientation. The way of doing things further define the activities performed or entrusted to a particular gender within a community and thus establishing the roles for the same. The social practices further dictate the behavioral orientation of both genders as members learn how to carry themselves as they discharge their responsibilities within the social constructs CITATION Wor193 \l 1033 (Organization, 2019). Interpersonal relations are also guided on the same binary principles taught through the social constructs dictating the acceptable norms for both the masculine and feminine genders. The social practices may differ from one community to the other, depending on their cultural heritage and background. The Western countries, for instance, embrace various aspects of modern culture as witnessed by cultural change in their family structures whereby women are taking leadership roles (Olah, 2014: 14). Women are taking up economic responsibilities of attending to their families’ financial needs and gaining economic independence, which makes for some of the perceived social practices meant for men across a majority of societies from the West (Olah, 2014: 14). Gender roles may thus be defined as the routine social practices embraced by an individual or group of people and thus defining or determining whether they belong to the feminine or masculine gender (Webster, 2016: 20). The gender divide based on the roles or social practices embraced and perceived to be belonging to either the masculine or feminine genders account for the disparities witnessed in the actualization of human rights, especially for the latter. Women have often fallen victim to biased actualization of their rights as dictated by the human rights provisions.
Gender roles form an excellent platform for the existing discrimination against women across the social, economic, cultural, and political aspects of societies around the world. The stereotypes attached to women’s abilities or capabilities based on the perceived feminine social practices function to undermine their rights to capitalize on their potential across the outlined parameters. The United Nations (UN) provides guidelines to individual countries on how to deal with the gender stereotypes as they restrict or limit the rights of both and women towards exercising their rights and freedoms as enshrined in the international human rights provisions. Stereotypes based on the social practices attached to the feminine gender limit the rights of women to pursue their political ambitions, develop their careers, and make major life decisions affecting their desired quality of life. Virtuous characterization of women to be nurturing is stereotypical as it is based on their routine commitment and dedication to providing maternal care to their children. It is for such a reason that women are often assigned to roles believed to be feminine in nature and thus restricting their access to other opportunities across the social, political, and economic parameters within society. It is the oppressive gender stereotypes that condemn most women to violation of their human rights within societies. Sexual objectification of women, for instance, subject women to untold sufferings even in the comfort of their homes through marital rape. Such occurrences take place due to the social practice of men viewing their female counterparts and companions as their properties, which they acquire through dowry payment.
Influence of the Gender Roles on Women’s Rights
The cross-cultur...