We are living in exciting times. Technology that was not even a dream 30 years ago is available in the palm of our hands. We have gone from desktop and laptop computers to iPads and iPhones, which do all of the same things and more and which we can carry in our hands or slip into our pockets. There is an app (application) for nearly everything we wish to accomplish.
Gender equity has taken several leaps forward. While in many countries (ours included) and in several industries, women are still pressing against a glass ceiling there have been welcome changes in some places with regard to education, employment and the status of women. There is still a lot of work to be done, however. And this includes re-educating and de-educating some men, and women as well, who live in this new era but whose thought processes are archaic.
Economic realities not envisioned three decades ago have today forced many women into working outside the home as well as continuing their unwaged work at home. And as we all know this is not only the case in single-parent homes, or among women who have been widowed. The patriarchal premise that men are the ones who will work and take care of the family has been shattered many times over. The fact is that perhaps only the very wealthy are able to maintain this. But even so, there is also the reality that more women, regardless of their status, have been reaching academic and other peaks and are not inclined to remain at home. And why should they? Advancements come about when people who have knowledge share it, or use it for the betterment of society. Some people are still to arrive at the realisation that it is people who grow our societies and not just men.
The World Bank, in a new publication (September 7, 2012) titled, New Century, Old Disparities: Gender and Ethnic Earnings Gaps in Latin America and the Caribbean, examines why it is that even with sustained economic growth at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one, “Latin America still faces high inequality and lower well-being indicators among women, afro-descendants, and indigenous peoples”.
It notes in a synopsis of the book, which was written by Peruvian Hugo Nopo, a top research economist in education, that earnings differentials as well as occupational and hierarchical segregation are still commonly accepted as the norm, even though marriage, education and work decisions have evolved and, as a result, so has women’s visibility at home, at school, in the labour markets and in society.
It could only be a warped thought process that arrives at the conclusion that a person should earn more or less based on his/her sexual organ. There must be delusion involved too in the expectation that a woman who has the same education, skills or experience as a man, should continue to accept less than she is worth simply because her plumbing is different.
To put it simply, no man should be seen as more powerful than any other human being just because of his gender. This is the point that feminists have been trying to get across for years with varying amounts of success, at times because of how the message is couched. It is a fact, however, that society has evolved to the point where patriarchy really no longer makes sense. Those who choose to cling to it risk being left behind and do so to their own detriment. The task falls to today’s men and women, the people of this current generation to eradicate the ignorance and teach our children, both boys and girls, that the only way to view each other is as an equal. Unfortunately, there is no app for that. The educating and re-educating must be hands-on and the sooner we start the better for the human race.
