The issue of women’s rights is a contentious one. While there are people who believe that women will attain equal rights. There are others who believe that women enjoying the same rights as men is not possible. Agreeing with the latter view, it can be said, that women really cannot enjoy the same rights as men because of stereotypes, inequality at various levels and the role of religion.
It is believed that men and women enjoy equal rights at least in progressive societies. In these societies, it is generally perceived that everyone should be treated with fairness. In fact, inequality is considered as an injustice. Today, gender roles are increasingly being switched where men are taking up the house responsibilities and women are the breadwinners. This is especially the case in developed countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany. Despite these achievements, feminists believe that women are far away from enjoying the same rights as men. They believe that the reason for this is society’s deeply rooted biases.
Men are still considered valuable for the progress of society. This is evident from the fact that equal pay is a distant dream in most countries. The problem of the gender pay gap is not only faced by countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, but extends to other countries like Korea, Estonia, Japan, Latvia, and Chile. According to OECD data, women face a 10-15 per cent wage reduction during motherhood. On the other hand, men are likely to be paid more after becoming a father. This is because employers view children as an added responsibility for the father and not the mother. Furthermore, women who are mothers are less likely to be hired for jobs and less valuable to society. Though there have been many campaigns, protests and laws to remedy the inequality, the gender pay gap exists in the majority of the countries. Women will never enjoy the same rights as men.
However, gender equality remains an attainable goal to a certain extent. Several decades ago, it was unimaginable for women to work in male-dominated professions like finance, engineering and aviation. Women today are increasingly working in these fields. Similarly, decades ago women were not given equal rights by many countries. However, today at least six countries are considered as gender-equal. A recent report by the World Bank showed that six countries today have laws that protect men and women equally: Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden. This gives hope that many other countries can follow their lead and implement laws that help in creating a close to equal society. Therefore, it can be said that men and women may never enjoy the same rights but women can reach closer to equality.
The role of religion plays an important role in why women and men cannot enjoy the same rights. Many religious texts like the Bible, Quran and Torah have sexist writings which are used to subjugate women. In countries that follow these religious texts as law, the rights for women are bound to suffer. For example, women in Middle-Eastern countries face acute gender inequalities. Religious leaders and theologians in these countries are all male and provide a conservative interpretation of religious texts. These interpretations most of the times cause women utmost distress and puts women in submissive roles in the family, the society, and the state. The denial of equal rights is also evident from the fact that the representation of women in politics lags behind in middle eastern countries. Moreover, organised religions propagate the idea of male superiority and depict women as physically, mentally and emotionally inferior to men. The idea of religion is deeply ingrained in both men and women to the extent that women justify the discrimination they face. Therefore, as religion cannot be separated from mankind and it will continue to paint women as second-class citizens, there is little hope that men and women will ever enjoy the same rights.
In conclusion, though conditions of women have improved significantly in today’s world, there is still a long way to go as men are still favoured over women socially, economically and religiously. This makes it difficult for men and women to enjoy the same rights even in the future as there is a need to fight inequality at multiple levels. It is not likely that women will enjoy the same rights as men in the foreseeable future.