equal rights among the sexes

ok ok… i know… the correct phrase to use is GENDER EQUALITY, but look at it this way – gender means the male or female sex and equality means, well, equal rights, so who say ‘equal rights among the sexes’ is wrong? of course it goes without saying the better word to use in place of ‘sex’ is ‘gender’, because you see, this will prevent some ah beng or ah lian when filling in application form under ‘sex’ instead of writing down ‘male’ or ‘female’ will write ‘4 times a week’.

ok ok down to serious business. what do you understand by ‘gender equality’? it seems that usually when gender equality is mentioned, people will think more of equal rights for women but hey it is equal rights for both men and women, mind you. hmm… perhaps men should cried out “discrimination!” when relating to the term ‘gender equality’. haha.

well if you need a lesson on gender equality, to put it simply it simply means men and women should enjoy the same status, and that there should be no discrimination based on the person’s sex. now ain’t that simple?

to elaborate on the definition, you can read it from social policy or bigpond.

funny thing is when i try to search for the definition in the popular wikepedia, it direct me to ‘feminism’ instead! so what did i tell you!! think gender equality, think the fairer sex! oops. sorry. the feminist (or the males-ist??) will come after me… i mean think the female sex.

to continue reading, please click on ‘more’ below.

why the hype on gender equality? well, it was because at the recent non-aligned movement (NAM) ministerial meeting on the advancement of women that gender equality was highlighted.

there were 54 representatives from NAM s 114 member nations attending this meeting which was chaired by women, family and community development ninistry secretary-general datuk faizah mohamed tahir.

a report on the opening day in the star had this to say:
This year marks a milestone in the movement for gender equality and for the advancement of women as it is a 10-year review of the Beijing Conference.

Women are not only more aware of their rights, they are (also) more able to exercise them. But at the same time, new challenges have emerged such as the trafficking of women and children, or the increasing targeting of women in armed conflict, he stated.

The UN chief said promoting gender equality should not be left to women alone, as studies had shown that empowerment of women was an important tool for development, poverty eradication and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

at the end of the 4 days meeting, the delegates came up with the ‘putrajaya declaration’ which touches on 9 points:
* poverty
* economic development
* education
* health
* information
* communication technology
* armed conflict
* violence against women
* disasters and gender mainstreaming.

hmm.. a new term here i see – gender mainstreaming. at least this sounds better than gender equality, though certainly not as famous as gender equality. someone once said that there can never be equal rights for women and men in certain aspects. for example the feminists keep shouting “equal rights for women!” while at the same time, they complain when men does not hold the door open for them or draw out the chair for them to sit before they (men) sit. if they (women) want gender equality, either they don’t allow the men to do that… or they do that for the men! men, would you like us ladies to do that?

next time when you are out in the street and spy a pretty lady, pretend to drop your hanky and hope that the pretty lady will pick it up for you. if she doesn’t, pick it up yourself and wipe your tears.

ok ok i’m leaning to be frivolous again. pardon me.

of course we all know the deeper meaning of gender equality. ‘no discrimination on grounds of a person’s sex in the allocation of resources or benefits, or in the access to services.’ i suppose it is because that when it comes to allocation of resources or benefits or access to services, women are usually discriminated against, hence, when the term gender equality is mentioned, people tend to think more of women.

can you think of instances where gender equality is not practised in our country in the light of the above definition? i know one example has something to do with foreign wives not being able to work here… or something like that.

you know, reading the definition again – ‘no discrimination on grounds of a person’s sex in the allocation of resources or benefits, or in the access to services.’ – something spring to my mind. one could easily change the word ‘sex’ there to ‘race/religion’ and what do we call it then? race equality? or simply no NEP?

note: this is probably the first post i made that contain the word ‘sex’ a few times. gee, i guess i’m going to get hit a lot under google search. 😉