There exists a difference in the positioning of women and men in my community. Women face the challenges of economic, social, political and gender inequality. The challenging part of these conditions is the existence of machismo attitude in the community. This goes beyond the contemporary cultural influences faced through religion, economics, technology, politics, food habits, marital rules, laws and medicine among others. Culture prescribes control mechanisms that govern behavior within a set group of people. This affects the social and public opinion of people and comes with varying implications of control and power emended within the cultural belief. Machismos, generates unequal power on the females leaving them desperately in the controls of the dominance of the males.
A common manifestation of cultural machismo is through the preference of boys in comparison to girls. This limits the opening of opportunities for girls leading to limitations for girls accessing of opportunities such as education curtailing their life opportunities. Such denial limits the principals of the positioning of women and affects their capabilities in making of decisions. Girls barely have the chance for growing up as responsible members of the community and that translates to the point when they become adults giving the men a chance to domineer over them (Nadal, 2009).
These inequalities affect the capabilities of women when it comes to development. The influence of this comes in varied forms of attitude, expressions, and behaviors towards women in relation to work, exchange and reward. It also limits the capabilities of women’s participation in public debates on discussions and participation on issues affecting their lives. Such lack of social association and support creates a continuous heritage of influences that affect the morals and values of women. There are limitations in the expectations, responsibilities and capabilities assumed for women. Such cultural reinforcements create loopholes for perpetuating relationships where there exists extreme dominance of men over women within our cultures. The socializations within the community straight from the simple contexts of the families create a determination of the treatment necessary for women. There are conditions of how women should be treated within the educational institution, the family and even in the workplace.
There is conditioning of women to conform to certain behavior with given punishments if they do not abide by the set cultural standards for the actions of women. There are innate predispositions of positions for women in the society leading to great capacities of stereotyping the positions of women in the community and their true capabilities on performance of certain tasks. The repetition of these acts against women leads to their solidification within the culture making them hard to eliminate from the minds of people. This has led to continued reason for the suffering of women within our highly machismo societies.
Other than the inequalities faced by women from social interactions, there are gaps within the policies and legal frameworks as well as in investment quarters. These create innumerable hurdles for women scaling through the barriers against their equal performance in political, social and economic spheres. For example, the government views the export oriented economic and foreign exchange ventures as male areas, while domestic practice remains to the women. Such marginalization equates to low levels of performance and sustainability because of the denial of important aspects of survival such as land ownership and freedom for investment.
The differences created by male dominance can be easily tackled by ensuring balances allocation of responsibilities to both women and women. This takes away the dependency culture and gives women a chance of taking their responsibilities seriously without being trodden upon. Empowered women on development issues have the capability of demanding for a respect of their rights and through their excellence in performance; they become role models for young girls. Therefore, I believe that women need empowerment for boosting their performance through encouragement of their possession of economic responsibility. Women must know that they are not supposed to be dependent on men as has been perpetuated by the culture, but that they can become economically independent and equal players in investment and policymaking forums. This boosts their self-esteem and defends them from atrocities of violence, which keep pulling them down making them to feel useless within the community (Nadal, 2009).
Political correctness is an approach that has taken the plight of women into consideration and protected them from the pains of machismo. However, I believe that there is a level of need for social consideration of the effects of machismo. This can help in creation of awareness of the social position of women in the society. Women have a place in the society and that must be respected so that women have a chance for participating in the provision to the family needs through employment other than just staying at home. Sensitization of the male gender is necessary so they can treat women with honor and respect. It is a community responsibility to eliminate the negative attitudes and perceptions regarding the position of women so that women can stop being in the diminishing side within the community.
Above that, women also have a place to play in changing the opinions of the society towards them. As many more women traverse beyond the limitations created by the men against them, it becomes evident that women competitively succeed in the male dominated world. This requires courage and through empowerment of women, there comes the possibility of many more women coming up against the odds and gaining a position in the society. The possibility of this starts with elimination of preferences of male children as compared to female children. Families must recognize that children are equal so that they do not limit the girl child from accessing certain opportunities offered to the boys. I believe that maturing the capabilities of girls gives them the competitive attitude creating positivity in their approach of life.
The extended family plays a key role in the positioning of women within the community. This conveys a tradition that need breaking to give women a chance for excelling within the community. Regarding this, I believe that the mass media can act as a support for the rights of women. It can as well be in the front line for spreading information of the capabilities women have and how competitively they can be in the male dominated society. The media can spear head the recognition of the plight of women as well as the means of developing opportunities that relieve them of the dominance of men. It can be in the fore front of promotion of empowerment programs for women to create a humanization of the community in a manner that respects equality in provision of opportunities.
References
Nadal, K. L. (2009). Filipino American psychology: A handbook of theory, research, and clinical practice. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
