The third topic of the module was
The Evolution
of the Role of Women in the East and in the West – Stature of the Chinese Woman.
This topic, as its name describes, revolves around how the role played by women
in the East and West has progressed over the years. In general, the issue of gender
inequality in both the East and the West has become less evident, and women are
now climbing up the social and economic ladders as compared to the past. Most women
in China these days are able to pursue their own career, and are no longer
expected to stay at home and be responsible for taking care of the whole
household. Furthermore, women are now much more valued, since there is a much
higher percentage of males in China compared to the females, and this is
largely because of the favouritism showed towards males in the past. Because of
the one-child policy, most families only hope to have a male child, and in the
case that a female child is born, most of the times the family would choose to
abort the child and get a male child instead. Therefore, China now experiences
a serious problem whereby there is a 'shortage' of women. Although women no
longer face such serious gender stereotypes as compared to the 20th century,
there are still some discrimination showed towards women in China. Employers in
China are unwilling to hire married women with children, as they fear that
these women are unable to focus completely during working hours, thus reducing efficiency
and productivity. In the education scene, females have to score higher than
their male counterparts in order to enter the same university courses too.
Thus, it can be seen that although there are progressive signs of gender
equality in China, there is still much room for improvement.
In the West, there is hardly any or no gender
discrimination. Women in the West are viewed as equal as males, and they receive
equal job opportunities and education rights. In fact, the percentage of female
graduates in the West is even higher than the percentage of male graduates in
universities. There are also quite a few
cases whereby the father is in charge of taking care of the household, and
staying at home to take care of the children, whereas the mother is the sole
breadwinner and responsible for earning money and providing for the family.
This emphasises that women are seen to be no less capable than males in the
West, as they also have the freedom to pursue their careers while their
husbands stay at home to take care of the household.
In Singapore, I feel that gender discrimination can
rarely be seen. I feel that both men and women have equal opportunities to
achieve what they want, as long as they are willing to work hard. We can see
that there are almost equal number of working women and men. In schools, both
females and males are also given equal opportunities to excel, and the criteria required to enter
local universities does not vary for females and males. However, in certain
public sectors, there are bound to be more women than men. One such example
would be the teaching profession, whereby there is a larger percentage of female
teachers than male teachers. I think that this is because most of the public
view females to be more gentle with children, and as such are able to teach
them better.
In conclusion, I feel that although we are taking big
strides towards the ultimate goal of gender equality, we can never achieve
gender equality as a whole.
