Journal Entry 2

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.