Roslyn Willet wrote in her essay, “Working in a ‘Man’s World’”, that women are subject to closer scrutiny and harsher criticism than their male colleagues, which is why women always have to prove that they are different from and better than the “average” female, yet rarely dares to threaten their male coworkers by surpassing them because they don’t want to lose their femininity by being aggressive and competitive.
And even in those special professions where women actually dominate, social prejudice against them is still evident as whatever a woman touches is instantly considered “feminine” and is kept trivial by social pressure by the very label of being a “woman’s work. ” Female incapacity is therefore reinforced when these professions by virtue have to use male hands to keep such work in check. This is why, according the Bardwick and Douvan in their essay “Ambivalence: The Socialization of Women”, most women today would not be willing to achieve a greater success than their husbands.
Because if a woman does not achieve the traditional role of being feminine, she is not likely to feel fulfilled as a person, as a woman. If she undertakes both feminine and masculine roles, she is likely to be uncertain about whether she is doing either very well. They would be well on their way to being defined by males as “a little nutty”, domineering, masculine, aggressive, hard to get along with and impossible to understand, as observed in the essay, “Working in a ‘Man’s World. ” To go on a deeper more grievous level, it is most definitely not just in the workplace that women are being mistreated.
According to a recent article by the Presybterian Church in the U. S. , around the world, 1 in 3 women have been beaten, coerced into sex, others otherwise abused in their lifetime. Countless issues regarding abuse against women have been reported and recorded through the past decades, including intimate partner violence, domestic homicides, rape, human trafficking and general violence against women which includes young girls being sold off by their parents to be married to the highest bidder.
In many countries, women are still regarded as the property of men, are denied access to birth control information, are not allowed to vote, and are prohibited from working with men. In patriarchal societies, being born female can be fatal, as male children are greatly preferred. In many countries, young girls (and some boys) are sold by their families into the prostitution trade. Intimate partners commit 40-70 percent of homicides of women worldwide. Eight percent of high school age girls said “yes” when asked if “a boyfriend or date has ever forced sex against your will. It has also been reported that Women are much more likely than men to be killed by an intimate partner. In 2000, intimate partner homicides accounted for 33. 5 percent of the murders of women and less than 4 percent of the murders of men. As for prostitution, UNICEF estimates that there are at least a million child prostitutes in Asia alone with the greatest numbers in India, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines, and a recent study done has also revealed that prostitution in Europe most often involves Asian women.
