And the saying goes ‘what a man can do a woman can do
better’. I grew up with that statement been said over and over again and men
were still in charge. The role of a woman has traditionally been confined to
the home while the man does all the work. That was the status quo for many
centuries until women started challenging it through writings in the 18th century.
The 1960s saw a mass wave of protests by women in the developed world calling
for equal rights with men. The woman has the right to equal pay, equal
education, equal opportunities in the work place, legal and financial
independence, right to birth control and abortion, the right to determine
sexuality and non-discrimination against lesbians and also freedom from
violence and sexual coercion.
These were some huge demands by the women and it can
said that their efforts to put themselves on the same scale as men without
discrimination has taken shape not only in the developed world but the entire
world. One area that is having huge influence in the rights for women today is
music. Many of today’s female artists compose songs whose themes center on liberty
and emancipation of women popularly termed ‘Girl Power’. Artists such as Beyoncé Knowles have led the trail in this area. Her song ‘Run the world (Girls)’ has got
to be the best Girl Power song till date. Its lyrics and music video seems to
intimidate the man by saying Girls are in charge and not men. Other energetic
Girl Power songs by the Creole lady include ‘Independent women’, soundtrack to
Charlie’s Angels and Survivor by Destiny’s Child. Other popular female artists
that have composed Girl Power songs include Pink, Christina Aguilera, Alicia
Keys, Aretha Franklin among others.
The women might have been protesting for equal rights
with man but who would think that it would really take serious effect. The result
today is jawdropping. Women now make up 45% of the world labour force this
includes the Arab world were many women are restricted in the work place due to
gender and religious segregation. They now work with men without any problem.
If one takes a look at Nigeria, women are gradually taking over the corporate
world. Women are now flooding the banks, they are heading departments in
corporate organisations and are becoming CEOs. Women are now taking up
positions in management and are been favoured over the men. There’s the saying
that woman are better managers and their position in the management field tends
to show that.
Girls are also flooding schools. Infact the ratio of
girls in class today outnumbers boys. While doing some research, I found out
that girls make up the large population in management courses in University
such as Accounting, Economics, Marketing and Business Administration. I used
Babcock University, the University of Ibadan and University of Lagos to make
these findings. Courses relating to the media such as Mass Communication also
have large population of girls as well as Law. Girls are now topping the class
ahead of the guys. Some guys even rely on the girls to pass their courses. The
population of girls is small in the pure and applied sciences. Fields such as
Medicine, Engineering and Computer Science have a small fraction of girls but I’m
sure their little numbers would dare the norm and aim to top the class and come
up with innovative ideas which have been all created by men. Women have defied
the odds in doing extreme activities that are highly dangerous and of course
only done by men. We now have women who have gone on space missions such as Valentina
Tereshkova, Kathryn Sullivan, Rhea Seddon, Mae Jemison, Anna Fisher, Roberta
Bondar among many others. A few women have been able to challenge men on the
race track such as Danica Patrick and Johanna Long in Indy Car Racing and
NASCAR, Maria Teresa de Filippis and Lella Lombardi in Formula one, Vanina Ickx
and Desiré Wilson in the 24 Hours of Le Man race.
*To be continued.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, kindly leave your comments below. Thanks.
*All photos sourced randomly from Google Images.
Insightful read. Thank God women are no longer in the background as they used to be. Healthy competition is necessary in all professions. :)
ReplyDeleteYes they r
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. Healthy competition is needed. The race at which women are moving is the challenge for the men.
ReplyDeleteYes michael they are and its a wake up call for the men.
ReplyDeleteWhen we understand how logically it is occurring, we can then help everyone have similar tools to change and improve their lives. First, it is not about ability and sheer effort. Our individual environments and yes, "differential treatment" greatly affect thinking, learning, and motivation to learn and grow. When we redefine more correctly average stress as many layers of mental work our minds are dealing with, not just some situational problem or event that really goes on top of our average, we can then see much more clearly how our individual environments, not genetics greatly affect learning and growing in the information age. Now by understanding how differential treatment is changing knowledge and skills by gender, we need to see how boys are treated from infancy as opposed to how we as girls/women are treated.
ReplyDeleteThe problem involves two entirely different treatments of Males and Females as early as one year of age and increases in differential treatment. This is creating the growing Male Crisis. The belief Males should be strong allows aggressive treatment of Males as early as one year. This is coupled with much "less" kind, stable, verbal interaction and less mental/emotional/social support, knowledge, and skills for fear of coddling. This increases over time and continued by society from peers, teachers and others in society. This creates more social/emotional distance from parents and other authority figures who have knowledge; also higher average stress that hurts learning and motivation to learn; also more activity due to need for stress relief; also more defensiveness and wariness of others further hindering emotional and social growth; and higher muscle tension (creating more pressure on pencil and tighter grip) that hurts writing and motivation to write. It creates much lag in development creating a learned sense of helplessness in school. This differential treatment continues through adulthood, almost fixing many Males onto roads of failure and escape into more short-term areas of enjoyment. Also society give Male love and honor only on condition of some achievement or status. This was designed to keep Male esteem and feelings of self-worth low to keep striving and even give their lives in time of war for small measures of love and honor. Males not showing this are given more ridicule and discipline to make them try harder. Support is not an option for fear of coddling. Many Males thus falling behind academics then turn their attention toward video games and sports to receive small measures of love/honor not received in the classroom.
Since girls by differential treatment are given more positive, continual, mental, emotional/social/ support verbal interaction and care from an early age onward this creates quite the opposite outcome for girls compared with boys. The lower the socioeconomic bracket and time in that bracket the more amplified the differential treatment from a young age and increased and more differentiated over time. My learning theory and article on the Male Crisis will go to all on request or can be read from my home site at http://learningtheory.homestead.com/Theory.html
I feel boys/men are just as intelligent, sensitive, then also perhaps much more courageous from facing so much and still the majority appear to remain caring toward us as women. I feel though unless we begin treating our Male children with the same kind, caring, support we as girls/women receive from infancy, Males will in time, collectively begin to feel drained of self-worth causing a tremendous other foot to fall taking back all they have lost and destroying society at the same time. We must not gloat but be very anxious and willing to make the world equal in treatment so Males can compete more evenly
This is a very insightful comment Lynn from the male perspective. Thanks a lot,
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