Gender bias has been a social issue in the world for centuries and is still there affecting the lives of people in one or another form. In order to know how and why it is crucial to eradicate or minimize gender bias, first of all, it is essential to understand that what is gender? What do we mean by gender bias and how it affects us?
Gender is a socially constructed expectations and roles for women and men, for girls and boys like women are supposed to be emotional, caring etc. while boys are supposed to be tough and should not show their emotions in front of people. When we about being male or female it is related to the sex of a person which is biological and includes biological characteristics like reproductive organs and hormones that differentiates a child as a Male or Female.
Now let’s come to gender bias. It is any type of behaviour that shows favouritism toward one gender over another. Most people think that it is related to favouring boys or men; however, it is not always necessary. Bias could be against anyone whom the favour is provided on the basis of their gender. This leads to gender inequality which does not provide equal opportunities for growth to an individual. Gender bias suppresses capable individuals and breaks down their confidence to achieve success. In the present scenario essentially, it is women who are getting impacted because of gender bias in every aspect of life, whether it is getting an education in childhood or getting a higher position at their workplace. Women have to prove themselves, again and again, to show that they are also capable of doing work which men can do. The things could be similar for men at some places like expressing their emotions or choosing professions which are not considered ideal for men. Hence, it is important to eradicate these biases and celebrate the people as they are and respect what they want to do with their lives.
What can be done to minimize gender bias?
What is required is concentrated efforts to sensitise the society in eliminating such issues of gender bias and celebrate the individuality of people. It is high time that every individual is treated equally and given every opportunity required to grow to his/her full potential. Now is the time to lead a discussion helps individuals in shifting cultural norms, accepting that gender bias exists, encouraging discussions of gender inequality, speaking out against sexism and harassment, recognising and removing conscious and implicit bias, and breaking the stereotypes which are prevalent in our society since ages.
Awareness and Education:
Education that helps create attitudinal shifts towards gender bias and activities to spread awareness among the people from an early age. We need to inculcate this knowledge in our children so that they do not discriminate any individual consciously or unconsciously.Breaking stereotypes:
We should make continuous efforts towards breaking myths and stereotypes around gender and encourage our future generation to do the same.
Creating a community of responsible individuals:
Encouraging individuals to create a community of people who takes ownership to support the people in achieving their goals, not the genders
Positive discrimination schemes and equality laws have been brought in to reduce the problem to some extent but still, a lot of efforts are required from the people to change the mindset of this society which discriminates between the ambitions of individuals based on their gender. While we need to take individual responsibility, we must also acknowledge that these issues are rooted in the way we perceive the differences between the responsibilities of men and women. Thus, the change will only happen with a combination of systemic change and individual behaviour and change in the attitude of people.
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