Jasmine Barragan

Professor Koning
English 113B
27 April 2014
Female Discrimination: A worldwide issue
Gender bias is an issue as wide spread as humanity itself. Till this day, female
discrimination is taking an excessive toll on the way our world is being socially shaped. The
degrees in severity and type of female discrimination vary from country to country. The
knowledge we have of such a well-known and frequently discussed topic is through visual
images that are portrayed through culture and Media outlets such as TV, theater, magazines, and
music. Although Media outlets are reinforcing prejudice towards women in first world countries,
cultures have nurtured female discrimination through time in third world countries.
The first seven slides describe the high levels of male dominance in India. Women in
India are constantly sexually harassed, judged on their appearance, undermined in the work
force, and do not have political authority. The fifth slide illustrates the severity of separation
through transportation. Due to the frequent groping from men, the government in India required
women and men to use separate buses. Men in India deem it fit to sexually assault women if they
do not adhere by the general appearance of their covered women. Women in India not only cover
their entire body for their culture but they also do so because they must show respect to their
husband by not flaunting any part of their body to other men (as shown in slide eight). As in
many other countries, women cannot own land/property and use the bathroom in daylight.
Women rely on men to provide shelter for their family because they are not permitted to work
for high-end jobs and they must stay home to take care of their children like in a traditional
culture.
As we move onto the slides ten through thirteen, we a shown the discrimination levels in
Africa. African women fear the brutal surgery that removes a part in their genital area that lets
them receive pleasure. Unfortunately, it was unpleasant to show a picture of the surgery on the
PowerPoint but it is still an issue going on today. They fight gender inequality on a daily basis by
not being able to own property and working the fields every day while they are taking care of
their young ones. On slide twelve, there is a woman carrying a large basket on her head while
guiding her children. In Africa women must learn to take care of her family while gathering food
for them. In the book Where We Stand: Class Matter by bell hook, she explains the hardships her
mother was going through while she was growing up. She states, She was stranded there, on top
of the hill, at home with her children Before marrying he let mama know who would be
wearing the pants in his house (hooks, 12-13). When bell hooks and her family moved into the
new house, the mother was really unhappy with the living conditions. She was stuck at home
while her husband was working or out on the streets. She had no rights in that household because
the husband did not want her to work and throughout those years, women were not allowed to
have a job. However, gender inequality has not greatly improved between the late 1900s and
today. A large variety of countries, such as Africa and India, are still dealing with the hardships
bell hooks mother went through. The fourteenth slide shows a Chinese family that only has one
child. In China, families lose all of their property, family name, and many more if they only a
female child. They view a female child as a whole other expense and when a Chinese family had
a girl, they would cry to the child because they viewed her as a burden.
In the slides eighteen and nineteen, women with the same education level as men are
treated less. Here in the United States, where equal opportunity for success is high on the totem
pole, there exists an opportunity distinction among genders. It is a well-known concept that there
are more men in higher paying positions than there are women. For a country that boasts
opportunity for all, this is hypocrisy at its finest. While technically women have the same
requirements as men, they must endure so much more than men to even have a shot at that
promotion. It is something of a trend for men in power to think of women as not quite as
adequate as men regardless of the fact that any woman might exceed the qualifications of any
man. Perhaps it is the simple fact that for so long women were not welcomed in a male
dominated workplace, that it has not only has taken quite some time for women to rise in our
society but it has also taken significant effort for men to accept the fact that their once stay at
home wives are now a threat to their masculinity. In the twenty-fifth slide, the producers for
the Carls Jr. commercial add women that wear little clothing to advertise their burgers because it
attracts male attention. That image shows how men have little respect and think low of women
by having them flaunt their body all over the media. Men undermine women by only using them
for their body and out casting them from high-end jobs.
In the last slide, I added a photograph of women protesting about gender inequality
because women are still fighting about this issue. In the photo, one woman is holding up a sign
saying whats XY gotta do with it and I added this as my concluding photo because it shows
how women are still fighting for equality today. Women inequality is still a major issue all
around the world. I arranged the photographs by countries because I want to show the
reader/viewer how women are being treated all around the world in an organized matter. In every
country, there are different levels of gender inequality that women are fighting about. My
strongest photograph throughout the presentation is where three women from different countries
are holding their arm up and it says We All Can Do It (counterargument). I chose this photo as
my strongest image because it shows how although women are degraded all around the world,
women are strong, intelligent, and independent enough to fight for what they believe in.


Works Cited
Hooks, Bell. Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print