On December 16th, in a restaurant, there are two mens who have different perspective are having a conversation about……… The first men is feeding his children before sending them to school. The second men is eating alone before going to work. If you want to know, let’s investigate together!
The 1st men: Are you feeding your children and send them to school every day? Is this your work?
The 2nd men: Yes! What happen?
The 1st men: This is not your role men! It’s the mother job! You shouldn’t do this.our role is to work in a bigger company and just give money to them.
The 2nd men: Is that matter if I want to do like this, there’s no rule that this work is only for women.
The 1st men: Oh, you’re dumb! No one gonna want you to be friend because you don’t have any career and you act like a women.
This bespeak that currently there is still gender inequality between men and women. It is evident that throughout history, men and women have struggled with equality. However, they should have the same opportunities in the area of home life, work life and physical activities because everyone has their own right to follow their passion, and if not there will be a high chance of discrimination going on in the society, and the economy won’t grow well.
Home life is an area where men and women don’t get equal opportunities to do all of the work that is related to home which are washing dishes, taking care of babies, doing house work, cooking, and house maintenance. Amongst all these works, there are some specific works for only men and women like Ms. Leah Ruppanner, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Melbourne has stated, “By contrast, men are more likely to do the episodic chores such as mowing the lawn or changing the light bulbs” (Ms.Leah Ruppanner, page 1). By this, we can know that there is some specific housework for only men and women. And in those houseworks, as I have observed nowadays, most of the men’s tasks are fewer than women’s tasks, however, it requires more energy than women’s task like the above quote says.
However, there are different expectations between men and women. For example, some men really want to do all the things that women did too but because they can only participate when it is accepted by society. This can make them feel shy, uncomfortable, hurt and that’s why they don’t do it. Again, this can also be considered as violating their rights. This can also be applied to women.
To sum up, it’s very important that women and men have the same opportunities in this area because it will decrease the discrimination in society. Men and women have different expectations to do the work that they have passion for, so there would not be people against them and violating their rights if the society stop make a judgement on them.
In addition to homelife, currently, men and women don’t get equal opportunities in the area of worklife. For men, their big responsibility in life is working toward a career, so they have to care much about this which might cause them to feel stress, and sometimes they don’t have much time to spend with their family. Especially in Cambodia, women may not have the same opportunities as men because the society thinks that they are not strong, brave or smart enough. Related to this, there are also women who don’t receive the same pay as men for the same job or positions. In fact, an article written in the BBC news entitled, “ points out that men usually earn over 8% more than women per hour (page 1 ). However, this is not men’s fault that makes women earn less than them. So, all these gender stereotypes can’t be stopped if people or women or the society still treat men as the enemy. However, a quote from Ms.Lahle Wolfe, a former writer for The Balance Small Business, says that
“The real enemies behind gender stereotypes are ignorance, intolerance, and stagnant societies that resist change” (Ms.Lahle Wolfe, page 1).
This means that men aren’t the enemies of gender stereotypes, in contrast the real enemies are the few reasons above which is deep underneath the gender stereotypes which is the society that does not want to change. Also, Ms.Lahle Wolfe, a former writer for The Balance Small Business, had mentioned that
“Like women, men can also be great nurturers, help-meets, and genuinely supportive of the women in their lives – but men still may not see what their partners want as clearly as women often can.”
This quote demonstrates that it’s not men’s fault that they can’t be the nurturers or help their partners but because they just can’t see what their partners want as women often do. Also, we can say that they have the ability but they don’t have the opportunity to do so. In order to solve this problem, we should encourage women to state their wants or needs clearly. Back to men, if they have more work or more responsibilities, it could lead them to have a health problem. Like a quote from Ms. Tami Forman, a contributor of Forbes news says that,
“The combination of working more hours and feeling more responsible for breadwinning can create an unhealthy level of anxiety and stress for some men” (Tami Forman, Page 1).
For example, there is a men who is a business manager in one company has work really hard until night time, then he could come back home. Everyday, when he return home, his wife always remind and say to him in an unrespected way that you are a men, your role is to work toward a career in order to feed the family. By this, he feel really pressure and he started to feel stress. Many years passed by, he can’t work anymore. So as you are a women, don’t make them feel more responsible and always complaining to them and would it be better? if you can help them to do their work.
Despite the two areas above, Physical activity is also an area where men and women find it hard to participate. In this, as you all know that most of the men already get opportunities to be involved in physical activities or sport, whereas for girls or female, it is not. Although, according to women’s sports foundation, women face many obstacle that make it difficult for them to participate within the cost, lack of access, safety and transportation issues, and more. Moreover, According to professor Marie Murphy, a professor of exercise and health leading the Centre for physical activity and health research,
“The results suggested one main reason for women’s lack of participation in recreational and competitive sport: fear. Fear of being judged by others based on their appearance, fear about their ability to take part and fear of judgement for choosing to spend time on themselves rather than on their families” (Marie Murphy, page 1).
This is one of the main reasons why there is a lack of women who participate in sports because they fear of being judged by other people and the discrimination. Therefore, we should try to motivate them and support them for participate in sport. Sports and physical activities provide many health benefits. According to Taylor and Francis Online, a quote states that, “In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that physical inactivity is the world’s fourth leading risk factor for death (World Health Organization, 2010 World Health Organization. (2010). Global recommendations on physical activity for health” (page 1).
This illustrates that the risk factor for death is also cause from physical inactivity. It improves our health as well as preventing from the developing of several diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition to the health benefits, sports also build the important life skills such as teamwork, leadership and confidence.
In conclusion, these are all the reasons and advantages of both men and women should have the same opportunity in the area of homelife, worklife, and will be able to involve in physical activities.