Why all societies should become gender-neutral

Aaisha Al Jabri

Mrs. Hunt

Block D

Essay Writing Assignment

October 23, 2017

something as simple as driving on the streets. This is one extreme example of a society that uses

gender as a way to divide the rights and duties of people The controversial topic of women

driving in Saudia Arabia has brought up a lot of discussion in the past about gender equality and

its importance to the creation of a successful and healthy society. So what about western

countries? Do they still need to address this topic even though they have come so far both

scientifically and intellectually? Surprisingly, modernized and developed western countries like

the United States still face a difficulty in viewing and treating genders equally. For us to solve

this issue we would first have to understand the importance of making society an equal place for

all genders. This importance could be briefly highlighted by mentioning how the gender equality

gap in many countries has been proved to be strongly related to their weak economic growth and

poor socioeconomic development. Therefore, gender equality is necessary to build a healthy and

successful society as it drives social development, economic and educational growth and even

better health rates.

To begin with, it is reasonable to say that it is impossible to talk about gender equality

without mentioning the different stereotypes around genders and their relation to the social

development of a society. Since day one we have been told how to act as a girl or a boy, what

toys to play with and what colors to wear. That might seem harmless at first, but to know that

these harmless acts of categorizing what is for girls and what is for boys has lead to the creation

of a set of ideals and roles that a certain gender should confirm to and accept is very concerning.

These stereotypes include the belief that certain behaviours and personality traits are linked to
biological genders. This is what is known by Hypermasculinity and Hyperfemininity. They are

simply an over exaggerated expectation of behaviours and personality traits from both females

and males. These stereotypes hold back the society from achieving more social development and

intelligence as they put all the genders under so much pressure to conform to them otherwise

they would be shamed and treated differently.

Creating a society with gender fairness will take the pressure off people to change

who they are to fit in with societys expectations. Men and women will not feel as if they have

they have pre-scripted roles that should follow anymore, but instead they will have more

freedom to choose what they want to do. This includes the roles they play as a family member,

which means that they will be doing those roles out of their love to their families and not just

because society told them to do so. This is especially true with mens participation in unpaid care

work such as childcare, housework and care of elderly parents. As a result, people in society

would feel more happy and satisfied in their lives leading to a healthier and more successful

society.

Furthermore, creating a gender neutral environment should be a number one priority to

any society because of the many benefits to the economy and educational growth it brings to the

society. A society that conforms to the mindset of gender equality is less likely to view women

as less worthy of a proper education. This is highly important as the education of women has

been proved to have a lot of benefits on the success of a society. In fact, educating women could

even be more important than educating men because educating a woman is equal to educating a

family. In addition, breaking the wall of gender inequality will mean that there will be less

pressure on women to leave their jobs to raise their children. As a result, more women will start
filling leadership positions, which is what a lot of developed countries lack. Gender equality will

also mean that more women will join the workforce mixture of the society and more talent and

potential will be used instead of being wasted. Vera Jourov, Commissioner for Justice,

expresses her belief in the importance of gender for a societys economy by saying, Equality

between women and men is one of the EU's fundamental values. It is about fairness. Now

numbers talk: equality is a driver for economic growth. Gender equality will bring more growth

to Europe.

Moreover, gender equality in society has been tied to better health rates in so many

ways. It will be no surprise to say that gender inequality has a strong tie to high rates of suicides.

Inequality in all of its form is painful so it was no surprise when a study came out to show that

the more gender equal the society is, the likelihood of being victim of violent death also

decreases significantly. In the most gender equal countries this likelihood is almost half that of

the least gender equal countries. Adding to that, gender inequality empowers one gender over

another leading to inequalities between men and women in health status and provision of

appropriate health services. Eliminating gender inequality can also raise a lot of health awareness

in developing countries. Reports have found that educating women in Africa and Latin America

lowers their risk of HIV infection. This significantly highlights the importance of having a

gender neutral environment in order to live a healthy and fulfilling life.

In conclusion, gender equality is everyones issue because it is an issue that does not

affect certain individuals only. It affects, in so many ways, every individual in the society and the

quality of life in this society. Working on building a society that values gender equality is

extremely important for its success and development because gender equality drives more social
development, economic and educational growth and even better health rates. This idea is similar

to Kofi Annans view on gender equality when he said, Gender equality is more than a goal in

itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable

development and building good governance. So if all societies realized the importance of

building gender neutral societies will we still have to worry about stereotypes and harsh labels,

slow economic development and endless poverty cycles?

1- The Health Impact of Gender Inequality,

www.childfund.org/The-Health-Impact-of-Gender-Inequality/?no_redirect=true.

2- Gender equality boosts economic growth. EIGE, 12 May 2017,

eige.europa.eu/news-and-events/news/gender-equality-boosts-economic-growth.