What is gender equality?

Gender equality is one of the most important aspects of life in democratic Western countries, where women and men receive equal opportunities and responsibilities in various spheres of life. Regardless of gender, citizens are given equal rights in employment, they successfully combine family life and career. The concept of "gender equality" has emerged thanks to UN experts, and now it is actively discussed not only developed countries, but also in the developing states of the third world.

Gender approach

For millennia, men and women had to fulfill various social responsibilities, and representatives of the fair sex almost always faced discrimination. The modern gender approach becomes the most complicated socio-cultural designer, reflecting the differences between people, different in behavior, social role, emotional and mental characteristics. According to this approach, gender is usually understood as a model of sociocultural relations between women and men in various institutions of modern society.

Features

In the 70s of the XX century, gender equality was perceived only as the receipt of women's equality in political, social and economic life, and the lack of discrimination against women in relation to men. Subsequently, gender roles shifted somewhat, and residents of democracies reconsidered responsibilities in the family, and this is especially noticeable in Sweden. So, in most families of this Scandinavian state, the role of mom and dad in the upbringing of the younger generation becomes the same, and the man can take maternity leave to care for the baby, and the woman - to build a successful career and provide the household with a material plan.

Concept

Gender equality, the features of which are spelled out in the UN normative acts, stipulate that the peoples of individual countries should reconsider "outdated" values and views. For example, there may be traditions concerning the consideration of a woman as a "keeper of the home", mother and wife, spending free time in the kitchen and engaged in the upbringing of children.

On the other hand, gender roles are often considered in a different light. So, this concept also affects the sexual orientation of a person without taking into account his biological and anatomical features. Such a situation concerns same-sex couples who are trying to build sexual relations, and the legislation of European states provides for the possibility of the official marriage of two men or women. In domestic practice, lesbians and gays do not have the opportunity to register a marriage, but in practice every year there are more and more same-sex families, in which one member acts as a "breadwinner" and the other - "housewives".

Education

The theory of gender equality affects the upbringing of the younger generation, as well as the education of schoolchildren and students. So, to children of both sexes from the early childhood the same approach is carried out without taking into account the stereotypes accumulating during centuries. In addition to co-education of boys and girls, they are taught to behave in the same way, without taking into account the social roles that they will have to perform in adulthood.

Babies from kindergarten age get used to the "secondary" biological characteristics in relation to their own worldview. Therefore, subsequently, they do not have a gender identity based on gender, which leads to the fulfillment of the social role that has been played for ages by either women or men. So, thanks to such education, the girls will not build relationships with the boys, showing their own helplessness, submissiveness and expressing their willingness to obey.