Marginalization of certain groups of people or individuals has been an issue that has existed both in the past and in the modern society. So to speak it has been prevalent in both active and passive forms. This is to suggest that there are situations whereby marginalization has been practiced through strategies that seem to be carried without depicting an open discrimination. In line with this, there has been the case study of the Chinese society whereby I feel that marginalization of women has been highly practiced. It has been an aspect that is deep rooted in the Chinese society history. The position of women has been underrated together with what they can contribute to the society in the larger perspective.
In this line of thought, there has been gender discrimination in the sense that the boy child is preferred to a girl child. This has been applied socially, economically and politically. Having stated marginalization of women in the Chinese society as a factor that needs to be addressed, the reasons for it along with the effects will be brought into view. In order to come up with the information on the topic under discussion, four sources will be made use of as it will be provided in the works cited page.
Notably, there has been over time a, tendency to practice the infanticide. This is whereby; a mother bears a baby girl, and then kills her in order to bear a baby boy (Hershatter 8). Boys have been idolized as valued members of the society and as a result, there is a greater percentage of boys in school as compared to girls. This has led to many women playing the role of bearing children and the home based jobs that have little or no income. Due to this fact, there has been discrimination in work place. This is evidenced by good jobs and well paying jobs being preserved for men rather than the women.
There has also been a tendency to give the employment to the men instead of women. Considering the family life, Chinese women have been marginalized in the sense that they are given to the role and responsibility of bearing children of which the number range from six to eight (Hershatter 9).
Generally, the discrimination of women in the Chinese society has been revealed in several different ways. In connection wit this, there has been gender discrimination in the work place. This has been achieved by unfair dismissal from the work place, periodic employment plans, early ages of retirement allocated to women, discrepancies in wages and sexual harassment in the workplace.
Accordingly, Chinese women have faced marginalization in the work place by means of being dictated the time that they should get pregnant. In the Chinese History, women have been given to the responsibility bearing children and bringing up a male descendant. This is to show that right from childhood, girl child has been discriminated. As a result, a woman is seen as a mother and a perpetuator of the family. Consequently, employers tend to employ men, give good salaries and even promote them in large percentages and numbers as compared to women (McLaren 116). This makes life even harder for the women to access jobs.
Additionally, women do not access job since the family responsibility as seen from the point of view of the employer makes them not to perform in the work place. Equally, the employers are afraid of the employing women due to the fact that in the process they may get pregnant and when they give birth they have to take care of the young ones. In this combination, the programs that are provided to create employment opportunities only favor men thus marginalizing the women (McLaren 19). These are some of the reasons why a Chinese woman would receive no employment and if so, low paying one in the society.
Again, the Chinese women have low levels of education which hinder them from being integrated in the labor market. The cause for this has been brought about by gender discrimination in the education sector. The education of a girl child has been neglected since it is viewed as unprofitable. This is for the reason that the girl will finally get married and leave the parents who bore her (McLaren 65).
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As such, this mentality has made women to be the most disadvantaged in the Chinese modern society. There has also been the issue of abuse being so much directed to women who appear to be more vulnerable as compared to their male counterparts.
In the same line of thought, discrimination has been noted in the structure of the government whereby there is the one child policy. Whether a birth control method or not, it is a form of gender discrimination that is made possible by the Chinese government. The kind of government in china leaves a lot to be questioned when it comes to some issues like gender discrimination. Although gender discrimination is a global issue, the Chinese society has gone beyond the limits. This is for the reason that the government of which it should be protecting the human rights, it has instead violated it (McLaren 109).
From a point of view of the women, it is not their fault to be born as women but the society has so much oppressed and made them not to enjoy freedom as humans. This has limited their ability to exploit their full potential and thus contribute to the development of the society as whole even in the area of sports (Dong 47). Having stated how the Chinese women have been marginalized, it is important to bring into view the fact that it has not happened on the grounds of choice. It is deep rooted in the societal norms and dictates of culture that place no value on the women. Also, there seems to be a certain type of injustice directed to women of which is driven by male selfish interests and patriarchal authority marked by totalitarianism.
From this point, it is essential to bring out the point that women in the Chinese society should be accorded to a voice and more confidence. This is because of the injustices that the women have been subjected to along with the fact that they have not been given the opportunity to explore what they can do and profit the society as whole. Women are a group of people that if given their freedom can contribute much to the development of the society (Vajpeyi 59). Taking the example of the family whereby the woman is educated, she is better placed to access the right medical care for her family and even raise a healthy family.
As such, a healthy family translates to a healthy society and economic growth. This is for the reason that, if the society is healthy, then, there will be no much constraints spent on maintaining the health of the nation. Therefore, instead of spending on medical care, the society can invest in other projects that can lead to developments. In a case whereby a woman is allowed to gain her confidence, she can be in a position to become a good manager. This has been realized in the current era whereby, successful organizations are having women managers. This gives them the opportunity to build the society and contribute to the economy of the society as whole. Given the opportunity to access education, women can contribute so much to research and the global development.
The standards of living can rise if the women are given their freedom since if both parents are earning good income, the children will get quality education, health care and other such like essentials. In actual sense, this will translate to the benefit of the society in the larger point of view (McLaren 149). The cost of continuing to marginalize women in the society has high risks. This is for the reason that the society will lag behind in social, economic and general development. Such a society will record high mortality rates as mothers are illiterate and thus cannot access quality heath care and bring up the children in an enlightened way. The burden of caring for the family will continue to be heavily directed to the men if the women are not given their voice.
Moreover, the quality and the standards of living will remain poor if the voice of women is not given credibility. Therefore, it is important to give the voice to the women in the society. This can only be achieved through a complete change of attitude towards the role of women in the society.
In the case of the Chinese society, it would be important for the government to change their attitude towards women and change their repressive and male dominated form of government (Vajpeyi 116). In the past, there has been a tendency for resistance to change owing to the values and norms depicted by culture.
Inevitably, the change of attitude can be resisted by many men who are extremists and not flexible to accept change. In regard to this, many totalitarian governments would refute this factor. Attitudinal change may be embraced by few and the impact of women contribution to the society may be undermined. The benefit of giving the women voice a confidence may be refuted by many who hold to traditional habits and some kind of prejudice (Hershatter 11).
Especially in a society whereby the culture has been dominated by gender discrimination, it can prove to be almost impossible to promote equality rights. However, by help of non governmental programs to bring about the change together with women activists and movements, change can be realized. Since the marginalization of women in China society is more of human rights violation, international organization for humanitarian rights should step in. There have been some efforts in the modern Chinese society to promote equality. Nonetheless, the results have proved to be unsatisfactory and therefore efforts should be made to ensure the implementation.