Gender Equality

Gender equality means equal rights and freedoms, equal opportunities for participation, recognition and appreciation of women and men in all areas of society - political, economic, personal and family. However, this doesn`t happen.

It´s very important to talk about gender equality because all around the world, the situation of women is worse than that of men's, simply because they are women. The reality is even worse for women who belong to minorities, elderly women, women with disabilities, migrants, etc.

The cause of this inequality is chauvinism which is a prejudice, expressed by opinions and attitudes, which opposes equal rights between genders, privileging the male gender over the female. In other words, it is an oppression, in its most diverse forms, of women by men. Unfortunately, this prejudice is still very present in our society. Having been normalized for a long time, only a few decades ago this behaviour began to be problematized, especially by feminist movements, which fight for gender equality. Not everyone agrees this must be fought, which means that, despite feminist efforts, it is still present in several environments.

The fight against chauvinism and gender inequality is called feminism. Feminism is a social movement for civil rights, led by women, which since its origin has claimed political, legal and social equality between men and women. This performance isn`t sexist, that is, it does not seek to impose some type of female superiority, but the equality between the genders. The history of feminism begins in the French Revolution with the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen”, written in the year of the Revolution, which was opposed by the “Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens”, written by the French feminist Olympe de Gouges. For this reason, she was murdered. However, her death, considered a landmark of feminism in the world, brought some later feminist movements.

Little by little, feminist movements around the world began to gain rights claimed by women (right to education, vote, contract, property, divorce, equal pay, abortion, etc.). Although we have already won more rights for women, there is still much to change.

 

Marta Barbosa - 
LC Gondomar B1.1 (teacher Miguel Ferreira)