Women will never enjoy the same rights as men. Do you agree?

For the purpose of this essay, 'women' refers to the female human population through all the age groups. 'will never' refers to the futility of the action in the past and future situation; 'same rights' refers to the equality of treatments and what is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees and moral principles. Based on the above statement, i agree to a large extent that women will never enjoy the same rights as men.

Millions of women throughout the world live in conditions of abject deprivation of, and attacks against, their fundamental human rights for no other reason than that they are women. For example, in the past, only the males of the family had the chance to further their studies while women were not given the choice, for simple reason that they did not see the need for women to have a high education when they were going to be housewives, and mother to the children.

'Combatants and their sympathizers in conflicts, such as those in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Rwanda, have raped women as a weapon of war with near complete impunity. Men in Pakistan, South Africa, Peru, Russia, and Uzbekistan beat women in the home at astounding rates, while these governments alternatively refuse to intervene to protect women and punish their batterers or do so haphazardly and in ways that make women feel culpable for the violence.'

Even as we studied the histories, often we stumbled upon the cruel fact that indeed during the World War II, women often bear the brunt of it. Many were caught by the soldiers, sold, bought and forced to work into prostitution, or even killed when they resisted. 'As a direct result of inequalities found in their countries of origin, women from Ukraine, Moldova, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, Burma, and Thailand are bought and sold, trafficked to work in forced prostitution, with insufficient government attention to protect their rights and punish the traffickers.'

'In Guatemala, South Africa, and Mexico, women's ability to enter and remain in the work force is obstructed by private employers who use women's reproductive status to exclude them from work and by discriminatory employment laws or discriminatory enforcement of the law.' However, the fact is, this does not only occurs in these countries. Even in Singapore, similar situation could be seen, as many women were dismissed from their work or passed over promotions just because they were pregnant or planning to start a family.

Though it is understandable that being businessmen, many would not wish to disrupt the productivity of the company just because the women in the workforce were taking maternity leaves or leaves to take care of their sick children etc. However, would it be fair to them? especially in Singapore where the government encourage the women to bear more children to counter the effect of the aging population on the society. but if by doing so, they have to forgo their career, would the women still want to start a family? Then what is the effectiveness of the message of 'Have 3 or more' children, when instead they act as a stumbling ground for these women.

Furthermore, in some countries, the women worked more but are paid less than men. 'Women cultivate, plough, harvest more than half of all the food in the world.
According to Inter Press Service, “On a global scale, women cultivate more than half of all the food that is grown. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, they produce up to 80 percent of basic foodstuffs. In Asia, they account for around 50 percent of food production. In Latin America, they are mainly engaged in subsistence farming, horticulture, poultry and raising small livestock.”
Yet women often get little recognition for that. In fact, many go unpaid. It is very difficult for these women to get the financial resources required to buy equipment etc, as many societies still do not accept, or realize, that there is a change in the “traditional” roles.'

In Singapore, any male who are of Singapore citizens or Permanent Resident are required to serve the NS, thus in effect, the men enters the workforce later then the women. To make up for the loss, usually the men received higher salary than women in the same job and with the same qualification. It is understandable if this measure is only applicable for a certain period of time. However it isn't the case as throughout the working careers, usually men get their promotions and higher salary then their counterparts.

Though attempts had been made to raise the awareness and there's progress in giving the women equal rights as the men, such as 'Poor women gaining greater access to savings and credit mechanisms worldwide, due to microcredit.' and the protocol set up to protect the women's rights, still, the effects are but small. Countries such as China and India still valued the traditional values, prefering male child over the female, thus causing the situations where female babies are killed over male, thus causing gender ratio inequility, social problems etc.

For women to trully enjoy the same rights as the men is never possible, as men and women are different by nature, however what can be done is instead to give equal opportunitues and rewards to both the male and female and to stop the general assumptions that women are only good at home making. Isn't cooking a job usually associated to women, but many top-notch chefs are men! thus, in conclusion, i agree to the above statement that women will never enjoy the same rights as men.

http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/WomensRights.asp
http://hrw.org/women/