Reflect on the changing role of women in society. Draw on examples from China, the United States and Singapore in your reflections.
It is undeniable that women's role in society has change over the years. Instead of being expected to stay at home and manage the households, women can now choose to work alongside their male counterparts or even go overseas. Instead of not being given the chance to learn, they are now well educated and many have even succeeded other men, such as Indra, chairwoman and CEO of PepsiCo, Oprah Winfrey, a famous talk-show host worth more than $2.7 billion, and many others.
In China, women are now allowed to choose their own husbands, or even to be single, something impossible in the past. Furthermore, women has ascended up the various social ladders to reach the top of various sectors, be it political or economical. However, in the rural regions, women are being discriminated against. Baby girls are being abandoned in favor of boys who can continue the family line, largely due to the "One Child" policy.
In America, women have made much more progress than their counterparts in China. For example, Hillary Clinton is the first first lady to run for public office in 2000, becoming a senator for New York. Later, she even tried for the nation's first female president, before conceding and serving as the secretary of state. Before her career in politics, however, she had a brilliant education at the Yale Law School before becoming the first female partner at Rose Law Firm. All these breakthroughs represent the progress which women have made in America. However, feminism in America seems to have evolved into a different matter. As quoted by Carrie Lukas, vice president for policies and economics at the Independent Women's Forum, "they don't seem to want to recognize their success, or that women really do have equal opportunity today". In my opinion, modern feminism has evolved to encompass politics, harnessing politics to advertise themselves. During the recent elections, candidates Hillary Clinton and Obama, and even Sarah Palin were heavily criticized by feminists, despite this reflecting the gender equality they had been fighting fighting for so long.
I feel that Singapore is a very unique country. Being in the Straits of Malacca, it is open to the exchange of ideals from the East and the West. Thus, women in Singapore are treated more equally, and women have as many opportunities as their male counterparts as compared to China, where women seldom climb to the top of the political ladder. Singapore, being a democratic and pragmatic country, does not allow tradition to create stereotypes of women, but rather grade them according to their capabilities.
In my opinion, women should be respected for their dedication towards equality, but they would be foolish to not recognise it when it is in front of them. As the Chinese saying goes, give them an inch and they will reach for a yard. Women are being respected internationally and are being given more freedom and rights. Instead of acknowledging that, if feminists such as those in America continue bickering for more opportunities and equality, one day their male counterparts may just walk out on them and leave them to their own devices. It is advisable for a community of these feminists to meet together in a symposium and decide on their objectives on equality. Although the original suffragettes have largely succeeded in their quest for equality, the younger generation has little idea of the past scenarios and thus take this successes for granted, unlike the Chinese who appreciate their current treatment and thus there is little feminist protests or riots, let alone attacks on politicians.
In conclusion, although women has have an improved social status, they have to learn to treasure it well and reflect on their past conditions, instead of continuously pushing for gender equality to the extent that it has become a major political issue.
1) Hi Benjamin, I will be commenting on your reflective journal.
ReplyDeleteYou have brought up several perceptive points throughout your journal, such as pointing that gender inequality is still rampant in rural area which is not the case for urban areas in contemporary China and that there should be a distinct line drawn when evaluating the extent of feminism in China. While I agree to your points of contention, however I feel that it is a pity that you failed to sufficiently elaborate and build upon your points as you only made sweeping statements by merely stating the reasons for gender inequality without really evaluating the cause and impact in greater depth. For example, in your second paragraph, you merely mentioned that indeed, urban dwelling women in China have ascended up the social ladder but did not go further to explain the reasons behind it which can be explained in many perspectives such as foreign influences or globalisation which resulted in this paradigm shift. Similarly, for the second part of your second paragraph where you pointed out that gender discrimination is still existent in rural areas, you simply stated that families favoured boys over females, while overlooking on explaining what was it that could have caused the mindset of the people living in rural regions to think that male babies were better than female babies.
Moving on, I like the points you made in your third paragraph when you evaluated the changing role of women in the USA. You cited in the example of Hillary Clinton and inferred from her achievements that women were given better social standing than in the past which I felt was appropriate. However, it would certainly help if you could draw a stark contrast between the role of women now and back then to more clearly illustrate just how much the social standing of women has improved by in the past. For the second half of your paragraph when you pointed out that feminism has evolved to encompass politics, it would definitely have made your argument stronger if you could evaluate your opinion at a deeper level as it was left hanging in mid sentence, which made it sound more like an assumption than an evaluation to me.
The same can be said for your fourth paragraph when you evaluated the role of women in Singapore where you stated your opinions about the role of women in Singapore in comparison to China without really going further to explain what made you come to this inference.
In response to your last two concluding paragraphs, I wonder, since feminism is defined as the belief of equal treatment between sexes in economic, social and political sectors, isn’t it then justifiable for women to continue pushing for equal rights and opportunities as men given that women are still not granted absolute equality in society today? While you mentioned that women in China value their rights and rarely protested, could it be attributed to the government’s authoritative regime that suppressed any signs of discontentment among women, while America on the other hand, empowered with the freedom of speech, gives women the right to express their views publicly that may have resulted in constant protest from the women community?
These are just my thoughts for your journal. Thank you.