Gender Inequality In Singapore

Gender Inequality in Singapore

The idea of bridging the gender inequality gap is very similar to Stuart Hall’s aims where he championed for social and political rights such as racial and gender equality. This idea has been a challenge to many countries in the world, where gender discrimination and inequality is still deeply entrenched in our societies today. I believe that it is only right that Men and Women are being treated equally, and even though we have principles and rules that strive for equality, discriminatory practices are definitely prevalent in many countries, not excluding a first world country like Singapore. According to research, Singapore ranks 59 out of 142 countries on the Global Gender Gap index (Yahya & Tan, 2014). This

For example, Singapore had a conservative culture which revolved around the values and teachings of Confucius. For example, Confucianism encourages a patriarchal system where males are the authority, holding positions of dominance and prestige and this meant that wives had to follow their lead in a marriage. (Whittemore , n.d.) This then bred a culture where men are more superior to women in the past, which thus may have resulted in the gender inequality that we experience today. Conversely, countries which have a less-conservative culture, such as the western culture, may lead to those who are discriminated in society to be more confident in standing up and fighting for their rights or to deviate from gender stereotypes such as “Men being the head of the household”, which may explain the reason for their higher rankings on the global gender gap report. However, I believe that these cultures are being diluted with greater exposure to foreign influence and having a less conservative culture is a direction which I feel Singapore may be heading towards to, in the near

Despite our current short comings, I believe that as Singapore integrates more with the world, there are many lessons that we can learn from other countries. In addition, with more and more people receiving education, society is more aware of the impacts of gender gap and I believe that there is greater pressure on the government to roll out policies to counter this discrimination. The younger generation of Singaporeans is also known to be more vocal and confident to stand for what they believe in, as compared to the past generations, and this can be a form of assurance to know that even though gender equality is an ideal, narrowing this gender gap is feasible in Singapore, in the near future.

This Junior Seminar course has definitely exposed me to several issues and happenings that were interesting and difficult to comprehend, from the complex theories by remarkable socialists such as Marx and Gramsci, to seeing those theories being applied in our societies, or how those ideas are still prevalent in our society today. This course has definitely shown me that there is so much more that we can do, for a better