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GP Model Essays “We can never close the gender divide.” Do you agree?

“We can never close the gender divide.” Do you agree? 

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GP Essay Question: Model Essay

As the COVID-19 pandemic pushes on and persists to affect lives and livelihoods around the world, we are witnessing a tide of economic fallout, which has a regressive effect on gender equality. According to Mckinsey Research, women’s jobs are 1.8 times more vulnerable in this crisis compared to men’s jobs and It is predicted that women make up 39 percent of global employment, will account for 54 percent of overall job losses. Some put forth the view that we can never close the gender divide due to such economic realities, legislative barriers and sexist mindsets that pervades in our society today, creating an irreconcilable chasm between males and females. This has led some to believe that the gender divide is insurmountable. However, it is my conviction that while closing the gender divide will be difficult, it is not out of the question, mainly attributed to changing attitudes in legislature and shifts in societal mindsets towards women. Ergo, it will be difficult, but closing the gender divide is indeed possible.

Some espouse the opinion that it is not possible to close the gender divide largely due to the existence of legislative barriers that institutionalise gender discrimination and perpetuate gender inequality. In Singapore, for instance, although the Government has taken steps in the recent years to educate and incentivise employers to be fair and to promote flexible work arrangements so that, yet there is still an absence of legislation that clearly lays out employer duties and responsibilities, this results in many companies being able to get away with little more than superficial commitments to be more inclusive. The situation is even more bleak in less developed countries like India. In the recent years, the numerous cases of rape across the country once again exposed the failures of the criminal justice system. Nearly six years after the government amended laws and put in place new guidelines aimed at justice for survivors of rape and sexual violence, yet girls and women continue to face barriers to reporting such crimes. Victim-blaming is also rampant, and the lack of witness and victim protection laws make girls and women from marginalized communities even more vulnerable to harassment and threats. Across the spectrum, from developing to more developed countries, what persists is a disturbing observation that legislation either explicitly hurts women and promotes sexism, or it condones behaviours that hurt women and promote sexism. It remains a deeply painful and saddening reality that the patriarchy continues to be entrenched in legislature, and ingrained in societal institutions, leading some to think that it is a futile quest and that we can never close the gender divide. In view of all these challenges, it does seem like an uphill task when it comes to closing the gender divide. But to say that it is an impossible dream would be too fatalistic. I strongly stand by the view that closing the gender divide is not completely impossible- there is definitely more than a glimmer of hope. First and foremost, there have been changing attitudes in legislature that have led to tremendous progress for women’s rights on paper. Right here in Singapore, the government has just announced that they will embark on a review of women’s issues showing a strong committed step towards greater gender equality. In the pipeline are a series of engagements termed as “Conversations on Women Development” scheduled to take place between the public and private sectors, as well as non-governmental organisations, with the objective of identifying and tackling issues concerning women in Singapore.   These will culminate in a White Paper to be issued by the Government in the first half of 2021.

Across the globe, in terms of the right to political representation, the presence of women   has been growing- in the upcoming US Presidential elections, Kamala Harris’s nomination as the Vice President for the democratic party is a milestone. She is the first woman and the first person of colour to serve as vice president.   In Canada, Justin Trudeau made half the ministers in his cabinet women. Similarly, in Singapore, other than having a first female president, the recent election 29 per cent of the 93 seats for elected Members of Parliament (MPs), 27 – or elected seats – went to women, compared to 21 out of 89 seats after the 2015 polls. Even in countries without a female head of government, changes in legislature have indeed been growing to ameliorate gender inequality and boost the rights of women. Japan has adopted new legislation to promote women’s political participation by urging political parties to make the number of male and female candidates as equal as possible and set targets for gender parity. Notoriously patriarchal countries like Afghanistan had a record of 417 female candidates that participated in the October parliamentary elections in 2018. These are all concrete evidence that legislature has been changing to increase rights for women and enact gender parity, closing the gender divide. With more female representation in politics and in view of these steps towards women representation, it is still very much possible for us to close the gender divide in the near future.  

In addition to this, it is definitely possible to close the gender divide because there has also been shifting societal attitudes towards women. At a societal level, the #MeToo movement directed unprecedented attention to the historic injustices and inequalities experienced by women, specifically those related to sexual harassment in the workplace. Led by grassroots activists, this movement gained traction across Asia, opening space for countless stories of harassment and new opportunities to hold perpetrators to account. Even countries that have been traditionally patriarchal in nature like South Korea is making headways in gender equality. Enterprising Korean women are increasingly visible in a traditionally male dominated country like South Korea. More young women are earning university degrees than men. More than 70% of women between 25 and 34 are active in the workforce. Young women are far more vocal than previous generations in challenging the conservative social mores that hold them back. For instance, two female Youtube Influencers Jung Se-young and Baeck Hana, are part of a wave of feminist activism that has swept South Korea. These ladies have cut their hair, thrown away their make-up and sworn off relationships with men. With the advent of social media, the influence of feminism is increasing spreading across social media platforms and society is waking up to the fact that young digital natives no longer want these conservative traditions, and women are free to reject them. Thus, it is highly possible that due to shifting societal attitudes that promote gender equality, the gender divide will be definitely be closed.  

All in all, although the path towards gender equality may seem frustratingly slow. But the fact that inequality is now being openly discussed is progress in itself. In these recent years, societies and government worldwide have been placing gender equality issues on their agenda. With this growing trend towards more rights for women on paper, coupled with the shifting societal mindsets, it is completely possible that our generations will be able to close the gender in our lifetime. The journey towards gender equality may be winding. There is no silver bullet and admittedly there is a lot to do in the field of equality, but nothing is impossible. We must and can continue to fight and narrow the gender divide.  

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A 5,000-year-old history of the gender gap

After a long history of inequality, much work still needs to be done in order to close the gender gap. Image:  Unsplash/Jonnelle Yankovich

.chakra .wef-spn4bz{transition-property:var(--chakra-transition-property-common);transition-duration:var(--chakra-transition-duration-fast);transition-timing-function:var(--chakra-transition-easing-ease-out);cursor:pointer;text-decoration:none;outline:2px solid transparent;outline-offset:2px;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-spn4bz:hover,.chakra .wef-spn4bz[data-hover]{text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-spn4bz:focus-visible,.chakra .wef-spn4bz[data-focus-visible]{box-shadow:var(--chakra-shadows-outline);} Arash Nekoei

Fabian sinn.

• Data from the Human Biological Record has been used to explore women's status over the last 5,000 years.
• Historically, women's power has been a side-effect of important family connections.
• However, the number of self-made women began to increase among the writers in the 17th century, before a steeper rise in the 19th century.
• Through these studies, we can learn about the future of women's and other liberation movements.

Finding my path among a crowd of cyclists on an April morning, the frosty weather reminds me that Stockholm lies at sixty degrees north. I am not surprised that most of the cyclists around me are women. But in fact, I should be shocked if I were to think in a historical and international context.

Women have biked a long way to get here. They even adapted their clothing style to take advantage of the independence that this new, cheap mode of transport offered at the turn of the 20th century. Susan B Anthony, the American women’s rights activist, wrote in 1896: “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world” (Shrock 2004, Macy 2017).

Even in Sweden, the most gender-neutral country in Europe, just a few decades ago the cyclist crowd would be majority male, like most cyclist crowds in the world today (EIGE 2020). Cycling is, of course, only one dimension of women’s status, which range from legal rights, informal customs, to representation in positions of power.

Have you read?

This uk campaign is working to close the politics gender gap, it will take another 136 years to close the global gender gap.

What are the historical roots of these international differences? How far back do we need to go in history to find the root of divergence? Should we expect a convergence eventually?

Such a long-term and global understanding of women’s history not only improves our understanding of the past but, importantly, teaches us about the future of women and other oppressed groups and their (potential) paths of emancipation. As the mathematician Joseph Fourier wrote 200 years ago, “the degree of emancipation of women is the natural measure of general emancipation”.

The rise of women’s status has come with many struggles. First-wave feminism fought for women’s property and voting rights, leading to enfranchisement in developed countries during the 20th century. Starting in the 1960s, second-wave feminism targeted workplace and legal inequality. Following Generation X’s third wave in the 1990s, today we are living through the fourth wave of feminism as the spotlight of #MeToo justice reached men of power from all walks of life.

But was it really the case that half of the world population were repressed for the entire history of humankind, leaving half of the total brainpower unused? We had doubts from the beginning, as many outstanding women throughout history pop into my head.

What about Sappho? What about Joan of Arc? Female rulers held power in almost every civilisation, from Hatshepsut (the mighty pharaoh in 15th century BCE) to more than a millennia later when Cleopatra VII reigned over Egypt, to the “queens era” of Europe, usually dated from the 14th to 18th century CE, with prominent queens like Elizabeth of England and Christina of Sweden (Monter 2012).

Despite the debate on gender balance being front and centre in many societies, most research has focused on case studies of a few exceptional women or women’s status in a specific region in a particular era. Although these provide valuable insights, we still lack a unified view of how women’s status evolved over time and across countries.

Our work seeks to address these questions systematically and quantitatively and provide a unified view of how women’s status evolved over the entire 5,000 years of human history.

The progress on these fundamental questions has been impeded by the lack of a consistent and comprehensive dataset covering time and space. In recent work, we built such data, the Human Biographical Record (Nekoei and Sinn 2021b). The Human Biographical Record is part of a larger project, the Human Record , where we construct and provide to the research community datasets like the Human Biographical Record using two components.

First, crowd-sourcing produces the largest voluntary collaboration in human history through Wikipedia and Wikidata. Second, machine learning transfers all this information to datasets like the Human Biographical Record, where we can use modern statistical methods to uncover historical patterns. 1

As part of this research agenda, we attempt to write a quantitative history of women over the last 5,000 years (Nekoei and Sinn 2021a). This is an exercise in long-run quantitative history in the spirit of École des Annales (social history). We measure the female share of people at the top of the social hierarchy in each era as a proxy for women’s status. This measure echoes how we today use the female share in almost all our debates on women’s emancipation.

Using the Human Biographical Record, our focus is on a fixed share of each generation (top 1 percent mille), to allow comparison across time and space. We use the fact that around 1% of Human Biographical Record’s entries have an entry in traditional encyclopaedias such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. We first predict the likelihood of appearing in a traditional encyclopaedia, then extrapolate to rank all seven million entries in the Human Biographical Record.

To our surprise, we document no long-run trend in the women’s share at the top when analysing 5000 years of recorded human history (Figure 1). While women’s share fluctuates around an average of 10%, the main positive outlier is the third millennium BCE, driven by a high women’s presence among Ancient Egypt’s observations in the Human Biographical Record and echoes Egyptian women’s equal rights to men. Women could initiate divorce, own and transmit property, receive an equal inheritance, and even achieve immortality (Lesko 1998, Bridenthal et al. 1998, Hughes and Hughes 2001, Johnson 2002)!

Figure 1 Women’s share at the top of social hierarchy over history

This finding puts women’s contemporary struggle for equality in historical perspective. Women’s emancipation is not a contemporary concept, but the world had actually progressed quite far already a long time ago, before regressing.

But the modern rise of women has a distinct and important feature. A closer look at the Human Biographical Record individual-level data reveals that for most of history, women who became part of the elite were either born into influential families or married into them. We show that women’s power has been a side-effect of nepotism: the more important the family connections, the higher the share of women at the top.

This relationship is present across time (in the time series) and geographies within a period (in the cross-section), but it slowly begins to break down in recent centuries. Indeed, Figure 2 shows a rising prevalence of women who were not born into families or married to males with power and fame, a group we call ‘self-made’. But where did this group come from?

Figure 2 Women’s share of ‘self-mades’ over history

The first rise in the share of women among self-mades is recorded among writers and poets born between 1620 and 1660. It reflects the birth of ‘the feminine reading market’ in Protestant Europe (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Women’s share of writers over history

This market emerged in the context of increasing the literacy and purchasing power of women. The women writers and poets who supplied this market were educated by informal ‘household academies’, as universities during this period were closed to women (Figure 4). These highly educated women flourished in new informal public spheres: salons and the Republic of Letters.

Figure 4 Fraction studied at university over history

During the same period, both the marriage and labour markets awarded a higher return to women’s education. The new feminine reading market encompassed new genres, such as the novel, in a new language: vernacular, not Latin. The book market structure with many small buyers and less guild presence may have played a significant role in creating a space for self-made women to flourish.

A century and a half later, a broader take-off of self-made women started with the 1800 birth cohort – first among artists and scholars, followed by elected politicians, and finally appointed politicians. There is no sign of a slowdown in the rate of progress, and self-made successful women have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in the recent period.

A strong writer wave in the 17th century predicts a more substantial take-off of self-made women in the 19th century (Figure 5). This effect has persisted and created cross-country divergence.

Figure 5 Women’s share of pre-1800 writers vs share of ‘self-mades’

Interpretation

We interpret these historical patterns through the lens of a theoretical framework. Success has different dimensions – pecuniary or not, lasting or not – which all depend on three ingredients related to family connections, control of the individual (skill), and luck. Although all these elements are gender-neutral, their rates of return are not.

The framework illustrates that the return rate of family connections has fluctuated, while a gender gap in the return rate persisted. This led to the trendless movement of the share of women, but no change in self-made women’s share for most of history. The rise of self-made women – both the initial wave in the 17th century among the literary elite and the later broader take-off around the 1800 birth cohort – depicts a rise of return on women’s skill.

The World Economic Forum has been measuring gender gaps since 2006 in the annual Global Gender Gap Report .

The Global Gender Gap Report tracks progress towards closing gender gaps on a national level. To turn these insights into concrete action and national progress, we have developed the Gender Parity Accelerator model for public private collaboration.

These accelerators have been convened in twelve countries across three regions. Accelerators are established in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico and Panama in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank in Latin America and the Caribbean, Egypt and Jordan in the Middle East and North Africa, and Japan and Kazakhstan in Asia.

All Country Accelerators, along with Knowledge Partner countries demonstrating global leadership in closing gender gaps, are part of a wider ecosystem, the Global Learning Network, that facilitates exchange of insights and experiences through the Forum’s platform.

In these countries CEOs and ministers are working together in a three-year time frame on policies that help to further close the economic gender gaps in their countries. This includes extended parental leave, subsidized childcare and making recruitment, retention and promotion practices more gender inclusive.

If you are a business in one of the Gender Parity Accelerator countries you can join the local membership base.

If you are a business or government in a country where we currently do not have a Gender Parity Accelerator you can reach out to us to explore opportunities for setting one up.

We arrived in front of the German school, where my daughter will jump off the bike. Here, Sophia Brenner (1659–1730) was exceptionally allowed to study when the school was only open to boys. In our data, she is part of the literary wave of women writers of the 17th century (Figure 3).

Latin, the language necessary for a professional career, was considered inappropriate for Sophia Brenner. But when the Latin teacher spotted her assisting a fellow with his Latin homework, the teacher asked and received the parents’ permission to teach her Latin too. Her coronation poem to Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden in 1719 justifies her title of ‘the first Swedish spokeswoman for female rights’:

Our body is nothing but the clothes of our soul the only difference between he and she, as for the soul concerned, it is just as good, yes, just as great, in many woman’s body.

Bridenthal, B, S M Stuard and M E Wiesner (eds.) (1998), Becoming visible: Women in European history, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

EIGE (2020), Gender equality index.

Johnson, J H (2002), “Women’s legal rights in ancient Egypt”, Fathom Archive, University of Chicago Library.

Hughes, S S, and B Hughes (2001), “Women in ancient civilizations”, in A Michael (ed.), Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 116–50.

Lesko, B S (1998), “Women of Ancient Egypt and Western Asia”, in Becoming Visible: Women in European History.

Macy, S (2017), “Wheels of change: How women rode the bicycle to freedom (with a few flat tires along the way)”, Washington, DC: National Geographic Kids.

Monter, W (2012), The rise of female kings in Europe, 1300-1800, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Nekoei, A, and F Sinn (2021a), “ HERSTORY: The rise of self-made women ”, CEPR Discussion Paper 15736.

Nekoei, A, and F Sinn (2021b), “ Human biographical record (HBR) ”, CEPR Discussion Paper 15825.

Shrock, J (2004), The gilded age, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

1 Another dataset, Human War Record (HWR), collects information about all conflicts in human history and matches the participants of those conflicts to their Human Biographical Record entries.

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GP Model Essays – Gender Inequality

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Q1: Examine whether “the weaker sex” is an appropriate description of women today?

The weaker sex can be defined as the sex that is less independent, less able to look after themselves and makes less of a contribution to the society than the dominant sex. In the past, men were looked upon as the dominant sex and thus they have always had many advantages over women, especially since traditional beliefs depict women as being weaker. Even today, women are still seen as the weaker sex, in the physical, psychological, economical and political aspects.

Research in biological science has testified that women are born with more fat than muscles. Hence, women are physically less strong than men, with female weightlifters and samsui women being possible exceptions. In a sense, therefore, women lose out to men in jobs that re quire physical strength since they are less capable of doing strenuous work. Moreover, nature has it that women are the ones to give birth, and during the gestation period of nine months, women experience general discomfort and tire easily. This may in turn affect their work performance. In addition, women have to suffer pain during child bearing and they usually have to rest for a few days after child-birth before they are fit enough to work again. Of course, this could mean that women can endure pain much better than men. However, modern women often rely on medicine (painkillers) during child-birth and many prefer to have an operation instead of having the baby delivered naturally, so in actual fact, they do not have to endure much pain. Another aspect of the physical weak ness of women is that, except in Israel, women are not required to do National Service, thus leading people to think that women are physically less strong than men. Female weightlifters have proven that women can be as strong as men through training but few women are willing to give up their feminine image for a muscular body. (Such an area of gender equality is scary…)

Besides being physically weaker than men, women are also psychologically weaker than men. Women are generally more sensitive and softer hearted than men. Hence, they may tend to mix feelings with work. As a result, women may lose out in business as they tend to sympathize with others too much. No doubt, there are women who are skilful in business but they are a minority and most of them are under a glass ceiling at work as they are considered the weaker sex and men are generally unable to accept female superiors. The fact that women give in to their emotions more readily has thus become a perceived setback to women’s careers. Another psychological weakness of women is that they are more prone to depression. Moreover, women have a higher suicide rate than men. Women are better at establishing good relationships with others and this may help in their work but on the whole, women are still the weaker sex in a psychological sense.

Tradition has it that women do not have to work. Even today, this idea is deep-rooted in many people’s minds and therefore fewer women than men work and thus women make a smaller economic contribution to the country and to their families. In the Third World countries, women usually work for more hours than men but despite this fact, they are still seen as the weaker sex as they are paid very little for their work, that is, if they are paid at all. In certain countries such as India, traditional marriage customs have it that the woman’s family has to pay a huge dowry to the husband for the husband to take care of the wife, indicating that the wife is incapable of taking care of herself. In other countries such as European countries, should a marriage end in divorce, the husband is often required to pay alimony to the wife as it is thought that the wife may be unable to survive independently. For centuries, husbands were the breadwinners. Today, even though more women are going out to work, the wives still get allowances from their husbands, who felt that it is their responsibility to provide for their wives, who are the weaker sex. (As of 2021, here are the top 10 female CEOs in the world)

In the past, women were not allowed to participate in politics as they were considered incapable of handling such matters. Even today, far fewer women are active in politics than men. The Prime Minister of Pakistan is one of the few. In Singapore, there is only one female member in the parliament (that has change since. Halimah was sworn in on 14 September 2017 as the 8th President at The Istana.) Much of this situation can be attributed to the sensitive and emotional nature of women which renders them less suitable candidates for politics as they are more prone to mix feelings with work. On the other hand, however, women are more caring and have keener minds which allows them to observe an issue from many different points of view and thus to make better decisions on the best action to take. However, even though women have this advantage, not many women are willing to go into politics and also few people, especially men, are able to accept female leaders. As such, women are the weaker sex. (The fresher examples are Kamala Devi Harris, an American politician and attorney who is the 49th and current vice president of the United States.) (Some examples of political issues in Comprehensions questions here)

In conclusion, women can be seen to be weaker than men in physical, psychological, economic and political aspects. It can also be seen that men have more advantages over women than women have over men and this is further reinforced by traditional attitudes (that women are weaker) which are still deep-rooted in most societies. (This topic on Inequality in Gender is definitely a repeated trends question . Look out for it.)

Q2: Women today are better off than those in the past.’ Discuss.

COMMENTS Weakness:

1. One-sided treatment of the topic. Candidates sim ply agreed with the question without analysing it. They discussed only the positive aspects of the modern women’s life. There was no mention whatsoever of how possibly modern women can be considered worse off than women in the past.

2. Over-generalization. E.g. giving a description of the improvements in the lot of women in an urbanised / developed setting, and generalizing from this that all women today are thus better off.

3. Limited scope of discussion. A number of GP students limited their scope of discussion to Singapore, whether consciously made of the conditions in other countries like China, Japan. No mention was pan-America etc. to add a geographical dimension to their discussion.

4. Wrong focus. There were cases where: (a) the focus was on comparison between men and women (instead of between women in the past and present),

(b) candidates were preoccupied with providing a long discussion on discrimination that still exists against women, without relating it to the question.

5. Lack of clear organization. Skipping back and forth from the past to the present in a very confusing manner, with no overall cohesion.

6. Lack of development of ideas. Some candidates merely listed ideas. This could be due to either lack of time or knowledge.

7. Sweeping and exaggerated remarks. E.g. ‘Society no longer discriminates against women.’ ‘Women in the past did not have to worry about anything except their children and husbands.”

Strengths: 1. The better candidates did present both sides of the picture and cited good examples to support their statements.

2. A few candidates were able to offer critical insights into the situation of women today. They saw the irony of career-women in Singapore employing Filipino/Sri Lankan maids and treating them in the same way their mothers or grandmothers were once treated, i.e. ‘slaves” with a low status, with little or no freedom. Thus these employers seem to have perpetuated the discrimination against women themselves the lot of women in general has therefore not improved.

SUGGESTED APPROACH A. Yes, women today are better off than those in the past in certain areas marriage, education, politics etc. Several movements over the years (suffragette movement, Women’s Liberation Movement) as well as general changes, have brought about improvements in women’s social, political and personal standing in life.

Laws exist to protect their rights..

Chiefly seen in more developed parts of the world.

Specific areas of discussion: E.g.: 1. Marriage.

(a) In developed countries today, women have the freedom: (i) to choose to remain single or to get married, (ii) to choose their own life partner (as against arranged marriages in the past) (iii) to go out to work after marriage (as against being compelled to being a full-time home maker).

(b) Polygamy is out and monogamy in, in most mod ern societies.

(c) The modern woman also enjoys legal rights like the right to file for separation/divorce. Thus she does not have to remain trapped in an unhappy. marriage.

(d) Widows can and do remarry without having to fear the wrath of society.

2. Education, employment and social status. Modern women, in developed countries especially, have the opportunity to be educated up to the tertiary level. They have earning power and are thus financially independent. Their social status is enhanced, especially in the case of those who are successful in climbing up the corporate ladder.

3. A higher standard of living. E.g.: (a) Modern home appliances like the washing ma chine and the dish-washer have made housework easier for the modern housewife in developed countries. She thus can have more time for leisure. (b) Medical advancement has made childbirth safer. Family planning allows the modern woman to determine the size of her family.

4. Politics. (a) Modern women have the right to vote and thus do have a say in how their country is governed. (b) A few women have made history by becoming Prime Minister (e.g. Margaret Thatcher) or President (e.g. Mrs Aquino), Halimah Yacob and Kamala Harris in recent times.

(c) Oxford-educated Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1991 in recognition of her ef forts in fighting for democracy in her country. Myanmar.

B. Women today may not be better off than women in the past. 1. In developed countries/urbanised societies: e.g. (a) Pressure/stress. The modern working mother leads a stressful life in trying to be a good wife / mother as well as a competent career mother. (b) (i) Discrimination against women still exists today, even in the developed countries. (ii) Stereotyping. E.g. Modern advertisements. that depict women as sex objects / bimbos.

2. In the more backward, conservative/traditional cultures:

Poor quality of life/low social status. e.g. (i) India. Parents still prefer sons to daughters. Arranged marriages are still quite common. Cases of bride-burning by husbands unhappy over dowry payments have often been re ported in the newspapers.

(ii) China. Pregnant women, especially in the rural areas, have been forced to undergo abortion by officers keen to uphold China’s “one-child family’ policy.

Expect more GP model essays for Gender Inequality topic , as this is definitely a Repeated Trends question. (Alternatively, you can read the related pages for family, social issues, children, etc.)

Happy revision!

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Gender Inequality as a Global Issue Essay

Culture, society, and law, technology and infrastructure, consequences.

Gender inequality is a global issue where men and women enjoy different levels of representation in various spheres of life. Generally predisposed against females, multiple factors conspire to limit their opportunities for education and employment, as well as, in more extreme cases, lead to violence. The causes of such inequality can stem from biology, culture, and technology. This essay will examine some of the causes that affect the gap in the treatment of men and women, and its ramifications, particularly regarding developing countries. One particular metric that will be used is female labor force participation (FLFP).

Humans are sexually dimorphic species; males and females exhibit different physical characteristics. While these differences have led to often oppressive cultural norms, they are impossible to reject. Large parts of developing nations are pre-industrial, where “individuals do not receive any education and primarily work in agricultural jobs as unskilled workers” (Hiller, 2014, p. 457). The labor efficiency in such jobs affects the roles available to men and women. For instance, some regions of India have soil that is more suitable for deep tillage and, therefore, the use of plows — heavy tools that require upper body strength to operate. As a consequence of this, “in parts of India with soil suitable for deep tillage, there is lower FLFP and a more male-skewed sex ratio” (Jayachandran, 2015, p. 72). In these regions, men had a physical advantage, which led to their higher representation in the labor force and positions of power.

For comparison, China’s agricultural areas provide a different example: regions that specialize in tea production. There, women have a “comparative advantage in picking tea leaves” (Jayachandran, 2015, p. 72). After economic reforms in those areas, various improvements have been noted regarding gender equality, as female children became more desirable and women more financially independent. These findings suggest that physiological differences, but also opportunities to make the best use of the advantages posed by these differences, play an important role in creating gender equality or inequality.

While physical differences may have caused an initial degree of gender inequality, cultural norms always form in response to them, strengthening this imbalance for the future, when physical differences are no longer relevant. Usually, this takes the form of a strong patriarchal tradition under which men take on a more proactive role in society. In contrast, women are relegated to more subservient and supportive positions. As a result of such traditions, women can face opposition when they seek education or employment or attempt to act outside of their society-mandated roles.

Girls’ education opportunities are not necessarily enforced explicitly by existing laws or regulations. The choice to educate a child is primarily made by their parents, according to social and cultural norms. Hiller (2014) explains that “if a ‘strong norm’ exists, according to which husbands should be the primary breadwinners of the family, parents grant a low value to the education of their daughters” (p. 457). Therefore, young women are often denied the schooling necessary to find better work.

Tradition and religion still play a significant part in women being underrepresented. While laws may be proposed that seek to create opportunities for women, they are turned down for such reasons. Nigeria is one such country, where “customary and religious arguments were the major justifications put forward by [local] legislators for their rejection of bills to promote women’s rights and gender equality” (Para-Mallam, 2017, p. 28). This legislative issue reinforces the existing inequality, keeping women in a disadvantaged position.

The points listed above concern pre-industrial societies, but as they develop, technology and improvements to infrastructure present new circumstances that can increase gender equality. As women tend to be engaged in various domestic chores in such cultures, making said chores easier and more efficient frees up their time. For instance, work such as fetching firewood and water is generally performed by women — therefore, providing plumbing and electric heating “will disproportionately free up women to work outside the home more or enjoy more leisure” (Jayachandran, 2015, p. 74). This change, in turn, would allow them more opportunities for education or work.

Advances in medicine are another change that improves women’s opportunities, mainly when it concerns obstetrics. Jayachandran (2015) notes that “childbearing is not only more common in developing countries; it is also more dangerous” (p. 74). It has been observed that improvements in this area in several countries reduced maternal mortality and complications at childbirth that might have had long-term effects. This change led to an increase in women’s ability to return to work after giving birth (Jayachandran, 2015). Similarly, access to contraception has been observed to free up women’s time available for education and work, consequently allowing them to gain more equal positions with men and creating a quantitative increase in FLFP.

Improvements in infrastructure can serve to increase gender equality in rural areas. Parents in these regions tend to be protective of their daughters. However, Jayachandran (2015) notes that “it is difficult to say how much of the limited mobility is out of genuine concern for women’s welfare … and how much is simply a way to stifle female autonomy” (pp. 77-78). This protectiveness makes parents less likely to choose to educate their daughters, especially if a school is not available nearby. Studies have observed that “a village school essentially closes the otherwise-large gender gap in enrollment” (Jayachandran, 2015, p. 78). Therefore, a single school can serve to educate boys from a significantly larger area than girls.

A significant difference in the treatment of men and women has significant consequences, most of which are negative. Since the causes persist in families, discrimination starts there, as parents consider investing in sons seems to be the better option than daughters. In day-to-day life, Para-Mallam (2017) found that Nigerian “rural men spend approximately two hours less than women doing work … and have one hour per day more for rest and recreation” (p. 28). In the distribution of a community’s shared resources, Agarwal (2018) points out that often, “female-headed households with few family members to help them are the most disadvantaged” (p. 282). Finally, common property in countries with a high level of gender inequality is “a high level of violence against women and girls perpetuated by individuals, groups and the state” (Para-Mallam, 2018, p. 29). All of these effects not only harm women’s lives and limit their opportunities, but also perpetuate the inequality already present, making it more difficult to create more equal conditions.

Gender inequality is still an issue even in First World nations. Current research in developing countries allows examining its causes and ways to reduce the gap in treatment. While simple biological reasons can initially explain inequality, culture and religion can perpetuate it into modernity. However, it has been noted that advances in technology, medicine, and infrastructure act as a countermeasure, gradually shortening this gap. Effects of gender inequality can range more work and less leisure time for the disadvantaged gender to limited education and employment opportunities, to violence.

Agarwal, B. (2018). Gender inequality, cooperation, and environmental sustainability. In J-M. Baland, P. Bradhan, & S. Bowles (eds.), inequality, cooperation, and environmental sustainability (pp. 274-313). New York, NY: Princeton University Press.

Hiller, V. (2014). Gender inequality, endogenous cultural norms, and economic development. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 116 (2), 451-481.

Jayachandran, S. (2015). The roots of gender inequality in developing countries. Annual Review of Economics, 7 (1), 63-88.

Para-Mallam, F. J. (2018). Gender equality in Nigeria. In A. Örtenblad, R. Marling, & S. Vasilijević (eds.), Gender Equality in a Global Perspective (pp. 23-53). New York, NY: Routledge.

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2019 A-Level General Paper (GP) Paper 1 Essay Questions

We correctly predicted a huge number of essay questions that came up for A-Level GP 2019! Just check out our Instagram page @generalpaper to check out our highlight on this (where we show a story we posted before the A-Level paper, spotting the topics!)

Some of these questions came as no surprise, keeping in the Cambridge tradition of likely setting the exam two years before (or based on two years before)—considering the rise of Donald Trump, in particular—these were some questions we prepared our students for.

P.S. for other GP questions from other years, just enter https://GP.sg/ (followed by year number) —e.g. https://GP.sg/2022 ! We are still in process of adding these for all years, though!