Feminist Political Economy and Non — Discrimination Laws
For years female activists have been working to achieve a sense of gender equality with regards to unfair social and cultural norms that tend to put women in disadvantaged positions. Gone are the days when women did not have a say in voting for the legalization of laws they would be forced to live by. In fact, in many areas of the world women now have seats in parliament and are offered jobs that require a higher caliber of education. However, one should not be distracted by this facade, as many women are still binded by gender discrimination policies that either fail to exist or are not specific enough to help women today.
In most areas of the world, women are still being compromised with regards to national constitutions or regulations that can keep women out of high level positions. The following post will review the available data on the number of women given seats in their national parliaments in the top 10 superpowers of the world (2019 ranking by Wharton University) and a few of the life binding laws that are still punishing women today.
I choose to interpret the 10 world superpowers with regards to their influence on the rest of the world. When a country seems to be doing better than others based on modernization, economic growth and several other factors, other regions of the world are influenced by their prosperity. For that reason, it is highly important to look at these countries in detail to realize what they both have and are still lacking. With regards to the topic of feminist political economy and gender inequality, it is important to note that it is a relatively new area of consideration and thus there remains a major gap with regards to available information on gendered political experiences.
By definition a law is “a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior” (Cambridge University Press, 2019). For the longest time men have had the privilege of keeping women out of the rule making process; as women have only been allowed in parliament within the recent 20th century. Even today, the ratio of seats available to women in parliament is far less than those offered to the men. Therefore, the law making process is not exactly “fair” to women. For that reason, I will be considering three laws related to gender discrimination.
To begin with, I decided to look at whether or not there was a non — discrimination clause within the 10 superpowers’ constitutions. After doing so, I would go on to analyze whether or not the clauses were gender specific. In doing so, I was shocked to find out that 8 out of 10 countries do not have any non — discrimination clauses within their constitutions and because of this shocking revelation, there is also no law related to gender discrimination.
This is highly important in recognizing that we have come along way, but people can still legally get away with discrimination as there is no law that legally binds individuals to consequences in doing so. This is a sensitive matter, especially because discrimination can keep certain marginalized communities from living a certain form of life, such as not getting a job they are qualified for or worse, accusing an individual of suspicious/ illegal activity based on their race, gender or ethnicity. The two countries that did have laws regarding gender and non-discrimination were Japan and Korea (The World Bank, 2018).
After recognizing a gap in gender discrimination policies, I decided to look at whether or not there are laws mandating non — discrimination based on gender in the work place, especially when being hired. This is an extremely important realization, as it can determine whether or not individuals are even given the opportunity at a specific future based on their gender. Findings revealed that 7 out of the 10 countries do have laws on non — discriminating gender when hiring in the workplace. However, that still means that 3 out of the 10 world’s superpowers do not have any form of non — discrimination laws, whether it be in the workplace or anywhere else. These countries include: Israel, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Finally, I decided to look into the percentage of seats given to women in parliament throughout the years. In doing so, it would present an obvious gender misrepresentation and inequality within the place these laws and constitutions are being produced. To no surprise, 7 out of the 10 superpowers did not allow for more than 30% of the seats to be filled by women parliament members even by the year of 2018. This has a lot to say about who makes the laws that everyone is expected to abide by.
Living in the post- feminist era, where most women have access to education, job opportunities and even some seats in the parliament, it is easy to look past what still hasn’t been accomplished. However, when presenting the information available through data visualizations, it is clear that much of the information available is that of what is NOT available (excluding that of the women in parliament).
Resources:
LAW | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (2019). Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/law
The 80 Most Powerful Countries in the World. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/power-rankings
World Development Indicators. (2019). Retrieved from https://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=2&series=SG.GEN.PARL.ZS&country=#
