Gender Differences

Gender Becomes an Issue

During class we discussed a lot about gender discrimination and how this type of discrimination is still rampant through many parts of the world. Even though we live in an age where women have gained a lot more rights and have been accepted into society, in some parts of the world where traditional roots are still apparent, women are still treated differently than men either creating a negative inequity or a positive inequity. In other words, there are some traditional societies that treat women as the dominant figure, but in most traditional societies, men are thought to be the dominant figure.

When my maternal grandparents came from India, about 40 years ago, they had realized the American type of culture, where women were gaining politically and socially. They have two daughters and never thought for a moment to treat them differently than if they had sons. As a family we participate in religious activities, such as sitting together, disregarding gender, and singing hymns. Even now, in our family there is the same number of women to men and we don't even question that women and men in our family sit together and are able to do the same activities as the men in our family, especially religious activities.

However, when I went to Agra, India, where our temple is located, immediate I noticed gender discrimination. At the temple, people from around the world come to see this temple and participate in the religious activities, especially singing hymns. When my parents and I went to go participate in this activity, the people in charge of the activity separated my dad and my brother from my mom and me. My dad and my brother were allowed to sit in the front of the crowd, while my mom and I were forced to sit in a different room and we were allowed to just listen to the hymns. I was not used to this type of arrangement and treatment as I grew up in an environment where gender was never an issue, I was always not only allowed to listen to they hymns and sing along, but I was also allowed to sit in the front.

I didn't realize until that moment how traditional our society was. In most of the societies in India, gender discrimination is not so much of an issue as globalization has played a major role in eliminating gender discrimination. I didn't even understand how to deal with this type of situation before because I've always lived in an environment where