PLANNING A FAMILY IN THE CONTEXT OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Keywords:
Gender Discrimination: A Colossal Mistake in Human History, Role of Religion and Politics in Perpetuating Gender Discrimination, Philosophical Critique, Healthy Family to Overcome Gender Discrimination, Planning a Family for Better Gender RelationshipsAbstract
It is quite plain to say that all human beings are just human. The humanity we share at every level of existence is not exclusively decided by the physiological or psychological characteristic features we inherently possess, though they certainly qualify anybody’s being and becoming a human. While each individual is unique in creation and upbringing, it is all the more so with one of the fundamental physiological differences in terms of sexual identity.When pushed to the extremes, these identities, though fundamental to everyone, assume a negative dimension in the life of the individual as well as the society. The conscious and unconscious processes of converting the physical and psychological differences in defining the social identity of these persons result in a very strict demarcation of their roles, whether it is within a microcosmic family or in the macrocosmic society. Most of these being categorized under “gender difference,”[2] they are considered to be essential in our present social framework, and are not only the reflection of an inherent physical distinction, but also that which is imposed upon us by society and environment over a long period of time. Our realization of this fact calls us to understand and reassess the actual situation and, thus, to pave the way for a conscious and concerted effort to evolve an action plan in view of creating a healthy society consisting of healthy individual persons.
References
Aquinas, Summa theologica, (Great Books of the Western World, vol. 19), 495.
B. Neube, “Gender and Black Women’s Struggle for Full Humanity: A New Vision,” Voices from the Third World, 98.
Cea-Naharro, “Women’s Right to Full Citizenship and Decision-Making in the Church,” Concilium 5 (2002), 79.
Dupuis, “The Women’s Movement: A Two Hundred Year Synopsis,” 133. Benham, Nellie McClung, page 45, quoted in Dupuis, “The Women’s Movement: A Two Hundred Year Synopsis,” 134.
Genesis 1:26-28.
Gross, “What Went Wrong? Feminism and Freedom from the Prison of Gender Roles,” Cross Currents, Spring 2003, 34; emphasis added.
Genesis 3:16.
Jaggar, Feminist Politics and Human Nature, Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1983, 370.
Jarl, “Women’s Rights as Human Rights in a Global Context, Globalisation and the Violation of Wo/men’s Rights,” Concilium 5 (2002), 23.
Kakar, The Inner World, 118.
Lloyd, “The ‘Maleness’ of Reason,” in Epistemology: The Big Questions, ed. Linda Martin Alcoff, 387; emphasis added.
Lobo, “Women’s Rights and Reproductive Technologies,” 25.
Margaret Shanthi Stephens, “Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Work for Women’s Rights,” Concilium 5 (2002), 112-113.
Nayak, “Why This Oppression of Women?” 15.
Plato, “Timaeus,” in Plato: The Collected Essays, ed. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961, 42b.c, 1171.
Politics, in The Basic Works of Aristotle, trans. W. D. Ross, ed. Richard McKeon, New York: 1941, 1138-39 (1257).
The Generation of Animals, trans. A. L. Peck, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 728a8, 103.
The Laws of Manu, trans. Buehler (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25), ed. Max Mueller, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886, 344.
"What Makes a Woman a Woman?” Satya Nilayam 3 (February 2003), 104.