Discrimination - women and aboriginals
Uploaded by mysticivory on Oct 17, 2001
Discrimination is any situation in which a group or individual is treated differently based on something other than individual reason, usually their membership in a socially distinct group or category. Such categories would include ethnicity, sex, religion, age, or disability.
Two types of discrimination my essay will include are Women’s Rights and Indigenous Australians and the One Nation Party.
Women’s Rights
Until the second half of the 20th century, women in most societies were denied some of the legal and political rights accorded to men. Although women in much of the world have gained significant legal rights, many people believe that women still do not have complete political, economic, and social equality with men.
Throughout much of history, deep-seated cultural beliefs allowed women only limited roles in society. Many people believed that women’s natural roles were as mothers and wives. These people considered women to be better suited for childbearing and homemaking rather than for involvement in the public life of business or politics. Widespread belief that women were intellectually inferior to men led most societies to limit women’s education to learning domestic skills. Well-educated, upper-class men controlled most positions of employment and power in society.
Until the 19th century, the denial of equal rights to women met with only occasional protest and drew little attention from most people. Because most women lacked the educational and economic resources that would enable them to challenge the prevailing social order, women generally accepted their inferior status as their only option. At this time, women shared these disadvantages with the majority of working class men, as many social, economic, and political rights were restricted to the wealthy elite. In the late 18th century, in an attempt to remedy these inequalities among men, political theorists and philosophers asserted that all men were created equal and therefore were entitled to equal treatment under the law. In the 19th century, as governments in Europe and North America began to draft new laws guaranteeing equality among men, significant numbers of women—and some men—began to demand that women be accorded equal rights as well.
Women’s Rights Today
The status of women’s rights today varies dramatically in different countries and, in some cases, among groups within the same country. Many disparities persist between women’s legal rights and their economic status. Women today constitute nearly 70 percent of the world’s poor, despite international efforts to compensate women and men equally in the workplace.
Indigenous Australians
Pauline...