Page 116 - sst_class_07

of women. Girls are suggested to take Home Science whereas Science and Technology are
considered to be predominantly boy’s subjects. Also, sufficient encouragement is not given
to girls in the field of sports and physical education.

Especially in villages, girls spend a large part of their day in doing household chores. They
are not considered to be the breadwinners of the family. When a family faces a hardship,

the education of the girls is the first thing to get affected.
GenDer role in public places

In public places such as roads, parks, offices, shops, restaurants and places of worship, we
get to meet a large number of people. In these places, we can observe a large number of
people of the same gender and find out how they usually behave, how they usually dress,
what kind of work they usually do and so on. This tells us more about the gender roles in

our society.
Types of inequaliTies

1. Ownership inequality : In most of the societies, women are not given any share in the
property owned by the their parents or their in laws. The basic assets such as homes and
land are very unevenly shared. In case of the death of their husbands; they are left on the
mercy of their family.
2. Family inequality : It is also called household inequality. In some countries, families also
became the main cause of their inequality. Boys are preferred than girls. It is the different
kind of treatment given to the girls. The best food is served to boys. At home, boys are left
to play free, while girls have to do household works. Most of the money in many families is
spent on providing education to boys and a deliberate attempt to made to save money as
far as the girls are concerned.

3. Wages inequality : Women are given less wages as compared to men. Whenever there
is a question of night-duty, long distance work and work involving hard labour, men are
preferred than females. Moreover, women who are domestic workers, heir day begins as
early as five o’clock in the morning and ends as late as twelve o’clock. Despite this, they
don’t get good wages and value.

4. Sexual inequality : Sexual inequality is based on sexual difference. Females are considered
to be responsible only for housework. They are to look after the family, children, elders
and the sick person in the family.
5. Mortality inequality : When there is high mortality rate of female than male, it is termed
mortality inequality. It is caused by lack of health care and nutritious diet for females. As

a result of mortality inequality, there is a fewer number of females per thousand males.
constitutional mEasurEs Ensuring gEnDEr Equality

• The Constitution of India not only ensures gender equality in its preamble as a
Fundamental Right but also empowers the state to adopt measure of positive
discrimination in favour of women by the ways of legislation and policies.
• India has also ratified various international convention and human rights forums to
secure equal rights to women, such as ratification of convention on elimination of all

Social Studies-7-7
116
116 Social Studies