Gender Inequality Women In Politics Politics Essay

Gender In comparison Wo manpower In political relation Politics EssayThe world in which we live is characterized by late unequal sharing of the burden of adversities between wowork force and work force. Gender inequality exists in more or less parts of the world, from Japan to Africa, from Uzbekistan to the joined States of America. However, inequality between women and men can effect many different forms. It manifests itself in the unequal representations of women and men in various walks of life, differences in their salaries, persistent sexual urge stereotypes, and sexual discrimination. unmatchable of the most troublesome issues is the extremely unequal representation of women in organization and administrative office. Nevertheless, Lithuania, as well as a nonher(prenominal) former communistic countries was distinguished by a very gamey occasion of women in politics (worldpress.com).The quality of women in society has been changed a lot in the last few decades. In the early days, women were seen as wives who were supposed to cook, clean, and take cargon of the children. They were limited from the right of earning money for the family because this responsibility was left to husbands. Women were not both(prenominal)owed to vote and to work outside the family while men took c atomic number 18 of having jobs and compensable bills.Soon enough some thought that women should throw off bigger roles than what most of the people thought women should energise. With the beginning of industrialization and technological development, the lifestyles of people in Lithuania started to change. The ask of man beings started to increase. This movement toward modern living started to reflect in the lifestyles of people. In this process, women started to practice some outside home activities (Aidis). Therefore, women bear on in education in equal terms with men. Consequently, women gradually started to participate in all life movements. They started to think independently and participate equally in outside world along with males (Blackburn). Slowly but gradually cunning women on the basis of gender, flush though it still persists nowadays, diminished hireably. Therefore, the on-going changes in favorable, political and economic activities of the domain included not yet the raise of womens role in society, but in like manner the break of stereotypes of treating human beings by gender which was so well developed through decades (Aidis). propagation when women used to sit at home and look after the children atomic number 18 gone. Today, women rent bigger roles to play in the society. They are entrusted with more responsibility than men. They have to work along with men in providing a higher(prenominal) income for the family, but even so, most men in Lithuania still consider women to be inferior, and they do not trust them enough in hostelry to permit a feminine to deal with political, economic, and social problems. As the pub lic opinion class, men completely support the patriarchal view of the Catholic Church. The resurgence in the popularity of the Catholic Church has been accompanied by the glorification of m another(prenominal)liness (Voices from Lithuania). Therefore, men favor motherhood over professional and political involvement because they identify political actions with masculine behavior, power struggles, private property disputes, corruption, and craft (LaFont).Initially, men objected to women starting their career outside home, but with the growing needs and insufficiency of money, they had no other way out but to tol whilete the reality and change according to the circumstances (Aidis). According to Suzanne LaFont, Lithuanian men should be proud of their women returnting involved in any social, economic, and political activity, and they should support their efforts to contribute to society rather than crush their struggle with irony, irresolution and empty words (LaFont).Even though gender issues were not a main anteriority for the country, Lithuania has shown improvements to gender equality by introducing faithfulnesss and regulations that would protect womens rights in society (wikigender.org). Equal opportunities and equal treatment is enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of the majority rule of Lithuania (art. 29) in 1998, the Sheimas (Parliament) adopted the law on Equal Opportunities for Women and manpower (wikigender.org). This law forbids direct and indirect discrimination against men and women. It also requires the state and other institutions to work on the basis of equality in gender when it comes to employment, education, intuition and other areas of activities. In addition to a prohibition giving priority to one of the sexes in employment and education advertisements employers are obliged not to ask job seekers about their age, marital status, private life, and family plans(wikigender.org).According to the statistics brisk by the Inter-Parliam entary Union, the class 2009 was marked by continued progress for women in parliament. The global average for the proportion of women in parliament reached an all-time high of 18.8%. Moreover, at the beginning of 2010, the number of women ruling in politics change magnitude even more. They held 35 (13.0%) of the 269 teetotum posts in parliaments around the world. This is an improvement on the 1995 total, when 24 women held this post. In addition, women make up 30% or more of the members in 44 parliamentary chambers 26 single or lower and 18 upper houses. This is a six-fold increase over the 1995 total, when skilful seven chambers achieved this goal(IPU).According to the Lithuanian Statistics Department Data, slowly and with no doubt, in 2008, 50% of Lithuanian women were involved not lonesome(prenominal) in household but also in state-related activities. Women made 37% of all leaders in the Lithuanian ruling elite such as parliamentarians, senior state officials and executives of companies and establishments (Worldpress.com). The number of females running a backup also increased but still remained lower than that of men. Thus, in 2007, women made 31% of businessmen in Lithuania which was 5% more if compared with the year 2006.The commencement women, who reached cabbage posts in parliaments, were elected in Sri Lanka (1960) and India (1966). Countries of Europe which have had a female president or prime minister in the modern era (1945-2003) are Bulgaria, Finland, France, the German Democratic Republic, Lithuania, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia (koed.hu).As mentioned before, Lithuania is also ranked among that category, with its current and first female president of the country- Dalia Grybauskaite. Next to the president, Lithuanian inhabitants are honored to have twelve women in top parliamentarian positions that also contributed, in a way or another, in bringing some changes to th e country and to its population. One of them is Nijole Ambrazaityte. She was a member of the Seimas from November 25, 1996 till October 18, 2000. She also was elected to the unconditional Coucil (1990-1992). Nijole was a member of various parliamentary groups for the relations with the Republic of Georgia, Africa, China, Austria, Czechoslovakian Republic, Italy, Russian Federation, Canada, France, Taiwan, Tibet, Germany, and other North European countries. Nevertheless, Nijole did not contribute unaccompanied in politics but also in other areas of activity. Therefore, even though she was a winner of international contests of vocalists, Nijole was also granted the highest awards for her component to the Lithuanian culture and opera art (Nijole Ambrazaityte).Another charr expense mentioning about is Laima Andrikiene currently a member of European Parliament since year 2004. She was also a Vice Prime Minister of Lithuania between 1989 and 1990. During 1996 2003 Laima was a Chai rman of the Board, Laitenis UAB and a Minister in the Ministry of European Affairs. (Laima Andrikiene). She was involved in various projects such as Training programme of Lithuanian cogniseledge of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Crafts (2002), EU Officialdom Training curriculum (2002-2004), scientific Study Effective Integration of Lithuanian Industry into the EU in a Short Term (2003), EU Sixth Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (2003-2004) (Laima Andrikiene). She also received lots ingenuous medals for her merits. Therefore, she got the Independence Medal of the Republic of Lithuania (July, 2000), National Order of Merit of the imperious Officer for the French Republic (October, 1997), Medal of the Baltic Assembly (2003), etc (Laima Andrikiene).Furthermore, the woman who achieved a lot in her life and in the lives of millions others was Dalia Grybauskaite. Having received rum support from Lithuanian citizens, Dalia wa s elected President of the Republic of Lithuania in the first election round in the year 2009. Until then, she was a Programme film director in the Prime Minister Office of the Republic of Lithuania (1991), Director of the sparing Relations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993), Plenipotentiary Minister at the Lithuanian Embassy in the USA (1996), Minister of Finance (2001), and among many other posts she had, one of the most significant was the post of EU Commissioner in fault of financial programming and budget of the European Union (2004) (president.lt).According to Dalia Grybauskaite, gender equality is a topic of vital significance for every nation. In her speech at the General Debate of the 65th Session of The United Nations General Assembly in raw York, she said that Gender equality issues are rarely associated with overcoming the economic crisis or stopping the climate change. However, it has been estimated that the ejection of gender discrimination in th e labor market could increase the gross domestic product by as much as 30 percent (president.lt). She also mentioned that It is of no surprise that women in Lithuania hold a number of top positions in politics and in business life. It is only natural that Lithuanian women made their own the famous saying When the going gets tough, the tough get going Thus, the prerequisite for gender equality represent the participation of both genders in decision making (president.lt).In all the countries of the world, women are in the minority at the decision-making level. Nevertheless, in most of countries more and more women are coming into office and are getting involved in the social life. As a good example would be Sweden. Women have achieved likeness in the Cabinet of Ministers (where both men and women each constitute 50 percent), 43 percent of members in parliament and 41 percent of local anesthetic government officials are women (I hold up Politics). Today, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ge rmany, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are the only European countries which have more than 30 percent female members of parliaments. Regarding governments, political scientists and political journalists oftentimes talk about a glass ceiling effect this mover that women do not get to the highest level of government or business (koed.hu). Mostly, those women who are considered to be part of the government or parliament, they are involved in less important positions. In order to be successful, women have to be trained for political discourses and motivated to defend their own rights or political interests. Achieving that would show that the difference between women and men is just a result of their perspective behavior (koed.hu).Nowadays, women in Lithuania do not have enough influence over the decision making but the website is getting better. The gender identity in peoples minds is still that men are better in politics than women are. It is important to mention that Lithu ania always went beyond its neighbor countries Latvia and Estonia, on this issue. It is considered to be the first country among the other countries of rally and east Europe in advancing gender equality (I Know Politics). More recently, the highest level of womens representation in parliament among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe was achieved in Lithuania (18.1%) soon after, Estonia (18%) and Latvia (17%) reached similar levels (I Know Politics). It cannot though be compared to Sweden (43%), Denmark (37%) or Finland (37%).According to Kozma, women and men have different theories of perceiving gender issues in the world today. Women believe that it is not entirely right to think that only they are guilty for the current position in the political area. In a party, a woman gets to hold a position if this is desire by men (feminis.ro). Maria Grapini, the current candidate for mayor of Timisoara (Romania), notice that it is also true, however, that women are hesitant to support each other. Moreover, she believes that they must know as well that it takes lots of time to become pols.Mother, wife, business woman, politician It seems hard to believe but a woman can truly manage everything and not in one regular way, but with elegance, style, and determination. Changes in society today are happening quickly and there is no doubt that there are still many unsolved problems. Men as well as women have to learn that gender identities blend to history and not to the modern life. Therefore, it is not the only option of women to beat home and take care of her children. Men, as well as women were habituated same rights and possibilities to grow professionally and individually. Therefore, the main goals are protection of womens rights and remotion of discrimination in society by eliminating the existed stereotypes from peoples minds.Work CitedAidis, R. (1997). Moter verslininki problemos. -Moterys tapatumo paiekos. Lietuvos filosofijos ir sociologijos insti tutes. Moter informacijos centras. Vilnius.Blackburn, R.M., Jarman J. and Siltanen S. (1993). The outline of Occupational Gender Segregation Over Time and Place Considerations of mensuration and Some New Evidence, Work, Employment and Society.LaFont, Suzanne. (1988). Women in Transition Voices from Lithuania. State University of New York Press. Albany.Women in Lithuania more educated, earn less but their role is increasing. 5 March, 2008. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010http//irzikevicius.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/women-in-lithuania-more-educated-but-earn-less-but-their-role-is-increasing/ (worldpress.com)Women in Politics. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010http//www.ipu.org/news-e/wop/37/5.htm (IPU)Statistics Lithuania. Retrieved 4 November, 2010http//www.stat.gov.lt/en/ (Statistics Lithuania)Gender Equality in Lithuania. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010http//www.wikigender.org/index.php/Gender_Equality_in_Lithuania (wikigender.org)Thorsten, Nilges. Gender inequality in politics. Retrieved o n 4 November, 2010http//www.koed.hu/mozaik15/thorsten.pdf (koed.hu)Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Retrieved on 4 November, 2010http//www3.lrs.lt/seimu_istorija/w3_lrs.seimo_narys-p_asm_id=5p_int_tv_id=0p_kalb_id=2p_kade_id=3.htm (Nijole Ambrazaityte)Laima Andrikiene. Retrieved on 4 November 2010http//www2.laimaandrikiene.lt/en/ (Laima Andrikiene)President of the Republic of Lithuania. Retrieved on 5 November 2010.http//www.president.lt/en/ (Dalia Grybauskaite)Category Lithuanian Women in Politics. Retrieved on 5 November, 2010http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CategoryLithuanian_women_in_politics (Wikipedia)Giedre,Purvaneckiene. Women in Lithuanian Society. 1999. Retrieved on 5 November, 2010http//www.iknowpolitics.org/files/HDR%20Lithuania%201999%20-%20Ch.%208%20Women%20in%20Lithuanian%20Society.pdf (I Know Politics)Ana Maria, Kozma. The role of women in society. 5 May, 2008. Retrieved on 5 November, 2010http//www.feminis.ro/feminis/cariera/rolul-femeilor-in-politica-464 (feminis.ro )