Whe­n most people think of gender equality, they envision a women’s movement. It makes sense — women are the ones suffering the brunt of gender-based oppression. However, gender equality is also socially and economically beneficial for men.

On Friday, Time Magazine published an essay by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the executive director for United Nations Women, emphasizing the importance of men’s involvement in gender equality efforts.

Gender equality not only gives women their inalienable rights, but it benefits humanity as a whole. It can help tackle the crippling poverty, illiteracy and abuse that have afflicted nations across the world.

In her essay, Mlambo-Ngcuka stated that if women farmers had the same agricultural tools as men, they would be able to feed as many as 150 million people. According to her essay, women make up two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population.

Although the U.S. doesn’t outright ban either gender from pursuing a career, our educational system and general treatment of both genders skew men toward certain job fields such as STEM, laboring and politics, and women toward other job fields such as teaching, nursing and writing.

With gender equality, the world could open its mind to more women in STEM professions, and that openness could extend to a man who wants to be an interior decorator or a ballet dancer.

According to a survey by the U.S. Department of Education, in 2009-2010, females made up less than 25 percent of participants in STEM programs nationally even though they represented 57.4 percent of students receiving a bachelor’s degree. Women are making up a majority of those pursuing bachelor’s degrees but a minority of those in the STEM field.

Gender equality will also help break down rigid gender roles that afflict us all. Men will no longer have the pressure of being strong caregivers and protectors. They will be free to express sadness and sensitivity without being seen as weak. With gender equality, a man’s emotions will no longer be seen as a ploy to get a girl or signs of a weaker man; it will be seen as human expression.

Men will also no longer have the pressure of proving themselves or of being the strongest or the best. With gender equality, everyone can pursue any career, dress in any way and act on any emotion without being seen as too feminine or too masculine.

At the end of the day, oppression for one means oppression for all. If women are forced into certain social roles, men are thereby forced to fill up the vacant space that some women could have filled. Without gender equality, no nation will see the full capacity of its economy or education. No nation can operate at its fullest when half of its population has no voice and no rights.

Mandisa Shields is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @mandisashields.

 

 

Published on March 17, 2014 at 1:00 am