This post would focus on the backlash and public dissent that Sweden has received on some of the more extreme actions its government has taken to curb gender inequality.

Some feel that gender role neutrality is being exaggerated and sweden is taking feminism to a radical level.

• A Swedish politician proposed that men should be required by law to urinate in a sitting position as it leaves toilets cleaner and promotes prostate health
• A school banned boys from standing up and peeing

The public’s reaction was that these limitations were restricting boy’s rights to be boys and innately constricting their freedom and liberty to have the choice to act in whatever way they deem appropriate.

Others deplore that implementing the proposed policy would be taking away the identity of men, in the sense that men would be forbidden from doing what they have traditionally always been doing, which is urinating in the standing position. Many critisize that this policy would essentially be preventing men from being who they truly are. Most see having to “urinate in the sitting position” as men being forced to become more “like a women”, and that men had to change their ways to make women’s lives of cleaning the washrooms easier.

Since 2012, a new gender neutral personal pronoun, “hen” was introduced to the Swedish dictionary as an alternative to the gender-specific pronouns that are typically used (“he” or “she”)

In the face of rising gender inequality and the growing number of people resonating with the LGBTQ movement, the Swedish government introduced the above pronoun. The pronoun ‘hen” was meant to identify with all genders, including those that are under the category of non-binary. The Swedish government aimed at reducing the differences between men and women, and wanted to send across a message to all its citizens: that regardless of your gender identity or sexual orientation, all human being still had the same rights and responsibility to fulfil.

This intiative received much public backlsh as people thought that this new pronoun induced by the government was meant to reduce the inherent differences that exists between the two genders. Others thought that this meant changing girls to boys and boys to girls, eventually removing the identity of either gender.

~by charlotte 🙂

adapted from: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=D97DA3D43AD3720FA51FC7A21F5A5EE893BA93CA&thid=OIP.6IIKrDSo2XmpXX0FFdI0FgHaMM&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Forig00.deviantart.net%2F5b0f%2Ff%2F2014%2F217%2F4%2Fd%2Fgender_equality_infographic_by_mozersmozer-d7tvyw2.jpg&exph=1008&expw=612&q=gender+equality+infographic&selectedindex=10&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,6

disclaimer: this is a self-made meme by our group members

The above meme dramaticizes how dejected women would inevitably feel when they are treated unequally when in the same circumstances as men.

Gender equality (the cartoon character in yellow) comforts women and gives women the hope and solace they desperately need in these troubling times. Gender equality has advocated womens’ rights in the aspect that it has aimed to improve the current rights of women to put them on a level playing field with their male counterparts.

Iceland has been praised by many countries to be the place where women take charge. Below are a few statistics on gender equality in Iceland.

Women compose 66% of total university graduates

Some Icelandic men may see this rise in the number of women vying for university degrees as a affront to males in the sphere of gender equality. But the truth is that in Iceland, many males chose to drop out of universities by their own liberty in hopes in pursuit of their own entrepreneur aspirations.

Women achieved 48% of seats in Iceland’s parliament in 2016

An all-female political party – the Women’s Alliance – was established and by 1999, more than a third of MPs were women. (Iceland was the first country to have that many women in a single legislative body – compared to 19% of women in the US congress)

BBC News

But iceland is not perfect either: Icelandic women earn 14% less than men on average.

Income inequality and the gender wage gap is a symatic issue that our society has to overcome with the passage of time. Although there gender equality has been achieved in the educational sphere, there is still inequality in the workforce. Public perception and ideologies would have to be altered before concrete change can be seen.

Women in developed countries are starting to be able to catch up to men in terms of education and in the workplace. In some countries, such as the United States, women even start to surpass men in terms of education. However, the biggest problem arises when young adults try to balance work and family, ending up causing women to take up the role of even managing the household. This is unfair and is unrealistic to expect gender equality.

https://www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/gender-inequality-women-workplace

Pakistan is the world’s fifth most populous country and the second largest South Asian country. Moreover it is currently ranked as the country with the worst gender inequality.

It has long been clear to the public that in these less developed countries, women are more vulnerable to abuse and marginalisation. Their basic rights of attending school and taking up jobs are violated, leaving them hopeless in society and incapable of leading individual lives.

#BeatMe

Despite all the gender discrimination happening in Pakistan, these individuals started the #BeatMe campaign to fight back the violence and prejudical treatments which Pakistanis women face. It empowers women to not remain silent, but to speak up for themselves, knowing that they are not the only ones facing unfair treatments.

Equality does not discriminate,

Let’s all start to educate.

Who says men always dominate,

I think that we all do equate.

Girls in Nigeria, lack the education

So what’s up with all these segregation?

They tell women, stay home to cook,

How about let her read a book.

Women are earning less than men,

This has been happening time and again.

So let’s all advocate for human rights,

To curb gender inequality,

And to save our society.