In developing countries, gender gaps in favor of the boy child, such as in personal autonomy, education, employment, freedom of choice among others, are systematically larger compared to those in developed nations (Jayachandran 2015). Gender inequality is not only a situation and an idea that men and women are not equal, but also a perception and unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender. It is poignant that in spite of the world’s massive progress, women’s rights remain a fundamental issue throughout the globe especially in the Middle East (Lorber 2012).
Gender inequality and sexism are inherent in knowledge, people’s consciousness, social intuitions, and relationships. Indigenous knowledge is not exempted from this phenomenon in that much cultural knowledge is gender knowledge on the behavior of men and women as gendered beings; the knowledge is tactic, implicit, and embedded in their minds and inscribed on their bodies (Bidwell and Winschiers 2015). Indigenous knowledge being the mental grid or the societal information base enabling people to make decisions and communicate does not only dictate the roles of individuals, but also helps them understand themselves by knowing who they are (Dunn, 2014). Given the fact that men and women may be blind to their gender realizations and constructions, informed and formed by their cultural environments, a mix of different aspirations, perspectives, and history may encourage conceptualizations, heighten perception, and deepen introspection (Bidwell and Winschiers 2015).
Until recently, violence against women was not only absent from concerns of human development, but also invisible in the discourse of human rights. Unlike men who are conventionally victims of violence perpetrated by casual acquaintances or strangers in public places, women face risks from intimate partners or rather, family members within the domestic sphere (Kabeer 2014). This is because indigenous knowledge acquired and impacted by generations created cultural features, which exacerbate favoritism toward males (Kumar, 2006).
Thus, unequal legal rights form one of the major reasons why developing countries have a high tolerance to gender-based violence in comparison with the rich nations (Jayachandran 2015). One of the most open forms of violence against women is spousal rape. As evidenced by Mandhani (2014), the court laws in India state that sexual intercourse between a husband and a wife, who is a major even if forcible, cannot be deemed rape and that against the accused no culpability can be fastened. Hence, such inequality in legal rights increases the vulnerability of women to gender-based violence (Mccune 2014). While thinking of gender inequality, it also got me thinking how we knew that gender inequality was wrong. It is through conceptualization of cognitive justice on interaction between knowledge and power from our indigenous knowledge that questions pertaining to ethics, validity, relevance, moral issues, and gender justice are prompted (Bidwell and Winschiers 2015).
Moreover, reasons can affect our understanding of indigenous knowledge in various ways. I have experienced the kind of gender inequality in today’s society in different cases. For instance, the functioning of a society has obscured the true interests of groups other than the dominant. For isntance, in both public and private spheres, women as opposed to their male counterparts, have less economic, political, cultural, and social power hence their knowledge is not awarded the same cultural and social status as that of men (Bidwell and Winschiers 2015). In addition, women mobility is limited in countries such as Saudi Arabia where women depend on their husbands or fathers to get them from place to place, as they are not allowed to drive (Mccune 2014). Additionally, with exception to Tunisia, Iran, parts of Egypt, and Israel, as opposed to men who can pass their citizenship even to their non-national wives, women in the Middle East are denied citizenship to their own children (Mccune 2014).
Again, despite the attention China and India get from being a home for over a third’s world population, their strong son preference makes them infamous too. According to Jayachandran (2015), the Indian labor force is prominent for underrepresentation of women in that, the number of men working is likely to be three times that of women. In the current world’s status on gender inequality, although the participation of women in labor is not high in developed countries, their attitudes regarding women is more progressive as opposed to those in poor countries; but still, women occupy subordinate positions in nearly all societies (Jackson 2018). Additionally, two thirds of the illiterate population worldwide is women such as in countries like Afghanistan many schools are attacked by groups opposing female education thus compromising female rights to awareness of their entitlements that could only be remedied by access to education (Mccune 2014).
In Pakistan, there are handful examples violence and murder for the so called honor. Allegedly, choosing your own spouse, rejecting an arranged marriage, fleeing from a forced marriage or all manner of deviation from traditional norms or cultural expectations can incite honor killings as they are considered to bring dishonor and shame to one’s family (Selby 2016). For example, a young Pakistani woman eloped with a man of her choice refusing to participate in an arranged marriage to her cousin. Later, when she was about three months pregnant, a mob of twenty people including her father, brothers, the cousin she jilted and others beat her to death with bricks for the so-called honor (Selby 2016).
In conclusion, it is through reason that commitment to women empowerment and gender equality affect the understanding of indigenous knowledge by examining methodological and ethical issues which are pertinent to such real life endeavors. For instance, through reasoning from the perception obtained from the real life situations, women empowerment and gender equality will periodically have to dispute particular indigenous knowledge as dehumanizing and wrong to women. From my perception as a learner, women have proved to be more than what is widely upheld by the society and advocating for gender equality does not mean that women want power over men, but are rather fighting to be awarded respect in equal measure when they voice their support or in contribution to political, cultural, social, and economical aspects of life.
