Women and Gender Concerns
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2026.v11.n03.019Keywords:
Gender, Marginalisation, Identity, PatriarchyAbstract
Women have continued to be victims of oppression since time immemorial. The rigid structures of traditional patriarchal society, and the accompanying ideology of male supremacy it generated, have contributed to the subordination of women. This condition tends to prevail in social life, even in the very present. With increased participation of women in education and employment, newer forms of oppression have found a way. Women are now left with the double burden of childbirth and associated difficulties, hardships of household work, unpaid, unrewarded and unacknowledged, coupled with employment outside the home to supplement family income. Some are the sole breadwinners. They are the female-headed households. With the employment expectations remaining the same as those of men, the employed women are struggling to cope. Newer forms of atrocities have emerged, such as abandonment, increasing divorce, marital discord, sexual abuse and domestic violence. Religion, which has always justified the subordination of women, prevails. Political structures have contributed to widening the gap of disparity, notwithstanding the advantaged few. Exploitation of women continues in more disguised forms than ever in the past. One of the present concerns women face now is the increasing marginalisation and loss of identity. The attempt here is to examine the barriers women face that endanger their well-being, put them at risk, subordinate them in society, and hasten the process of marginalisation.
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