The Life Struggle of a Woman's by Aleyna Duyar
Being a woman... Being a woman is perhaps one of the most difficult things, especially in this period. From the past to the present, the perception that "men are superior to women" from the past to the present is getting stronger and increasing, causing women to struggle for survival in their own lives.
Being a woman in the world during this period means trying to survive. We can say that in the past, men played a role in doing things that required physical strength, and women were intensely involved in chores such as housework. This physical power struggle and the separation it has created in men around the world have caused men to see themselves as superior to women. These distinctions have also led to the formation of various stereotypes of women. As time passed, the pressures on women to fit into these stereotypes increased. These stereotypes have taken such a place in society that men have started to be prioritized and prioritized over women in a customary way. For example, a University of Virginia study of more than 45,000 accident victims found that female drivers are much more likely than male drivers to be injured in an accident. The scientists stated that this result was due to the fact that the car's safety features were designed for men. Another example we can give is the Women, Work Life and Laws 2019 report published by the World Bank. Only six countries grant equal legal rights to work for women and men, but when it comes to wages, even in these countries, men earn more than women on equal terms. As we will see from here, those patterns formed all over the world are now integrated into our lives and are so taken for granted that we do not realize it.
Another issue I will address is physical and psychological violence against women. Violence, harassment, and rape against women have increased in recent years. Because men, who see themselves as superior to women, have begun to act according to their own wishes and to see women as people responsible for fulfilling their needs. According to them, a woman has no right to say "no", because a man is stronger, it should always be what he says and everything he says should be done. This perception has become very fast in people's minds and still continues to do so. In fact, not only in the life that women normally live, but also in everyone's life now, everything has been shaped according to the wishes of men. Even in schools, streets, and homes, the comfort and desire of “the man” are considered, not the comfort of the woman. Since the man's eyes are slanted and he cannot control his own ego, the woman is warned and told to pay attention to her own behavior and the way she dresses. Although the person who should be warned here is not even a woman. The woman is always warned. The woman is angry. But nothing is said to the man. "A man does it; it's his right." is called. These rights, which are granted and provided to men, allow the latter to get what he wants without asking the other party. And for this reason, verbal and nonverbal abuse and oppression against women is increasing day by day and are moving towards a situation that we cannot stop.
On the one hand, even in the sentence patterns we use, men are superior to women. For example, in Turkish, the pronoun "o" is used regardless of whether it is a woman or a man. However, in some languages, such as English and French, in cases where people are separated by gender, such as "she/he" or "elle/il", translation programs made on the internet can choose any pronoun. The discriminatory part of the job is the "he/il" of the pronoun "he/il," which, when translated with Google Translate, indicates that the subject is male for strong, positive features and emotions, while using "she/elle" for emotional, negative traits, and feelings, indicates that the subject is female. The use of female care in the translation of sentences that include actions such as "cooks, takes care of the baby, does the laundry, washes the dishes", which are imposed on women as a society; the use of the male subject in sentence translations such as "he became a doctor, he became a judge, he is strong, he is hardworking" summarizes the discrimination and the patterns that we can clearly see as a result of inequality.
Changing this is actually not as difficult as it might seem. The way you raise a person, you shape that person's future and the rights you give them. If you raise a person with wrong perceptions, you will turn that person into someone you fear and leave him as such an individual in the community. For this reason, realizing the importance of education given to a man from his childhood should be realized by everyone who thinks that men and women are not equal: 1) A girl and a boy are equal; 2) Where men are lacking, a woman is present; where a woman is lacking, a man is present; and thus they complement one another. 3) Teaching that they both need each other and that one can do what the other can do and raising awareness of this is a good step to take to eliminate this bad perception. At the same time, it is necessary to redefine the roles given to individuals before the practices made for the attempts to break the stereotypes that have settled in society. For example, it is not possible to transfer the maternal role to the father, and it is not possible to transfer the paternal role to the mother. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the sharing of the responsibilities brought by the roles, not the insignificance of these roles against the responsibilities arising from gender or that are valued and adopted in society. It depends on everyone in the world if we can get the result of the things that we have done, because when it comes to life, it is not possible for him to change it with a few people.
In conclusion, when we take all these into consideration, inequality between men and women is one of the unwritten rules everywhere and in our lives, and all the measures that can be taken for this will only be effective. All it takes is to act together as one