Navigating Bias: Confronting Gender Discrimination Head-On

Hello,
Greeting to you all and I hope you’re enjoying your day. This is my entry to this edition of the weekly featured contest organized by hive learners community. Todays topic is not really address nowadays because most people seem to think that it doesn’t happen.

image designed by me on canva

GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Day in, day out individuals experience gender discrimination at school, at work, the market place and even on the streets. It’s always glaring at us but we fail to address it.

Most of us think it’s only ladies that experience this but truth is, even men face gender discrimination in various aspects of life. At some work places, bosses treat women better than they treat men while both genders offer the same thing. This isn’t fair.

I have had my fair share of gender discrimination with friends, family and even in school. It’s story time now so grab your seats let me share my experience with you.

In my second year in the university we had this program which was part of our curriculum. We were to have a field program in various communities in one district around our school. We were divided in to groups of 10 but some groups had more than that number and others had less due to the population. In my group, we were 9 in number,2 girls and 7 guys. This program was supposed to last for 6 to 7 weeks and we were unlucky to find ourselves in a typical village without water and electricity. For the first few days after our arrival we didn’t even have a place to stay. We had to stay together in a school so we all shared one classroom. Days later, we were moved to a better place where we were given two rooms. Due to our number some of the guys had to join we the girls in our room and we didn’t have a problem with that.

_{our group with one of the community leaders}
We lived peacefully for a while as we started our field work. Every morning when we wake up, we have our meeting then we proceed to work around the house. We that ladies will prepare food while some guys fetched water and others swept the compound. This wasn’t a permanent responsibility for anyone as anyone could do any chore they choose to. Sometimes before we wake up some of the guys would have prepared food for us all. We would also sweep sometimes and all of that. Everyone did what they could do and we were all happy.

A few weeks into our program things started to change. Two of the guys stopped helping with anything. All they would do is sleep all day and come out to eat when the food is ready. The most annoying thing is that the guys eat together but one of the guys would go and take a big bowl and serve a lot of food for just him alone. He will then go and hide in the room and eat all. So some of the guys started talking and with time they all didn’t want to do any house chores. So we decided to call for a meeting and address things and that’s what we did.

Everyone spoke about their problems but at some point I started to get pissed off. One guy made a statement that we the ladies sit and watch him wash his plate after he’s done eating and that we are supposed to treat him as our husband and he further added that he even sweeps and that’s wrong so we the ladies are supposed to do everything related to house chores. I was really surprised about what he said cos in my house my brother and even my dad help around the house and this guy has the audacity to say this.

So it was my turn to speak and I corrected them him that we are here on a program and no one is here to be someone’s maid or servant. How does he expect two ladies to cook, sweep a big compound, wash dishes and also take part in the programs daily activities when the guys just sit doing nothing. We are all here for one thing and some of us didn’t know each other until this program. So if he feels he doesn’t want to do anything I want to remind him and all the guys that this is not their house. He rather got pissed. The other lady just sat down and even allowed the boy to talk badly to her. I was surprised she couldn’t speak up for herself.

_{our group collecting data}

At the end, the issue was resolved with everyone having a permanent responsibility cos no one is anyone’s fool and everyone agreed with that. I told my mom about it and she couldn’t believe it.I mean in this era who does this?

Since then, I learnt my lessons the hard way. I learnt to not let anyone take my kindness as stupidity just because I’m a lady and no one has the right to tell me my place in society. We need to work together to stop discrimination in our society. Anyone who faces gender discrimination should be able to stand up for him or herself because they have the right to do so. No one is above the other and if we can’t help each other as humans then where is our humanity?

I hope you enjoyed reading this thank you for your time.