gen. 26 2012
Gender Inequalities in Brazil, India and Turkey
My students in the course on Social Change and Globalisation (Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology, UAB) have produced interesting essays on gender inequalities in Brazil, India and Turkey. Remarkably, the HDI value of these countries is close to the average of middle-income countries, but gender inequality seems to be significantly high.
Roughly speaking, two general explanations seem to hold. The first one argues that traditional values hinder gender inequality in these countries. Certainly, both Inglehart and Huntington classified them in civilizations that endorse social norms on women’s inferior status compared to men. Furthermore, some specialists also make a very similar point, particularly as far as India and Turkey are concerned. The second explanation emphasizes that democratic political projects are gaining momentum, and promoting gender equality, despite the important obstacles. Thus, it is noticeable that in Brazil women’s participation in the labour force has increased dramatically after the democratic transition, and that Turkey is the least unequal Muslim country. In India, conflicts concerning castes intermingle with gender inequality, with progress and contradictions arising in many senses. This country provides a very relevant example of the so-called ‘intersections’ between inequalities (e.g. read Sylvia Walby’s work).
Doubtless, both answers have been accepted, and assessed according to the value of the arguments. However, it is not easy to add them up and say that we find out a sort of underlying tension between tradition and democracy. Actually, the first explanation assumes that social norms determine social behaviour, that is, social norms constrain agency. On the contrary, the second one assumes that agency may transform social norms and shape a new social structure. This is one of the big issues in long-lasting discussions of social change, as I have already commented in other posts in this blog. The point is particularly poignant when looking at the variety of political and religious understandings of tradition in all these countries.
In addition, varied public policies should also be taken into account. The Gender Inequalities Index summarises information about maternal health, adolescent pregnancy, schooling, seats in parliament and participation in the labour force. Therefore, it is very relevant to ask what mechanisms eventually cause gender inequalities in these diverse policy areas. Thus, urban slums and medical attention affect women’s reproductive rights, fiscal resources and the Education for All Programme impinge on schooling, parliaments are the outcome of complex political processes, and labour markets are also influenced by social norms and economic globalisation too. In my view, agency-based accounts of change are better equipped to deal with public policies than modernisation, structure-based theories like Inglehart’s or Huntington’s, but this is precisely one the debates that challenges social researchers nowadays.