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Unit 24 Lesson 4
Why is there discrimination?
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• asked and answered questions about sharing domestic work
• discussed an information chart and made question using it
• Written two short compositions
• prepared to participate in a debate
Function: asking questions, describing situations
A Work in pairs. Ask and answer these questions.
1 Who should do the cooking, washing-up and other household chores in your family?
2 Who works in the field and /or office in your family?
3 Do you do or help with any domestic work? If you do what sort of work do
you do and when?
Now write a paragraph describing what your partner said in reply to these questions.
B Read the information chart given below. Discuss in pairs or small groups and make sure that you have understood each item in the chart.
Now make at least one question on each of these items of information and write an answer to it.
e.g. Q: How long does a woman live in Bangladesh?
A: 58.6 years.
Information Chart (3)
Male Female
1 Expectation of life at birth 59.1 1
58.6
2 Literacy rate (7+)
51.3
31.4
3 Maternal mortality rate
4.5 per 1000 life births
4 No. of deaths of pregnant women, caused by injury and violence
14%
5 No. of mothers receiving no antenatal care during pregnancy
C Read these questions and discuss them in pairs. Now read the text taken from a seminar paper entitled 'Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh' presented by Mr Joynal Abedin and answer the questions.
1 Are the boys and girls treated equally in a Bangladeshi family? If not, why?
2 What happens to the girl children as a result of differential treatment they receive in the family?
3 Why is educating girls more difficult than educating boys in Bangladesh?
4 How can we help ensure that girls and boys are treated equally?
Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh
Gender discrimination in Bangladesh begins at birth. Most parents want, to have children so that they can, when they are older, supplement their family income and/or help with the domestic work. In the existing socio-economic set-up, male children are best suited to this purpose. So girls are born lo an unwelcome world. However, they are assigned, rather confined to, domestic chores. Some of these girls may be at school. But all their work—domestic or academic—stops as soon as they are married off, which is the prime concern of the parents about their daughters.
This discriminatory treatment has some long-term negative effects on the body and mind of the girl children and women in a family. They are given to understand that they should keep the best food available for the male members in the family; that they should eat less than the male members; that they should not raise their voice when they speak; that they should not go out of their house without permission from, and without being escorted by the male members. All these shape the girls1 thinking about life and the world, and go 10 establish their relationships with the male members in the family. As a result:
• They suffer, more than their male counterparts, from malnutrition and anemia which make them vulnerable to various diseases, resulting in a high mortality rate.
• They develop a sense of self-effacement, self-denial and inferiority that persists throughout their lifetime as an inevitable benchmark of the weaker sex. As a result, married off even at 9 or 10 to a man of 40 or 50, a girl rarely has any say in decision-making in the family, let alone in society.
• Marriage being such an unequal contract often becomes an institution of
inhuman tortures meted out to the silent, patient wife by the dominating
husband for many of his demands such as those for a male child, for dowry
and so on.
To encourage female education the government has taken some positive steps, such as giving stipends to girl students, recruiting more female teachers, etc. But yet girls cannot receive the full benefits of education, mainly because of the following reasons:
• Religious misinterpretation and social strictures discourage, often prevent girls from going to co-education schools. Even in urban schools girls are not allowed by many parents to live in student hails because they fear for their girls' safety.
• Early marriage and child birth make women tied to home, with no possibility of going back to school. Any expenditure for sending girls to school is considered wastage by many parents, while that for boys is regarded as an investment.
• Many parents believe that their main responsibility in life is to prepare their daughter for marriage and childbearing— not for her own individual life.
D Read the text again and choose the best answer.
1 Girls are 'confined to domestic chores'.
he statement means that girls
a are not allowed to go out of home
b have to do only household work.
c re treated like domestic animals.
d have to speak in confidential tone.
2 Women are vulnerable to various diseases because they
a are physically weaker than men.
b do not exercise like their male counterparts.
c have poor health caused by lack of food.
d nurse sick family members.
3 By developing 'a sense of self-effacement' women
a try to attract attention of others.
b remain modest and reserved.
c try to grow self-interest and self-respect
d become selfish and greedy.
4 The 'inevitable benchmark of the weaker sex' refers to
a women's silent acceptance of an inferior status for them.
b a particular place reserved for women in a family.
c benches marked for women in the court of justice.
d women as God's favourite creation.
5 Parents consider expenditures on their daughters' education wastage, because girls
a are physically weaker than boys and remain sick-most of the time.
b cannot do any income-earning work like boys.
c do not need any education to do household chores.
d need more clothes, jewellery, etc than boys, which are expensive.
6 If a girl had the opportunity to prepare for life as an individual, what would that mean?
a Be a good wife and a good mother.
b Adapt to the new life at the in-law's house.
c Develop her own potentialities through proper education.
d Know how to bring up children properly.
E Work on your own. Write down four issues you find important about gender discrimination in an average Bangladeshi family (e.g. preference for a male child, etc). Think about each issue and jot down some points/ideas about it. Use information from the text.
Now work in pairs. Discuss your points with a partner. Agree on some points and jointly develop those on any two issues into two short paragraphs. One of you will write after discussion.
Finally compare you work with another pair
F Imagine your school is holding a debate next Thursday on the topic: -Man is for the field, woman for the kitchen" and you are going to participate. Decide whether you will speak for the motion or against the motion. Then accordingly jot down some points to argue for or against the motion. For example:
For Against
- men and women— efferent
physically — roles different, (etc).... - women have a right to choose and can work in the field, office, army like men....
Now compare your points with a partner.
This text will be replaced
Unit 24 Lesson 4
Why is there discrimination?
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• asked and answered questions about sharing domestic work
• discussed an information chart and made question using it
• Written two short compositions
• prepared to participate in a debate
Function: asking questions, describing situations
A Work in pairs. Ask and answer these questions.
1 Who should do the cooking, washing-up and other household chores in your family?
2 Who works in the field and /or office in your family?
3 Do you do or help with any domestic work? If you do what sort of work do
you do and when?
Now write a paragraph describing what your partner said in reply to these questions.
B Read the information chart given below. Discuss in pairs or small groups and make sure that you have understood each item in the chart.
Now make at least one question on each of these items of information and write an answer to it.
e.g. Q: How long does a woman live in Bangladesh?
A: 58.6 years.
Information Chart (3)
Male Female
1 Expectation of life at birth 59.1 1
58.6
2 Literacy rate (7+)
51.3
31.4
3 Maternal mortality rate
4.5 per 1000 life births
4 No. of deaths of pregnant women, caused by injury and violence
14%
5 No. of mothers receiving no antenatal care during pregnancy
C Read these questions and discuss them in pairs. Now read the text taken from a seminar paper entitled 'Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh' presented by Mr Joynal Abedin and answer the questions.
1 Are the boys and girls treated equally in a Bangladeshi family? If not, why?
2 What happens to the girl children as a result of differential treatment they receive in the family?
3 Why is educating girls more difficult than educating boys in Bangladesh?
4 How can we help ensure that girls and boys are treated equally?
Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh
Gender discrimination in Bangladesh begins at birth. Most parents want, to have children so that they can, when they are older, supplement their family income and/or help with the domestic work. In the existing socio-economic set-up, male children are best suited to this purpose. So girls are born lo an unwelcome world. However, they are assigned, rather confined to, domestic chores. Some of these girls may be at school. But all their work—domestic or academic—stops as soon as they are married off, which is the prime concern of the parents about their daughters.
This discriminatory treatment has some long-term negative effects on the body and mind of the girl children and women in a family. They are given to understand that they should keep the best food available for the male members in the family; that they should eat less than the male members; that they should not raise their voice when they speak; that they should not go out of their house without permission from, and without being escorted by the male members. All these shape the girls1 thinking about life and the world, and go 10 establish their relationships with the male members in the family. As a result:
• They suffer, more than their male counterparts, from malnutrition and anemia which make them vulnerable to various diseases, resulting in a high mortality rate.
• They develop a sense of self-effacement, self-denial and inferiority that persists throughout their lifetime as an inevitable benchmark of the weaker sex. As a result, married off even at 9 or 10 to a man of 40 or 50, a girl rarely has any say in decision-making in the family, let alone in society.
• Marriage being such an unequal contract often becomes an institution of
inhuman tortures meted out to the silent, patient wife by the dominating
husband for many of his demands such as those for a male child, for dowry
and so on.
To encourage female education the government has taken some positive steps, such as giving stipends to girl students, recruiting more female teachers, etc. But yet girls cannot receive the full benefits of education, mainly because of the following reasons:
• Religious misinterpretation and social strictures discourage, often prevent girls from going to co-education schools. Even in urban schools girls are not allowed by many parents to live in student hails because they fear for their girls' safety.
• Early marriage and child birth make women tied to home, with no possibility of going back to school. Any expenditure for sending girls to school is considered wastage by many parents, while that for boys is regarded as an investment.
• Many parents believe that their main responsibility in life is to prepare their daughter for marriage and childbearing— not for her own individual life.
D Read the text again and choose the best answer.
1 Girls are 'confined to domestic chores'.
he statement means that girls
a are not allowed to go out of home
b have to do only household work.
c re treated like domestic animals.
d have to speak in confidential tone.
2 Women are vulnerable to various diseases because they
a are physically weaker than men.
b do not exercise like their male counterparts.
c have poor health caused by lack of food.
d nurse sick family members.
3 By developing 'a sense of self-effacement' women
a try to attract attention of others.
b remain modest and reserved.
c try to grow self-interest and self-respect
d become selfish and greedy.
4 The 'inevitable benchmark of the weaker sex' refers to
a women's silent acceptance of an inferior status for them.
b a particular place reserved for women in a family.
c benches marked for women in the court of justice.
d women as God's favourite creation.
5 Parents consider expenditures on their daughters' education wastage, because girls
a are physically weaker than boys and remain sick-most of the time.
b cannot do any income-earning work like boys.
c do not need any education to do household chores.
d need more clothes, jewellery, etc than boys, which are expensive.
6 If a girl had the opportunity to prepare for life as an individual, what would that mean?
a Be a good wife and a good mother.
b Adapt to the new life at the in-law's house.
c Develop her own potentialities through proper education.
d Know how to bring up children properly.
E Work on your own. Write down four issues you find important about gender discrimination in an average Bangladeshi family (e.g. preference for a male child, etc). Think about each issue and jot down some points/ideas about it. Use information from the text.
Now work in pairs. Discuss your points with a partner. Agree on some points and jointly develop those on any two issues into two short paragraphs. One of you will write after discussion.
Finally compare you work with another pair
F Imagine your school is holding a debate next Thursday on the topic: -Man is for the field, woman for the kitchen" and you are going to participate. Decide whether you will speak for the motion or against the motion. Then accordingly jot down some points to argue for or against the motion. For example:
For Against
- men and women— efferent
physically — roles different, (etc).... - women have a right to choose and can work in the field, office, army like men....
Now compare your points with a partner.