A Review of the Cultural Gender Norms Contributing to Gender Inequality in Ghana: An Ecological Systems Perspective.

Q3 Social Sciences
Portia Nartey, Ozge Sensoy Bahar, Proscovia Nabunya
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

While significant progress has been made in improving the wellbeing of women and girls around the world, a gender gap still exists between men and women which is very evident in Ghana. Gender inequalities continue to persist in Ghana because of cultural gender norms that exalt and favor men and put women in subordinate and subservient roles. These cultural gender norms hinder women's development and widen gender inequality between men and women in different system levels of society. Therefore, there is a need to examine the influence of these cultural gender norms on women's lives using a systems framework to capture a full picture of women's experiences at these systemic levels of society. In this paper, we use Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems multilevel approach to examine the impact of these cultural gender norms on women's lives at the different system levels. We conducted a desk review of studies published in sub-Saharan Africa focused on cultural gender norms and gender inequality. The findings showed that the impact of cultural gender norms on gender inequality at the levels of the four social systems (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem) are interconnected, creating and widening the inequality gap between men and women. Cultural gender norms influence gender role socialization in the home, which then transmits to the school and religious institutions as the mesosystem. At the school level, cultural gender norms act as a mesosystem manifest through discriminatory classroom practices, gender role assignment of school responsibilities, and gender role representations in textbooks. In Christianity and Islam, cultural gender norms create doctrines that enforce men's domination over women, and, in the workplace, cultural gender norms have gendered labor by defining a man's occupation and limiting women to domestic and low-paying occupations. The mass media is the exosystem that displays images of women to fit cultural gender norms of what is defined as acceptable for women. Finally, the macrosystem is the overall sociocultural norms that have been accepted by society that perpetuate discriminatory practices against women.

回顾加纳导致性别不平等的文化性别规范:生态系统视角。
虽然世界各地在改善妇女和女童福祉方面取得了重大进展,但男女之间仍然存在性别差距,这在加纳非常明显。在加纳,性别不平等现象依然存在,这是因为文化上的性别规范崇尚和偏爱男性,将女性置于从属和服从的地位。这些文化上的性别规范阻碍了妇女的发展,扩大了社会各阶层男女之间的性别不平等。因此,有必要使用系统框架来研究这些文化性别规范对妇女生活的影响,以全面了解妇女在这些社会系统层面的经历。在本文中,我们采用布隆芬布伦纳的多层次生态系统方法来研究这些文化性别规范在不同系统层面对妇女生活的影响。我们对撒哈拉以南非洲地区发表的有关文化性别规范和性别不平等的研究进行了案头审查。研究结果表明,文化性别规范对四个社会系统(微观系统、中观系统、外 观系统和宏观系统)层面的性别不平等的影响是相互关联的,造成并扩大了男女之间的不 平等差距。文化性别规范影响着家庭中的性别角色社会化,然后传导到学校和宗教机构这个中间系统。在学校层面,文化性别规范作为一个中间系统,通过歧视性的课堂实践、学校责任的性别角色分配和教科书中的性别角色表述表现出来。在基督教和伊斯兰教中,文化性别规范创造了强制推行男性统治女性的教义;在工作场所,文化性别规范通过界定男性的职业和限制女性从事家务和低薪职业,将劳动性别化。大众传媒是外在系统,它展示的女性形象符合文化性别规范对女性可接受的定义。最后,宏观系统是被社会接受的整体社会文化规范,这些规范使歧视妇女的做法长期存在。
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来源期刊
Journal of International Women''s Studies
Journal of International Women''s Studies Social Sciences-Gender Studies
CiteScore
0.80
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
期刊介绍: The Journal of International Women’s Studies is an on-line, open-access, peer reviewed feminist journal that provides a forum for scholars, activists, and students to explore the relationships among theories of gender and sexuality and various forms of organizing and critical practice. The journal seeks both multidisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives, and invites submissions in the form of scholarly articles, essays, book reviews, and works of fiction. In addition, the Journal supports multi-media submissions through streaming audio capability, embedded video, and links to video sites to display short films and other visual materials. Through its diverse collection, the journal aims to create an opportunity for building bridges across the conventional divides of scholarship and activism; “western” and “third world” feminisms; professionals and students; men, women and all genders and the hegemony of ableism. Toward this end, the editors welcome your constructive and insightful comments in response to our publications.
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