Partie 5 : Problèmes de société
Chapitre 40 : Women and men
Gender roles, page 86
| gender roles |
| inborn, innate |
| acquired |
| to depend on |
| the breadwinner |
| tied by the children |
| trapped at home |
| household chores |
| sex-based attitudes |
| male chauvinism |
| a patronizing attitude |
| a male preserve |
The nuclear family consisting of the stay-at-home mother and the traditional breadwinner is no longer the norm.
Rights women are still fighting for, page 86
| Right to vote | In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote on a national level. |
| Birth control and abortion | In 2013, Ireland passed a law allowing limited rights to abortion. |
| Right to education | It is estimated that well over 60 million girls around the world are not in school. |
| Equal employment rights | In 1969, in the USA, the Equal Pay Act required that men and women be given equal pay for equal work. |
| End of violence against women | In 2013, it was estimated that 35 per cent of women worldwide experienced physical violence. |
| Recognition of forced marriage as a practice similar to slavery | In 2015, in South Asia, 48% of girls were forced to marry before the age of 18. |
Women at work, page 86
| a career woman |
| to be equal to the job |
| to assert oneself |
| high flying |
| a challenging assignment |
| a high-profile project |
| self-fulfilment |
| the work-life balance |
| the pay gap |
| to break the glass ceiling |
The top circles of corporate America remain stubbornly male – for instance in 2011, only 14 percent of women served on executive committees, and only 3 percent served as CEOs.
Food for thought, page 87
Discrimination is deeply engrained into the country’s institutions. “Japan has got numerous anti-discrimination laws,” says Yoshiyuki Takeuchi, professor of economy at the University of Osaka, “but still tax, pension, social security and health insurance are based on the model of a four-person family with a working father and a stay-at-home mother.
In Japan, companies pay men a higher salary if their wives stay home. Women who restart as part-timers can only earn a limited amount of money. These are rules and regulations that were developed during the seventies based on the economic reality of that time. They have barely changed since then. Nowadays they keep women from trying to restart a career.” […]
“The work force is shrinking and Japan is not very open to immigration,” Kathy Matsui tells IPS. “There’s no other solution than to use your existing population more. Women comprise 50 percent of the Japanese population, they are highly educated but stop working at a certain age. There are no other options than to take measures to try keeping women on the working track. This is not a feminist point of view but the objective analysis of an economist.”
However, Japanese society doesn’t seem very willing to accept the idea.