Discrimination against women at Home

Discrimination against women at home happens when a female child or a woman is treated less favourably than would a male child specifically because of her gender.

Examples of discrimination against women at home are;

• When in a family a girl child is denied education because of her gender.
• Subjecting a woman to a total control of a man.
• A custom or tradition that gives a man an “authority” to assault a woman.
• Giving in marriage an under aged girl child in order to help the family financially.
• Teaching a female child to cook so that she cooks for her husband without which she is termed a bad wife. etc.

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When in a family a girl child is denied education because of her gender.

A lot of women have got their dreams of attending a higher education marred because of their gender. When I was a teenager and in high school my dad made it clear to me that he wasn’t going to pay for my higher education. His reason for saying so being that as a woman I belong to another family. My husband when I get married should see to that if he wants me to further my education, he said to me. But I thank God for my mom who as a school teacher has a very different opinion from that of my dad and she made sure that my siblings and I both boys and girls attended a higher institution. Some other women were not as lucky as I was and ended up not achieving their dreams academically.

Article 10 of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women (CEDAW);

Provides that States shall ensure that women have equal rights with men in education, including equal access to schools, vocational training, curricula and educational resources. States shall eliminate stereotypes of the roles of women and men through revising school materials and teaching methods..

A custom or tradition that gives a man an “authority” to assault a woman.

The penal Code applicable in the Northern parth of Nigeria provides that an assault by a man on a woman is not an offence if they are married as long as it does not amount to a “grievious hurt” and if native law and custom recognises such “correction” as lawful.

By Article 2 of CEDAW, States parties are mandated to pursue by all appropriate means a policy of eliminating discrimination against women, undertaking to take concrete steps to eliminate discriminatory laws, policies and practices in the national legal framework.. It obligates state parties ratifying the Convention;

(b) To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination against women; (c) To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination; (f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women;

Subjecting a woman to a total control of a man.

This happens in many societies today and it had happened in some many others years back, for example in Spain, before the year 1981, the Spanish Laws established the total dependence of a woman on her husband. A woman had to seek for the permision of their husband in order to work, to have a bank account, to get a driver’s licence etc. This currently happens in so many other countries.

Article 16.1, States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:…… It prohibits discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations. It provides that States shall ensure that women have equal rights with men in relation to marriage and as parents, as well as in respect of other aspects of family life.

Giving in marriage an under aged girl child in order to help the family financially.

In some countries under aged female children are given in marriage or prostitution in order to help the family financially regardless of all the consecuences associated with such marriage. Many “baby women” have lost their lives. So many others suffering from diferent sorts of diseases, like Vesicoviginal fistula ( VVF ), one of its symsptoms is constant leakage of urine from bladder into vigina.

Article 6 of the CEDAW provides; States Parties shall take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women. Article 16 of CEDAW provides men and women with the same right to enter into marriage, the same right to choose a spouse freely.

Teaching a female child to cook so that she cooks for her husband without which she is termed a bad wife. etc.

Teaching your girl child to cook is one of the “goods” you will do to your child, but let not the reason for doing so be that she makes a good wife. Men should’nt see their wives as their cooks. Teach your sons how to cook and do other house chores as well to be able to help in times of need. Train your son to be the kind of man you will like your daughter have for a husband.

According to article 5 “states Parties shall take all appropriate measures: (a) To modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes ………..”

It requires states parties to the Convention to take measures to seek to eliminate prejudices and customs based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of one sex.