Published By: Sougata Dutta

How Gender Discrimination Affects Development Of Children?

Gender bias is contrary to the normal development of children!

Gender inequality affects children, especially girls, from an early age. The potential future of girls impacted by gender-based discrimination stagnates lowers their self-confidence and teaches them to live dependent on others. On the other hand, the ruthless exposure to gender inequality from childhood makes a male child the ultimate misogynist. Overconfidence and superiority complex syndrome hit those boys later in life who have grown up seeing the sexist treatment of their mother or sister at home from an early age.

Gender discrimination: Ill-treatments towards females

Discriminatory behaviour such as preventing girls from having a proper education from childhood, marrying them at an early age, using violence against girls in the family and other levels of society, stripping them of their due status and rights in various spheres of society and depriving them of due privileges can be categorized as gender discrimination. This process of suppressing the talents and needs of girls started in childhood and continued throughout life. As a result, a girl victim of gender inequality becomes mentally crippled for life, which harms her personally and hinders the progress and development of the country as a whole.

Childhood Gender Inequality: Accustoming Men to Misogynistic Offensive Reminders

This system of discrimination between men and women from birth onwards makes boys hostile towards girls. If a male child has seen from childhood that he is getting more privileges and importance from girls at home and outside only based on gender differences, then he learns to think of himself as more powerful and valued than girls. This teaches him to think of women as weak and pitiable. When the lesson of gender equality is not learned from childhood, the tendency to show disrespect towards women and to look down on women is created in boys and this attitude lasts for a lifetime.

Gender discrimination: Multiple adverse effects

The curse of gender inequality becomes an obstacle in women's education, making them financially dependent on others. Lack of proper gender education from an early age has created a mentality among men to think of women's bodies as commodities, forcing girls to choose occupations like prostitution. In addition, girls are more likely to be victims of illegal practices such as child marriage. Underage pregnancies due to early marriage and malnutrition as well as various other physical ailments can lead to maternal and child mortality during childbirth. Due to the lack of education required for financial self-reliance, women are often unable to take required legal action despite being subjected to physical abuse. Women are more likely than men to be victims of family violence in childhood, on the street or in-laws after marriage.

Sexism in men: Discriminatory gender education from childhood is responsible

The education of gender inequality acquired from childhood on the one hand teaches boys to physically and mentally abuse girls as if they are weak, on the other hand, the same prevailing social system also teaches girls to accept oppression in silence! Lack of early childhood education on gender equality is directly responsible for the patriarchal anti-women violence like rape and honour killing in society. Due to this unequal system, gender disparity continues to grow in a backward society which pushes that society further into darkness.