Depression 2008: It May Hit Women Harder Than Men

INTRODUCTION

The human world is the aftermath of man-woman mating. Both of them are equally creditable for the growth and expansion of human mass in the world. After the human society became emerged and thereby man became social the society is believed to first gain the form of a female dominated society in the inception of its emergence. By and by, with the passing of time, the form went on being changed resulting to the setup of a fully male dominated society. However there are still found traces of the old female dominated social system among the socially and economically deprived communities comprised of especially the uncultured primitive and indigenous tribes.

At present, almost whole of the cultured human world is running under the male dominated social system. However, man has always accepted that woman is indispensable for and complementary to the human race. She is the source of inspiration and the reservoir of mother-power. Moreover, man though fully dominating but could not carry on without woman even on the fronts of his life other than the biological interdependence. From the very inception of all religions and cultures of the world man has always revolved around woman taking her as pivot either by worshipping her as goddess for different desired powers and boons or by taking her as the ultimate means for his ultimate entertainment, amusement, lewdness, gratification and satiety.

THE FAMININE POWER

Theological literature pertaining to almost all religions is sufficiently enriched with the versions advocating the importance, worthiness and equal rights of woman in the society. Man has theoretically accepted these versions only to the extent of befooling woman. As a matter of practice, man has been always making these versions futile, worthless and rather meaningless by craftily depriving her from equality with the help of discrimination and dominance. For example, Quran, the holy book of Islam, states in its verse (AYAT) 4:1 that mankind should be conscious of its creating Lord who has created the mankind from one soul (Adam) and out of it created its mate (Eve) and out of the two spread many men and women. The AYAT further advises the mankind to remain conscious of God, in whose name men and women demand their rights from each other, and of these ties of kinship.

Had man been to realize that another soul was created from the original single soul to be its mate and to spread both men and women throughout the world, he would have respected woman more.  Woman would not have had to go through centuries of oppression. Nor her humanity would have been denied for centuries. Women would have been respected as feminine human being in the West and she would have not been treated as an object for sale in the East. They would not have been continuously and equally exploited by capitalism. But, man forgot that a soul was created for a soul and that a woman makes a man complete. He forgot that man and woman are not created to engage in an eternal battle of genders but they have been created rather to complement and complete each other. That is why even the true human rights of women and children are not universally known and respected and the education remains a tool for the status quo despite that there have been made efforts through worldwide cultural  moves to do away the erroneous theories and the degraded position of woman. Thus the whole humanity is continuing to regress.

MISERABLE CONDITION OF WOMAN

It is blatantly obvious that despite our claiming that a long distance has been covered by us on the path of development, in most societies around the world, women are still deprived from their legitimately desired rights and freedoms. Even the western societies, having used to advocate and rather loudly proclaim women's rights and freedoms, are but now some of the hells in the world where not mere women but people are deprived of human rights and freedoms. To get rid of the miserable condition of rights and freedoms, women, the feminine power itself, should revolt to drive a widespread movement to get liberated from the negative education and falsification of reality and to undergo personal revolutionary change leading to the right thought, right words and right actions. Woman is the first teachers of man, of the family and thus ultimately of the nation. Therefore, future generations should experience life free on the earth and under the sun, as it was meant to be.

However, in the past three decades, there has become a rapid change in the quality of life as a result of sweeping socio-economic and technological development all over the world which has now attained the dimensions of a ‘global village'. On account of this rapid change, the role and status of women in the changing society also could not help being affected. The socio-economic development has brought about the break-up of traditional joint family system and the establishment of nuclear or unit family system where woman contributes in large measures to the well-being and development of the family. Vast changes in the family life under the unit family system have been brought about by women. Women have joined the workforce in such a large number that the women employment and the workplace has become the matter of great concern for economic or occupational reasons. Woman has to play a central role in unit family system from child bearing to child care. Her motherly duties and other obligatory responsibilities towards domesticity are such that even a working (employed) woman has essentially to give certain hours daily to the family, in addition to the daily working hours for her employment. Therefore, working women have been attracted towards certain types of jobs where they find themselves comparatively more capable of undertaking and performing their essential domestic and motherly duties in the family, in parallel. Most of all these types of jobs (characterised by women employment in majority) are sensitive to economic turmoil comparatively more than other types of jobs (less preferred by women) in such a way that women employment and work place conditions improve lesser during economic expansion and worsen more during economic recession or slump in comparison to men employment and work place conditions. According to Mr. Jane Hodges, spokeswoman of the UN agency ILO, women's lower employment rates, weaker control over property and resources, concentration in informal and vulnerable forms of employment with lower earnings, and less social protection, all place women in a weaker position than men to weather crises.

ILO's GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT TRENDS (GET) REPORT

Mr. Juan Somavia, director-general of ILO, has rightly remarked in the annual Global Employment Trends (GET) report, "Gender inequality in the world of work has long been with us, but it is likely that it will be exacerbated by the crisis. In times of economic upheaval, women often experience the negative consequences more rapidly and are slower to enjoy the benefits of recovery. And already before the crisis, the majority of working women were in the informal economy with lower earnings and less social protection."

The International Labour Organization (ILO) warns that the continuing global economic crisis will likely see more women than men lose their jobs in the year ahead. The report indicates that of the three billion people employed around the world in 2008, 1.2 billion were women. It predicts that in 2009 the global unemployment rate for women may reach 7.4 per cent as compared to seven per cent for men. In its annual report ‘Global Employment Trends for Women', the Geneva-based employment equity organization also supports ILO saying that up to 22 million women could join the ranks of the unemployed in 2009.

Based on new developments in the labour market and depending on the timeliness and effectiveness of recovery efforts, the report says global unemployment in 2009 could increase over 2007 by a range of 18 million to 30 million workers, and more than 50 million if the situation continues to deteriorate. The ILO report also said that in this last scenario some 200 million workers, mostly in developing economies, could be pushed into extreme poverty.

CONCLUSION

It can well be inferred from the above discussion that the prevailing worldwide economic meltdown, known as ‘Depression 2008', also is not going to exert indiscriminative impact at par on men and women during its estimated course up to the end of 2009. But, as women are playing more big role than men in the presently prevailing family system, family events, domestic activities and household affairs, they have become more important and powerful than men to decide, formulate and maintain the socio-economic and cultural setup. Therefore, if the prevailing slump goes on being more deteriorating, as it is so apprehended, the world, apart from losing a lot on the economic front, it would rather lose on social and cultural fronts and that would be most scaring.

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