Introduction
At the base of gender, analysis is the difference that exists between sex and the biological sex of a person. Gender is something that is socially created in the environment, whereas sex is a thing of the genetic feature of an organism. Human beings over the decades have had the chance to change the relations in a society where life. Basing reasoning on biological facts, it is true that there are activities that can only be performed by one sex, either men or women.
For instance, women get pregnant and give birth to young ones whereas men cannot be biologically supported to do such. This shows that roles performed by either sex could be derived from biological property among others (Brookes, 1998). Gender relations results from the way social processes perceive particular biological categories. Either way, issues to do with gender are only fair when genders get equal autonomy in executing roles for different endeavors.
Through televisions, several professional organizations have been able to promote and initiate leadership programs for women in many countries so as to improve women representation in management positions.
Many training programs have been put in place that recognizes gender challenges and that come up with better solutions to addressing these issues through social media, more so the use of television because of its wide coverage. This paper is aimed at discussing whether media encouraged or discouraged greater gender equality in Britain during the twentieth century.
Gender equality in Britain in the 20th Century
In Britain, the media through the television systems operated discussions and seminars on issues concerning gender in society. Through this, many people got an invitation to join discussions to improve the social perception of sexes in society. People from both civil servants and private bodies would discuss their own views on gender issues freely and better solutions pertaining to the subject could be conveyed to the public via this mode, television.
Many nations were also taking the issue seriously in Britain. These governments organized training and seminars that were used to educate the society in a bid to improving awareness on human rights. Some of the discussions held purely intended to encourage the women to take the initiative to go through the education processes and apply for managerial positions of big companies just like their male counterparts (Bell, 2011).
The political scene was also taking shape. Many women got interested in playing part in public issues of nations. Some women applied for government positions at the ballot boxes and despite getting threats and discrimination and eventual defeat, some of them never surrendered. This harmonized the spirit and helped show that even women could lead. The television was used in many instances to help in promoting public awareness campaigns on issues to do with gender equity.
It was also used to air other interventions that are closely related to and are touching on gender. In communities where the women had greater roles, education and some initiatives boosted the increase of awareness of the value of education. The importance of living a violent free life and the agencies took them through skill building by engaging both males and females so as to change the norm of the community set up making them be more receptive for women empowerment (Andrews, 2012).
It was through increased awareness via television and radio that community interventions were able to address the traditional norms concerning gender. This helped in changing attitudes towards the traditional ways of viewing females. Effective facilitation of this initiative to a greater extent boosted this intervention. In addition, through the education systems, school programs were encouraged to address these norms before they were fully ingrained in children.
This helped to address sexual abuse on young adults. Series of television shows also highlighted intimate relationships that were also backed up by printed booklets concerning the same and were distributed nationwide to help improve the awareness (Mendes & Carter, 2008). The television presenters analyzed them step by step and making clarifications and valuable interpretations and consultations with human rights experts on the best ways to go about the human rights issue.
Sexual harassment and consistent but unnecessary home violence are among the issues that were discussed. In essence, this increased the number of people agreeing with these issues to a greater extent because even the public was also encouraged to participate by sending back feedback through phone calls and other modes.
Some programs also improved sexual reproduction health by encouraging people to take control of their lives as well as promoting gender equity and human rights. The activities that were operating to affect this endeavor included national television series and radio shows. Training workshops for training the young population and the women were also made. To make it ring through the minds of many, television shows were made more frequent, on a daily or weekly basis and drama performances.
There were also campaigns initiated to target the male population. These were aimed at changing the traditional mindsets in males and the virility concepts. The media organized and used celebrities via televisions to deliver the messages that advised on human rights and that violence towards women and children was not accepted either was it right.
It was also aimed at discouraging the notion that men having masculine bodies were meant to trim and beat their wives (Bell, Young, Single, Disillusioned: The Screen Heroine in 1960s British Cinema., 2012). Educational initiatives were organized that advised males on ways through which they could be strong other than through overpowering others at the family and the social levels. Several campaigns on no violence against women then followed suit (Bingham, 2004).
From the extended research on human history, it is however pointed out that females have been the slaves of the males in many scenarios and instances. For some societies, females could not be allowed to walk without the company of the male in public settings. This showed that males were given power over their opposites. In some instances, women have had the chance to control their actions on their own without any form of interference from the males and the society hence raising even more controversy.
However, women representation in the media had been judged as interfering with the aim of achieving gender equality by continuing negative gender typecasts. Women exploitation on television shows through adverts created criticisms that levied against them when such depiction aimed at increasing the appeal of a product without regard to the interests of those women.
Early marriage cases got discouraged from time to time and that only males and females that were above eighteen years of age got legal right to engage in marriage. This reduced violence to some extent especially on young families. Economic empowerment of women through national commissions helped to represent the rights of the women and gender issues in England and other parts of the United Kingdom (Hale, Raymond, & Wright, 2011).
They ensured that women views were taken into account and that public debates were organized. Through history networks, they were also encouraged to take part in promoting women’s history.
This was done through the celebration of feminine principles and discussions that went from a couple of days concerning the same in the general media. Though they were not frequently heard, women were encouraged to speak out their issues openly though media and to join the male counterparts in different genres of music, art and all other activities that could interest them.
Legal Rights
In many instances, women were not been considered as intelligent as their counterparts or not even rational. The female participation in the political arena, for instance, was to a very small percentage. Men made the decisions and the females were expected to follow. Traveling for women was at stake when they got pregnant.
Women were viewed as the controllers of families in the absence of husbands. It was hard to give them employment especially at schools to teach as well as care for the family. It was argued that they could not effectively perform home chores as well as operate school programs (Beetham, 2003). For this, they could not even get promotions not until human rights bill was passed.
Earnings
The introduction of gender issues in the industries and firms and the entire employment sector boosted women employment aboveboard. Economic opportunities for women in Britain were on the increase, both in terms of job turnover and earnings. The introduction of the professional programs by women helped to shape the tradition thought about work and such related issues. Many women are now lawyer, journalists, and doctors just to mention but a few.
However, male dominance in the employment sector is still experienced in the world depending on the nature of the jobs and tasks involved (Dicenzo, 2004). Women also have some cultural inclinations that make them value particular job groups at the expense of others. This makes them become oversupplied for one service and as a result making the earnings to be law and therefore, reducing their earning potentials. This promotes further division.
Conclusion
From our discussion above, it is evident that the media encouraged gender equality in Britain during the twentieth century. This was done through educational initiatives where the British government organized training and seminars that were used to educate the society on sex education and human rights.
Public awareness campaigns on the importance of gender equality were also created, promotion of legal rights, the introduction of gender issues in the industries and firms and the entire employment sector that boosted women employment aboveboard among other issues featured prominently.
Most of these discussions were intended to encourage the women to take the initiative to go through the education processes and apply for managerial positions of big companies just like their male counterparts hence gender equality.
To make it ring through the minds of many, television shows were run on a daily and weekly basis. Drama performances were also witnessed more frequently. There were also campaigns instigated to target the male population. These were aimed at shifting the conventional mindsets regarding virility concepts and males.
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