We live in a patriarchal society discuss how gender links to Essay

We live in a patriarchal society discuss how gender links to inequality in society using examples from the past and present and in England and Arab spring - Essay Example Not only have there been both overt and covert means to ensure that the status quo is maintained, but even in the modern era, it has become common for openly discriminatory actions against women to be promoted at almost every level of society. The world today has seen numerous changes and women have come to experience opportunities that were not open to them for many centuries. It is therefore important that a comprehensive discussion of how gender links to inequality in society be conducted. In Elizabethan England, it was a common belief among individuals in society that women were inferior in all aspects to men. This belief ensured that women were put in a subordinate status where they did not have the same opportunities as those that were given to men (Ellis, 1839). Even Queen Elizabeth I herself seemed to promote this bias and she did this through accepting that she was indeed as physically weak as any woman, but despite this, she was also a woman who had the heart and stomach of a king. It seems that she compared herself thus because she wanted to attribute some of the male features that were believed to be superior to herself. Moreover, even the most prominent writers of the time such as Shakespeare and John Knox, the protestant leader, all believed that women were inferior. The latter especially promoted this belief by stating that women were created in perfection in order to serve and obey man, a statement that shows the predominance of patriarchy in society (Fle tcher, 1994). This attitude towards women continued to be propagated in later centuries and some of its aspects have remained prevalent to this day. The patriarchal nature of English society has led to a situation where women have continued to be discriminated against despite the development of ideals such as gender equality. The sometimes-unconscious discrimination against women in society has led to the continuation of