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Abstract

Feminists around the world have been fighting for equality for centuries and have achieved so much in their slow uphill battle against the patriarchy. But the question still stands, why were women ever seen as being inferior to men in the first place? The biggest difference between men and women are reproductive organs, which only raises more questions surrounding the multitude of struggles that women face that are directly linked to their reproductive systems jeopardising their chances in society.
This dissertation aims to find out whether these reproductive biological differences mean that women will ever gain full equality or whether the reasons behind these differences are just cultural norms that are deeply rooted into society.
The two key things that women have no choice but to deal with are menstruation and pregnancy. Every other hinderance that women face discussed in this paper, such as reactions to menstruation, abortion laws and female genital mutilation (FGM) are social constructs that are forced upon women by a patriarchal society - social constructs that need not exist.
This paper looks at a range of articles, books, and blogs to take a global view of women’s struggles everywhere, with the aim of comparing the differences and similarities between women in developing and developed countries. There is a specific focus on the current situation using mostly recent publications, statistics, and studies. Recurring themes that appear are shame and lack of ownership with the ways in which these are enforced on women massively varying within different cultures. The underlying themes of varying cultural norms and practices enforce shame upon women for their natural bodily functions and limit the ownership which women have over their own bodies.

Course: International Development - BA - C28415

Date Deposited: 2022-08-15

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13992.html