GENDER DIFFERENCES

Gender Differences Among Cultures

Gender Differences Among Cultures

The principle of equal treatment between women and men is defined as the lack of any and all discrimination on grounds of sex, or any other condition or circumstance personally or socially linked to sex, whether directly or indirectly.

Changes in the social structure have included social dualization and gender inequalities in the access to the new technologies. Spain's social and economic situation has changed because of technology.

Fundamentalist movements are political movements with religious, ethnic, and/or nationalist imperatives. They construct a single version of a collective identity as the only true, authentic and valid one, and use it to impose their power and authority. They usually claim to be the representatives of authentic tradition, and they speak against the corrupting influence of modernity and ˜the West. However, fundamentalists are far from pre-modern. To promote their project, they use all modern technological means available, from the media to weaponry. Furthermore, the vision they conjure up is a constructed and selective vision, rather than a revival of something in the past. Since 2000 the popular appeal of fundamentalisms has been growing across the world and different communities.

The legal measures, passed in the last ten years to facilitate the development of women's professional careers, have been carried out mainly in the education and Labour Law sectors, and are based on the constitutional principle of equality for all citizens and on the duty of public powers to promote the appropriate conditions to facilitate their real participation and prevent discrimination for any reason, with special reference made to gender discrimination. (Saint-Saens, Alain, ed. 2003. Pp. 139)

Feminists have particular concerns when it comes to fundamentalist movements. Although many women take part in fundamentalist movements, overall fundamentalist politics tend to constitute a threat to women's freedom and autonomy and often their lives. Gender relations in general, and women in particular, are often used to symbolize the collectivity, it's a culture and traditional, its boundaries and its future reproduction. In the Spanish State, violence against women has traditionally been considered a private or a family problem and, because of this, no national policies or regulations have dealt with this issue until the last decade, when the State started to recognise that violence against women was a public matter and took the first policy and legal actions on this area. Generally speaking, two elements have been essential for favouring in the Spanish State ...