Reflect and discuss: Gender inequality in Mercy’s story

[Phelomena Mwasi]

at mercy life submissiveness and femininity plays a role,
she believes in her roles and was not allowed to play football like boy, school was not important for girl child
because they will marry and get children.
at community level she suffered stigma, shame and silence and wished she had gone to school

[GillianNjika]

In this community Mercy (and we can assume many other girls) are unable to complete school and this limits the opportunities that they can access later in life. Mercy dropped out of school due to lack of school fees to proceed beyond primary, but she also indicates that boys’ education is prioritized as girls are only seen as wives and mothers. She would like for her daughter to complete her studies but she already knows they cannot afford it so she opts to teach her how to be a good wife and mother. This will in turn lead to economic violence as the men will have access to more opportunities and because they may control the household budget then this can be a trigger of violence. Mercy had no choice in marrying Clinton after she got pregnant so that he could look after her and he frequently beats her.

[JaneMukami]

Gender inequality has enabled violence in Mercy’s life and community at large by:
1. Denying mercy and other girls an opportunity to continue with education and realization and practice of their talents and hobbies
2. Acceptance of wife beating in the community
3. Domestic work undertaken by girls at the expense of their education
4. Preparing girls for marriage and how to become good wives instead of giving them an opportunity to advance their education and career goals.
5. Early marriages and transactional sex further disempowering girls and women

Violence can worsen gender inequality in Mercy’s life by:
1. Development of mental health problems such as depression leading her not to function properly in the community
2. Development of physical health problems further affecting her contribution in the community
3. Continuity of the violence cycle in her family. Her girls are also likely to experience violence in the marriage

[Aragaw]

She lived in patriarchal society in which women takes the subordinate position in every aspects of the society. Women are not allowed to go to school , attend and speak at meeting, to control and access resources …etc. In addition in such type of community acts like harsh parenting, beating of wife ,rape, abduction , early marriage are the common and normal. All this show that gender inequality causes GBV.

[Sharon]

Gender inequality enabled violence in Mercy’s life and community by
Girls are made to believe that physical assault with partner is normal.
Girls not given same opportunity to go to school as the boys.
violence worsens gender inequality by demeaning the women’s self-esteem making them feel less.

[Author]

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