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Discrimination toward or against a person or group is the prejudicial treatment of them based on certain characteristics. It can be positive behavior
directed towards a certain group, or negative behavior directed against a certain group. There are some kinds of discrimination such as race discrimination, age
discrimination, language discrimination, and religious discrimination. From those criteria of discriminations, there is one kind of discriminations that often
happened in society and family that is gender discrimination. Basically, gender discrimination
happens because of the gender differences between man and woman. Gender discrimination can happen toward
man and woman, but commonly the victim of the gender discrimination is woman because in patriarchal system they consider woman is second creature after man.
This perception makes many men think that they can do anything toward women.
B. Gender Differences
Many people assume that sex and gender is equal, in fact sex and gender are different. In English-Indonesian dictionary written by Hassan Shadily and
John M. Echols, gender means sex.
11
In other dictionary said, sex is the characteristics which distinguish male and female. Encyclopedia of Feminism
distinguishes between sex and gender. “Gender is a term for the socially imposed division between male and female. Gender refers to the emotional and
psychological attributes which a given culture expects to coincide with physical
11
Hassan Shadily and John M. Echols, An English-Indonesian Dictionary, Gramedia Pustaka Utama. p.265
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maleness and femaleness”.
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In other words, every people were born as men and women, but biological structure and socio-cultural construction is the important
thing to shape someone to be masculine or feminine.
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Another definition about gender according to Mansour Fakih, he said that gender is the identical
characteristics for men and women constructed by socio-cultural perception. Gender characteristics that identical with men are strong, brave, breadwinner, and
rational. Meanwhile gender characteristics that identical with women are maternity, gentle, weak, and emotional.
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Actually when people were born to the earth, they have had assignment to be masculine or feminine. Men in every country have great power than women, it
means masculine in many countries and cultures have a great power to control feminine. So that, many feminists disagree, if feminine becomes the object of
masculine. Actually, if there is no gender inequality, it means, there is no feminist movement. Unfortunately, because gender inequalities many feminist united to
fight against men’s power or men’s hegemony.
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Gender inequalities make women experience unpleasant things such as prostitution, inferiority,
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sexual harassment, and violence.
Violence can happen to anyone, anytime, and anywhere, but, commonly the victim is women. Violence not only happens to women but also happens to
12
Asriati Jamil and Amany Lubis, Pengantar Kajian Gender, Jakarta: Pusat Studi Wanita UIN SYAHID, 2003, p.53-54
13
Ridwan, M.Ag, Kekerasan Berbasis Gender, Pusat Study Gender, p.17
14
DR. Mansour Fakih. Analisis Gender dan Transformasi Sosial, p.8
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An order in which a certain way of life and thought is dominant, in which one concept of reality is diffused throughout society in all its institutional and private manifestations, informing
with its spirit all taste, morality, customs, religious and political principles, and all social relations, particularly in their intellectual and moral connotation.
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Inferiority is a situation of low or lower in importance or quality. In this case, it shows woman’s oppressed condition towards man’s superiority.
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men. Although violence also happens to men, the number of violence that happens to men is less than violence that happens to women.
C. Gender Discrimination
