Gender Inequality in China and India: Analysis of Facts

Gender Inequality in China and India
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Gender Inequality in China and India
IV. Facts Analysis
IV.1: How Percentages of School Enrollment and Sexual Life in Marriages Portray Gender Inequality in China and India.
Gender inequality is a problem affecting various sectors in China and India. However, there has been a significant improvement in the perception of women in both countries. Even though females are not given equal opportunities as their male counterparts, at least a significant percentage of them are getting well-educated and hired. Figure 4 below shows the net percentage of primary school enrollment for both females and males in India and China.
Figure 4: School enrollment, primary, male & female (%net) in China and India


Source: Created by [author] based on World Bank (2020).
As can be seen in figure 4 above, the net percentage of male enrollment in primary schools is slightly higher than that of females in India and China. In particular, in 1994 the percentage of male school enrollment in China was 95.2% and female 90.9%. In 1995, 1996, and 1997, the male primary school enrollment in China was 92.9%, 91.3%, and 90.3% while that of females was 89.6%, 88.7%, and 88.4%, respectively. When it comes to India, in early the 2000s, primary school male enrollment was higher than that of the female. For example, in 2000 and 2001, male school enrollment was 85.2% and 84.6% while that of females was 73.2% and 73.5%, respectively. However, from 2008 to 2013, the situation is different and India had a higher female school enrollment than that of males. For instance, in 2012 and 2013, the male primary school enrollment in India was 90.8% and 91.6% while that of females was 92.4% and 93%, respectively (World Bank, 2020). Consequently, the rate of school enrollment in India and China portrays that gender inequality is still a problem.
Figure 5: Women who believe a husband is justified in beating his wife when she refuses sex with him (%).


Source: Created by [author] based on World Bank (2020).
Figure 5 above depicts that some Indian women believe that their husbands have the right to beat them if they refuse sex with them. Although there exists no data for China, sex decisions are usually made by men without involving their wives. For example, in most cases, men in India and China are the ones who decide when to engage in sexual intercourse. Many women have no control over it since they believe that satisfying their men sexually is their duty.
As depicted in figure 5, it is clear that in 2006, 14.1% of Indian females believe that their husbands are justified to beat them if women refuse sex with males. In 2016, that percentage was 13.3%. In that light, it appears that some women believe that men are superior and that they should obey everything that their husbands say. That kind of violence in marriages make females be weak economically since all the decisions they make must be approved by their partners. If some women do not have control of their sex lives, it means men decide the number of children to have in a family regardless of what their females want. As such, male chauvinism in marriages shows gender inequality denies women the...