(This is the third and final post in my week of guest posts by female writers. Today we have a piece written by my friend Ankita Pandey who gives us her perspective on gender inequality as a woman living in India. It makes a great finale to the week.)

Today in the 21st century such a title doesn’t hold good for many. This is because nowadays almost all admit to the fact that girls are walking parallel to males in every field. However, the sad part is that in many countries and regions females are not given the same treatment as males. There are many countries fighting for females and their rights. The country where I hail from also has similar problems. I have grown up seeing things that were not right for women. Fortunately, I was lucky to have parents who gave all that was required for me to develop as a great person. In this article, I would be discussing some of the key problems against women that are as follows;

Gender Discrimination: This seems to be really shocking for many but unfortunately it’s the bitter truth. Female infanticide leading to gender discrimination is one the major problems that people face here. A female child is given less importance in comparison to a male child. In certain cases, it has even led parents to abort their female child. In consequence of such activities, the government in many places has banned sex determination of the child during pregnancy. Population Census of 2011 has revealed that the population ratio in India 2011 is 940 females per 1000 of males. The birth of males is celebrated however the females birth is more seen as a curse to a family in many areas. I must say that it is not everywhere but deep down it still exists. I believe the development matters when everybody thinks and does in the same manner and that is still hard to reach. However, constant efforts are being made by the government and NGOs in this direction.

Education and Employment Discrimination: Females are often denied education so that males of the family can get educated. However, I believe if we educated a daughter we educated the entire family and educating a male is just educating an individual. This is because an educated mother can take care of the entire families and protect their daughters (if any) from further discrimination. The quantity of young ladies dropping out of school far surpasses the young men since young ladies are relied upon to help at home, either with family unit work like washing and cooking etc. Since young ladies invest more energy performing household obligations and this expands the crevice amongst female and male fairness in rustic parts of India.

When it comes to employment then women in India works more than men but that is not always paid work. Women today are getting educated but the idea them working is hard to accept in many families. In my view, a woman is tied up from all sides and has little said in what actually she wants to pursue. First, their parents decide all for themselves and then it’s the husband and his family to make decisions for her. So we have got freedom but some of us still are not completely free to make our decisions.

Violence against females: This saddens me the most as domestic violence is quite prevalent here. Rape and dowry-related violence are sources of gender violence in India. There have been cases that are filed for such outbreaks of violence against females. Apart from this Honor Killings are also aggravated form of violence against women. Honor Killing is something where the lady’s conduct is connected to the respect of her entire family; in outrageous cases, family member(s) murder her. Such killings are hard to confirm, and there is debate whether social activists are expanding numbers. Mostly these are connected to the lady wedding somebody that the family emphatically objects to.

This topic is so wide and hard to describe that I am falling short of words. These were some of the key issues regarding the hardships of a girl child. The issues are really sensitive and people are dealing with it on a daily basis. In spite of all these, there are still many females who have made the nation proud. Be it in the field of sports or administration or politics etc. To sum up I would say that there are problems and we all are fighting against but that doesn’t stop the entire female community from bringing laurels to their nation and families. I am proud to be born here as girl child and one day we will get over such issues.

(Sorry this is a day late. There was technical trouble last night! This is the second in a series of posts written by guest female authors and it details the frustration caused by growing up and living in a society which favours the opposite sex. It was written by my friend and ex-colleague, Elle Boocock and is well worth a read!)

When I was invited to write this piece on my own experiences of sexism, I realised I have such a wealth of material to go on that I didn’t know where to begin: a depressing reality for most women. They range from the relatively common act of ‘mansplaining’ (when a man might explain something to a women in a condescending and patronising manner) to serious harassment.

Perhaps my experience of sexism is put into an even more stark light when I have a male twin, who has been brought up in exactly the same way as me, and yet who I see is treated differently, given more chances, given an easier ride in life. And no, I don’t hate men, and I will quote feminist go-to-gal and all round babe Caitlin Moran on this subject: ‘You must never confuse The Man with the men. The Man is a shadowy mother**** trying to keep us all down with regular application of The Patriarchy. The men, on the other hand, are those guys you know who are nice to snuggle up with, and are good at heavy lifting. They’re very different.’

I have been ignored and passed over in favour of my male counterparts. A man told me whilst I was job-hunting that I should ‘just be a stripper’. Now 1. that involves a lot of skill and stomach muscles which, mister, I do not have, so don’t downgrade their jobs to a ‘just’. And 2.  What gives you the right to suggest possible jobs to me when you look no further than my face? At one time I received regular phone calls to my mobile from an unknown number. At the other end of the line I could hear heavy breathing, and once a comment about my physical appearance and how this might make me better qualified to give fellatio (albeit in a less censored, and far more disturbing manner). Of course, how could I not realise that my worth is constantly attributed to the way I look! Forget my 1^st class degree from a top university, that doesn’t mean anything! I should always make myself look like I give good head so men can creepily breathe down the phone at me: ah, living the dream! Somehow this man had obtained my phone number, and knew what I looked like. It was a threatening, scary and horrible experience. I have been groped, ignored, called names. And all of this has made me even more cemented in my belief in feminism, and in the need for equality.

But perhaps what I get most frustrated about is everyone telling women how they should be. ‘You should be thin’; ‘no you should be curvaceous’. ‘You should wear makeup to make yourself look your best’; ‘no, wearing makeup means you are no true feminist’. WOMEN, DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. Be a lady sex-adventurer, wear whatever the hell you want, stay in and read a really bloody good book, or grind away on the dance-floor in a sexy hot mess as if your life depended on it. Because there is no point in feminism if you can’t wear what you want, do what you want, and be whatever you want to be.

(All of this week’s blog posts will be written by a female guest author and are going to cover issues of our sexism and gender inequality in our society. The first has been written by my good friend and fellow writer Chloe Ward, who is tackling the issue of female representation in movies. Enjoy! I did.)

So tell me, what was the last film you saw? Did it have any women in it? If yes, was the woman a protagonist? Did their character move the plot forward? Was the woman in the film solely there to be a love interest? Did that woman take her top off at any point in the movie? Chances are the last film you watched probably had three important male characters and one unimportant female character. The woman was probably in it as a girlfriend and probably did take her top off. Am I right? It seems to me that the film industry tends to treat women as “sexy lamps” in films. And if we were to remove said woman, would the plot of the movie really change?

For instance, last week I watched War on Everyone at the cinema. War on Everyone has many women in it… only they are in it for a few seconds and are mostly topless or dancing in a strip joint. The two more prominent female characters are in relationships with the protagonists. Although one of the ladies (I can’t even remember her name) has a small effect on the character development of her other half, if both women were to be cut, the plot probably would not change. You could argue that is it’s a buddy cop movie, of course there aren’t going to be any strong women because that’s just the genre. Well, if I recall, the film The Nice Guys was also a buddy cop film, and even though it did have more adult appropriate moments in it, the women were much more important to the storyline.

Even PG movies which are suitable for children are over sexualised. Myself and some friends went to see Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders a few days ago. With a main cast of six male characters there is only one female character, Cat Woman. Cat Woman is portrayed to be obsessed with Batman and constantly after his affection. I should mention that this film was animated and so naturally an unachievable female body type was used. Long story short, Cat Woman’s only real super power is her sexuality and although she plays a small part in story development, if she were cut, the film wouldn’t lose much.

Admittedly, it is unfair to say that every film does not contain enough woman or does not portray woman fairly because this is not always the case. For instance, the new Ghostbuster film has four leading ladies. In the film they do not rely on men to get things done, they are not oversexualised and the relationship aspect of the film focuses on friendship. However, a film like this is one in a million. Not to mention it had a massive backlash because of its female cast.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that I am fed up of my gender being constantly forgotten or oversexualised. Movies SHOULD have more women in them.