What is a double standard? A double standard is when a certain principle is applied differently to a certain group of beings. How does this apply to our society? I will tell you.
This weekend, I sat down in my kitchen counter and started having a conversation with the women who works in my beach house as a cook. I have known her since I was two. She started telling me that her daughter which is my age (16) had gotten pregnant and had just gave birth to a baby boy. To my surprise she was actually happy. She wasn't necessarily proud that her daughter had gotten pregnant at such a young age, she just didn't seem to mind it. When I told her:, “ Thats too bad! your daughter had so much potential!” She responded: “Yeah she did, but she is better off marrying the guy who got her pregnant and staying at home barefoot with her child”. She was also especially proud that the baby was a boy stating that it was better because when her daughter was older he was going to be able to maintain her.
After being utterly shocked by the whole situation, I started thinking and realized that even in the twenty first century peruvian society still believes that a women can't do good in life without a man. I also realized that our country still follows a culture of male chauvery, which still doesn't believe a woman should receive a proper degree of education and be perfectly fine on her own.
How bad does this situation have to be, for a child's own mother to admit that she didn't expect more of her daughter than to get pregnant at 16? And that it was BETTER that she had a male, because he WAS going to be able to finish school, go to college and work.
What can we do to change our societies way of thinking?
Why are double standards still implied on women?
Women are as capable as men of achieving a successful career, but why are we still so underestimated in our culture?