GENDER INEQUALITY: DEVELOPMENT OF A GIRLCHILD IN MASAI COMMUNITY
The present crusade in Africa today is the creation of a genderless society. A child or adult should not be looked at or judged along gender line whatever the sex. In the following topic we will look at the way a girlchild in masai community of Kenya’s Rift valley province was brought up from early childhood and how she was expected to behave in the society. We shall also look at her sexuality and the aspect of inequality between a girl and a boy in the same community.
Gender is a term that is used in all societies for the purpose of defining roles between male and female. Unlike sex, gender is neither biological nor permanent. According to Anthony Giddens (1993), “gender is more psychological, social and cultural differences between male and female.” As soon as a child is born, you can tell a boy from a girl from the choice of clothing of each child. A baby girl will most likely be clothed in pink while a baby boy will most likely be clothed in light blue.
In the African societies a girlchild starts her early education of who she is and how she should behave in th
Two weeks to my marriage ceremony, I fled from home to my uncle’s place, some four kilometres away. I ran away after being tipped off by my sister that our parents had gone to a manyatta (village) in the forest for a morans’ initiation ceremony.