Gender Discrimination

After recovering from the civil war in Pol Pot regime, Cambodia has faced a great deal of problems. For example, there are some problems, such as economic growth, infrastructure, poverty, health care system, education system, and politic crisis.

Concerning with education system, there are many cases that Cambodian people cannot go to school and learn something. Moreover, there are not enough schools, especially in the countryside. Even though a small number of students can go to school, the girls are found fewer than the boys. We usually saw the case in some places, where there was no even a girl in the classroom. However, recently the numbers of girls going to school are increasing remarkably.

In the past, Cambodian people had an idea that the girl was weaker than the boy, so it was no necessary for her to be educated at all. The girl was just better to stay at home and help do house's work. After getting married, woman had a responsibility to take care of the children and to do house's work. Women had no right to decide thing or to deal with any issues, but a person who could decide what to do in the family was the husband. Sometimes there were cases that a husband used violence against his wife. The wife could do nothing, but just kept silent and bear it.

Nowadays, many girls are enrolled in school like the boys. There are a great number of girls enrolling in the university. The women have chances to take a job, to join a community, or to work in the government institution and also to challenge as a candidate in the national election. However, men are still more powerful than women in work or government institution. For example, there are very few women in the parliament, and of course, we rarely find any women who function as a leader.

In addition, many men usually think that they are stronger, have more knowledge and work better than women even though the government has adopted legislation that ensures women right are promoted and protected. The government has also committed to enabling "the full and equal enjoyment of all human right and fundamental freedoms by women and girls is a priority".

In the near future, women are expected to be equal as men like in the United States, Japan and the EU, where women are as strong as men and have their freedom or right to work and join any activities in the society.