Although there have been shown signs of the decline in gender gap in other countries around the world, gender inequality still persists in Cambodia. This gender gap can be seen clearly in the employment and education sectors. Women are believed to be weaker than men, therefore are pertained to more vulnerable jobs. In fact, in the old Cambodian society, women only had the rights to stay home, cook, and look after her family. Once has been established this ideology is hard to change. Basically, most women are responsible for unpaid domestic and care work. In the labor market, women are not only faced with the underestimation of their strengths, but are also subjected to the deficiency of shortages of jobs. Even though they do find work, they are paid less than men. In addition to the low wages received, Cambodian women have to often face with sexual discrimination and lack of social protection in many aspects of their jobs. This has to stop.
Studies have shown that engaging women in business leads to improved corporate social responsibility, fairer employment, and greater contributions back into communities. In growing economies, women are starting business at a fairly high rate and women in Cambodia should be further encouraged and supported to do the same. In order to do so, Cambodian government needs to first assure that these women will have access to resources, including education, training, government services, credit, and financial services. Additionally, women themselves should stand up for each other against this issue. They should be courageous and seize all the opportunities given to them. Furthermore, I believe that gender should be seen as a spectrum; therefore, men should also contribute to helping Cambodian women gain their equalities in the labor force.
