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I have this question in my JLPT textbook:

> 男女{だんじょ}平等{びょうどう}といっても、女性{じょせい}＿＿＿の差別{さべつ}はまだ残{のこ}っている。
>
> **A** ゆえ **B** たる **C** なり **D** こそ

The book says the answer is A, which is weird to me because I thought `ゆえ` was
kind of like "ergo", or "as a result from". If you say `女性{じょせい}ゆえ`, it seems
to me like one is saying that somehow the `差別{さべつ}` is _because_ of women.

So I must have `ゆえ` wrong. What exactly does it mean?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-11-29T07:09:40.330
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question
word-choice jlpt
What exacty does ゆえ mean, and how does it fit this JLPT question?
In this sentence, 女性ゆえの差別 does not mean “discrimination (against someone)
because of a woman,” but it means “discrimination (against someone) because of
(that person) being a woman.” That is, it means the fact that some people
discriminate against a person because the person is a woman.
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2011-11-29T13:07:43.017
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I can find this in [a
dictionary](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/77275/m0u/%E3%82%86%E3%81%88/)
:

> 3 〔…のために〕
>
> それゆえに
>
> for that **reason**
>
> 悪天候ゆえに旅行は延期された
>
> 「 **Because of [On account of]** the bad weather, the trip was postponed.
>
> 何ゆえにうそをついたのか
>
> Why did you lie?

which explicitly used **because of** in the translation.

And I think try to find one word (or phrase) as an equivalent of a word (or
phrase) in another language is just impossible. So maybe sometimes ゆえ means
"as a result of", but that does not mean it is equivalent to it.

EDIT:

In "女性ゆえの差別", the "ゆえ" here is to show the reason why a person got
discriminated (because of that she is a woman). The literal meaning has been
given in Ito's answer. However, in English there not such a way to express
discrimination, so the translation becomes "discrimination against women".
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2011-12-01T11:41:17.320
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`故{ゆえ}` appears to mean many different things depending on the way it's used,
but the main definition seems to be "reason".

  * `ゆえの`: "by reason of (being)", "due to (being)" or "because of (being)".   
  
Whether to add or omit "being" can only be determined by context:

> 女性ゆえの差別  
>  "discrimination by reason of being a woman."  
>  
>  有名人ゆえの苦労  
>  "hardships by reason of being a famous person."  
>  
>  熟練ゆえの効率の良さ  
>  "efficiency by reason of skill."

  * `X（が）ゆえに`: "for the reason of X" or "because of X":

> 信念を貫くがゆえに拷問を受ける  
> "be tortured for the reason of one's faith"

  * `（それ）ゆえに` at the start of a sentence etc: "for that reason", "therefore" or "thus":

> 故に商品の質は、信頼そのものになる  
>  "for that reason, product quality is consumer confidence."

According to
[Daijisen](http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=%E3%82%86%E3%81%88&dtype=0&dname=0na&stype=0),
it can also mean "of splendid history" when written as `故ある人` and `故ある家` etc,
"taste/atmosphere", "relation/affinity" and "break-down/accident".
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