“I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself, to live for herself, to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. I demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love, and freedom in motherhood.” ~Emma Goldman 1897
The battle of gender inequality has been around for centuries beyond belief and not fully addressed until recently, meaning the struggle still continues. Progress has undoubtedly been made however it is still a prominent issue in society today because women are still confined by constrictions and judgement society has placed upon us. An example of this would be the literacy data collected in 2013, 774 million adults (15 years and older) are illiterate and of which two thirds of them 493 are women. If that doesn’t seem unfair then I don’t know what is. Why is it that the woman has to sacrifice her aspirations to get educated in comparison to a man? Why are women considered less important in general?
This week I am bringing to you a few perspectives from our bloggers regarding whether or not women are given the same importance and respect men are given?
Emily Donville: “To be truthful, I don’t believe women are given the same importance and while this is wrong, I don’t think feminism and other pro-equality causes would be as prominent in the spotlight as they are had it not been for this predicament. My dad works as a truck driver and I overheard him one day talking about a new female driver who was being attacked by the male drivers with sexist comments saying that the particular field of work they did was unfit for women. You can also consider double standards when considering if women and men are equal. For example, if a girl were to have a few partners, she’d be deemed ludicrous names (This is true. In my health class this year, the teacher asked if a girl was a “slut” if she had a few partners and no girls put their hands up but a few guys did or didn’t obviously state no and while this is not a broad portrayal of the male population, it certainly does stand for something) whereas boys would be deemed studs.”
Shruti Tangirala: “I have been reading quite a lot of articles these days that mention the fact that women are being paid less than men, especially women of different ethnicities. This problem is there pretty much global. I also believe that the women who are being paid less can do a lot more, such as negotiating better pay, fighting for their rights. I know that this is already happening, women are already fighting for rights, but what about the women who are still experiencing the wage gap? They still need to do something about the unfair treatment that they are receiving, they still need to fight this. And no matter how many times we have protested in the past, and how many times we continue to protest, the wage gap still continues. These tactics aren’t enough to change this gender bias.”
Richard Lee Thai: “Unfortunately, I do think women and men are not given the same importance and respect in current day society. There have been significant strides in equality compared to what it was like in the past, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. For example, there are still gender roles that are being imposed on women with how they’re supposed to act. They’re supposed to be the caretakers of the house. They’re viewed as inferior in the eyes of men. Men feel they have a right to harass women because of how they dress. The list goes on and on.
This type of attitude is not only detrimental to society, but it’s upsetting to see that it’s still such a prevalent problem in this modern age. I think it stems from ignorance and not taking the time to recognize that all genders need to work together in order to form a more equal world. If this disparity continues, the consequences are that women will continue to be abused and stopped from reaching their true potential.”
From this we can conclude that women and men are unfortunately not equal in terms to the amount of respect and importance given accordingly. Males have always been given the dominant sex leaving women left to marginalized. However, although the gender gap in equality is still quite large the world has been improving drastically in the past century. Today women are working professionals, educated, and respected by society as a whole. Yes there are income gaps however we are moving forward and hopefully in the near future those income gaps will too be diminished. As a society, and as the generation of leaders to come we have to take steps in ensuring that there is no inequality, the future lays in our hands. Let us treat all human beings as equals for we all have the same capabilities and potential to grow and learn.