By Kashvi jain
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tells us, “Everyone is loved, everyone deserves justice and everyone deserves equal protection and prosperity in our country.” She tells us that every single person should be treated equally regardless of their gender, since we are all human beings. Many times in society women are not equally valued in comparison to the opposite gender. They face income inequality, gender roles and victim blaming attitudes.
Much of our history is based on women not being allowed to get educated because of poor conditions or many household chores and men being the only ones who need to be educated to work. This instills more income inequality and discrimination in our community. In current days some women have begun to work but are paid much less than men in the workforce. Analyzing the most recent Census Bureau data from 2018, “women of all races earned, on average, just 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races.” There are many reasons why the gender wage gap is increasing. First of all women are disproportionately driven out of the workforce to accommodate caregiving and other unpaid obligations. Secondly women tend to work fewer hours to take care of the household. OCHCR tells us “women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours and produce half of the world’s food, yet they earn only 10% of the world’s income and own less than 1% of the world’s property.” This is really bad as women work very hard but never receive the respect, equality, and income they deserve. Why can’t men do household chores? Why can’t men care for children? It's really important we start investing these questions in society to make some change and help women rise above the workforce for men.
Many times there is a stereotype that women are supposed to focus on marriage + family while men do the work in the family and earn a living, which is a gender role. Planned Parenthood states that, “Gender roles in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold. These gender roles are a disgrace to our society as they never let us leave the status quo. CRY tells us that gender roles start “from even before the girl child is born and sometimes she is killed as a foetus, and if she manages to see the light of day, she is killed as an infant.” Girls are literally killed before birth because many times they are seen as not needed for a household and families always aim for men. Patriarchal norms have marked women as inferior to men. A girl child is considered a burden and is often not even allowed to see the light of the world.
I often times hear people ask why 'women get r*ped' but no one ever asks 'why do men r*pe. This moves into victim blaming. Victim blaming in my interpretation is when women are blamed for being sexually harassed. Harvard tells us that “the victim rather than the perpetrator bears responsibility for the assault. Victim-blaming occurs when it is assumed that an individual did something to provoke the violence by actions, words, or dress.” Southern NCT tells us that “Victim-blaming attitudes marginalize the victim/survivor and make it harder to come forward and report the abuse. If the survivor knows that you or society blames her for the abuse, s/he will not feel safe or comfortable coming forward and talking to you. Women are often told to change their own behavior in order to avoid being assaulted or raped. Women are told repeatedly to dress less provocatively, drink less alcohol, and not put themselves in risky situations.” This proliferates the belief that women are at fault when they are attacked, and leads to a lack of accountability for men. Victim-blaming attitudes also reinforce what the abuser has been saying all along; that it is the victim’s fault this is happening. It is NOT the victim’s fault or responsibility to fix the situation; it is the abuser’s choice.
As you can see in the education and working field, the discrimination/birth field, and the field of assualtmenet women are always the ones that are targeted and are treated as unequals. Remember AOC tells us, “Everyone is loved, everyone deserves justice and everyone deserves equal protection and prosperity in our country.” No one wants to feel different because of their gender or race or ethnicity but they want to feel like a normal, free, equal person. This will only happen if we learn to respect women's rights and not instill these horrendous thoughts in our community.
Census Bureau data from 2018
Center for American Progress, Bleiwis 20
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/
OCHCR
United Nations Human Rights, 2021
Planned Parenthood
Child Rights and You -- CRY
Harvard
Inside Southern -- SOuthern NCT
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