Sara Varela
Design Editor
We have recently welcomed the year 2016. Society has evolved a lot in the recent decades in so many different ways.
As a society, we have made quite a lot of progress in issues such as civil and human rights, even in women’s rights.
However, we are nowhere near gender equality. Women are still harassed, mistreated, and ignored in many aspects of their lives all around the globe.
In the 21st century countries in the Middle East, Africa and some of Asia still violate women’s humans’ right. Women are denied their right to an education, to vote, to drive, etc. They are still considered less than men. They are victims of domestic violence, “honor killings”, genital mutilation, and more.
While Amnesty International claims “Violence against women is a violation of human rights that cannot be justified by any political, religious, or cultural claim,” nobody seems to be doing anything to punish the countries that do.
Even in America women are still far from enjoying gender equality.
Gender Equality does not mean that men and women are the same but rather that both women and men have the same rights and are equally treated and valued.
Late last year, Hollywood Star Jennifer Lawrence brought attention to the enormous pay gap that women are victim of in America.
Lawrence published an essay on how she, a world-renowned movie star, was also a victim of gender discrimination. She described how she found out about earning less than half of what her male co-stars earned. Not only that, but she also argued that she let it happened for ‘fear’ of being perceived as ‘spoiled.’
There are more examples of this. Let’s take soccer for example. In 2014, Germany won the World Cup and received an approximate of $40 million. In 2015, the US National Women team won the Women’s World Cup and received an approximate of $2 million.
Now you may say ‘oh well, they earn millions, who cares?’ I would say that I care. Because they may earn millions but they deserve to earn the same as men that do the same job as them.
But if you want to know what is like for ‘normal women’, let’s find out. According to the White House “full-time working women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns.”
And that’s for white women. For African-Americans is 64 cents per dollar and for Latinas 56 cents.
This pay gap is supposed to be illegal according to the Equal Pay Right of 1963. However, it is still pretty much real and nobody seems to be taking action against it.
While the pay gap is the issue that gets the most attention and it’s related more often to gender inequality, there are several other issues that are not related as much or just not considered part of the bigger picture.
Even though women are graduating high school and college more than ever, they still face more likeliness to suffer from poverty as shown by the decline of the percentage of women that live above poverty.
When it comes to violence, women have to deal with domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment in the workplace, bullying and even human trafficking. All of this affects their overall well being.
Deciding whether or not to have a child or when to have it also plays an enormous role in their stability. For women, this has been a topic of great controversy lately with abortion legalization and Planned Parenthood. While many have politicized the whole thing, it really comes down to what will benefit women’s health, stability and satisfaction.
A website called statusofwomendata.org provides statistics that show how women suffer of discrimination when it comes to education, opportunity, safety, health, and even reproductive rights. All of this of course varies by state and you are able to see each state’s ranking in their women’s empowerment efforts or lack thereof.
Florida is tied with Texas for the 47th slot which means it is one of the worst states overall for women. If you would like to find out more about the ratings just visit the status of women website.