The Importance Of Gender Equality

“Without doubt, the last century has witnessed an unprecedented expansion of women’s rights, in one of the most profound social revolutions the world has ever seen. One hundred years ago, only two countries allowed women to vote. Today, that right is virtually universal. Millions of men and women around the world today advocate to end violence against women, and a record two-thirds of countries have passed laws against it.” – Michelle Bachelet, UN Women Executive Director

In this paper, I am arguing the importance of gender oppression knowledge. Gender oppression has come a long way however, there is still oppression present. The difference between gender oppression and other types of oppression makes it a bit more complicated. Nonetheless, by using the beliefs of existentialism, gender oppression can be decreased. It is the role of women themselves, to strive towards transcendence. The first step however, is awareness.

Women are extremely oppressed across the world, and although the 21st century image of a woman is an image of prosperity, confidence, health, and beauty, for billions of women in the world, this image is not their reality. A plethora of women still experience violence, isolation, enforced ignorance and oppression in the world; while some progress has been made for women’s rights around the globe, there is magnitude of work that needs to be done. Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of New York-based Equality Now stated, "there is not one single country where women can feel absolutely safe." Education, violence, and restrictive laws are just some of the issues causing barriers for women. One of the worst countries for women, in today’s world is Afghanistan. The Middle East Institute reported, “starving widows, under-age girls forced into marriage, high maternal death rates, rape, murder, incest, abductions, wife-beatings, self-immolation, deprivation of education, burning of girls’ schools, restricted

In the past 50 years, women have gained much more equality in America. That progress was a necessary step for our modern nation, but such a big change has been a factor in the breakdown of our nation 's families. In the past 50 years, divorce rates have more than doubled. In the present day, it is just as likely that a married couple will divorce as it is that they will stay together ("Marriage and Divorce"). The push for women 's equality has been a factor in the breakdown of the American family by increasing women 's individuality, complicating family decisions, and moving women into the workforce.

Equality is an enormous topic when it comes to our society and it has been for a long time. Today everything is a lot more equal between race and economic classes but it is still a concern today. The main topic about male and female equality is such a major subject it is one of the most talked about social issues in America, and in the past few years more than ever.

Gender equality has been a well-discussed issue in recent years. By some people, women are not treated on the same level as men because of preconceived stereotypes and gender roles. However, others have been fighting tirelessly to increase the amount of people who treat women and men equally. Although women are treated more fairly with regards to men today than in the 1950’s, there are still many discrepancies between the sexes. One main concern is that the amount of men and women going into science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM, majors and occupations is disproportionate, with the larger amount of entrants being male. Despite the hard work of feminists, women are not pursuing STEM careers because of stereotypes and a specific idea of their gender role, both of which females are exposed to from a young age throughout adulthood.

Feminism is a movement that encourages the advancement of political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. For centuries, women have been advocating to be treated equally. The United States was founded on democracy and that all men were created equal, but, women were not able to vote or run for office for more than 140 years. They were not allowed to enter career field

Violence against women is a hidden problem. People have knowledge of it and of how much damage it causes. However, nothing is done about it. People don’t take into account the multiple negative effects it causes on the victims; less do they try to take the issue into hands and try to take action into it. Even though this widespread problem has evolved and has gained international recognition as a threatening situation for women, there is still a long way ahead to fight for a world where women’s rights are treated equally as men and women do not have to suffer in silence due to the many acts of violence committed against them that threaten not only their health but also their lives.

Equality has been a problem to be solved since the beginning of time. Equality has been a problem in not only gender, but also race. America has always had its ups and downs when government brought up the subject of equality. In the time period of 1865-1929, America opened and closed doors for the equality Native Americans, women, African Americans, and immigrants.

Society has always been built on a construct of gender roles. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors thrived in a society in which men lived in the social realm and the women dominated the domestic sphere. While men hunted far away from the community women stayed close by to collect the nearby resources. This was the necessary way of life to keep the small communities and family units thriving. Discrimination did not play a part in these roles, it was just the best way for a community to thrive. However, as time progressed, biases did arise. The masculine role of going to war and taking part in physically dangerous activities like hunting began to be seen as superior, and thus, men were seen as superior. Though the last few centuries have seen great improvement in gender equality, there is still room to improve. This holds true in some countries far more than others. A possible way to measure gender equality is by observing the percent of women in top legislative positions. This will be the dependent variable. Two possible variables that could affect this percentage is the country’s regime type and the country’s level of economic wealth.

It would be ideal if men and women were considered equal, however this is not the case. There are strict gender, social ideas that are based on the sex of an individual (Conley: 279),  norms that have been implemented into our lives since we were little which impact the way the majority of people handle day to day situations. For example, in the early to middle 1900s, society was based on a patriarchy or "subordination of femininity to masculinity" (Conley: 288). In the 1950s, sociologist Talcott Parsons developed the sex role theory which stated that a nuclear family what the ideal set-up for producing workers (Conley: 289). However, this system created the idea that women were supposed to stay home and tend to the household needs. Because of this, women were not considered equip to handling a job which underestimated the ability of women as a whole.

Is it fair to pay a woman less that performs the same duties as a man in the workplace? No. Does equality in the workplace have better results for our overall country’s economic performance? Yes. Reaching gender equality is essential for work relations and work performance due to fairness. We all perform more efficiently at work when we feel we are being treated fairly. Equality is attained when we all are put in a position to have access to the same opportunities and receive the same recognition within our work environment. The objective of this equality is to reach equal pay for the same jobs performed by men and women. It is a fact that more women register and graduate from college than men, but still, men with the same education level and experience as women are paid more and receive better opportunities. According to the Congressional Digest, “Gains have been made in some areas, research by GAO and others has shown that women's average pay has been, and remains, lower than that of men” (2014, p.1). Considering education levels, women with graduate degrees earn just 69.1% of what men with graduate degrees earn, and those with bachelor degrees earn 71.4 % of men’s salaries. These facts inform us that women have to reach for more educational qualifications just to attain the same job pay as men. Workplace equality for men and women is an unresolved and a hot topic that impacts the workforce. Men and women should receive the same fairness in the workplace, such as equal pay

To achieve equality between men and women in employment and narrow the income gap between men and women, Equality Act 2010 came into force based on the adoption of the Equal Pay Act 1970. In the past three decades, there has been some improvement in inequality between men and women in the workplace, but the difference still exists. I used to work in a media which is specialized in yachting industry, which is a traditional male-dominated profession. Through the communication with practitioners in all relevant sectors of this industry, I have a general idea of the changes and the current situation of the proportion of men and women in this field. Although more women are doing contributions in those non-traditional work, it is undeniable that gender segregation still exists in some contemporary business organizations.

Equality among all is a utopian idea that is esteemed by many but arguably inexistent in the world today, regardless of country, society, or social structure. What is equality? Is equality defined by equal opportunity, equal access, or equal distribution of resources? Does equality include only physical resources or does it reach into the areas of family structures and natural abilities? The idea of equality, or the lack thereof, is tied directly to social stratification. Social stratification is “the way in which a society organizes itself so that individuals know their place or rank, also called their social position, in society” (Larkin, 2015, para. 1). The three stratification systems of slavery, caste, and class vary in the way people are organized along with the mobility found in each system; race, class, education, and gender are other organizing principles found within these systems that demonstrate a lack of inequality.

It has been a long and hard journey in Canada to attain gender equality between men and women. Women’s rights have changed dramatically over the past century from women not being persons, to having almost full equality between men and women. Saskatchewan feminism has followed a very similar path as Canada. The Women’s Suffrage Movement has given women the right to vote, and the Persons Case has given women the right to be appointed to Senate. The Famous Five were the women who lead the Persons Case, as well as many other victories. The Canadian Labour Movement has helped attain equality in workplaces, and the gender pay gap is the inequality difference that men and women make for the same work. Gender stereotypes are overlooked