Violence Against Women: Gender Equality is a Must
The facts are depressing. The hope is refreshing. Let’s first begin with the bad news
About 1 in 3 (30%) women worldwide have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the World Health Organization, WHO. .In its annual report of March 2021, the organization finds that most of this violence is intimate partner sexual violence. But the violence is also committed by non-partners. Worldwide, almost one third (27%) of women aged 15-49 years who have been in a relationship report that they have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner. These shocking facts show that the intimate partner violence is happening not only in the Third World or in poor/ less educated communities but also in Europe and parts of the Americas. Most surprising, WHO’s statistics show that: the violence ranges from 20% in the Western Pacific, 22% in high-income countries in Europe, 25% in the WHO regions of the Americas to 33% in the WHO African region, In the Eastern Mediterranean the percentage is 31%, and 33% in the WHO South-East Asia region. On top of this horrifying picture, women also face murder at the hands of their intimate partners with about 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners!
Women Deserve More
Women have for long proven that their gender is not hindering their abilities and, yes, their brilliance in many jobs. The keyword is education. When both genders are receiving equal opportunities in education, nothing can stop women from their rights to flourish in any job, except that, some men would roll their eyes when a woman is their manager, or when a woman present a pioneer idea in a business meeting!
Nevertheless, women are not receiving an equal pay with men at the same job in the US. According to the World Economic Forum’s study, released in October 2021, about Gender pay gap, women earn nearly 20% less than their male counterparts in the US, i.e., on average, American working women are paid 82 cents for every dollar that working men make in the US. On top of gender inequalities, American women are also facing race-related inequalities regarding their income.
US Voters Not Ready
Regardless of the American women’s voting rights that were ONLY achieved in June 4, 1919, in the presidential elections 2016, many Americans couldn’t accept to vote for a female presidential candidate! In spite of winning the popular votes, Hillary Clinton lost the elections. As stated then, Donald Trump won the electoral college vote because America was not YET ready for a female president! Wait a second here. So, is it ok that the electoral college vote went to the candidate who has the most racist comments about women in the history of the US? Well, that is very ironic and contradicting with all the human rights and gender equality principals that the US is promoting worldwide. In a sense, the U.S. seems to resemble those Third World countries which it keeps advising to follow! So, when can we have an American version of Margret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the UK (1979-1990),, or Angela Merckel, the Chancellor of Germany (2005-2021)?
Me Too
The “Me Too” movement, that was funded by Tarana Burke in 2006 to raise awareness of women, who had been sexually abused, and who found global recognition after a viral tweet by actress Alyssa Milano in October 2017, has revealed a lot of secrets about the sexual harassment that women were facing at some toxic work environments. This movement that dominated the world’s social media has succeeded in fighting gender-based violence by exposing those men who are abusing their power over their fellow women co-workers. A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that the #Me-too hashtag was used more than 19 million times on Twitter since Milano’s initial tweet. That’s more than 55,000 uses of the hashtag per day.
Bombshell
The movement at least has changed Hollywood by revealing and exposing those abusive men. Bombshell movie that snapped two Golden Globe and four SAG Awards nominations has handled the sexual harassment scandal that took down Roger Ailes, the former head of Fox News and a kingmaker in the Republican party. In 2016, A total of 20 women accused Ailes of sexual harassment, including Megyn Kelly, the rising star at the network, and he was forced to resign from his position in July of that year.
Biden’s Initiatives
On the International Women’s Day, October 28th, 2021, The first official step was taken by the Biden administration in releasing the national strategy to foster gender equality in the U.S. and abroad. The strategy’s priorities include preventing gender-based violence and promoting economic security, health, education, fairness in the justice and immigration systems. It also promotes human rights and equity in the law by launching several initiatives such as eliminating gender-based violence, expanding access to health care and creating a national paid-family-leave program, In addition, it seeks to improve women’s educational opportunities and access to STEM jobs (in science, technology, engineering and mathematics), It promotes global legal reform to combat gender discrimination in other countries, recruit more women in the military and leadership positions. Last but not least, it closes the gender pay gap and improve childcare quality and affordability. We hope to witness these changes in our lifetime. People in America need to believe that gender equality is not a luxury, but it is a must for a better future, by raising the equality in our education, culture, media, and above all, social equality. More On Opinion
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