Gender Equality
Feminism and Equality
What is Gender Equality?
Gender equality is when men and women are given the same rights, opportunities, and equal values ("What is Gender Equality?"). Organizations around the world are taking a stand to different types of discrimination to both genders. Gender inequality takes place in the most basic of things, maybe even when we don't realize it, such as saying this is a girl color, or that's a toy meant for boys. Gender inequality also takes place in big ways, impacting many, such as little women being involved in government, and that "Gender Equality is not guaranteed in the United States Constitution"("Closing the Gender Gap"). Basically, this issue is worldwide and major.
HeForShe.Org
Heforshe.org is an organization made to protect gender rights and help everyone realize how much of an issue gender inequality is. What Heforshe.org does is they get pledges from men around the world to take a stand for gender equality.
Emma Watson Gender Equality Speech
Organizations are reaching out to celebrities to help get the message through to the media and to the people. Emma Watson is a member of He For She and this is a picture of her famous speech for the organization.
Rosie The Riveter
Rosie the Riveter is a commonly used symbol of Feminism. She represents the American women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War 2.
Examples of Discrimination
The Discrimination and the Start of Feminism
In the beginning, may people did not believe that gender equality was possible. Many women said that decisions should be left to the man of the house (Hennig). There is a lot of discrimination between genders, from now and then. "Italian women make 20% less than an Italian man doing the same job" (Richardson). This is not only in Italy, but all over the world. Also, "Many different countries have laws preventing the same basic rights for women as to men" (Closing the Gender Gap).
What is Feminism?
"Feminism is the belief that both genders should be equalized, and not one gender over the other" (What is Feminism?). Some people believe that Feminism is the belief that women are better than men or that it is man-hating, but this is not the case. Feminism believes in everyone being equal, with equal rights. There are many books, magazine articles, and other medias related to feminism; but the ones on the screen, those are less likely to be women.
Women are Underrepresented
This chart from statista.com shows how underrepresented women are on screen. Women are not only underrepresented on screen, but many other places. One major place is the government. "There are 99 female members of Congress overall, out of 535 members. That's only 18.5% of Congress (National Women's Political Caucus).
My BIG Question: Does Gender Determine the Opportunities You Get?
In my research, this is one huge question that kept on popping up in my mind. Does gender determine the opportunities you get? I kept on reading about how men are more likely to get this job and women are more likely to get that job. Unfortunately, I found the answer to be true in some cases. "If a man or a woman is applying for a job to be a sales consultant, studies have shown that the man is more likely to get that job" (Berman). This is also role reversal in many other jobs as well.