Gender Inequality

article by Ishmeet, a News Team Contributor

Jimmy Carter once said, “The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation on Earth.” Rights are the legal entitlements that citizens obtain to act in a certain way. Rights for both genders aren’t proportionally divided though. According to a gender-equality report, only six countries in the world have equal rights for men and women. The rest of these countries are unfairly giving women less power and less respect. In these countries, there are many factors and facets that continue to support the fine line that is drawn between the rights of the genders.

One prominent constituent is civil conflict and wars.  Throughout the world, wars and armed conflict have gone down in numbers. However, the amount of civilian disputes and violent behavior has drastically increased, causing many problems for citizens of poverty-stricken countries. Both men and women face difficulties and hardships in these times, but since women predominate the population of these areas that are hit with conflict and war, they are faced with more adversities and privation. There are many weapons that are used against women, including physical, emotional, and mental abuse. Some of these types of abuse include, rape, torture, forced marriage, and attacks to them and their families. It is reported that 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence. These women generally face the struggles of poverty and have to take care of young kids with little to no resources.

Another reason for the prominent gender divide is the fact that women generally aren’t given as many opportunities, as are given to men. For example, many countries do not offer gender quotas of women leadership, or seats reserved in government settings. These undermine the individual responsibilities of countries to fully support and empower all citizens to ensure that everyone has the best quality of life. In addition, in rural areas, women are thought of as only caretakers, and are normally raised to think that they cannot have an education, consequently leading to the thoughts that they cannot grow up to take leadership roles. This is because the community and cultural customs, rules, and expectations impair the ability for women to get jobs and be able to earn for themselves. Since women aren’t given opportunities to go to school, get jobs, and be self-dependent in such areas, gender inequality tends to be more dominant and notable. In addition, in more developed countries, it has been seen that in the same occupations, women aren’t paid the same salary as men are. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor reports that, “Women earn 82 cents for every dollar a man earns…in 2020, women’s annual earnings were 82.3% of men’s, and the gap is even wider for many women of color.” This shows that it is a problem even in developed countries, not only developing countries.

To conclude, gender inequality is a predicament in today’s society. Women in conflict zones tend to get abused unfairly, and many women around the world aren’t given fair opportunities. Even though the world is starting to make a turn on this problem through resolutions and modernization, it still stands as one of the top ten problems in the world. Gender inequality is unfair, unjust, and an infringement on human rights. But most importantly, it is not right, and it needs to end, to ensure that women are treated fairly.