WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
You might barely ever hear about gender discrimination. Or you might hear about it and experience it pretty much every day. But, what exactly is gender discrimination. According to the dictionary, Gender discrimination is unequal or disadvantageous treatment of an individual or group of individuals based on gender
Did you know that 42% of US working women have admitted to facing gender discrimination on the job? There are many forms of it too.
Did you know that 42% of US working women have admitted to facing gender discrimination on the job? There are many forms of it too.
Pay gap
There is a huge problem with the gender pay gap. For example, a woman author would have to work one whole year and up until March 4 to earn as much as a man with the same job. Another example is a female lawyer. She would have to work until April 16 to catch up with a male lawyer. Imagine you are a female physician and your husband has the same exact job as you. Its the end of the year and you bring home your last paycheck and are proud of all the hard work you did. You earned around $263,000 throughout the whole year. Your husband comes home a little later with his paycheck. He earned about $358,000. You worked the same amount of hours but yet he earned just less than $100,000 more than you. If you wanted to catch up with him, you would have to work up until around June 19 to make the same amount of your husband.
Jobs
You might not realize it, but there is discrimination in jobs too. For instance, what is a job no woman has ever had in America. You might have thought of something else, but my answer was President of the United States. It could happen in future years, but now, in 2019, there hasn't been one. There are other examples too. When you think of a doctor of surgeon, do you think of a man or woman? Most think a man. Try this riddle:
A young boy and his father are on their way home from soccer practice when a distracted driver crosses the center line and hits them head-on. The father dies at the scene of this horrible car accident, but the boy is still alive when the emergency medical technicians arrive. The injured boy is transported in an ambulance to the hospital, where's he taken immediately into surgery.
However, the awaiting surgeon steps out of the operating room and says, "Call Dr. Baker stat to the operating room. I can't operate on this boy. He's my son!"
The question: Who is the surgeon?
(It is NOT: raise from the dead, it was the dads soul, it was his stepfather)
The answer actually is... his mom. Did you get it? Its OK if you were confused. Good Morning America went around asking random people if they knew the answer and few got it right. That is a perfect example of gender discrimination.
A young boy and his father are on their way home from soccer practice when a distracted driver crosses the center line and hits them head-on. The father dies at the scene of this horrible car accident, but the boy is still alive when the emergency medical technicians arrive. The injured boy is transported in an ambulance to the hospital, where's he taken immediately into surgery.
However, the awaiting surgeon steps out of the operating room and says, "Call Dr. Baker stat to the operating room. I can't operate on this boy. He's my son!"
The question: Who is the surgeon?
(It is NOT: raise from the dead, it was the dads soul, it was his stepfather)
The answer actually is... his mom. Did you get it? Its OK if you were confused. Good Morning America went around asking random people if they knew the answer and few got it right. That is a perfect example of gender discrimination.
How can you change
How can you, or the community around you help end gender inequalities. My solution is to get involved in your community and include equality in you daily life. People act off of others in their community, so once you start being more equal in your daily life, others will act off of you. It might not seem like much at first, but change starts with small steps. You can help make something out of nothing.
" It is time we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals" - Emma Watson