Gender Inequality and Women Rights

Background Information

Figure 1 – Logo of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number 5: Gender Equality.

Even in the rapidly developing world now, women are still paid with only 70-90% of men’s wage for equivalent work (Ending Violence Against). The wage gap is not the only problem when it comes to women rights, there are far more severe societal problem relating to gender inequality. Gender, which is what someone has no control of and is born with, should not be a factor that impedes women with potential and strength from reaching success; however, the truth is that around the world, millions of women are suffering from biases and discrimination. Gender equality is an individual goal in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, also known as SDGs. Its goal is to “achieve gender equality and empower all women.” This goal is not yet reached, organizations around the world are making process, but there is still a lot left to do. Gender inequality causes all types of discrimination in society, including unequal treatments in workspace, gender-based stereotypes, lack of equal education, and the problematic deprivation of women’s safety and health rights.

 

Unequally Treated in Workspaces 

One of the biggest problem women faces are discriminations in their workplace, which is present in almost all workplaces worldwide. “Women in the Workplace” is a survey taken by 7000 employees, both men and women, from 82 different companies, the results showed that workplaces often favor to men. Women have a 18% less promotion rate when compared to men (Parks). As a result, superior roles in workspaces are less likely given to women, then resulting false beliefs where women are not as efficient as men. With less female leadership roles in the company, promotion rate for women might decrease even more, creating a cycle. Some women’s self-esteem also gets effected, when others are treating them as people who are not as competent as men, they may start to believe this themselves. Consequently, some remain reticent when asked about their ideas, which then deterred them into not showing their real potential.

Lack of female leadership roles and promotion rate are only partial problems in workspaces around the world. Take China as an example, many companies in China query about female employees’ maternal plans during an interview, some employees got rejected if they were at the age where it is probable for them to have a child. In some cases, female employees were sacked because of their pregnancy (Zhang).  Many doubts about women’s ability to work are related to pregnancy and child raising. This is prevalent in many places because women might often need respite from work for their children; it has less likelihood with men. As a result, some companies prefer hiring more men than women, this can also be caused if a job has more women applying for it. If jobs are not segregated by gender, the rate of women getting employed might have more minor gap when compared to men.

 

Figure 2 – Percentage of female employees graphed, showing their experience of any type of gender discrimination at work. How women with different backgrounds experience discrimination, including education, race, or age.

Apart from the unequal treatments related to finances, safety in workspaces is also a vital problem. There frequently cases where sexual harassment occurs in workspace, and oftentimes are because of superior men abusing their power (Parks). Since men have a higher chance of promoting to leadership roles in workspaces, female employee might work under a boss who abuses their power and harass the employee. Not all women who experienced these tormenting behaviors would seek help, many are apprehensive about what seeking help might cause, especially when it is relevant to their job. Sextual harassment is not always obvious, sometimes actions like language or intimate behaviors, any causing females to feel uncomfortable, can be defined as sextual harassment. However, it is difficult to find evidence for sextual harassment, therefore many people got away from it with impunity.

It is considerable that society stop perpetuating the idea where it is common, and ordinary that women receive a lighter role in workplace. Gender inequality in workspaces will only be unchangeable if actions invading women rights remain happening. At the same time, when all women employees are showing their full ability, companies can improve their achievements too.

 

What Harm Does Gender Stereotypes Cause? 

Gender stereotypes are in almost every country in the world, causing many inconveniences and difficulties for women, unbalancing the chances for them to participate in society.

Figure 3 – Difference stereotypes between men and women, including how they think, how they behave, and how they interact with others.

People have expectations set for women differently from man. Women are often assumed as soft and gentle. Therefore, when women do anything that do not fit into these assumptions, they often get defined as aggressive (Parks). Similar assumptions on women had been present throughout history, in fact, women are often synonymous with “needing protection” and “weaker than men”. These types of stereotypes surely do offer women protection, but the image of a typical women is already instilled in minds of people, no matter their race or age. Consequently, whenever a woman falls out of these expectations, judging voices overrun them.

Stereotypes in society impacts lives of women dramatically, it relates to their childhood, their education, and their work. To eliminate these stereotypes, informing the next generation about what is correct would be a way. Even if the process would take time, it is a reachable goal to obtain an equal perspective on gender.

 

Importance of Equal Education 

Inequivalent education has always been problematic. In developing countries, parents often have bias where boys deserve to be educated and girls do not. These types of beliefs have already become so common that they are close to a culture or tradition.

Figure 4 – A young girl feeding and taking care of her little brother in rural areas of China.

40% of girls in poor families dropped out of primary school or had no education at all (Patrone). Worldwide, 1 out of 4 women in the age 15-24 did not finish elementary school, and 58% did not complete their education (10 Causes of).  In many countries’ history, women did not need to be educated, it had been an assumption or common sense at the time. As time passes, countries slowly abandon these old thoughts or stereotypes. However, countries without as many resources kept these old thoughts. When money is limited, many choose to educate boys prior to girls. Poverty is one root of gender inequality, and it forms an interminable cycle. Uneducated women cannot teach their children what is right and why girls need education, then there would be a new generation of uneducated girls.

 

Family Violence and Lack of Safety Rights 

One out of three women around the world receive violent treating, and often by intimate family members. Women get physically and mentally ill, while in more severe cases, they died. Even though there are laws against family violence, many people received no punishment. Only 40% of women seek help when they experienced violence, resulting to cases of family violence going unknown (Ending Violence Against). Women receiving and tolerating with violence should never become a common scenario. Why some women chose to bear with these treatments could be because of social or family pressure, they did not realize the severeness of this problem, or because they are lost and have nowhere to go when they need help. Cases of violence treatments are also more prevalent in developing worlds, where women have a lower status in society.

Violence executed on women is closely related to marriage. Unwilled marriages are far too common. In developing worlds, girls marrying under 18 are normal, so are forced marriages. Quantitively, 41,000 girls under 18 are married every day (Kooser). Normally, when girls do not receive education, they get married early. As a result, many women got pregnant in their teens, having to take care of housework and children in the precious times of their youth. Forced marriages often cause more family violence, performed by their husbands. Moreover, in places with gender inequality, some view women as tools to produce the next generation. Young marriage also leads to maternal risk, many young women are not ready to get pregnant, but they have no choice. One example is in slums of Bengaluru, India, one in two married women from ages 16-25 have received family violence from their husbands; they get hit or beaten (Krishnan). Family violence result into higher risk of maternal death. Besides this, it has a horrible effect on children. Boys may be misguided in believing that violence is correct, and girls may believe that violence is just part of life.

Maternal problems are one of the most crucial problems speaking of women’s health. 40% of pregnancies worldwide are unplanned, while 50% of these 40% end up in abortions (10 Causes of). Many unplanned pregnancies are caused because of lacking knowledge about sexual relationships or facility. Hence, it is exactly why awareness needs to be spread and education about these problems must be made mandatory. In the worst case, unplanned pregnancy could ruin the life of a mother, or even take it away. Lowering unplanned pregnancy leads back to educating and empowering women, when women have awareness and knowledge on these topics, they have the ability to protect themselves, thus alleviating the problem of abortions. In addition, it can also decline population, because more unplanned pregnancies will only accelerate the rapidly growing population. Protecting the physical and mental health of women is protecting this society; the importance of women’s safety should be noticed.

 

Importance of Gender Equality

The need of obtaining equality for women is undebatable, when gender inequality is eliminated, there would be no more segregation at work and society, nor would there be safety and educational rights taken away from women. Women represent 50% of population on Earth, and these unequal treatments should have never become a part of their lives. Gender equality is unquestionably one of the most important SDGs. Obtaining this goal will not only contribute to women, also men and society as a whole. When all women are contributing to society, progress will increase dramatically. Apart from this, obtaining equality for all humans, no matter their gender, is the correct action to take, this fact should never be doubted. If more people become aware of the essentialness of this goal, then in the future, less women would receive violence, more women would be empowered, and more women’s voices would be heard.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

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“Must Monsters Always Be Male? Huge Gender Bias Revealed in Children’s Books.” The Guardian, 21 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/21/childrens-books-sexism-monster-in-your-kids-book-is-male. Accessed 15 May 2022.

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Mexican Revolution Journal

Miguel Martinez was just like any normal peasant living through the Porfiriato, a period of time before the Mexican Revolution when Porfirio Diaz remained president for 35 years, where peasants worked in poverty and were oppressed by the rich. When the Mexican Revolution started, he was 25-years-old, working as a miner, just like his father. Miguel’s parents died because of illness when Miguel was 15, at that time, their family did not have the money to get cured. After the death of his parents, Miguel lived on his own, since he had no siblings. He began to hope that Diaz could be replaced and Mexico could change for peasants to have a better life. Miguel discovered that he had a gift in fighting, he was strong and skilled, so he joined Madero’s revolutionary army. After Madero failed, he became a Carranza supporter, and soon got noticed for his outstanding performance in the army. The Mexico Revolution affected his life significantly. Miguel was killed by Obregon because he refused to turn to Obregon’s side after Carranza’s death.

The Mexican Revolution was an important period of time for Mexico’s development as a country. After Porfirio Diaz got into power in 1876 he brought peace to Mexico, but the life conditions for rural poor were horrible. Diaz thought Mexico would be quickly developed if they worked with the U.S. and other foreign countries, but to some people, they think Mexico was becoming more like a colony to the U.S.. Diaz pushed modernization by building railways, but it did not benefit the poor. Most of the wealth that Mexico earned from the modernization went to the rich, Diaz, and Cientificos, who were Diaz’s technocratic advisors. At that time, Mexicans were marginalized based on the social levels and also race. Workers had to work in haciendas, which were large states in the hands of the rich. They way people had to work were similar to feudal systems, where owners of lands had absolute power. After the Mexican revolution, life quality improved a lot. After Obregon, his successor implemented educational initiative, which give poor in the rural areas ability to receive education. Ejido was given to the peasants, where workers working in lands got their own land, and no longer need to work under the rich. Secretariat of public education influenced the arts and literature in Mexico. Even thought the Mexican Revolution was bloody and caused death, it was an important step in Mexican history.

Mexican Revolution Craft Video

The Mexican Revolution started from 1910 and ended in 1920. During this time, the president of Mexico was changed for four times, with a lot of poitical leaders fighting for the presidency of Mexico. From 1911-1913, Francisco I. Madero was the president of Mexico after Porfirio Diaz got overthrown. Then from 1913-1914, Victoriano Huerta betrayed Madero and became president himself. Huerta was a dictator and got overthrown by several political leaders allied together, including Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, Alvaro Obregon and Venustiano Carranza. In 1917, Carranza was elected as the president, but soon he was assassinated, likely by Obregon. The final president, Obregon, was elected on 1920, ending the Mexican Revolution ended. If you are interested in learning more about the Mexican Revolution, this craft video is a run through, it will give details about the important events and people within the revolution.

The Borden Murders

The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller is about an unsolved case in set in Fall River during 1892. It is a literary non-fiction book, the case in the book is a real story that actually happened in 1892. Andrew Borden and his wife, Abby Borden, got murdered violently by an axe. Lizzie Borden, the daughter of Andrew Borden and step daughter of Abby Borden, was accused for the murder. One reason Lizzie Borden was suspected was because she wasn’t acting womanly, the expectations of being a woman became a big central idea that showed up throughout the book. This book showed how this case affect Lizzie’s life forever, and also exposed many details about this mysterious case.

The first central idea in the book is sexism. My group and I found many evidence related to expectations set based on gender during the 1890s. Lizzie Borden, a strong and frank woman, was considered suspicious because she didn’t cry after she saw her father’s death. I made a notebook page that showed many times throughout the book where sexism played a big affect on Lizzie Borden.

Apart from sexism, there are actually several other big ideas that showed up in the book, and these big ideas all connect to each. Racism in Fall River was mainly against the Portuguese. Someone could be segregated and discriminated because of both their sex and gender. People were also making ignorant judgements when they could not find any direct evidence that prove Lizzie guilty, nor innocent. This notebook page I made on January 14 shows how big ideas that showed up in the book connects to each other, also the results they caused at the time.

After I finished the book on January 20, I looked at the cause and affects in the story that lead to the ending. Lizzie Borden was indeed, not judged as guilty, but the aftermath stayed with her for the rest of her life. The Borden case messed her life up, especially because she was the main suspect. The big idea, sexism, is one of the big effects that caused Lizzie being suspected, which then caused her life to become chaotic. A cause cause an effect, and the effect cause another effect. This notebook page shows how events relate to each other.

At last, on January 24, I began to look at the minor ideas in “The Borden Murders”: racism and classism. After taking a closer look at the informational sections in the book, we can see a lot of information about the time period and setting. The class Lizzie Borden was in was the highest class, it meant she might receive less persecution because she was rich.  Lizzie also did not have any persecution related to her race. However, even though Lizzie Borden was both white and rich, both giving her power in the society, the amount of judgements she received was still tremendous. 

I think “The Borden Murders” is a very engaging book. I recommend others who likes detective and history related books to read this. There are many other versions of the same case, but this book provided a lot information that are not biased and based on facts. Reading this book also helps readers to learn more about the 1890s in the United States, such as their class, clothing, expectations and law.

“Hush” Book Talk

In humanities, we are reading different books related to race and discrimination. The book my book club read is “Hush” by Jacqueline Woodson. It is about a girl named Toswiah, her family move from Denver to a new home where she needs to hide her identity in Denver and start a new life with a new name, new background, and new identity. In Denver, her family faced danger because of race conflicts; therefore, they need to move to a new home. Through out the book, Toswiah is trying to find who she is because she felt lost after she left everything she loved in Denver. I think this is a good book that reveals racism problems in life, it also shows the process of a person lost finding identify again.

Am I a humanist?

Humanism was promoted during the Renaissance, which is in the 15th to 16th century. People improved life using these aspects of humanism: education development, secularism, individualism, art development, and math/science developments. For each one, I rated from 1 to 5 on how much I agree with it. First, I believe it is very important to receive good education for everyone, since ignorance cause severe problems. I also agree with individualism and secularism, because I also believe that humans should live at the moment instead of tying to aim for a good afterlife, and a society controlled by religion often make extreme decisions when their religion got offended. I also agree with art, science and math since it is important for humans to expand their knowledge about this planet, but I think individualism, secularism and education for everyone are more important. To conclude, I am around 92% humanist and I agree with most of the humanism beliefs.

Tuesday of the Other June

This found poem is a poem that tells a story about the external conflict in the short story “Tuesday of the Other June”. The conflict occurred when the protagonist started to get bullied by a girl who had the same name as her, which is a character vs character external conflict. Every Tuesday, the other June who was in her swimming class and started to bully her. In my found poem, I showed the conflict by using phrases from the story including dialogue, and thoughts of the main character. For example, At the start of the poem, I decided to introduce the cause of the conflict first, so I used the dialogue that the Other June said when she first met the protagonist. This is the part where the 17 to 22. The bullying became worse as time goes on, and there are a lot of evidence in the text. For example, words like “step”, “hid”, “pinch” and “knot” are words that are evidence in paragraph 35, it shows the physical impacts on the protagonist. I put these words in my poem to let readers see very clearly what the protagonist had been through. The Other June also affected the protagonist’s mental health. Mental harm done to the protagonist is shown in the part “she only look at me, only growl, for my heart sinks like a whipped dog.” This comes from paragraph 36, showing how June’s emotions got affected by the actions of the other June. Finally, at the end of the poem, I used the dialogue from paragraph 77, “you are my slave”, to show how horrible the bully speaks to the main character. The paragraph ended here because after this, the conflict started to resolve. Finding the other June in the main character’s new school is the climax of the story, which is also when the main character realized that she needs to take action. The main character develops after being through the conflict, she became a braver person.

Emotions and Positive Relationships

In the book The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson believed he was a troubled kid during the first 3 chapters. If only Percy could see that having positive relationships could bring a good impact onto his life. Percy has many problems in his life, the major one is having a hard time managing his emotions.

Percy’s problem with managing emotions is shown many times during the first three chapters. “Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn’t even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.”(pg. 17). What it shows about Percy is that when he is annoyed or angry, he won’t think through if it is alright before he speaks; he was rude to the teacher even if the teacher was really annoying. Being respectful is always an important thing. In the article Recognizing and Managing Emotions, the article includes a quote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”–Maya Angelou. Making people feel horrible will be remembered, and it is a reason that Percy got defined as a troubled kid by many schools. On page 39 in the book, Percy said something that would make his mom feel bad, even if he loves his mom. He said, “Because you don’t want me around?” I regretted the words as soon as they were out.” When he knew that his mom was sending him away.

Even though Percy has many problems with emotions, he still has good relationships around. “…so, he was the only teacher whose class didn’t put me to sleep…But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had high hopes.” Mr. Brunner was a trusted adult for Percy in school. Mr. Brunner is a special teacher, Percy’s negativity about field trips turned into hope when he knew that Mr. Brunner is planning it. Having a teacher that Percy can trust was helpful if he’s having a hard time in school. “A trusted friend will help you deal with stress better” (Why Personal Relationships are Important) Having a trusted adult in school is like having trusted friends, Mr. Brunner may be able to help Percy with problems in school such as friendship or grades. “My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room… I was really glad to see her.” (page 32-33) Percy has good relationship with his mother, his mother was a close family member that he can trust. “It’s good to talk. Spend time with other people and enjoy their company.” This quote is from the article Recognizing and Managing Emotions, talking to a trusted personal can help with having bad emotions. His mom can help him become more positive. Percy could talk to his mum when he is feeling angry or sad.

 

Percy has many good relationships around him, Percy should see how people around him loves him and he is not alone. Trying to find more people he can trust could be the next step for him to get a better life. Talking with people someone trusts can always help someone feel happy and confident about themselves. Even though having good personal relationship might not help Percy to solve problems, being loved by people around him makes life better. Not feeling isolated is important to everyone.

Our Stories Make History

Our Stories Make History—Reflection

In our humanities unit “Our Stories Make History”, we recorded many things that relate to us and affects us during the period of the coronavirus (Covid-19). In this project, we learned to find reliable sources that relate to coronavirus so that we won’t be fooled by fake news and some bias. I organized my project by sections, I started by putting the collage as an introduction to my experience in Beijing. The second section are my emotional changes which are the diary entries and emotional timeline. My performance piece is related to the timeline. I organized it this way because it would help my audiences understand my feelings and the events that happened more, how some projects like the performance piece relate to others like the timeline.

 

My primary source can be useful for future historians because it shows how people live through the coronavirus period. This source can help for people in the future to learn more about what virus like this might cause, if it repeats (hopefully don’t), we’ll know better about what to do. My source can tell how some worries are brought while we can still be living really nicely. There are some basic facts in my source about what happened, how e-learning was like and how schools were closed. I personally don’t relate to the virus very much, some people have family members infected by the virus and some are infected themselves, others will need to learn about those to.

 

Though out this unit of creating a primary source, one of the things that I’m proud of is that I get to explore a lot of different websites: Canva, Book creator, Newsbank, The beijinger, etc. I had improved a lot on problem solving skills when some of the things don’t work in certain times. I also am proud of improving my skills of writing a diary, before I did write diary, but they are just to keep track of what I did that day, it doesn’t encloud a lot of emotions. Doing daily journaling may be tiring but helps me to improve my feelings expressing skills and skills on maintaining doing journaling every single day. A challenged is definitely internet problems, our WIFI often don’t work and I need to organize my time and prepare for a sudden internet problem. Another challenge was that I sometimes spend too much time trying to make things perfect, I need to learn to get better at knowing what needs to be perfect while some others don’t.

Creative Performance Assignment

Here is the performance I made, it is sort of a collage with 4 things that happened in this period of time with the coronavirus. The first section (top left) is about how we canceled our trip to Gubei Water Town, I was really disappointed because I was really looking forward to it.

The second section (top right) is about e-learning, I’m surrounded with work and sometimes get quite stressful. Things I miss include not being around my friends unable to go out and have bubble tea, ice-cream and sushi.

The third section (bottom left) is about how every one if wearing mask.

The fourth section (bottom right) is about my trip to Hebei, Cangzhou, my grandmother’s house. I went there at the beginning of Chinese New Year and had a nice time.

The middle is a birdcage inspired by an artwork I painted in art class, inside is our house and house we’re all locked inside.