Gender Equality Essay Example

According to the Equals Rights Amendment passed in 1972, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Essentially, this means that men and women should enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all of society without being underestimated and disrespected. Looking at the contents of this law, how much have the people of the United States actually followed the idea of treating all genders with equality? Unfortunately, the answer is not enough to claim that America has “equality for all”. As targets of gender inequality, women have been getting treated with less educational accessibility, further expectation to contain their lives in keeping a home, and added disgrace for simply being born as a girl. The Office of Global Women’s Issues should take actions and enforce additional laws towards supporting and raising gender equality awareness in order to decrease poverty, to promote fair treatment in the workplace, and to put an end to physical and sexual abuse. 

Decreasing poverty

One reason that the Office of Global Women’s Issues should take actions and enforce further laws towards gender equality awareness is to decrease poverty. According to Jessica Hyde in “The Life You Can Save”, “In rich and poor countries alike, a key to poverty alleviation is in convincing people that they will benefit from empowering women. 70% of the world’s poorest people are women. In many countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, a majority of the population lives in poverty, unable to meet basic needs for food and shelter. As unbelievable as it might seem, one in three people in the world today survives on less than $2 a day.” This indicates that women make up the majority of poverty and by empowering them and enabling them to the same equal rights as men, this poverty will begin to fade away. This is essential to consider because various people, mainly women, do not have the basic necessities of life, such as food and shelter, for they are struggling to provide for themselves and even sometimes for their families.

Makhtar Diop, stated in “The World Bank”, “In Eastern and Southern Africa, poverty and work demands in the home often prevent girls from attending school, a trend which is further compounded by child marriage. In Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Mozambique, girls enroll in primary school at a lower rate than boys, and enrollment rates drop even lower at secondary and tertiary levels. The bottom line is that poverty decreases when more women and girls are educated.” This reveals that the male gender has a greater priority in getting an education, but if an increased amount of women are educated then it will help not only them, but also the whole world around them. Also, this shows that women are expected to attend to household jobs, like washing dishes and doing laundry, and after marriage, are expected to take care of their husband and kids. This is crucial because these stereotypes and restrictions have prevented women and girls into getting an education, earning money, and supporting themselves in life and because they lack these essentials, women often get pushed into poverty. Thus, when increasing gender equality awareness, supplementary people will begin to rise above the level of poverty.  

Fair treatment in the workplace

In addition to poverty, the Office of Global Women’s Issues should take actions and enforce further laws towards gender equality awareness to promote fair treatment in the workplace. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “On average, women today earn just 78 cents for every dollar that men earn—an increase of only 17 cents on the dollar since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted. The figures are even more dismal for women of color. Black women are paid only 64 cents and Latinas only 54 cents for every dollar that white men earn. Obstacles such as punitive pay secrecy policies and weak remedies in some of our laws make it difficult to challenge the ongoing wage gap.” This signifies that women only earn a little bit above 75% of what men make and for women of color these numbers only get worse.

This is critical because although in numerous scenarios, women work with added efficiency and work harder than men, people are still biased in believing men are superior and they want to pay them extra. Julia Mendez, stated in “Insight into Diversity”, “…women have traditionally been ‘steered’ toward lower-paying occupations. Steering occurs when employers have stereotypes or biases about a certain group of people that influence their hiring decisions, such as assuming that women are better suited for childcare or customer service jobs. Similarly, the last 12 months have brought to light many cases in which female employees were less valued by employers, even in the most elite and highest-paying professions.” This suggests that several factors of having an unfair environment in the workplace is having women forced into lower status jobs and having them be less appreciated then men.

This is significant to understand because countless women are forced into inferior ranked jobs, which means that the amount of females in this world that may never be able to reach their full potential could ultimately hurt the world and restrict it from advancements. Also, this is critical information because when women are less appreciated then men, then they will have less chance of getting promoted or receiving bonuses, which will mean that lots of times they aren’t earning enough money to support their families. Hence, by creating a fair workplace consisting of equal opportunities for men and women, the world will advance faster than it ever has. 

Opponents’ point of view

Opponents of gender equality may say that men have a history of being leaders, which makes them superior compared to women. In fact, they may even mention that in Ancient Rome, women were considered property of men and were treated as a child, rather than as a spouse. However, it can be argued that the world is starting to see women as capable of attaining leadership. According to Global Citizen, “Most monarchies in Europe have now gotten rid of the older system by which male heirs to the throne get preference over females — known as male-preference primogeniture. Sweden was first to make the change, passing a law in 1980 to allow equal succession, according to the Washington Post.

The Netherlands followed in 1983, Belgium in 1981, and Denmark in 2009.” This insinuates that in several countries’ men were pictured as greater than women because of their history of having the throne, and after years passed as the female gender has proven themselves time and time again, people are agreeing that they have the competence of doing a “man’s” job. This is vital to understand because the amount of people who believe that men are in a higher class than women are becoming less and less by the day because they are understanding that even though women do not have the same experience as men with leadership, looking back at the past, they were never given the same opportunity to become leaders. Therefore, additional gender equality laws should be enforced because women do not have the same fair and equal opportunities to be leaders as males do.

Physical and sexual abuse

Furthermore, the Office of Global Women’s Issues should take actions and enforce further laws towards gender equality awareness to put an end to physical and sexual abuse. According to Doorways for Women and Families, “National statistics show that 45% of domestic violence survivors report being sexually assaulted by their abuser. The truth is, we know it occurs far more often. Sexual assault in intimate partner relationships often goes unreported because many survivors have been conditioned through psychological abuse to believe that sex, even forced sex, is a ‘duty’ or ‘entitlement’ in a relationship and therefore does not qualify as abuse.” This proposes that women are getting taken advantage of against their own will, showing that they are the main targets of abuse in a relationship. Also, this shows that they are left without any way to protect themselves after these horrible events.

This is imperative because women are having to sadly experience abuse and are too afraid to speak up about what has happened to them. According to World Health Organization, “Intimate partner sexual violence cause serious short- and long-term physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems for women… Women may suffer isolation, inability to work, loss of wages, lack of participation in regular activities and limited ability to care for themselves and their children.” This means that there are a number of tolls that come with being sexually or physically abused on a woman, like being in a terrible mental and physical state and the loss of interest in everyday activities.

This is crucial to understand because these effects of being physically or sexually abused could damage women in a way that could damage the society that we live in. Also, this is essential to consider because women make up 50% of the world’s population and according to statistics almost all women face a form of abuse in their lives, which shows that almost half of humanity is mentally and physically unstable from being harassed. Consequently, by empowering women, the amount of sexual and physical abuse will lessen and eventually will stop, which will help society to continue to thrive.

What to do

In order to reduce gender inequality, the Office of Global Women’s Issues should implement supplementary laws because it will prevent people from falling into poverty, it will encourage a workplace not consisting of discrimination, and it will preclude women from being targets of sexual and physical harassment. If people begin to make this transition into accepting women as equals to men, it will allow them to be independent and support themselves. Citizens who adopt the idea of empowering women will experience an equal work environment and fair opportunities for all genders.

Additionally, the people who understand this viewpoint will help make advancements into stopping physical and mental pain for women and help cease harmful events, such as abuse. As a result, in strengthening these concepts in the government, greater amounts of development will be enhanced by a world that will quickly improve. People cannot change the past but can surely change the future. The future of the world we live will only be capable of having all of these progressions if citizens accept one idea—and that is gender equality. Please consider administering additional laws and considering taking actions in advocating for gender equality.