“My father is a doctor. He treats patients in hospitals every day.” “Every day my mother takes me to school. She cooks tasty food for my family.” These are excerpts from a primary school book. From a very young age, society or even mainstream education nudges young minds to the idea that a woman’s value is what she adds to her family while a man works in mighty professions.
Women form 49.6% of the world population. [1] Half of the world population has to stay vigilant in public at all times to protect themselves from imminent danger. Half of the world population has to work harder to get to the same place. Half of the world population needs to struggle daily against patriarchy and misogyny to achieve their dreams. Pretty horrific reality, right?
Violence against women, gender pay gap and other such prevalent problems are termed as women’s issues. More often than not, using the term Women’s Issues creates a barrier for men’s participation. Feminism is looked upon negatively. A woman who is a feminist and vocal is hated on and shamed by large sections of society. But feminism is essentially just a call for equality, a demand for a seat at the table. It is ridiculous that there is opposition to women getting what they rightfully deserve.
Many may argue that women aren’t discriminated against, that gender-based issues don’t exist, or if they do, they are fast getting resolved, but I would strongly disagree. Gender-based matters are at the root of every society, so ingrained that it is easy to turn a blind eye toward them. The UN highlights six dominant issues that women face and the statistics relating to them are appalling. Let’s consider a few gruesome problems that are pertinent today. [2]
Violence against women
Before the pandemic, surveys found that one in three women will experience violence in their lifetime. Girls are told not to go out late, to return home before dark and to be alert when they are out alone in public. Imagine having to stay cautious and vigilant for the majority of the day. That is just a regular day in the life of every girl in the world.
India ranked 4th in the most dangerous places for women in the world. [3] In a country where Hindu Goddesses are worshipped and revered, the statistic sure seems preposterous that women feel so unsafe here is ironic. Female foeticide is still a common practice in India, there’s violence against women even before they are born. The National Crime Records Bureau reveals that a crime against a woman is committed every three minutes, a woman is raped every 29 minutes, a dowry death occurs every 77 minutes, and one case of cruelty committed by either the husband or relative of the husband occurs every nine minutes. [4]99.1% of rape and sexual assault cases go unreported. [5] On the off-chance of an incident getting reported, the victim is often blamed for her choice of clothes, “attracting attention” or her “asking for it”. Even significant MPs and politicians are known to shame victims or make excuses for the aggressors, saying men cannot control their urges and that it takes two hands to clap. [6]
Even with frightful cases like the Hathras gang rape case, we saw people commenting that "Sanskar should be instilled in girls to prevent incidents of rape". Politicians are often known to tell women not to leave their house, but the lockdown only saw a rise in domestic violence cases. The Central Government remains silent in response to such crimes with nothing done to improve the situation of women.
All this arises from the lack of sex education and dialogue around consent in India. Men are raised to believe that they are entitled to get what they want. Even in this day and age, marital rape is still not considered a criminal offence if the wife is over 15 years of age. Rather than telling girls to be careful, which has clearly failed to solve the issue, it is essential to educate boys from a young age about the importance of consent and stop the objectification of women in mainstream media that shapes impressionable minds.
Gender Pay Gap
In 1976, the Equal Remuneration Act was passed to prevent discrimination based on gender in all matters relating to employment and employment opportunities. But the reality is far from equal.
Based on the educational background, men with a bachelor's degree earned 16 percent higher median wages than women in years 2015, 2016 and 2017, while master's degree holders experience an even higher pay gap. Men with a four- or five-year degree or the equivalent of a master's degree have on average earned 33.7 percent higher median wages than women. [7] Why should someone earn lesser for the same work and same qualifications just because of their gender?
A Harvard Business Review showed that women ranked better than men in 12 of 16 leadership qualities, yet they are overlooked for promotions and men are generally viewed as more competent. [8] Women are often discouraged from taking up high-pressure careers as they are believed to be “soft” or “weak” to handle them. Indian society often sees instances of families unwilling to pay for a girl’s education in order to save for the wedding or dowry, highlighting that an educated woman is undervalued with employers overlooking capable women on grounds of them quitting their job once married or pregnant, which often happens due to familial pressures and societal expectations. A study shows that men with children are seen as responsible and are more likely to be hired than childless men whereas women who have children are viewed as a liability and aren’t given the same weightage as women without children. [9] It is a vicious double standard.
At the current speed of progress, it will take a whopping 257 years to bridge the gender pay gap. [10] It is imperative that policies and frameworks come into force to establish uniform pay without discrimination on any grounds.
Period Taboo, Healthcare and Pink Tax
Half of the world menstruates. Despite this, why is there a stigma around conversations about such a regular body function? Girls are asked to whisper for pads. Chemists wrap pads in black covers, men are embarrassed to buy pads for the women in their family and in many traditions, periods are treated as dirty or untouchable. Indian girls are often isolated upon reaching puberty, pulled out of schools and married off. For girls in a privileged society, puberty is often celebrated as the start of womanhood but, it remains a nightmare in communities that cannot afford sanitary products and lack basic hygiene facilities. [11] Even washrooms in cities and developed areas are, more often than not, horrendous, and put women at a higher risk for infections. In several parts of the world, women use newspapers and rags to manage their period, which isn't an effective means of protection and this forces them to stay home during these days. Awareness of conditions like PCOS that affects 10% of women is far from common knowledge.
Pink tax is a term often used relating to products that are a necessity to only women, like sanitary products, that are often highly-priced and increase the average cost of living of a woman. This leads to an unfair imbalance in society. An average woman menstruates for about 32 years in her life. With the usage of 12 pads per cycle, 144 pads a year and 4608 pads throughout their life, it adds a substantive expenditure to every woman’s life. Tax on this should naturally be abolished.
Countries like New Zealand and Scotland have announced the free provision of period products to all women, a welcome change that should be adapted by all countries as soon as possible. Understanding the impracticality of doing the same in a country with a population as high as India, it is important to spread awareness and educate all students, not just girls, on menstrual cycles and reproductive health. Only this can be effective in destigmatizing the topic. Zomato’s introduction of period leave was a great decision. Though some people argue that this further weakens a woman’s standing in a professional space and will add to the reasons for not being employed, I believe that with the right enforcement of non-discrimination rules, the period leaves concept would be an extremely considerate and supportive change for women.
Conclusion
Feminism has achieved some great milestones for women around the world. Feminism is about giving women a choice, to choose their education, to choose their careers, to choose whether or not to get married or have kids, to pave their own path in life. Feminism is equalising the playing field for every human, irrespective of gender. Feminism is abolishing patriarchy and double-standards that is jarringly present in all aspects of life. As Taylor Swift says in The Man,
I'm so sick of running as fast I can Wondering if I'd get there quicker If I was a man
International Women’s Day 2021’s theme was #ChoosetoChallenge. Let’s choose to challenge patriarchy. Let’s choose to challenge misogyny. Let’s choose to challenge unfair treatment, let’s not stand for violence, victim-blaming and entitlement. Let’s choose to challenge societal notions of what women should be and stand up for the freedom of women. Let’s choose to include men in the conversation about equality. Let’s choose to celebrate women for the strong, powerful and beautiful humans they are. For a challenged world is an alert world and the dawn of an equal world.
Article By Smrithi Shree Editor-in-Chief For The Record, PES MUN Society
Comments