By Lily Oberlin, United States
Image: genderindetail.org
Gender inequality has always been an ever-lasting issue. It’s always been lingering around our society, embedded into our society. In this article, the major, important events on Gender Inequality around the world will be talked about, targeting COVID-19, issues in the U.S., and South Korea. On top of that, ways to help this ever-lasting issue will also be discussed.
But before you read through, let’s refresh our minds of what Gender Inequality is.
Gender inequality is most often referred to unequal treatment of genders in education, work, income, health care, or social benefits. The term can also be used more broadly to refer to any difference in outcomes for men and women that are not due to individual ability or merit.
Major Important Issues on Gender Inequality:
COVID-19:
“The damage is incalculable and will resound down the decades, into future generations,” warned the U.N. chief. According to the United Nations, the COVID-19 pandemic has been causing devastating effects on women. The fallout has proven how deeply gender inequality stays embedded within the world’s political, social, and financial systems. Since March of 2021, women have been more likely than men to lose work, and women’s unpaid care work has risen drastically.
Although improving the gender balance may help gender inequality overall and help the economy as a whole, these problems on women discrimination have still been an issue even with the knowledge that it could help people’s financial states.
Currently, the United Nations has put women at the center of the U.N.’s COVID-19 response and recovery, pushing for jobs for those who lost their jobs due to discrimination and those who have been discriminated against.
The United States:
The United States has made progress towards gender equality, but it still has a long way to go.
Some of the problems that face women and girls that need to be addressed include wage disparity, sexual assault and harassment, and maternal and child health care, among others.
Wage disparity is one of the problems that face women and girls in the U.S. It exists in all sectors of employment, but it is most notable in male-dominated jobs, where women are often paid less than their male counterparts under the same conditions (PayScale). For example, women with similar professional work experience at Google are paid less than men (the Washington Post).
Sexual assault and harassment are issues that face women and girls. Sexual assault includes verbal sexual harassment like catcalling, groping, or indecent exposure. Some assaults can also be categorized into gender harassment. This includes unnecessary physical contacts such as unwanted touching, looking, etc., language that puts someone down or comments toward a specific gender, and sex-specific derogatory names.
These are a few issues that are still occurring in the United States, which need to be addressed and prevented.
South Korea:
Although ex-President Park Geun-Hye’s "With Minjung in mind" campaign was an attempt to raise awareness about gender inequality in Korea, this issue has been prevalent for decades.
One main issue is the gender pay gap in Korea:
Since World War II, Korea has been considered an "inclusive" society; however, it has become increasingly difficult for women to move up the ranks in Korea's business and political structures. The Ministry of Labor, Welfare, and Family Affairs (MOLWA) indicates that Korea's female workforce only represents 17% of all employees, which is one of the lowest rates worldwide after Japan (23%) and China (40%). The Ministry of Health and Welfare indicates that women are over three times more likely to not continue their careers after getting married. This is greatly influenced by the fact that Korea's average income for full-time female workers is dramatically lower than men. To put this in context, Korea's minimum wage for full-time female workers was 1,015,000 won in 2013 while, males received an average of 1,746,000 won. This means that the average woman would have to work 23 months just to earn what a man makes in 12 months.
Solutions:
According to The Guardian, there are 12 steps to achieving gender equality. Although they may take time, but with effort and awareness, they can be achievable.
The few main important steps and ways to achieving gender equality were:
Stop child marriage and sexual harassment
Make education gender-sensitive
Give proper value to ‘women’s work’
Get women into power
Work together
Stop the violence
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