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Patrick Acholonu
Mr. Hess
English 300 Lec
11/9/18
Gender Equality
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie a respected Nigerian novelist who wrote many successful
stories and poems. In one of her ted talks she talks about how we should all be feminists. She
elaborates that the true meaning of feminism is raising awareness and acknowledging that sexism
is real and it affects women a lot more than people think and it’s a problem that we should be
actively trying to fix. This claim is significant now because she is having a call to action on
ending sexism and gender equality for all I agree with her claim women have been treated poorly
in their work profession, wages, maternity rights etc.
Adiche gives an example of when she first learned sexism is a real thing that affects girls
like her around the world, it was when she was in elementary school the teacher made the class
take an exam and who ever got the highest score gets to be class supervisor which grants the
supervisor permission to inform the teacher who is being disruptive. Adichce studied tried really
hard on the test because she wanted to be class supervisor she end up getting the highest score
and when her teacher found out she had the highest score she told Adiche she couldn’t because
this position is only for a boy, so the teacher gave class supervisor to the next person who got the
highest score which was a boy who was shy and didn’t want the job. This moment was when
Adiche realized that sexism is a real thing and in addition what made her even more mad was
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that the boy didn’t even want the job because he didn’t want to be in charge of monitoring the
class but yet he still gets the job because of the long historical doubt created by men that
woman are incapable of their capability to potentially lead people in general.
Another big problem is how women will don’t get enough paid maternity leave or simply no
paid leave. Some may argue that is uncessceary because “men” should have enough money to
support the family but that isn’t always the case because sometimes the father isn’t present in the
child’s life or simply the father doesn’t make enough money to support the family without the
mother working also. but if you look closely caring for a newborn can be quite expensive and
being stuck with taking unpaid maternity In a way this kind of discourages the women to even
have child when they could be potentially at risk to have a financial crisis of having a kid.
According to the Independent
The us are one of the few countries in the world who still have
the worst paying maternity leave the U.S. has an equivalent to 2.8 weeks of full wage maternity
leave compared to countries like Canada who have 27.3 weeks leave of full wage. Despite the
new trumps administration family plan it is still at the full time low (Longest Maternity Leave).
This evidence shows that maternity paid maternity leave is up essential for woman because
raisng a child is quite expensive and there job is the only source of income that can help support
that child.
Another problem in today society is when Roxanne gay talks about how America was
founded on unalienable rights and everyone is equal. But that Is not the case when it comes to
women because “We are having inexplicable conservations about birth control, where women
must justify why they are taking birth control because the men are in power and not women we
don’t have the same rights the way men do (275). It’s hard to imagine that woman’s body is
something that has to be negotiated by the government in a sense it feels like slavery. It’s always
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the woman who have to use contraception and not men roxiane Gay once said that she will only
use birth control until men start using one because she is tired of the resposinbilty of
contraception be always placed on woman, when it should be both patricptaints who should be
involved with contraception. In addition Gay talks about how in today’s world birth control has
such a negative connotation to it because any woman who take it will be framed as a “whore
medicine”, it’s so hard for woman to say “I’m on the pill because I like dick” because they make
it seem like there using birth control for other reasons when it is designed to “control birth”(276).
However that’s one reason that woman are on birth control there’s a plethora of reason why a
woman might be on birth control for example women who have irregular menstrual periods or
having a severe amount of bleeding during that time, might be on birth control to regulate her
cycle which is an actual health condition. If we were in a time where everyone is a feminist
women would have not to pay for birth control and would be provided for all women, birth
control won’t make a woman be judged for her actions with her sex life and the government
won’t be involved with any woman’s reproductive rights. But these examples show had harsh
men are treating women In society and for the worst part they don’t even have a voice to voice
their opinion about it. And even they somehow get to voice their opinion it will go through one
ear and out the other because men think women are inferior to them and can never be at the same
level
Woman and men wage gap is the most obvious and most significant woman face more
economic and socieal challenges, as a woman goes to a higher position in the workforce she will
face more discrimination from her peers. According to American association of university
women the
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2017 Earnings ratios= $41,997/52,146= 80%. In 2017 women made 41,997$ and men made
52,146$ which is about 80%(The simple Truth). This shows the great economic division
between male and females in the work force When women pursue almost any field of work there
wages are noticeably lower compared than males because there work tend to be less valued by
society because they feel that woman should be doing house work instead of working job. In
addition
Woman always have to be cautious about dressing in a certain way because they can be judged
by their male or female counter parts and may be taken less seriously then they already are. On
the other hand Men can wear anything and not worry about scrutiny from their counterparts.
Essentially women have to work a lot harder than men to maintain their position in the
workplace and even harder if they want to move their position up in the workforce.
There is a noticeable amount of sexism that goes on the workplace the Huffington post
posted an article of 21 horrific stories of woman of sexual harassment on the job for
example is
a 19 year old girl who worked at subway once got approached by a man telling her that she
should wear her name tag on her shirt so he could stare at her chest, Another time Is when a
drunk customer was trying to make sexual advances towards her and almost took his pants off in
the middle of the store. Now because of all these experiences she doesn’t do closing shifts
because of the fear of some man trying to sexually assault her. (Huffington post). The Huffington
post in a recent studied that 25% of woman polled they faced sexual harassment and reported it
on the other hand 70% they experienced sexual harassment but never reported it, according to the
study the low wage female workers are the ones who usually tend not to report it, Because some
of them are single mothers and need the job to support her child and other necessities. One
woman said “it’s frustrating because I’m here to make money to support myself and my family
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I’m not asking to be approached, especially in an environment where the customer is upheld
above all else and I can’t just leave”(Huffington post). The working woman explains how
working as a female is so difficult because sexual harassment is almost guaranteed and there’s
nothing they can do to avoid it they have to just work there and deal with it even, if it potentially
puts them in harm’s way.
Women are always undervalued for their abilities by men in any field they participate
then. Since the begging of time and history men always deemed woman less so much that it is
considered normal. If we are all feminist the future of women rights look like this woman would
look like this woman will have equal pay, landownership rights, sexual rights, freedom from
violence, equal access to education, and maternity rights (women’s Human Rights). Once all of
this is achieved for woman then equality will exists. Ultimately it’s up to women who have taken
leadership roles and an political voice women will thrive, and ultimately women will be equal to
men.
Work cited
Agrawal, Nadya. “21 Harrowing Stories Of Sexual Harassment On The Job.” The Huffington
Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Dec. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/21-harrowingstories-of-sexual-harassment-on-the-job_us_566f39b1e4b0fccee16f84d8.
England @charlottengland, Charlotte. “The Countries That Offer the Longest Maternity
Leave.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 1 Mar. 2017,
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www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/paid-maternity-leave-us-worst-countres-worlddonald-trump-family-leave-plan-women-republican-social-a7606036.html.
Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist. HarperCollins USA, 2017.
Miller, Kevub. “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap.” AAUW: Empowering Women
Since 1881, www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/.
Women's Human Rights and Gender Equality.” Global Fund for Women,
www.globalfundforwomen.org/womens-human-rights/#.W_BlB-hKi71.
Calfas, Jennifer. “Equal Pay Day: Why the Wage Gap Still Exists in 2018 | Money.” Time, Time,
10 Apr. 2018, time.com/money/5225986/equal-pay-day-2018-gender-wage-gap/