Essay Example on Women's Rights: A Long Journey of Discrimination and Stereotypes

The intense discrimination against women has existed throughout history. Societies have denied women legal rights and given them little independence from their husbands. Women have been stereotyped to have inferior brains. Most of the community globally view women less human. It has taken American society a long way to recognize and protect women's rights. Some cultures still have a long way to go to at least get where America is today in terms of protecting women's rights. Women are still facing social injustice, which affects their essential principles, such as freedom, safety, peace, and equality. The world needs to make many changes before society can uphold the rights of all individuals. Today women still face gender violence, harassment and discrimination at the workplace and home.

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Women often face gender harassment and discrimination. One of the places women face such problems is in the workplace. Society makes gender discrimination appear with many faces. But, it is generally mistreatment of employees due to gender. Some of the mistreatment women face in the workplace include denial of work or being given less-paying positions. Some employers also evaluate women more harshly and argue that women do not present themselves in a way that conforms to customary ideas of employees (Heilman and Caleo, 2018). Companies tend to pay women less than their counterparts of the opposite gender to do a similar task. Moreover, they deny women promotions, training opportunities, and pay raise and give such opportunities to people of the opposite sex regardless of the qualification.

In the past two years, approximately 80% of females from the United States reported sexual intimidation experiences in their place of work (Kiplinger et al., 2019). Besides, according to a study conducted by Kiplinger et al., (2019), last year only, fifty percent of working-class women experienced sexual harassment. Most of the women tend to be reluctant when it comes to reporting such matters due to fear they might lose the job. The misconduct cannot be easily solved since most of the abusers are high profilers. On the other hand, society tends to blame women, an act which, in return, bring threats related to self-esteem, victimization, scrutiny, and doubts. Numerous communities believe that women cause this abuse to themselves through dress code and let the abuser walk free.

Women face resistance every time they try to rise to the top, especially in politics. Frequently, they face social stereotypes, discrimination, and resilience. People tend to believe that leadership belongs to men. An excellent example is a government where men occupy approximately ninety percent of the head offices. Women have never governed the majority of countries worldwide. They are only given opportunities of becoming secretaries in the executive offices. Females in society face innumerable challenges in politics. The counterparts and culture, especially during campaigns, judge them using their looks and dress code while ignoring the critical traits and ideas. Besides, a woman's views and opinions get held to a much higher standard than that of a male. However, equality might take over ten decades to achieve if the existing trends continue.

Women from all corners of the world are working hard to combat inequality. But, most of them particularly married with children experience conflict between home roles and work (Cerrato and Cifre, 2018). Societies have set standards for female purposes and expectations. Women are expected to take care of their personal lives and children. Women in marriages have to ensure the families do not fall apart. Yet the modern woman is also expected to give a hand by providing, meaning she also needs to work. Societies are expecting women to play both external functions, which entails females' labor force participation. Also plays an internal role of being a mother and a wife. The departments and organizations dealing with human rights have said that women have equal rights and positions to work. But, it is just for formality because the culture still suppresses women to stay at home and keep family in order.

Numerous modern careered women have managed to play both external and internal roles. Some have worked extra hard to avoid the negligence of tasks because it brings imbalance. For instance, women who prefer careers over families face threats of broken families resulting in divorce. Others who prefer family tend to sacrifice their careers to build families. The inner potential and capabilities of these females sunk and get buried forever. Even after sacrificing these much women still get judged. For instance, those who sacrifice their careers for families are said to be unfavorable for life development. Those who take both roles require mutual understanding from the husband, who is supposed to help complement her in the family roles. Nevertheless, some communities believe it is not the woman's obligation to find a formal job, and one can only work due to economic capacity, which needs the husband's approval. Men in such setups prefer their women to stay at home, denying them their request.

According to Childs et al. (2015), many young women ruin their lives by having children while still teenagers. An excellent example facing this problem is African American. Approximately 2 out of 10 have children when they are 15 to 17 years. The researcher believes that the community can only improve their lives if the teen pregnancies decrease. The study managed to factor out the causes of these pregnancies, which was racism and stress. The community wants these girls married to solidify their status as matriarchs. They also believe women should have children while still young as they are energetic, which disappear with age. However, the stress that comes with this marriage has deteriorated the health of countless young girls with dreams of becoming better citizens.

Reproductive health and rights are essential aspects of women's wellbeing. These factors enable them to make the right decisions and choices regarding their lives and people close to them (Starrs et al., 2018). Reproductive health not only includes physical wellbeing, but it also entails respectful relationships, the right to healthcare and fitness, affordable and effective contraceptives, and available support when it comes to unwanted pregnancies. According to Wymelenberg, a woman with a healthy reproductive give birth to planned and wanted babies. This woman must have access to essential resources for the baby's health. These resources are also used to solve other medical conditions, such as infertility. But, some states, especially those inhabited by Arabs, believe that women should not access such medication. Society wants every woman to sire children regardless of the health condition. Infertile women in such society are overlooked act that brings stigma and low self-esteem.

Another problem women are facing in society today is unplanned pregnancies due to lack of access to family planning, other birth control measures, and laws against abortion. In 2007, the Supreme Court of America passed a bill that forbidden abortion. The law offered the judges the right to inhibit with people's decisions regarding their reproductive health (Guenther, 2018). In America, it is a crime to commit abortion, especially one in the second trimester. Government restriction has affected patients who require abortions for health sake, and doctors willing to help. The court restricted the citizen's right to make decisions concerning their lives with the help of practitioners. These laws are prevailing in most countries around the world, where people use religion to judge others. Women, on the other hand, feel left out because people making the laws and assumptions do not consider many factors such as the danger that comes with pregnancy complications such as having an ectopic.

Conclusion

In conclusion, women around the world face many problems from sexual harassment, discrimination, and denial of rights. It is clear that many states around the world view women as less human. They have stereotyped them to have inferior brains. Although some countries, such as the United States, recognize and protects their rights, some, especially in the emerging countries, have a long way to go before they can get to this point. Sadly, people who are supposed to protect women are the same committing social injustice to them. These people are in the workplace, sexually harassing and discriminating against women. Societies have set higher standards and expectations. It is not easy to understand what they want. A woman is expected to have a career and raise a family. In scenarios where the husband is not supportive, women tend to sacrifice either have a broken family or lose her job. However, it is time for every person to get equal opportunities regardless of gender.

References

Cerrato, J., & Cifre, E. (2018). Gender Inequality in Household Chores and Work-Family Conflict. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1330. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01330

Childs, G. D., Knight, C., & White, R. (2015). Never-pregnant African American adolescent girls' perceptions of adolescent pregnancy. Journal of pediatric nursing, 30(2), 310-320. doi:10.1016/j.pedn.2014.08.012

Guenther, A. (2018). Review of United States Abortion Policy.

Heilman, M. E., & Caleo, S. (2018). Gender discrimination in the workplace.

Kiplinger, K., Johnson, S. K., Kirk, J. F., & Barnes, L. Y. (2019). Women at work: Changes in sexual harassment between September 2016 and September 2018. PloS one, 14(7), e0218313. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218313

Starrs, A. M., Ezeh, A. C., Barker, G., Basu, A., Bertrand, J. T., Blum, R., ... & Sathar, Z. A. (2018). Accelerate progress-sexual and reproductive health and rights for all: report of the Guttmacher-Lancet Commission. The Lancet, 391(10140), 2642-2692.

Verniers, C., & Vala, J. (2018). Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: The mediating role of motherhood myths. PloS one, 13(1), e0190657.

Wymelenberg S; Institute of Medicine (US). Science and Babies: Private Decisions, Public Dilemmas. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1990. 1, Reproductive Health Issues. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK235278/