Women Struggle for Equality Essay

This year (2018) marks exactly 100 years since women in the United Kingdom gained their rights to vote which was under the Peoples Representation Act of February 1918 (Lebanon). This was a historic milestone because it opened up the political and public space to women giving them a significant transfer of power to the minimum. It is a hundred years and still there is only a third of the women in parliaments and local councils which today cannot be termed as a proper process. There has also been a lot of changes in the past decade for women concerning employment allowing them to move from their homes and get paid employment something that their grandmothers and mothers could only dream of. It was in 2011 that the United States recorded for the first time slightly more than half women were in the workforce. Although some realization was brought forward to promote gender equality and equity and giving each one an equal opportunity, the gender gap between men and women has not yet closed. This paper seeks to discuss why women struggle for equality will not change now but will have to wait for more than 100 years.

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According to the report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the data indicates that year after year from 2006 the gender gap is worsening. Each year the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks 144 counties in its Global Gender Gap Index whereby they compare the four pillars which include education, economic participation and opportunity, health and survival and lastly political empowerment (World Economic Forum). There was a decrease in parity index for 2017 as compared to the previous years which was the first time whereby women were measure as having 68% outcomes and chances than men which is slightly down from 68.3% measured in 2016 (World Economic Forum). One of the fastest growing gaps was the economic pillar which deals with leadership, workforce participation and salaries. The report indicated that women across the globe on average earn less than men by large amounts. The report indicated that the gap would not be closed for 217 years.

This income gap is not brought by the fact that men are paid more than women for the same job but because women are likely to be out of the workforce and also to do unpaid work. The women also are less likely to be an organization-high paid senior positions and are also likely to work in industries and organization with lower average pay. Even though this is the case, other countries are doing much better concerning gender equality with Iceland being ranked best across all indicators indicating that it has a small gap in income between men and women.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) indicates that closing this gap is not just for social progression, but it could add stable finance to economies. For instance, the United States could get an additional $1750 billion to its GDP while United Kingdom could receive $250, France gets $310 among other countries which world could increase its GDP by 5.3 trillion by 2025 which is closing the income gap for men and women by over 25%.

In the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, women were excluded because the founder Pierre de Coubertin sensed their involvement would be incongruous. A hundred years and still gender equality is considered a goal than reality when the world was going to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. During this tournament, there were less female events (145) than men events (161) (Kuang). The only time the women events reached half the number of men's event was in 1992 which was a century since the first Olympic Games.

From 1896, 2016 Rio Olympic Games was the only event that recorded the highest number of women contestants, and in percentage, they made up about 45% of the total contestants according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (Kuang).

It is inspirational in this centennial year when we hear about organization coming up to support the women right. From the colonial time, much has been achieved, but the evidence indicates that equality for women is still not a legitimacy. The basic democratic rights of women might have been addressed in law, but the deficiency of inequality for women still looms. It is good to acknowledge that even though laws have been passed in the world today in support of gender equality women are still struggling concerning their level of education, employment, and political participation. It is not right to generalize because others women have been able to perform well in education, employment, and political participation, but a large percentage of them are still struggling. Women are disproportionately probable to be in low skilled work, low pay work or no prospect of progression. They are also likely to face unlawful discrimination, for instance, losing their jobs and education because they are pregnant and more so have an entrenched gender pay gap.

When it comes to power, there could be women who are presidents and prime ministers in a powerful position, but when looking like the leading Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 company's only seven women in this organization are chief executive officers. In the political class, for instance, in the United States, there was a decrease in female ministerial positions whereby women took only 27% of President Donald Trump administration and in among parliamentarians only 28% are women (World Economic Forum). The United Kingdom in its parts lags behind in economic participation and has been ranked 95th in the world for income inequality whereby women earn 45% less than men per year on average (World Economic Forum). This means the recent radical approach in regards to women equality does not offer what will make this gap reduce.

Issues of sexual harassment at workplace together with pay discrimination are always being experienced they are both defined to be against the law. It means that these laws lack the enforcement and jurisprudential when it comes to the agenda of many employers. Giving this laws reason and supremacy to be enforced will be a starting approach, but if there is need to move even further ahead, it is advisable to modernize our workplace. By declining to contract, advance or regard leadership potential in women, businesses keep on abusing their energy against them - and they do it for one reason just: sex. In this sense, discrimination adds to making a domain in which disparity wins, at last sustaining an arrangement of energy asymmetries that legitimizes male predominance, and thus violence, against women.

Every year on November 25th the world celebrated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which means that it has not been accomplished and it is far from being accomplished (Natalia). According to the United Nations on in three women worldwide have experienced sexual, psychological and physical violence in their lifetime. The grim statistics on this issues seems to have no end. Data indicates that over 750 million women today got married as children, 200 million were subjected to genital mutilation, and almost 120 million girls are victims of sexual violence (Natalia). The crucial factor and reason for the cause of violence against women is their gender.

The journey ahead in regards to women equality is still long, but the starting point is for gender to be regarded as a process but not a variable. By recognizing gender, class, race, disability, legal status and sexuality as interlocking systems of oppression then what needs to be implemented is a more inclusive society that is based on the principle of solidarity. Women rights activism has to uphold a practice of exemplification that engrossed on women's multiple voices that primarily based on politics of solidarity between communities and individuals with diverse experience. The last hundred years of achievements have to be recognized ushering another excursion of more work to be done to achieve equality and inclusivity in the society. Countries through the United Nations need to be empowered to educate women to maximize development and competitiveness whereby each nation strives for gender equality. Globally, significant social, cultural and economic barriers are the impacts that prevent women from participating in economic development. There is need to ensure that women have greater economic rights and security to protect them from abuse and violence. This will have a hinge on international development processes making gender equality and women empowerment pivotal.

Works cited

Miller, Maria. "It Might Be 100 Years since Women Got the Vote - but Our Society Is Still

Sexist." The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 5 Feb. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/voices/women-suffrage-right-vote-suffragettes-sexism-gender-pay-gap-men-a8195676.html.

Kuang Keng Kuek Ser. "See 120 Years of Struggle for Gender Equality at the Olympics." Public

Radio International, www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-17/see-120-years-struggle-gender-equality-olympics.

Natalia Koper. "The Economic Gender Gap and Violence against Women Are Two Sides of the

Same Coin." LifeGate, 28 Mar. 2018, www.lifegate.com/people/news/global-gender-gap-report-2017.

RootsLab Lebanon. "The Struggle for Women's Rights." From Poverty to Power, oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/100-years-after-votes-for-women-why-is-stillmarching-as-relevant-as-ever-to-human-progress/.

"Women Won't Have Equality for 100 Years - World Economic Forum." BBC News, BBC, 2 Nov. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-41844875.