Crossing a Boundary - Gender Issues #3
Today, looking at Gender Equality a Century after women gained the right to vote
The Pew Foundation does social research. They started this article with this statement:
“Aug. 18 marks the 100-year anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women in the United States the right to vote. As this milestone approaches, about half of Americans (49%) say granting women the right to vote has been the most important milestone in advancing the position of women in the country, according to a Pew Research Center study. And while many Americans say the last decade has seen progress in the fight for gender equality, a majority say the country still hasn’t gone far enough in giving women equal rights with men. “
Some of their points:
A majority (57%) of adults say the U.S. hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to giving women equal rights with men.
Among those who think the country still has work to do in achieving gender equality, 77% say sexual harassment is a major obstacle to women’s equality.
About three-in-ten U.S. men think women’s gains have come at the expense of men.
Americans are more than twice as likely to say that, when it comes to gender discrimination, the bigger problem is people not seeing it where it really does exist, rather than people seeing discrimination where it does not exist (67% vs. 31%)
Majorities say the feminist movement and the Democratic Party have done at least a fair amount when it comes to institutions and groups that have helped advance women’s rights.
While a majority of Americans say feminism has had a positive impact on the lives of white, Black, and Hispanic women, more say feminism has helped White women a lot.
Most who say the country still has work to do on gender equality say equality is likely to be achieved in the future.”
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Sometimes it is hard to believe that it was just 100 years ago that women could vote in the United States.
I’ve been ‘reading’ (okay, listening) to Melinda Gates (maybe better known as Mrs. Bill Gates) book “The Moment of Lift”. She talks of leaders making decisions for people without involving them. For example, tribal leaders in Africa (all male - of course) prescribing genital mutilation for women. “Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women's sexuality. Adverse health effects depend on the type of procedure; they can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. There are no known health benefits.” (Wikipedia).
The practice of FGM comes in a male-dominated society - where male leaders legislate rules for women. And, likewise, women not allowed to vote came in a society where all leaders were male and governments decided that women were not ‘smart’ enough to vote!!
So, maybe the times have changed - a little - and women can vote, but the Pew Research suggests that we are still in a male-dominated society when it comes to equal rights, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and for fair treatment of women (and especially for minority women).
Melinda Gates also discusses other male-dominated decisions around the globe. In some societies, marriages are (still) arranged, and daughters as young as five-years-old are married to older men. (The younger the girl, the higher probability of being a virgin!!). Some societies restrict women from working outside the home, from voting, from driving, from owning businesses, and from family planning (more on this tomorrow).
Gates also goes into the religious biases against women (see my last two days of this blog) - women not being allowed to speak in a service. From I Timothy 2:11-15 we have this, ““Women should learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them. Let them listen quietly. [...] But women will be saved through childbearing, assuming they continue to live in faith, love, holiness, and modesty.”
It would seem like the apostle Paul in this writing implies that a single woman will not be saved as they don’t bear children (and the same for married women who do not have children).
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