During many years, there has been sexism, or also called gender discrimination. Women, have been treated horribly. Luckily our culture now a-days has made a huge progress over the last few decades against this, but the sad truth is that a lot of women are still affected daily by this form of discrimination.
One of the ways that gender discrimination is portrayed in the world now a days is with sex trafficking. In many very poor countries children (specially girls), do not get an education. Their families need money to be able to sustain the whole family. They often use their children to work at farms to earn money, however normally working at farms is a hard labour that doesn't give of enough salary. These families become easy prays for sex traffickers, and they often have to send their kid to become prostitutes. In Thailand the sex trade is on the rise, and this is one of the jobs most people live of. " When I was at work, fifty percent of me hated what I was doing, but the other fifty percent wanted to stay because I had to earn money for my family", said a fourteen year old girl, that was a victim of sex traffic in South East Asia. The pressure that these girls are being put to is of life or death, since without the money, her whole family cant live. This shows gender discrimination, because this is showing, how some people use girls as a business, selling their bodies to other men, and even if this is mostly against their will they still are forced into working at this.
Another way that gender discrimination is shown very frequently is in the workplace. There is research that shows that women often get paid less than men do for the same work. There are studies that show that women working 41-44 hours per week earn 84 percent of what men earn working for the same hours at the same job. The more hours they work for the worst this problem gets. There are also plenty of cases of women getting fired because they had a maternity leave. Since this costs to much for the business they decide to fire her. This shows gender discrimination because women and men should be able earn the same for the same amount of work that they do, and they not paying women the same is a unfair way to show sexism. Also firing women because of a maternity leave is horrible, because women should be able to have children and form a family at the same time as have a decent job. Women should be happy about having children, and be treated with respect about it, not punish them by taking away their salary.
Another example of gender discrimination that has recently caught my interest has been that in Saudi Arabia, it is forbidden for women to drive. Only men are around to drive women around, but they can't drive women they don't know. So in other words, women are not allowed to drive around town, or use taxis and buses since the drivers don't have any relation with them. They can only use a car if a man that they know is driving it. This completely makes it impossible for women to be independent. I think that that it's insane the fact that in the 21st century there are still countries that are in such a regressive when it comes to gender equality. I completely support all the women that are protesting against this and that are trying to make a change about sexism in their country, but also making this public to the world so everyone can see how important it is to treat all genders the same.
I hope that this shows some people that it is really important to be respectful to both males and females with equality and respect. I think that the world would benefit a lot from that behavior. All I hope is that I live to see equality make this a better world Gender equality is more than an a goal in itself. It is a percondion for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance" - Kofi Annan.
