March is Women’s Month, and I am sure you will see all kinds of advertisements within the coming weeks to make this abundantly clear. I hope you will, because women’s issues are not things we should forget about, dismiss in our busy and frenzied lives.
Really, women’s issues shouldn’t be called to attention in just one month out of the year, but I am glad March at least gives the excuse to flood campus and the community with gender-related topics.
We have all heard of them, these topics: the infamous “glass ceiling” and equality, reproductive health, violence against women. Too often do these important societal issues become politicized.
We render the critical nature of the problems these issues encompass into things that people hear about, but do not care about; we think they have been solved.
America is a progressive society that is exponentially improving gender relations. Reproductive health issues are not actually issues.
Violence against women and violation of human rights is a problem in other cultures, not this one, and those things have never happened to me, someone I love, or someone I know. Sure, women’s issues used to be a big deal, but now they’re pretty much taken care of.
The four previous statements are generalizations that I have heard people say, and I could argue that they are the generalizations many of us think of in reaction to
“women’s issues.” Sadly, these statements destroy awareness of problems that no one should be ignorant about.
Yes, gender relations have improved. But, considering the time since women fought for and got the right to vote in 1920, one has to wonder how far this country has truly come in protecting women’s interests.
Consider this; within the last five years women have only earned between 75 and 78 cents to the dollar as men, sometimes even when a man held the same job position as a woman.
For women of color, the amount earned in comparison to the wages of a man drops below 60 cents to the dollar.
Sure, these numbers have increased since the inception of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, but barely by 20 cents in over twice as many years. That sure is some improvement.
Now, with the state of the economy bringing many families lay-offs, the disparity in wages can be utterly devastating not only to them, but to their communities and society as a whole. Over her lifetime, a woman who has graduated high school can expect to lose close to $400,000, and a college and post-doc graduate $450,000 and $700,000 respectively to the disparity in unequal wages. Later, these figures translate into millions. Millions more women than men live at or below the poverty level in their elderly years.
If women made equivalent wages to men, imagine the increase in taxable income for state and national budgets, the increased stability of families, and the real improvement of gender-relations.
Reproductive health, a women’s issue? I won’t spend much time here for the sake of those squeamish readers out there, and for the political ones itching for an argument on abortion. Abortion is a topic for braver feminists — Yes, I used the “f” word — than me. But, I do have something to say about condoms/contraceptives. When we think about women’s issues, safe sex practices and precautions should immediately come to mind.
Due to our anatomy, women are more susceptible to STIs than men. In looking at just the disease Chlamydia alone, the rate for women is nearly three times that of men. Emphasis on reproductive health in proper use of condoms would improve these rates, and can positively influence the troubling numbers of teenage and unwanted pregnancies.
That is not to say that condoms alone are the answer to the crises of unwanted pregnancies. You can look up the extensive studies on contraceptives and sexual awareness education that virtually solve unwanted pregnancies on your own. I will say this, though, everyone, not just women, must not be ignorant to contraception and safe sex practices. We need to protect ourselves and be more proactive about doing so.
Violence against women, a tragedy that we mourn and ... well, that’s about all that many of us do. Each year close to 4.8 million women experience domestic violence that results in rape or other physical injury.
Along with the psychological and emotional trauma that violent encounters cause victims, the lasting effects of domestic violence are inestimable.
And that number is based just on the incidents that go reported. Since violence against women and rape are the most underreported crimes in the country, it is hard to say exactly how many women become victims each year.
Overall, 11 percent of high school girls reported forced sexual encounters, 25 percent of women in college reported the same, and 1 in 6 women in the country verified they had been attacked or raped at least once in their lives.
In other countries, especially conflict countries like Democratic Republic of the Congo, the rape statistics, if you can imagine, are much worse. In places like DRC, violence against women and rape are instruments of war, and therefore far more frequent, and brutal. Victims of violence or sexual assault are not just numbers, though.
We hear those numbers all the time, we are numb to them by now. Unless we see the violence for ourselves, the pain and desolation that violence against women creates is perpetuated.
Even as the country and the Virginia Tech community mourn the loss of Morgan Harrington, how many of us fail to see the problem in our society that gives women cause to fear being alone after dark?
So, I’ve rambled on about women’s issues, and I’m sure you’re wondering what any of this has to do with Women’s Month. Let me remind you of the generalizations I mentioned earlier.
I hope I have given you a clearer picture of why they are absolutely wrong, and gotten you to think about how they can be dangerous to women. The truth is that women’s issues, and really any gender issues (but that is another topic), are not things of the past. As long as women continue to struggle for equality in patriarchal and modern societies, do not have access to the methods and tools to ensure their reproductive health, and have reason to fear their own communities and societies, we must not be ignorant or critical of women’s issues. They affect all of us in innumerable ways.
As you read this, I hope you will have thought about your mother, your sister, your grandmother, whomever the influential women in your life are. Surely you must realize, and maybe appreciate more, how central they are to our society despite the obstacles they face.
Whether you talk to them, avoid them, love them, or think they are subordinates, women in your community, state, country, and world desperately need you to care about them, their suffering, rights, and opportunities. Take Women’s Month seriously; check out all of the neat events planned this year, accept The Challenge sponsored by the Women’s Center, mark your calendars for the annual Take Back the Night Rally and March on the 25th in honor of Morgan Harrington, and find out how you can join the women of the world in solidarity in making the world a better place for all of us!