Gender Equality- Guadalupe Hinojosa

Let talk about Gender Equality

By Guadalupe Hinojosa

    Though many in our society, mainly the rich, claim that people have evolved past the old tendencies of treating others from groups of minorities differently, there is still the presence of inequality within our lives and many other's lives. Other people don't try to hide their dislike towards women and view this nasty behavior as their right. It can be men, but there are women who can think this way as well. It was within the last century that women could finally vote, because of the many women suffrage protests that took place. Even then, not all women were able to vote. Currently, we are also still fighting for women to get equal pay in many jobs, with some stats stating that if the pay gap isn't addressed, at the rate we are going, it'll take 108 years for the pay gap to close. Meaning that if society doesn't try to change the pace at which we are trying to fix these inequalities faster, it'll be a century before women get paid around the same as men within the same field of work. Harassment towards women is still a huge issue of course, with the list of problems that need to be addressed for equality in women's rights being miles long.

  Even women have to take into account that we have some sort of privilege when it comes to gender. There are people who don't get spoken about as often when they are not being treated fairly, people who don’t fit into the gender norm. People who do not abide by society’s views of "normal" have it worst of all. Many have been harassed and killed for just wanting to feel happy in their own skin. Their goal of wanting to feel at home in their bodies is viewed as a sin due to religious belief or even just old world views, and as such, these people have been treated like outcasts. They are disrespected by men and women alike, last year having at least 22 reported cases of transgender and gender non-conforming people being purposely targetted and murdered through acts of violence. Even 2020, a year in which people are supposed to stay inside during a pandemic, has resulted in at least 34 more people killed, this year being the highest total recorded to date. It is thought many more possible deaths and murders are left unreported or that the victims aren't identified by their proper gender by media. This is completely disrespectful and cruel to the victims and to the families alike. Fatal Violence against.. gender census for 2020

In a survey done in 2015 within the online community of  27,715 respondents, it was found that trans adults:

• 10% who were out to their immediate family reported violent towards them because they were transgender
•  8% were kicked out of the house because they were transgender
•  majority of respondents who were out or perceived as transgender while in school experienced some form of mistreatment, 17% having experienced serve mistreatment that they dropped out
• 54% experienced verbal harassment while at school, 24% were physically attack while at school, 13% had some form of sexual assault while at school
• 30% responded that they had been fired from a job, denied promotions, as well as possibly harrassed or assaulted (physically or sexually)
• in their daily life 46% were verbally harassed for being trans
• 9% were physically attack for being trans in 2014 while 10% were sexually assaulat the same time
• 47% had had been sexually assaulted at some point of their lifetime
• 15% unemployment rate within the trans community, 30% having experienced homelessness, 29% were currently living in poverty at the time of the survey 
• 40% attempted suicide in their lifetime, which is 9x the rate of suicide in the whole of the US population, 39% having experienced serious psychological distress months before the survey - USTS Report

When they try to get help for their declining health(mental and physical), many transgender people report experiencing mistreatment when trying to get help. Because of unemployment or lack of money many(33%) could not afford any sort of health care, while others who could afford it had had a negative experience previously with their health providers. All were gender related issues, with providers verbally berating them. One quarter didn't even try to get a health provider because of how scared they were of possibly being mistreated for being trans. Another study from the same group found that people of color who were transgender experienced far worse patterns of discrimination than those of their white counterparts. 

Why is this important to me?

I personally identify as a demigirl, which means someone who was born as a female but doesn't fully identify with being a female, mentally wise or scoailly wise. Besides myself, I have family who also arent cis gendered, as well as friends who are transgender. With my own experience, as well as their experience with their gender in the public eye not always being positive, I know this is something that is starting to get more attention. I know people want equality for woman, I am not saying they don't deserve to get equal pay, but it is not just men attack people who aren't cis gendered. It is hard to accept for some but we will never get anywhere in our society if we cant treat people like people just because they want to dress or feel a certain way about themselves.  

sources-

Gender Census 2020: Worldwide Report. (2020, November 09). Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://gendercensus.com/results/2020-worldwide/

Violence Against the Transgender Community in 2020. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://www.hrc.org/resources/violence-against-the-trans-and-gender-non-conforming-community-in-2020

Nation center of transgender equality. (2017). THE REPORT OF THE US transgender survey 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://www.transequality.org/sites/default/files/docs/usts/USTS%20Full%20Report%20-%20FINAL%201.6.17.pdf

Gender Economic Inequality. (2020, October 06). Retrieved November 7, 2020, from https://inequality.org/facts/gender-inequality/

Written by Kate Whiting, S. (n.d.). 7 surprising and outrageous stats about gender inequality. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/03/surprising-stats-about-gender-inequality/

World Economic Forum. (2018). Global Gender Gap Report 2018. Gender Gap 2018, 1-2. doi:ISBN-13: 978-2-940631-00-1