Are Women Treated Equally Around the World?

In our 2nd unit for MDGs we were asked to write and essay on gender equality. We compared the United States and another country of our choice In the unit we learned all about women's rights and gender equality. We watched a documentary called "Miss-Representation" which was really informative. The purpose of this assignment was to make us think and learn about women and cultures in other countries. I learned a lot of statistics, some were very troubling, and some were reassuring. It was challenging to find all this information. I did hours of searching and finding good sources and interesting facts. It was also very hard because I had to hold myself back form writing to much. Our essays were only supposed to be around 600 words long, I realized I was at 650 when I was half way through. There was a lot of editing, and the bibliography took a very long time, but it was all worth it and I am very proud of how it came out.

AnonMoos. (2009) Bisexual Symbol. Web: Wikipedia

                                  Are Women Treated Equally Around the World?

Did you know that in 2015, women working full time in the United States were typically paid just 80% of what men were paid? (AAUW.org) That’s a gap of 20%! Unfortunately, this is the reality for most women in the United States and across the world. Women are considered the “weaker sex” in not just religion but society itself. The United States and Pakistan some very big problems when it comes to gender equality in health care, gender pay gap, and education.

In the United States, women are paid generally less than men for the same exact work. The American Association of University Women reports that the pay gap has barely moved in the past decade. In fact, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity, the pay gap only closed two points between 2004 and 2014 — from 76.6 percent to 78.6 percent. Women are also subject to discrimination in healthcare. Did you know that health insurance will cover Viagra for men but not birth control for women? This means healthcare is much for expensive for women. Did you know that more than 43% of women in the United States said that over 2009-2010 they went without recommended care, skipped seeing doctors when they were sick, or failed to fill prescriptions because of cost. (The Commonwealth Fund: Women’s Health Care Report). Education is one of the lesser of the problems in the United States. Studies have shown that girls are often called on more in classrooms and are generally favored by teachers. 30.7 million women 25 years and older have obtained a bachelor's degree or more in 2010. (United States Census Bureau) These statistics are very promising to obtaining a non-segregated country for women.

Gender equality in Pakistan is a little different. Possibly one of the biggest problems in gender equality is the religious beliefs that women should not be educated. In 2012, UNESCO stated that Pakistan showed the least progress in the region educating low-income girls: “The poorest girls in Pakistan are twice as likely to be out of school as the poorest girls in India, almost three times as likely as the poorest girls in Nepal and around six times as likely as the poorest girls in Bangladesh. (Journalist's Resource) In Pakistan, there is not very good health care. Many infants and mothers die during childbirth. This is getting better, and more mothers and children are surviving due to better trained healthcare professionals. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005 that perinatal and maternal deaths decreased significantly when female health workers helped train birth attendants and connected them to formal health services. (World Health Organization.)

Working is also hard for women in Pakistan. This means that women are much less likely to get jobs if they are not educated. In fact, the percentage of female employment in the non-agricultural sector in Pakistan was last measured at 13.2pc in 2013 by the World Bank. (DAWN.com)

The United States are Pakistan are similar in many ways in the issue of gender equality. Women are treated unfairly in both countries. Both in the U.S and Pakistan, there is a growing gender pay gap. This means women get paid less than men for the same work. In the U.S, there are many more job opportunities for jobs than in Pakistan, but unlike the United States, Pakistan has had a women in the highest office, and hopefully, the U.S will too.

Pakistan and the U.S are different in a lot of ways as well. In Pakistan, healthcare is not nearly as available than in in U.S. The problem in the U.S is women not having easy access to birth control, which are arguably not needed for survival. In Pakistan, women have a hard time even has a hard time finding an experienced birth attendant. Education for women in the U.S is excellent, and there is little to no sexism in the education world. In Pakistan, it is believed that a women does not have a right to an education and should stay home to do chores. One of the greatest differences between to two are education. In the U.S more women are enrolled in college than men.

In the end, we have to start really treating women as equals. Women can do that same things as men no matter where they are in the world. This is not a man’s world, this is our world.

Works Cited

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Garwood, Paul. "WHO | Pakistan, Afghanistan Look to Women to Improve Health Care." WHO | Pakistan, Afghanistan Look to Women to Improve Health Care. World Health Organization, Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

GDP, By. "The Richest Countries In The World." WorldAtlas. N.p., 19 Sept. 2016. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

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Miller, Kevin. "The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Fall 2016)."AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881. Web. 17 Oct. 2016

"New Women's Health Care Report." - The Commonwealth Fund. The Commonwealth Fund, Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

"Pakistan Population (LIVE)." Pakistan Population (2016). Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

"Population Estimates, July 1, 2015, (V2015)." UNITED STATES QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Raphel, Alexandra. "Women, Girls and Malala: Research on Gender and Education in Pakistan, and beyond." Journalists Resource. N.p., 12 May 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

"Religion in Pakistan." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016

Shah, Rukhsana. "Pakistan’s Growing Gender Gap." DAWN.com, 24 Aug. 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

US Census Bureau Public Information Office. "Facts for Features: Women's History Month: March 2012 - Facts for Features & Special Editions - Newsroom - U.S. Census Bureau." US Census Bureau Public Information Office. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

Wormald, Benjamin. "Religious Landscape Study." Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life Project RSS. 11 May 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.