Do Women Hold Half the Sky Today?

Lydia 091280008

Womens liberation movement encouraged women to reject their traditional supporting role and to demand equal status and equal rights with men in areas such as employment and pay. Since then, the gender gap between sexes has reduced. Some women even became top-ranking officials like Hillary Clinton, successful entrepreneurs like Xuxin and famous directors like Kathryn Bigelow. It seems that women and men have shared equal opportunities in almost all aspects. However, do women really hold half the sky? I dont think so.

I dont deny the fact that women have gotten remarkable gains in education and jobs. But, according to data, women still earn less than men. One year out of college, women working full time earn only 80% as much as their male colleagues earn. Ten years after graduation, women fall far behind farther behind, earning only 69% as much as men earn, though they accomplish their tasks as well as men. (1) The U.S Department of Labor reported in 2007 that whereas the median annual income for female full-time workers was $35,102, men earned $45,113. How about other countries? Korean men earn 38% more than women. Japanese men earn 33% more than women. German men earn 24% more, while British and Canadian men 21% more. (2) These are incomes of full-time workers. And we cant ignore that there are many women who cant even find a job they want. Take Japan for example, the number of full-time women workers has dropped from 68.1% to 46.5% in the past 20 years.(3) Japanese women are limited to low-paid jobs such as secretary. Many ambitious Japanese women have to escape from local companies to foreign corporations in order to find a job which can demonstrate their talents. In China, women feel harder to land on a job than men. Some HR managers just throw your resume away without a glance because you are a woman. Facing so many inequalities in income and career opportunities, can we say women hold half the sky?

In political, women face more obstacles than men. They are harder to get promoted and much harder to climb to the top. I have never seen a woman American president, thought it has had 55 presidents up to now, neither have I seen a woman Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China. According to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), in 2005, the rate of female representation around the world is at nearly 16%, much less than a half. We can say politic is dominated by men. How to make womens voices be heard is still a question, for they dont have equal number of representatives.

(1) Data from: Judy Goldberg Dey and Catherine Hill, Behind the Pay Gap, Washington, DC: American Association of University Women Education Foundation, 2007 (2) Data from: Survey on the income of men and women in all industrial countries, World Economic Forum, 2010. (3) Data from: Report on Sexual Discrimination of Japan, World Economic Forum, 2010

Besides, women are supposed to do more unpaid work than men. Work and family are regarded as two different areas. Men and women have been playing different roles for a long time and they still hold the traditional view that women should do more housework than men do. As a result, men can spend their free time watching TV, while women have to do all the chores; men can stay in clubs or bars for the whole night, while women have to take care of the children. Whats worse, womens doing unpaid housework is taken for granted in mens eyes. Obviously, men and women dont share the same responsibility of housework and parenting; men hold almost all the sky at home.

And, there are some facts which are cruel to women. I know womens rights vary from country to country, but I didnt know women in some countries still didnt have the basic rights, not to mention equal rights. Although the Koran technically grants women the right to get a divorce, the right to inherit property, and the right to acquire and education, most Muslim societies dont uphold these rights. Muslim women are the victims of honor killings, infanticide, and female genital mutilation. Women cant control their marriage because they are arranged to marry when they are still minors. Riffat Hassan said Muslim Culture has reduced many, if not most, women to the position of puppets on a string, to slave-like creatures whose only purpose in life is to cater the needs and pleasures of men.(4) Indian women in rural areas are forced to do Sati when their husband died. (Sati means that a woman should burn herself to death immediately after her husband die) If we have a look at womens situations in tribes of Africa, which are even worse, can we say women hold half the sky?

In addition, women sometimes face the violence from men. In America, there is one woman raped by man every 6 second. In San Diego, 75% out of all women have been hurt by male family members. In India, 4835 women were killed because they couldnt meet the financial demands of men. (5)

Therefore, women havent held half the sky yet. There is still a long way to go before men and women are equal not only in law but also in practice. No matter how difficult to achieve real equality, we women should never give up fighting for it. I believe, with time going on, women will finally hold half the sky and everyone will have equal opportunity to lead a life he or she dreams of without hindering by gender; everyone will be judged by his or her own ability and achievement, not by gender.

(4). Riffat Hassen, Muslim Doesnt Respect womens Right, 2009. (5). Data from: Report on Family Violence Towards Women, United Nations Childrens Fund