On balance, Feminism is not needed in the US anymore.

Thank you again for challenging me to this topic! I would like to say the resolution is not just limited to the United States. The resolution reads “On balance, Feminism is not needed in the US anymore.”The resolution is not just on the U.S, but other countries as well, it’s not restricted to the U.S. due to the wording. I will be arguing that: 1. Women are still oppressed in the U.S—thus, we still need feminism. 2. Oppression of Women in other countries, and why feminism is important. Oppression of Women in the U.S A lot of people believe that oppression no longer exist in the U.S anymore. Here are my reasons: C.1 [1] Sex, Domestic Violence and Rape: “In terms of the global sex trade, an estimated 50,000 women are trafficked into the US each year. The USA is both a destination country for trafficking, as well as a source country. This means that American women ARE kidnapped, or otherwise coerced into the sex trafficking industry. Women are often lured into the sex trade under false pretenses; being hired as waitresses or maids and then forced into prostitution. This is not just a problem for developing countries. It is here, on our own soil…. “In the US, 23 women a week are killed by intimates. This has held steady for more than a decade. 74% of women murdered from instances of domestic violence were murdered after the woman left the relationship, filed for divorce or got a restraining order. Our government has failed to protect women from abusive partners, and band-aid solutions like restraining orders are proven to be, ultimately, ineffective.” The goal of the government is to protect their citizens, and keep them safe at all measures. But, they don’t seem to care much when it comes to the safety of the Women. It merely seems as if the government merely believes that Women should be taking care of themselves. [4] Even the government underestimates the crisis American women are in. Last year the Justice Department reported that there were 182,000 sexual assaults committed against women in 2008, which would mean that the rate had decreased by 70 percent since 1993. But a study by the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center showed that the Justice Department's methodology was flawed. Instead of behaviorally based questions, such as "Has anyone ever forced you to have sex?", women were asked if they had been subject to "rape, attempted or other type of sexual attack." Victims often don't label their experience as "rape," especially when someone they know attacked them. The center says the actual number of U.S. women raped in 2008 was more than 1 million. The distressing statistics don't stop with violence: Women hold 17 percent of the seats in Congress; abortion is legal, but more than 85 percent of counties in the United States have no provider; women work outside the home, but they make about 76 cents to a man's dollar and make up the majority of Americans living in poverty. C.2 In the Workplace Many people want to argue that the “Wage Gap” simply doesn’t exist. In fact, it still does. Many people want to argue that the reasoning has to do with degrees, and positions. It has been proven on multiple occasions that Men and Women who have the same degree, and work the same job, Women still earn less. “Women still earn 72 cents for every man a dollar earns. In 2008, women occupied only 15% of board positions of Fortune 500 companies. The proportion of women in government was lower in 2007 than 1997. In Scandinavian countries, there are policies that enforce equality in representation of government. Not in the US, with a paltry 17% of female government officials–Iraq has a higher representation of women in government than we do. So does Namibia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. Until there is equality in representation on a government level, there is no equality for women on the civic level.” [2] “Did you know that in 2014, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 79 percent of what men were paid, a gap of 21 percent? The gap has narrowed since the 1970s (Figure 1), due largely to women’s progress in education and workforce participation and to men’s wages rising at a slower rate. But progress has stalled in recent years, and the pay gap does not appear likely to go away on its own.” This is merely discrimination, paying Women less because she is simply a woman. There is no denying the fact. This is oppression, and we should continue to fight for equality, especially when it comes to pay. Quick facts: Thanks to the pay gap, women struggle to pay off student loan debt even more than men do. The pay gap has barely budged in a decade. At the current rate, the gap won’t close for more than 100 years. Women in every state experience the pay gap, but in some states it’s worse than others C. 3 Why we need Feminism in other Countries. A) Because FGM still exists; [3] FGM involves removing bits of the genitals and stitching them back together. Female genital mutilation causes severe pain. It makes peeing very painful and sex impossible. Many want to say that the procedure is due to religion, which may be true in some cases, but not all. “despite FGM being mainly associated with Ethiopian minority Judaism and Sunni Muslims. The answer often lies in ancient attitudes to female sexuality. In some parts of the world, a high value is placed on a bride’s virginity. FGM destroys the victim’s ability to derive pleasure from sex while also making it highly-painful, ensuring that virginity remains intact. And did I mention this happens to girls as young as five months? That’s right: in 2013 there are still some people who honestly can’t see what’s wrong with mutilating a baby.” Child Brides [3] “Although it affects more girls worldwide, child marriage is bad news for both genders. In Rajasthan in India, children as young as six get married in lavish ceremonies, eventually moving in together at 14. As anyone who’s ever been a teenager knows, fourteen is not an age at which you can typically expect emotional maturity. Unsurprisingly, stuff like domestic abuse is more prevalent in these early marriages. But India has nothing on places like South Sudan or Yemen. While Indian child brides are usually around the same age as their husband, their foreign counterparts often wind up getting married to someone decades older. Girls who refuse to marry are frequently beaten, imprisoned or even murdered.” Again, another act of oppression, and inequality. Women are deprived from making choices themselves, thus they are oppressed by Men. FGM and Child brides are not choices made by Women, but simply by the elders, and Men in their societies. Depriving one of such a choice is a act of discrimination. Theese are just a *few* reasons as to why we still need feminism. The list goes on and on. But theese are the more important issues. Sources: [1] https://heymanda.wordpress.com... [2] http://www.aauw.org... [3] http://listverse.com... [4] http://www.washingtonpost.com...