Woman face more challenges in Western society than men do

Thanks again to Con for allowing me to participate in this debate. Con is arguing that women in Western societies do not face significantly more challenges then men. I disagree – even in today’s modern society, women still face more difficulties than men. The Center for American Progress found that while a majority of men in the US feel that the “country has made most of the changes needed to give women equal rights as men,” only 29 percent of American women felt the same [1]. That alone should demonstrate that not enough progress has been made regarding the discrimination of women. There are many reasons why most women feel they face more challenges then men in Western society, but I will focus on four specific areas – harassment, workplace discrimination, sexual assault, and reproductive rights. Women endure daily harassment on a level that most men can’t even comprehend. Things like leering, cat-calling, sexually explicit comments, or inappropriate touching are endured on a regular basis by many women, causing embarrassment, intimidation, and fear. In a 2014 study, 65% of American women reported being street harassed, compared to 25% of men. 57% of women had been verbally assaulted (only 18% of men), and 41% of women had been physically harassed (only 16% of men) [2]. Just going to work without being harassed is generally more difficult for women than men, but the challenges don’t end once a woman gets to work. Sexual harassment is an all-too common occurrence in the workplace, and women are disproportionately the victim – about 79% of workplace sexual harassment is against women [4]. The daily harassment that women must contend with is so much greater than what men deal with – this has been a persistent issue for women, even in Western societies like the US. Harassment is just one major challenge that women in the workplace must contend with, more so than men. Another is discrimination. The most obvious example of this is the disparity in pay between men and women in Western societies. In 2015, women in the US were paid on average 80 percent of what men were paid, with women of color even worse off than white women [5]. The pay gap can be seen at the beginning of a woman’s career (men out of college in the same majors and jobs make more than their female counterparts) and even as she advances in her career, when the pay gap widens [1]. Even the highest paid female executives are paid 18% less than their male counterparts [6]. The gender pay gap is a clear barrier to financial equality with men. Why do men make more than women in general? Some might argue that men work more hours, and this is true – the majority of American workers logging more than 35 hours a week are men [7]. But this is simply the result of yet another challenge that women deal with more than men – child care. Childless women generally make as much as men, but things change after childbirth. Women who give birth are more likely to be the primary caretaker for the child and will not be able to commit to longer work hours. In a 2015 study, American women with children under 6 years spend an average of an hour a day providing physical care, compared to 25 minutes spent by men [8]. Men earn more overtime hours, leading to more pay and promotions [9], while women who give birth while working are more likely to switch to part-time work or leave the workforce entirely [7]. In this context, raising children is unpaid work that is more likely to be done by women than men. For doing this important work, women must deal with the reality of earning less than men. An exacerbating factor is the lack of paid family or maternity leave in the United States, which ranks dead last among developed countries in this area [10]. All of these elements contribute to the gender pay gap between men and women in the US. Sexual assault in the United States has become an epidemic – an American is sexually assaulted every two minutes. One in six women has been a victim of rape, compared to one in 33 men. 82% of all juvenile rape victims and 90% of all adult rape victims are women [11]. I think it’s pretty safe to say that women endure the vast majority of the sexual violence in the US. In addition to the issue of frequent sexual harassment, it is clear that women face tremendous challenges avoiding the threat of violence. Reproductive rights are generally an incidental issue for men, but for women they are of critical importance. And yet, Western societies like the U.S. impose burdens on women’s reproductive choices that are not imposed on men. For example, until recently, employee-based healthcare plans were not mandated to cover contraception (while making provisions to cover drugs for erectile dysfunction, like Viagra); a 2014 Supreme Court decision currently allows religious employers to exclude contraception from their health insurance. If you are a woman working for one of those employers, you would have to pay out of pocket for birth control while a male co-worker could get a Viagra prescription through insurance [12]. And despite Roe v. Wade, access to safe abortions has been drastically reduced in recent years. 19 states prohibit late-term abortions, 43 states prohibit abortions beyond the point of “fetal viability,” 38 states require parental consent, 17 states require women to be given counseling, 28 states mandate waiting periods, and 11 restrict coverage of abortions in private insurance plans [13]. There are no such restrictions in Western society on a man’s reproductive decisions, but women do not enjoy such freedom over their own bodies. The discrimination women face in exercising their reproductive rights is yet another issue of a challenge that is not experienced by men in Western society. I’ve just laid out several serious and pervasive challenges faced by women that men rarely, if ever, encounter. The problems of harassment, workplace discrimination, sexual assault, and limited access to reproductive rights reflect the immensity of the daily issues women in the West face, more than men in general. There has been much progress but much more needs to be done before men and women are truly treated with equal dignity and respect. SOURCES: [1] - https://thinkprogress.org... [2] - http://www.stopstreetharassment.org... [3] - http://www.huffingtonpost.com... [4} - http://www.aware.org.sg... [5] - http://www.aauw.org... [6} - https://thinkprogress.org... [7] -http://www.wsj.com... [8] - http://www.mcclatchydc.com... [9] - http://qz.com... [10] - http://www.forbes.com... [11] - https://www.rainn.org... [12] - http://www.huffingtonpost.com... [13] - http://www.attn.com...