The Gender and Race Inequality
Gender and race equality is a foundation stone of any democratic society and state that strive to social justice and respect for human rights.
Historically women have been fighting for equality and its implementation. Guarantees to ensure equal opportunities for women in public life and in other areas at the legal level are recognized in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women [Un.org]. However, the world still faces overt and covert discrimination of the female half of the population. And this is an international problem. Despite the broad legal framework, many researchers note that a large negative impact on the advancement of women's careers as well as on their salaries has the existence of outdated gender stereotypes and patriarchal systems in society. Social vulnerability and economic dependence make women even more vulnerable in society.
Women not only make up about half of the world's population, but also represent a significant part at work. According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, ‘’women now make up more than 40 % of paid workers outside the agricultural sector, comparable to 1990.” Also there has been a 13 percent decrease of women in vulnerable employment between 1991 and 2015 [p. 5].
Experts say about unfair labor practices because over the past 10 years the number of full-time employed women has decreased significantly despite the increase in the level of female higher education [Dw.com].
In January 2014 the reporter of “New Indian Express” Papiya Bhattacharya in his article ‘Discrimination against Women in Science Exists’ notes the existence of gender inequality in scientific fields. P. Bhattacharya brings research results, published in “Nature” and “Plos One”, according to which women make up less than 30% as authors of articles, publications, scientific works around the world, while men - 70%. For every article with a woman first author, there are almost two (1.93) man-authored articles. On average, scientific papers written by women are cited less frequently than those written by men. Women's authorship is more prevalent in countries with low scientific production [Newindianexpress.com].
An interesting opinion has Dr. Soumya Swaminathan who notes the presence of a sufficiently large number of successful women with academic degrees in colleges and universities, but only few continue to work seriously in the scientific field. This happens because of women’s domestic responsibilities and female role in the family as opposed to men who can afford frequent business trips [Newindianexpress.com].
A similar problem exists not only in India, but also in Western countries. According to the survey conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2010, including 1.3 thousand respondents, 52% of women reported that they faced discrimination by sex in his scientific career, with only 2 % men among those [aaas.org].
H. Shen also draws attention to such an important matter for women as motherhood. According to the study at the University of California, childless young researchers of both sexes who have received a PhD degree, equally often decide to leave the science, while women postdocs who have already become mothers or are only going to, on the average drop out research career twice as often as men in similar circumstances [Shen, p. 3].
According to International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, '' all people are born free and equal in rights and before the law. '' [Un.org] But in reality it's a big problem of nowadays and we face it really often. For example, according to Pew Research Center poll in 2015, a significant amount of Americans say that the government needs to proceed making positive changes in racial matter to assure that black people have equal rights with whites [Pewresearch.org]. Almost 90 % of blacks believe that more changes should be made to achieve racial equality, while among whites this percent comprises 53.
Compare with 2010, the percent of whites who think that racism is a big problem has increased 17 points (44 %), while that of blacks – nearly three quarters [Pewresearch.org].
Also since 1989 the wealth gap of blacks and whites reached its peak in 2013. “The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013”, as stated in Pew Research Center analysis [Pewresearch.org].
Racial discrimination also exists in cinema. Film critic Lou Lumenick called for a ban to screen "Gone with the Wind" because of the presence of racist elements in the film. “What about us, as a nation, if we are still showing the film that causes the same association as the Confederate flag? If the banner of Confederation is finally recognized an ugly symbol of racism, why do we still consider "Gone with the Wind," the banner of American culture? "- Lumenick notes [Theguardian.com].
This year Oscar’s ceremony was a scandal as Jada Pinkett Smith, the wife of a famous (and one of my favorite actor) Will Smith, called for ignoring the ceremony because of the low nominated number of black actors.
So, we see that the problem of gender and racial discrimination is a real matter of our time, although throughout the history it seemed to be exterminated. Governments need to pay more attention to it and make more changes to ensure the problem will be completely solved.
Work Cited
Aaas.org. Barriers for Women Scientists Survey Report. Web. 1903.2016
˂http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/migrate/uploads/0928loreal_survey_report.pdf˃
Bhattacharya, Papiya (2014). ‘Discrimination against Women in Science Exists’. Web. 19.03.2016
˂http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/%E2%80%98Discrimination-Against-Women-in-Science-Exists%E2%80%99/2014/01/13/article1997831.ece˃
Dw.com. Women in Germany await workplace equality, 8.03.2016. Web. 19.03.2016
˂http://www.dw.com/en/women-in-germany-await-workplace-equality/a-19099867 ˃
Drake, Bruce (2016). 5 Facts about Race in America. Pewresearch.org. 2016. Web. 19.03.2016
˂http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/18/5-facts-about-race-in-america/˃
Rakesh Kochhar, Richard Fry (2014). Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession. Pewresearch.org. 2016. Web. 19.03.2016
˂ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/12/12/racial-wealth-gaps-great-recession/˃
Shen, Helen (2013). Inequality quantified: Mind the gender gap. Web. 19.03.2016
˂https://usm.maine.edu/sites/default/files/womenadvance/Inequality%20quantified%20Mind%20gender%20gap%20%20Nature%20News%20%26%20Comment.pdf˃
Shoard, Catherine (2015). US critic: 'undeniably racist' Gone with the Wind should be banned from cinemas. Theguardian.com. 2016. Web. 19.03.2016
˂ http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/25/us-critic-deniably-racist-gone-with-the-wind-should-be-banned-from-cinemas˃
Un.org. Resolution adopted on the reports of the Third Committee. Web. 19.03.2016
˂https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/378/07/IMG/NR037807.pdf?OpenElement˃
Un.org. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015. Web. 19.03.2016
˂http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%202015%20rev%20(July%201).pdf˃
