Equality in the 21st Century: Unraveling the Struggles and Hopes

Introduction

Good morning to all of you. My name is Jan Marvic Cabrera, and I want to start with a Strong quotation. “Men and women are not equal”. This statement alone can make a big impact and have a lot of stories to tell. In the 21st century, there’s so much to tell, and this seems something that should already be intrinsic to humanity. However, there’s a lot of misunderstanding and struggle for equality worldwide, especially for women. Some countries have laws or strict regulations on women’s rights.

For example, what women can wear, do a job, or even what they can say. For example, here in our country, being a Woman president seems very hard to achieve. We fought for it, but still, we can’t achieve the equality we always want. Remember when former VP Leni Robredo ran for President? Many speculations and reports show that she can’t and will not fit being President Because she is a woman. Because she is too soft and fragile, which can cause our country chaos.

Gender Inequality in Cultural and Institutional Norms

Inspired by the #MeToo movement in the United States, where Luo now lives, she wrote a detailed account of her experience in an open letter that she posted under that hashtag on Weibo, the popular Chinese social media platform. In 2004, Luo Xixi, a young Ph.D. student at Beihang University in Beijing, wrote an essay about how his superior harassed her because she was a woman, weak, fragile, and could be easily manipulated. Women’s rights in China are too cruel, and the culture is more patriarchal. Many women, especially students and young ones, have their lives almost controlled by their superiors, and if they speak out, they will be punished. You can see and hear a lot of memes on social media about China: “When you know, you know.” We already know China lacks a clear definition of sexual harassment. (A law passed in 2005 banned workplace harassment, but any concrete sense of what harassment means was left too vague for implementation to be truly effective.) In the workplace, as well as in schools, there are no standardized guidelines on how to handle sexual assault.

You can connect gender equality in many things, Even in religions, how they treat women. In Muslim, women wear hijabs and dress modestly as imposed on them by men. Men in Islam are superior. You can’t oppose or contradict what they want. Women can’t stand for themselves, like having an arranged marriage with a man they didn’t love. There’s a lack of gender equality in many religions, but we can’t oppose it because that is their tradition and beliefs.

Despite recent improvements and advances, people in this country are still being fired, harassed, and targeted at work because they are LGBTQ. Still, the LGBTQ community still suffers pernicious and blatant gender bias in all areas of public and private life. Even tho there are many growing laws around our country protecting. But LGBTQ, Nearly 41% of gay and lesbian adults face some form of hostility or harassment on the job, including being fired or forced to quit because of their sexual orientation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, gender equality is hard to obtain, but it’s not impossible; I believe someday, we will achieve gender equality. There are a lot of controversies about gender equality, too many that I can’t discuss at all. But one thing is for sure: in this cruel world, gender equality is still a hot-wired topic that can’t be solved until now.

References

1. "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" by Nicholas D. Kristof

2. "We Should All Be Feminists" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

3. "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead" by Sheryl Sandberg 

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