Back in May, I wrote a guest blog for this website. In the blog I discussed feminism. A comment was made on the blog, calling out the legitimacy of my arguments. I, along with the help of my sister Bianca, have decided to kindly refute the assertions of the comment and better explain our own beliefs.

HERE ARE OUR 4 MAIN ASSERTIONS 

• The Wage Gap is REAL, and partly caused by discrimination

                  Bianca, 18

                  ( Note: This video, and all sources listed in the description, are the basis of all my evidence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it0EYBBl5LI).

While some people refuse to acknowledge the existence of a pay gap between men and women, research has found that it exists. The size of the pay gap depends largely on what is being calculated. The pay gap by hourly wage is 16% – by weekly take home pay between 18 and 19% – and by annual earnings around 20%. This does not account for differences in education, skills, and experience. However, when that is all accounted for the wage gap drops to between 4 and 8%. This disparity is the “Unexplained Pay Gap”. There is no economic explanation for it. It is gender discrimination. Due to this, women lose, over 241 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR TO DIRECT DISCRIMINATION.

Now, several sources refuting the existence of a wage gap note legitimate issues surrounding career choices, paid hours, and children. It is true women, on average, work less PAID (keyword) hours than men, and choose less lucrative professions. Women work on average 167 minutes of unpaid routine housework, while men work 101.

As far as the impact children have on the wage gap, studies have shown with each child brought into the home a woman’s average income compared to men drop. It drops about 7.5% after the first kid. Also, a Stanford study using fictitious resumes, showed mothers were less likely to be offered positions and when offered a position where offered lower starting salaries and lower level positions. Fathers, conversely, faired better in both employment opportunities and wages. Which explains why the wage gap worsens as women age.

This wage gap isn’t expected to close until 2058. I have no doubt that it exists. And given the evidence you should to.

• Just because gender discrimination is illegal, doesn’t mean it is gone forever

                  Naomi, 16

There are a lot of laws and amendments in this country. In a perfect utopia, everyone will obey these laws. Unfortunately, it is very naive to assume that just because something is “illegal” that it doesn’t occur regularly.

For instance, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. This means that it is currently illegal to be discriminatory to people based on race. Does this mean that people don’t discriminate against different races and people of color? Does this mean that racism ceases to exist? If you answered yes, then I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong. It is empirically proven that discrimination and racism still exist. If you don’t believe me, turn on the news, and you’ll see. But, isn’t racism and discrimination illegal?

The same goes for sexism. It is illegal to discriminate based on sex. That doesn’t mean that sexism doesn’t exist anymore. The Wikipedia page on The Equal Pay Act, towards the bottom it reads, “…the EPA’s equal pay for equal work goals have not been completely achieved, as demonstrated by the BLS data and Congressional Findings within the text of the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act.” So I guess the whole, “ Cause u kno, we’re already equal.” isn’t true. We are not “already equal”.

 

• Miniscule?!?!

                  Naomi, 16

What chilled me the most about the comment left on my last post was the phrase, “you should be grateful that as a woman, you have a two times less of a chance to get violently assaulted by that man.” It is unfortunate that I had to type that. It is extremely sexist, and disrespectful to women experiencing any types of abuse at the hands of men. In addition to that, Women are 6.5 times more likely to be raped than a man, and 1 in every 6 women will be a victim of an attempted or completed rape.

Also, catcalling is not a “minuscule” problem, in a random sample survey [http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/resources/statistics/sshstudies/]  of 811 women, 99% of the women reported having been street harassed. 95% were a target of staring, 94-95% of whistling and honking, 87% of a sexist comment, 82% of a vulgar gesture, 81% of a sexually explicit comment, 77% of kissing noises, 75% of following, 62% of a man blocking their path, 57% of sexual touching or grabbing, 37% of a man masturbating in front of them, and 27% of assault. None of these numbers are minuscule. Justifying catcalling and saying that is useless to fight against these things is completely ludicrous. Does this mean, I should just stay silent? Does this mean, that when a man explicitly checks me out and whistles at me in a public setting, I’m suppose to just let it slide? Does this mean, that it is meaningless for a woman to talk about her daily struggles of being women? Does this mean, that we are suppose to just stay silent??? Justifying catcalling creates more and more justifications, it’s a domino effect. One justification leads to another.

If catcalling doesn’t warrant an entire movement of female justice, then what does warrant an entire movement? Do we need to wait until the casualties grow bigger? How many more women need to be raped? How many more women need to be street harassed? How many more women need to be discriminated against in the workplace? How many more women need to be left out of politics? These are questions you should think about before jumping to conclusions.

• Career is not always the ideal

                  Bianca, 18

Even in western society different sub groups have different ideals. Some homes encourage the idea of a working women, while some discourage it. I am not here to say that either women staying at home or working is best. But, I refuse to be narrow minded in thinking that the way my little slice of life views female roles is the way all western people do. As expressed in this blog. Women should do what they want. Feminism isn’t about telling women what to do. It is about making sure that women have other equal opportunities.