Being a girl in a male-dominated world can be very difficult. Growing up in a time so heavily focused on the fight for equality and our rights was eye-opening. I participated in numerous women's marches and I believe this helped inspire my thirst for equality. I'm grateful to be able to grow up in a world where I'm mostly equal to men, but I believe we still have a long way to go. There have been many instances in my life where I have faced sexism and oppression. I have been the subject of many sexist and offensive jokes throughout my life. Over the summer, I was at a summer camp and happened to be wearing socks that said "The Future is Female." I hadn't thought about it, but one of the kids who attended this summer camp decided to read my socks and say “Oh no! Looks like we have a feminist on our hands!” I thought this was a very rude and unnecessary comment. It's actions like these that make feminism difficult for most people to take seriously. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay This essay will argue that women are still not entirely equal and how their rights are different in different geographical regions. Feminism is the idea that women should be equal and have the same rights as men. Even though women can now vote, women's rights are very different in different regions of the world. Feminism can be perceived as the desire to be better than men, but this is not the case. “Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings.” Different cultures view women in many different ways, some religions can be restrictive towards women, and women's rights vary from region to region. The women's suffrage movement began in 1848 in New York. The Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, was one of the first conventions held in support of women. This is said to be the thing that launched the women's suffrage movement. Over the next 50 years, women's suffrage workers spent their time working to educate the public about the injustice women felt during that time period. In the early 19th century, women realized that if they wanted to be taken seriously by men, they should have the right to vote. That's when the women's suffrage movement exploded and became a real issue that everyone was talking about. After years of struggle, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, giving women the right to vote. This was considered the greatest victory for women of the Progressive Era. The 1960s and 1970s were the years when the women's rights movement really began to grow. The women's suffrage movement was the first wave feminist movement and focused more on political rights, while the second wave feminist movement was the women's rights movement that focused more on women's rights in work, family, in sexuality, also including politics (Burkett, 2019). In the 1970s, women were labeled housewives. They were forced to take home economics classes so they could cook and clean for their men. This was one of the things that sparked the movement of the 60s-70s. In these times, a big topic that was talked about was abortion. Many people disagreed with abortion, arguing that it was morally wrong, but many women argued that they should have the right to have control over their own bodies. Women had tofight hard for abortion, because it was actually more dangerous and killed more when it was illegal. Women sought out illegal abortion clinics that often ended up killing not only the baby, but also the woman. In 1972, Florida passed a law making abortion legal. Abortion rights are something women still fight for today. This movement also contributed heavily to the divorce rate in the 1970s. They have successfully liberalized divorce laws to help women in unhappy or abusive relationships. Recently women have also been allowed to work in higher paying jobs, which has given them more financial stability. This also led them to divorce their husbands and become more independent. They were eventually allowed to work, have bank accounts and own a home. There has been more news and ideas about women's rights recently. The #MeToo movement was popularized in 2017 to spread awareness about sexual and domestic abuse. That same year, there was a women's march in Washington DC that was similar to a march in 1978. This movement helped countless young women talk about their experiences of assault and abuse. It's a very difficult thing to talk about and the #MeToo movement has been very helpful in spreading awareness for everyone. She helped bring women together. While we have come a long way, we still have a long way to go when it comes to gender equality. So, how equal are women? Family law is a personal status law that can dictate everything about a woman's life. It covers his status, right to own property, get married, get divorced, etc. Family law has always favored the rights of men over those of women. In most of Europe and North America, laws like these have been liberalized, while the Middle East and some parts of Asia have been reluctant to liberalize. With family law still in place in some regions, we cannot be completely equal, as family law is aimed at men. Violence against women is one of the biggest problems women face around the world. Women of all races, classes, religions, statuses and sexualities experience violence. The United Nations defines it as “Any act of gender-based violence that causes, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life." This can include domestic abuse, sexual abuse, rape, sexual assault, forced marriage, emotional abuse and more. It is a violation of basic human rights. In countries where there is no law that ban it, the expected lifespan of women is generally shorter than that of men. It is said that one in three women has experienced violence against her at least once in her life. “Being a girl, being a woman, was the end.” (Fonda, 2018) Some people might say that the gender wage gap is not real, but it is real and affects not only women, but especially women of color Asian woman would earn 90%, a white woman would earn 79%, a black woman would earn 62%, an American Indian woman would earn 57%, and a Hispanic woman would earn 54%. (Vagini, 2018). The gender pay gap is still very real and a real problem. How can we achieve equality if women don't even earn the same amount as men for doing the same job? I conducted a survey asking about women's rights and how women are equal to men, that's itsome things I discovered. When asked “Do you believe women should be equal to men?” 62 of the 63 people who took the survey said yes. So, according to some demographic questions asked in the survey, 98.4% of people between the ages of 10 and 18 believe that women should be equal to me. 87.3% of these people believe that women are still not equal to men in the United States. When asked “In the United States, do you believe that women are currently equal to men?” 87.3% said no. In the remaining 12.7%, 62.5% of responses identified as female. This was surprising, I expected more males than females to say that women are currently equal. When asked "Do you believe that some religions limit women's rights?" 92.1% of people who participated in this survey said yes (Frederiksen, 2019). I was surprised because I thought people would defend religion, as it can play a very important role in some people's lives, and they wouldn't want to see it in a bad light. This survey was very helpful, I enjoyed seeing what my colleagues think about this big issue. 96.8% of people who participated in that survey believe that different cultures treat women differently. This brings us to the next topic. Women all over the world experience things differently, for example; In South Korea, women found "spy cameras" in bathrooms and changing rooms. The pictures taken with these images are usually very personal and are posted on the Internet by men. The government does not consider it a serious matter unless the victim is a man (which is very rare). These Korean women also have to deal with the fact that abortion is only legal in cases of rape or insistence. Even so, women still need permission from their heir husband to proceed with an abortion. This is another example of men disempowering women in a time of need. A study conducted by the Korean Institute of Criminology on 2,000 Korean men shows that 79.7% of Korean men admitted to having emotionally or physically abused a girl at least once in their lives. 71% admitted to manipulating their girlfriends by controlling some aspect of their lives. Limit how they dress, who they talk to, how often they go out, and monitor who they are friends with. The current fine for stalking is only $90 (Smith, 2018). This is not good. Korean women deserve equality and should not suffer this abuse. Most Asian countries are still riddled with sexism and discrimination against women. The Philippines is currently the only country in Southeast Asia with more than 10% women represented in politics. Furthermore, women still earn only 30% of what their male colleagues would earn. Women in Asian countries also face a lot of discrimination in the workplace, especially pregnant women. They also face a constant threat of domestic and sexual abuse. Marital rape is not yet considered a crime, as most Asian countries still do not have all the necessary laws to protect women. Saudi Arabia recently lifted its ban on women driving, followed by a ban on women traveling abroad. It may not seem like much, but it's actually a huge step forward for the women of Saudi Arabia! Saudi Arabia still has a long way to go, as it still has guardianship laws that make women legally dependent on male relatives. 12 of the 15 states with the lowest rates of working women are in the Middle East and North America, and most women are forced to stay at home all day. One of the biggest problems isthat the law against child marriage is very weakly enforced, so many women are trapped in a marriage from an early age, from which it is difficult for them to get out. Men are also legally allowed to leave their wives without women having a say, leaving them alone with no money, nowhere to go and no dignity. Women's rights in the United States are very different from women's rights in other regions of the world. It seems that women have much more freedom in the United States than in the Middle East or most Asian countries. The United States was much quicker to give women the right to vote and own land than other countries, but women are still not entirely equal. While women have most of the same rights as men, they still face sexual harassment, sexism, and the gender wage gap. Religion is a very important part of most cultures, so it can profoundly influence how those cultures treat women. Christianity is the dominant religion in the United States, with 65% of adults identifying as Christian in 2019 (Newport, 2019). People have manipulated the words of the Bible in a way that puts men at an advantage. Authority in Christianity is dominated by men, with only 9% of American pastors being women. The Roman Catholic Church has not yet allowed women to be ordained. Most churches have chosen to ignore the sexual assault and abuse that women face, believing that if they ignore it, it will go away. In the early days of the Church, adultery committed by a woman was punishable by death, while adultery committed by men had no punishment. Catholicism and Christianity usually go hand in hand, so here are some ways Catholicism oppresses women. «The Catholic Church has long been one of the main global carriers of the misogyny virus' (McAleese, 2018). The Catholic Church also tries to belittle women from men and separate them completely. The problem is that the things written in the Bible were appropriate for the people then in which it was written, but would now be considered unfair and misogynistic. It contains many verses that say questionable things like “Let wives also be subject to their husbands in everything.” (Diedenderfer, 2018). People try to follow the Bible, but some things no longer apply and should no longer be followed. Women living in the Middle East also have many difficulties due to religion. Islam is one of the major religions of the Middle East. According to Islamic beliefs, there is evil in the soul of women, so they are dangerous to men and should be controlled by men. In countries practicing Islam, it is said that a woman earns God's grace by obeying her husbands. This directly feeds into the idea that men should demand and women obey. It is said that women are only used as pleasure for men and for reproduction. They are said to distract men from their work, so they have to hide and suppress their sexuality for men. They are not allowed to hold roles of authority in society other than that of mother or wife, which is still a small and easily dominated role. Another thing used in the Islamic religion is the hijab. It is used to cover a woman, so it cannot pose any danger to a man. This is another way of oppressing women, taking away their sexual freedom and making them seem like objects to which men can do whatever they want. The strong need to control women can actually be traced back to a practice older than Islam itself. This practice was the ethic of honor. Male relatives had to protect virginity.