One Pressing Issue the World Faces.

 The Pressing Issue that I am going to cover would be Gender Inequality. Gender Inequality is a very commonly overlooked issue in society as most females (the common victims) are too shy to sound out what they have been going through.

I hope that after reading this, you would have a deeper understanding of this issue and be able to empathize with the victims of Gender Inequality.

What is Gender Inequality?

Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially constructed gender roles.

In Society, women are most commonly the victims of Gender Inequality.

Why does Gender Inequality exist?

Gender inequality still exists because there is an inherent belief that men are simply better equipped to handle certain tasks.

From birth, both males and females are expected by society to play certain roles and behave in certain ways based on traditions, religions, and other beliefs.

Gender Inequality in everyday life

1)EDUCATION

Less than 40 Percent of countries offer girls and boys equal access to education and only 39 percent of countries have equal proportions of the sexes enrolled in secondary education. 

Even once girls are attending school, discrimination follows. One in four girls states that they never feel comfortable using school latrines. Girls are at greater risk of sexual violence, harassment and exploitation in school. School-related gender-based violence is another major obstacle to universal schooling and the right to education for girls.

Data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics

2)ILLITERACY

There are approximately 774 million illiterate adults in the world and two-thirds of them are women. There are approximately 123 million illiterate youths and 61 percent of them are girls. 

Women’s share in the illiterate population has not budged in 20 years. These facts not only affect women but their children as well. A child born to a mother with the ability to read is 50 percent more likely to survive past age five.

It is due to these that society would tend to judge and discriminate against women in the working environment, which brings me to my next point.

Gender Inequality in The Workplace

1)UNEQUAL PAY

Since the second half of the 20th century, women’s labor force participation has grown significantly. Women are working longer hours and pursuing higher education in greater numbers. However, despite this progress, significant wage gaps between men and women persist

Analyzing the most recent Census Bureau data from 2018, women of all races earned, on average, just 82 cents for every $1 earned by men of all races.

This calculation is the ratio of median annual earnings for women working full time, year round to those of their male counterparts, and it translates to a gender wage gap of 18 cents.

Graph to show the wage gap between males and females

2)DIFFERENT OPPORTUNITIES

Some businesses and companies have career progressions that are more favorable to men than compared to women. This is because society feels that that position is more suitable if men were to take up that role.

For example, women make up a little more than one-third of the professionally active physician workforce in the U.S, according to March 2019 data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

A little more than 1 million professionally active physicians are currently practicing in the U.S., 359,409 of whom are female

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation to show the gender ratio of physicians in America

How can we mitigate the issue of Gender Inequality?

1. We could increase public consciousness of the reasons for, the extent of, and consequences of rape and sexual assault, sexual harassment.

This could be through social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Instagram post to highlight the examples of Gender Inequality

    

2.  By taking a gender transformative approach, we can influence social norms and bridge the gaps in access to resources and services between men and women in a lasting manner

3.  Educate children to adapt the value of inclusivity between others so that good practices can be cultivated from a young.

4. In the workplace, the pays of workers can be evaluated based on their skill-sets. Pays can also be standardized.

When development organizations, policies, and communities support the success of women, there will be a chance to reduce extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity for both men and women around the world

How can we as Scouts, mitigate this issue?

Although we are unable to directly resolve the issue of gender inequality, we could do something to help to mitigate this issue

1. As scouts, the core scouting activities we do such as backwoodsman, orienteering can be done in patrols which includes a mixture of both boys and girls. 

2. Through this both boys and girls are able to work together to achieve a goal and this can promote harmonious relations among the patrol.

3. More Scout Units in Co-Ed Schools can have both boy and girl scouts in it

4. As Scouts, we should all uphold the scout law of ‘Scout makes friends, establishes and maintains harmonious relations’ and ‘A Scout is disciplined and considerate’ and respect all women and not discriminate them based on anything.

Overall, I hope that people in society, especially guys, should have a growth mindset that people regardless of race, gender are able to work to accomplish the same thing.

With this growth mindset, males can also appreciate females more in their contribution to society.