YYou are reading the first article of shea series of opinion pieces during Women’s History Month that explore various issues facing women.
March is Women’s History Month, so it’s a good time to talk about women’s issues.
Let’s start with some statistics.
According to the United Nations Global Database on Violence against Women, 35% of women worldwide experience physical and/or sexual violence. Unfortunately, this figure is modest for some populations, and in some countries it can reach 70%.
According to 2019 U.S. Census Bureau data, women of all races earn, on average, only about 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, mothers in the United States are 40% more likely than fathers to report that they have personally felt that childcare issues have negatively affected their careers.
Furthermore, women are lagging behind in reaching positions of power in the political and economic spheres. For example, women make up about 51% of the U.S. population, but as of Election Day 2020, only about 24% of Congress were women. At the statewide level, only 28.9% of the 311 executive positions were held by women.
And, you know, a woman has never held the highest political office in this country.
Violence against women, the gender pay gap, childcare, undervaluing of female leaders, reproductive rights, period poverty and prejudice are some of the concerns that come to mind when we hear the term ‘women’s issues’. That’s just a small part.
What I would like you to consider here is why these issues are “women’s issues.”
My answer is that it isn’t. Concerns commonly understood as “women’s issues” are not women’s domain. Each of these social issues needs to be addressed by society as a whole, not just by specific people.
We need to reframe the conversation around women’s equity and inclusion and stop designating problematic concerns with a gender component as issues about women. Because as long as these fall under gender labels, only a portion of the population recognizes the need for change.
To reframe our thinking about these social issues, consider how statistics are presented using passive language when people talk about women and violence. In other words, these problems seem to only happen to women, as if there is no one in charge or no system. For example, one in three of a woman’s girlfriends has been physically or sexually assaulted.
Now let’s convert this sentence to active syntax and add who is doing what to whom.
Men are responsible for the majority of sexual violence against women.
By converting this statistical description of women into a description of men and women, this sentence indicates the role of men. These so-called women’s problems are not only faced by women. To change the way we think about women’s issues, we need to change the way we talk about women’s issues.
When men are taken out of the equation, women end up solving problems.
The issues you think of as women’s issues are important social issues that need to be addressed across communities, from local to national to global, to achieve equity, inclusion, and justice for all genders.
Now, as we celebrate Women’s History Month, let us remember that it is not just women’s issues, but rather issues that affect all of us in complex ways and require everyone’s attention.
opinion editor.shorthorn@uta.edu