More Than Just a Tampon Tax

In the United States, since the beginning of our history, we have fought for our freedom… but by we I mean women and by freedom I mean the power struggle to achieve what men already have.

Gender inequality is the battle we have yet to be victorious in and its history begins long ago from a global standpoint. All throughout history women have been depicted as the inferior sex.

For the United States, this journey has simply been a glimpse in time. The Women’s Movement between the years of 1848 and 1920, began to reveal the affects of inequality between the sexes. Women were fed up with the fact that they were unable to make decisions for themselves and in this case unable to contribute to the vote.

Here, though women were seeking to have the equal rights to vote, it opened up a window of discussion that shed light on a more general unfair treatment.

Today, we continually see the variables this gender gap has. Women on average are payed 79 percent of what men are paid in the work place, women have what we call today a tampon tax which is unfair taxing on women’s hygiene products where men do not have a tax, and in the United States women find themselves as the lowest average of leaders in top corporations or positions compared to the rest or the world.

As you can see in the graphic below, it demonstrates that when looking a both small and large business’s women in the U.S still have a long way to go in promoting the progression of female leadership roles as countries like Russia and Turkey.

Credits to: Jana Kasperveick

However, even though the statistics demonstrate better averages for female leaders in other countries, the U.S female population deals with the superficial aspects of this struggle for equal treatment. In the U.S, women have the ability to speak up at all time, riot, and make change happen all under the safety of the First Amendment. In other countries we have not even achieved this stage in the journey.

To Americans things such as education, well being and safety, and freedom of sexuality are all along the lines of even. In countries like India, Africa, and the Middle East these common grounds all vary tremendously between the genders.

India, a country with over 1.3 billion people, approximately half being female, one would expect an inability for the country to sustain all of its individuals allowing them equableness nonetheless, males are still chosen as the superior sex to receive an educations leaving women often to transfer straight into the workplace leaving them unable to climb the ladder of success effectively. In 2002, the government of India calculated that, “Of the 80 million children in the 6–14 age group who are either out of school or enrolled but not attending school, about 60 per cent are girls. Of the 121.3 million adult illiterates in the age group 15–35, 62 per cent are women”. It is shocking from an American perspective that in modern day society females continually have a lesser chance of becoming fully educated then do males.

Credits to: Oswald Gracias

In African andMiddle Eastern countries, the well being of women is put in jeopardy for the sake of men. Concentrated in these areas due to tradition, women illegally undergo a procedure of genitalia mutilation to receive honor In their village or families. Though under African law Female Geneltalia Mutliation (FMG) is strictly prohibited the odds of this law being enforced are slim to none the same applies for Middle eastern countries who have a male dominated systems. If girls wish to be excepted by their fathers after puberty their tradition is to be upheld. The well being of these young girls is put at stakes all for the sake of not being shamed or rejected from their families by the paternal figureheads.

The women's movement in the West is beginning to understand that, although there are some common characteristics, Third World women's struggles have important differences which flow from different stages of economic, social and political development. Nonetheless, women of all backgrounds and statuses are attempting to break the barriers we have been presented with for centuries and free ourselves from the chains society has clipped on to our ankles.

Slowly but surely, this gradual process of equality begins to level itself out ... and who knows at the rate we are going it seems that women may one day over shadow men but a girl can only dream.