17 ways women are still unequal to men
1. Women pay more for common household items than men do.
Shampoo, deodorant, hair dye, dry cleaning, razors, face wash, socks all cost more for women than men.
2. The "pink tax" isn't just for personal care items.
Although things like razors and shampoo are the most egregiously up charged items, the so-called pink tax meant that all kinds of items geared at women cost more: Toys and accessories for girls were found to be 7 percent higher. Women pay more for clothes and protective gear like helmets (not to mention bigger-ticket items like mortgages.
3. Women make less money than their male counterparts.
The gender pay gap for full time employees in the UK rose from 7.7% in 2021 to 8.3% in 2022.
4. For black women, the pay gap is even worse.
Black women must work 19 months to make what white men did in a year, earning £0.64 for every pound earned by a white man.
5. Workplace sexual harassment is so common that it directly contributes to the wage gap.
Workplace sexual harassment and assault is so common that it's driving women to resign from their jobs. Reporting such abuse is often unattractive for women due to retaliation and lack of consequences for abusers. Thus, victims feel that to prioritise their safety, they must face unemployment, job insecurity, and pay cuts―not to mention the financial sacrifices they make by giving up equity and the potential for upward mobility once they leave their companies.
And what happens to the women who stay in these toxic work environments? Women who stay in jobs where they're being sexually harassed report decreased productivity, greater rates of anxiety and depression, and feelings of disempowerment with regards to negotiating promotions and raises.
6. Corporate hiring processes put women at a systemic disadvantage.
According to Oregon State University's Journal of Management, implicit bias often results in women's CVs being passed over in favour of men's during consideration for executive positions. Interestingly, this bias means that companies frequently hire less qualified candidates (just because they're male, it seems), and suffer significant financial losses as a result.
7. Women are underrepresented in government.
Although women make up nearly 51 percent of the UK population, only 34% percent of parliament is comprised of women. Worldwide, just 25.5 percent of all national parliamentarians were female as March 2021, according to the U.N.
8. Women are the minority in the executive suite.
At Fortune 500 companies, women currently account for just 7.4 percent of CEOs, according to Fortune. Studies also found that women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies have significantly shorter tenures than male CEOs; women at the top tend to stay in their positions for about 44 months on average compared to the 60 months that men do. As of 2020, representation of women on boards has increased to only 28 percent.
9. When women enter male-dominated industries, the pay decreases.
As women make the cross over into workspaces mostly occupied by men, often in search of higher salaries with more benefits, the opposite happens -the average pay for the industry tends to drop significantly over time, confirms The New York Times.
10. Female entrepreneurs receive less funding and investments.
Getting funding for a start-up is hard enough, but sexism and gender inequality often complicate starting one's own business even further. According to findings from All Raise, only 11 percent of venture capitalists are women (and other sources actually have that number as even lower). Of the existing VC firms, 71 percent don't have a single female partner, and only 7 percent have equal gender representation.
11. Women still shoulder more of the household burden.
Despite the fact that women are more educated and more employed than ever before, they're still tasked with the majority of household duties. Forbes reported that women are taking 10 times as much temporary leave to be with their new-borns than men do, often saddling them with additional financial burdens. Women are also more likely to work from home, look after sick kids, or even quit their jobs completely to be caretakers.
12. Only 14 countries offer women full legal protections.
In 2022, only 14 countries scored a perfect 100 percent in terms of legislation ensuring equality: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
13. Women are more likely to be injured in car crashes.
And the reason why is depressing and infuriating. A 2011 New York Times article found that women were 47 percent more likely to be injured in car crashes because the safety features were—you guessed it—designed for men. In 2021, a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that women are still much more likely to be injured, despite men driving more and exhibiting more reckless behaviour behind the wheel. Women are three times as likely to get a moderate injury and twice as likely to be severely injured.
14. Women are far more likely to be the victims of human trafficking.
In a 2019 article, NPR reported on the disturbing recent uptick in human trafficking. Using data from an annual report conducted by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the study found the number of girls forced into trafficking has risen exponentially, most frequently for sexual exploitation.
15. Women overall are at a greater risk of rape and domestic violence.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline reports that females ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experienced the highest rates of intimate partner violence (IPV). Eighty-one percent of these women (who may have experienced rape, stalking, or physical violence by an intimate partner) reported significant short- or long-term impacts such as post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and injury.
16. Female pain and medical issues are not taken as seriously as they are for men.
Did you know that the word "hysteria" has its roots in the Greek term for "uterus"? Well, it seems that despite several centuries of gained wisdom about women's high pain threshold, there remains an outrageous societal tendency to underestimate women's pain. Harvard Medical School reports that, on average, women with abdominal pain can expect to wait at least 65 minutes in emergency rooms before being treated for abdominal pain, whereas men can expect to wait 49 minutes. In many cases, women may not be treated or seen by doctors at all, which can have fatal consequences: Women are 7 times more likely to be misdiagnosed and discharged from the hospital while they are having a heart attack, according to The New England Journal of Medicine. Male doctors have been known to blame severe physical pain on things like stress, relationship problems, or the dreaded phrase: "You're just emotional."
17. Women experience medical side effects to a disproportionate degree because drugs are designed for male bodies.
According to the University of Chicago, women are often excluded from clinical trials for medications because the unfounded (and disproven since 2014) belief that females' hormonal cycles skew test results. Not only are women excluded from clinical trials during later stages of medical research, but labs go so far as to use male mice instead of female mice during early stages of development. Even our basic understandings of illness and symptoms of disease are based on male physiology.