Women's rights

In spite of the numerous improvements which have taken place all over the world in the past few years to stop discrimination of all kinds towards women (right to vote, learn, drive...), the latter have not reached equality yet. They still have many problems to face the power of men who deprive them of the same rights as far as health, education or pay are concerned. That is the reason why new movements such as #MeToo have appeared and taken to the streets so as to have the rights of women respected.

They also fight for the welfare of women who undergo the violence of men who think they can do whatever they like because they feel superior to women. But the latter must be able to live without feeling any differences based on gender, they must be able to decide who they want to marry, if they want to have children or not, but not all women in the world enjoy these fundamental rights.

Indeed, some countries still force women to do what they have not chosen (marriage, pregnancy, abortion, sterilization...). This is terrible because freedom itself is disregarded and we could easily assimilate the status of these wretched women to slaves’.

We know that lots of women in the world cannot enjoy their rights because of their sexual orientation and they are punished for being homosexual, transsexual, bisexual..., even raped or killed. Fortunately protests all over the world support women and girls in their fight against injustice but there is still a long way to go before women enjoy the same rights as men.

In the workplace women are still being discriminated, they earn 77 % of what men earn for the same work! Same work same pay should be the rule but the gender pay gap tends to show that it is simply will-o’-the-wisp. How can they be independent and feel confident about the future if their financial power is cut down by a quarter? And it will be difficult to have a free and equal society as long as some of us are not free and equal.

So, are women on a par with men? We cannot say they are but mentalities are changing and maybe in a near future we could see women occupying more important positions than today.

It is vital to stand up for women’s rights because equality between men and women makes the world a better place to live, a place where envy and jealousy are banned because both live on an equal footing. It is important too because women have proved that they are as able as men in many domains and they ought to be credited with having lots of undeniable qualities. Last but not least, we must not forget that women’s rights are human rights!