Why is gender equality still not a reality in 2016?

Anyway, to get to why I started this thread, I used to believe that men and women were fairly equal in modern society in the UK. However, as I’ve got older I’ve realised more and more that this is just not the case. In the workplace, there is still a 9.4% pay gap on average between men and women for full-time employment and when part-time employment is also included the gap extends to 19.2%. In the private sector specifically the pay gap for even for full-time employees was 17.2%! The TUC analysis of the ONS statistics showed that looking at the highest earners that gap widens even more reaching 54.9% for the top 2% of earners. The “glass ceiling” is even now nowhere near broken. There are many more men than women in top level jobs in politics, law, science, technology, engineering, academia, business…

Just looking at politics alone, there is currently a lot in the media about how the next Prime Minister now has to be either Theresa May or Andrea Leadsom therefore it has to be (how shocking!) a woman. I know it’s only the second time in history so that’s a point of interest and it’s obviously great that there was no gender discrimination in this case that prevented us from getting another female Prime Minister but it still shouldn’t be portrayed by the media as such a novel and unusual idea. Even after the 2015 General Election, only 29% of MPs and a third of cabinet ministers are women. Women in politics seem to be judged by the media and society in general as much for how they look as for their policies and often face sexism from both the media and male colleagues. So, if we can’t get proper gender equality in politics which is both very public and obviously instrumental in trying to create equal rights then what hope is there for other professions.

It’s not just in the workplace that women aren’t treated equally either. Everyday sexism is present in schools, universities and in wider society. Worryingly, there is evidence that our generation, if anything, is getting worse. The rise of “Lad Culture” and “Rape Culture” which are particularly prevalent at universities is becoming a serious problem. Women are routinely objectified. Some men (I am definitely not saying all men) and even some women make sexist jokes and comments on a regular basis including joking about rape. Sexist posts and memes (again including jokes about rape) are often shared on social media… Why is it still seen as acceptable to joke that women should “get back to the kitchen” or worse?

As I said, I used to believe that men and women were now equal in the UK when I was still at school but scarily, knowing what I know now looking back on things that happened when I was at school, sexism was obvious there too. I had one male teacher in sixth form who used to patronisingly call all the girls “young lady” but never the boys “young man”. I had a female teacher who said women who worked and had children were irresponsible because they couldn’t be fully committed to their careers. Boys in my class joked that “all women should be prostitutes” but “*name of girl* wouldn’t get any customers”. In my year, boys and even occasionally girls made jokes that were either sexist or involved rape or both. Also, seeing some of the threads on TSR where (some) guys make sexist and misogynistic comments and then call girls “feminazis” if they dispute what’s been said makes me think that sexism certainly hasn’t gone, it hasn’t even decreased by all that much in some ways, it has just adapted into a modern version.

Ok so i will address the whole "lad culture" and rape joke stuff as the other points have already been covered well.

So yes I will agree lad culture is bad. But I am a firm believer that anything can be joked about and now while I would not go up to somone that has been raped and make a joke about it as that is being a bit of a ass I see no problem with someone making a joke of rape or abuse or anything really as long as they realize it is a joke, and the whole women belong in the kitchen it is something only people who are joking, "lads" or idiots say.

Tbf, it's nor really ability but interest, for example I got an A in English at gcse, but since I never enjoyed it, especially literature on romeo and juliet, which the girls liked and were more interested in(the boys, including me, were not at all) I didn't study it for a level, not to mention I thought economics and maths would be more important in getting a high paid job, but lots of girls were less focused on making choices about future pay, and rather what they ENJOYED, I mean, boys are just as capable as girls in English, but **** all did English and **** all girls did maths.

Stop talking rubbish. There is no rape culture.

That's just you specifically though. I got an A* in English Language and an A in English Literature at GCSE but I also didn't enjoy English and didn't take it for AS or A Level. I was much more interested in Science, Maths and Foreign Languages which is why I took Biology, Chemistry, Maths and French for AS Level and then the two sciences and Maths for A Level. It's to do with personal preferences, not gender. I am much more interested in science and maths topics than Romeo and Juliet! Girls can be just as focused on doing subjects that can lead to better paid jobs as boys. It again depends on the specific people. Personally, I chose subjects that I both enjoyed and suited my career ambitions. Girls are also just as capable as boys at Maths. Many of the boys in my year did English. Admittedly, I was the only girl in my year that did Maths A Level but that is definitely not the case in most other schools.

Its not natural.

Similar to why women. Look for dominant less feminine men as partners.

If women had incredible ideas theyd succeed in their own rigbt without campaigns etc. Did Paul Dirac need to do a campaivn to be taken seriously? Sure you can bring uo some modern hacky female scientist or mathematician who has gone through education and is well qualified but the men blow them out of the water fair and square. Sophie Germains work was pretty trivial and she is noted merely because she is female.

Similar in entertainment and literature where talented male performees vastly outweight the females.

Women make up 51% of the population ffs. No excuses ladies
Better yourselves or go home.

OP do you happen to have a women/gender studies degree?

I am a 21 year old woman and I would describe myself as a feminist going by the actual definition of feminism which is: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of equality of the sexes. I am a feminist because I believe that men and women should be equal in society and that neither men nor women should be forced to conform to traditional gender roles NOT because I think that women should be superior to or have more privileges or better rights than men or because I think all men are sexist. I would also say, before people stereotype me, that I am straight, I do not hate men, I do take care of my appearance and I am not in any way the type of radical, extreme feminist that so many people now seem to think that all women who want equal rights are.

Anyway, to get to why I started this thread, I used to believe that men and women were fairly equal in modern society in the UK. However, as I’ve got older I’ve realised more and more that this is just not the case. In the workplace, there is still a 9.4% pay gap on average between men and women for full-time employment and when part-time employment is also included the gap extends to 19.2%. In the private sector specifically the pay gap for even for full-time employees was 17.2%! The TUC analysis of the ONS statistics showed that looking at the highest earners that gap widens even more reaching 54.9% for the top 2% of earners. The “glass ceiling” is even now nowhere near broken. There are many more men than women in top level jobs in politics, law, science, technology, engineering, academia, business… Just looking at politics alone, there is currently a lot in the media about how the next Prime Minister now has to be either Theresa May or Andrea Leadsom therefore it has to be (how shocking!) a woman. I know it’s only the second time in history so that’s a point of interest and it’s obviously great that there was no gender discrimination in this case that prevented us from getting another female Prime Minister but it still shouldn’t be portrayed by the media as such a novel and unusual idea. Even after the 2015 General Election, only 29% of MPs and a third of cabinet ministers are women. Women in politics seem to be judged by the media and society in general as much for how they look as for their policies and often face sexism from both the media and male colleagues. So, if we can’t get proper gender equality in politics which is both very public and obviously instrumental in trying to create equal rights then what hope is there for other professions.

It’s not just in the workplace that women aren’t treated equally either. Everyday sexism is present in schools, universities and in wider society. Worryingly, there is evidence that our generation, if anything, is getting worse. The rise of “Lad Culture” and “Rape Culture” which are particularly prevalent at universities is becoming a serious problem. Women are routinely objectified. Some men (I am definitely not saying all men) and even some women make sexist jokes and comments on a regular basis including joking about rape. Sexist posts and memes (again including jokes about rape) are often shared on social media… Why is it still seen as acceptable to joke that women should “get back to the kitchen” or worse?

As I said, I used to believe that men and women were now equal in the UK when I was still at school but scarily, knowing what I know now looking back on things that happened when I was at school, sexism was obvious there too. I had one male teacher in sixth form who used to patronisingly call all the girls “young lady” but never the boys “young man”. I had a female teacher who said women who worked and had children were irresponsible because they couldn’t be fully committed to their careers. Boys in my class joked that “all women should be prostitutes” but “*name of girl* wouldn’t get any customers”. In my year, boys and even occasionally girls made jokes that were either sexist or involved rape or both. Also, seeing some of the threads on TSR where (some) guys make sexist and misogynistic comments and then call girls “feminazis” if they dispute what’s been said makes me think that sexism certainly hasn’t gone, it hasn’t even decreased by all that much in some ways, it has just adapted into a modern version.

So, why is it that in 2016 women are still not treated as equal to men? And why do people say that feminism is now irrelevant when there is still so much inequality? In a country where women got the vote almost a century ago shouldn’t we have better equality in modern society than this?

Oh so according to you gender equality is unnatural? So you think men are just entitled to be superior? I actually cannot believe how backwards some people on here are.

Well, obviously it's unlikely women would want feminine men as partners but I personally wouldn't want a partner that was "dominant" and thought they were superior. I would want to be on equal terms with my partner.

That is just ridiculous. How talented you are at a particular discipline has nothing to do with your gender. Girls actually outperform boys at school and women are also more likely to go to university, less likely to drop out and more likely to get a good degree. Obviously in the past there were more notable male scientists and mathematicians etc. because women in general were prevented from getting a education, going to university and having careers. Women have needed campaigns in the past because they have been prevented from getting a proper education, from going to university, from having careers rather than staying at home, from voting in elections etc. NOT because they were in any way less talented than men. You could quote example after example after example of talented women in any discipline. On what possible basis can you say that the men "blow" the women "out of the water"? No, I'm sure Paul Dirac did not need a campaign to be taken seriously because obviously he was very talented and he wouldn't have faced any obstacles in being listened to or a lack of opportunities due to his gender whereas a woman who was equally talented would have faced significant disadvantages at that time in history. Given she was born in 1776 with the status of women in society at that time what Sophie Germain achieved was far from "trivial". There would obviously be differences in how advanced their work was because Sophie Germain was born over a century before Paul Dirac was.

I've got a better idea. Why don't you "better yourself" or go back to the 1950s where you belong?

No, I don't actually. In fact, I didn't even realise you could do that as a degree in the UK which shows how interested I was in looking into taking that sort of degree at university... I am going to study Biochemistry.

Oh so according to you gender equality is unnatural? So you think men are just entitled to be superior? I actually cannot believe how backwards some people on here are.

Well, obviously it's unlikely women would want feminine men as partners but I personally wouldn't want a partner that was "dominant" and thought they were superior. I would want to be on equal terms with my partner.

That is just ridiculous. How talented you are at a particular discipline has nothing to do with your gender. Girls actually outperform boys at school and women are also more likely to go to university, less likely to drop out and more likely to get a good degree. Obviously in the past there were more notable male scientists and mathematicians etc. because women in general were prevented from getting a education, going to university and having careers. Women have needed campaigns in the past because they have been prevented from getting a proper education, from going to university, from having careers rather than staying at home, from voting in elections etc. NOT because they were in any way less talented than men. You could quote example after example after example of talented women in any discipline. On what possible basis can you say that the men "blow" the women "out of the water"? No, I'm sure Paul Dirac did not need a campaign to be taken seriously because obviously he was very talented and he wouldn't have faced any obstacles in being listened to or a lack of opportunities due to his gender whereas a woman who was equally talented would have faced significant disadvantages at that time in history. Given she was born in 1776 with the status of women in society at that time what Sophie Germain achieved was far from "trivial". There would obviously be differences in how advanced their work was because Sophie Germain was born over a century before Paul Dirac was.

I've got a better idea. Why don't you "better yourself" or go back to the 1950s where you belong?

I have an honest question: I understand the wage gap may not be an accurate representation of the reality behind wages. But thinking about examples in Hollywood, don't women (i'm thinking about Jennifer Lawrence in particular here) earn less per movie? I've often read that female actresses earn less than their male counterparts. How true is this?

Personally, I would think that going up to someone who has actually been raped and making jokes about rape is way more serious than being "a bit of an ass". That would be totally horrendous! As to everything else you've said, do you not think that lad culture and joking about that sort of thing, when it occurs on such a large scale, can make people think that that sort of behaviour is acceptable/normal? For example, some "lads" seem to think it is okay to sleep with a girl when she is way too drunk to consent whereas this is actually rape. I agree with you that that is only something that "lads" or idiots say but unfortunately that (and much worse) can happen quite a lot.

Nice? I didn't think girls liked that lmao

Feminists believe in equal rights for men and women. They believe women should be treated the same as men. The definition of feminism is: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes. Normal feminists do not believe that men should be inferior to women and I certainly do not. Yes, there are a small group of extreme radical feminists that maybe do but you cannot blame all feminists for them.

It's just the way it is. As others have said go to a non western nation and you'll see true inequality. Maybe in 200 years well reach there but as of now and the foreseeable future the following won't change in the big socio-political crafts that influence the most people in the world.

Sports: Huge difference in men and women sports. Sports is dominated by highly paid men and watched globally. The biggest sporting icons are men; Ronaldo, Federer, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, etc. The are depicted in society as modern gods and revered by millions of children and this wont change because males are better at sport.

Movies: Another massive industry, dominated by males. As men get older they still gain more prominent leading actor roles than women. Younger good looking women are given priority over older, this isnt true for men. Again the biggest movie stars are mostly men in current Hollywood (white and male to be specific over the whole Oscars so white saga); Robert D Junior, Mark Wallburg, Christian Bale, Matt Damon, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Cumberbatch, etc. This could change but I think the demand for male actors is more inclined to their acting ability rather than looks when compared to women so I dont see this changing.

Politics: A bit more even but again the most powerful leaders in the world are men; Putin, Obama, Cameron, Hollande, etc. Obviously Merkel is a exception and a new British PM but you get the point. This aspect of gender inequality can definitely change.

Business: As said in this thread, still dominated by men mostly because women can't focus solely on career if they want to start a family. Dont see this changing.*

Music: Probably the most even of all, so gender equality in this area is fine for now.