International Women's Day has come and gone, so we don't have to worry about inspiring and embracing women until next March 8th, right? With an endless supply of information on the Internet about women's rights and the many stories of inequalities we face, here's a little breakdown of a few feminist issues you need to know about today:
China's last Matriarchy
The Mosuo Tribe, located in Lugu Lake is a very unique tribe located around the Himalayas. Here, we find a culture run by women. By 13, women can take as many "lovers" as they please, and have the majority control over all decisions and government of this 40,000 member community. They do not marry, have little issues, and stigmas such as not knowing who your father is do not exist... Until recently, when commercialism breeched the culture. Tourism has heightened, creating new hotels, restaurants and bars on every corner. Worse off, along with this commerce came a highly sexual cultural stigma. Sex workers from Thailand have been strategically placed around the city, wearing Mosuo garb and giving tourists the idea that with a Matriarchy, comes free sex geared towards male tourists.
Maternity leave in America
Two countries do not guarantee women paid maternity leave. Two. The United States of America and Papua New Guinea. According to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, firing employees because they are pregnant is illegal, but there are loopholes in the system. There are not clear ways to define or prove discrimination when it comes to this. For our generation, this isn't something we tend to think about. Women in their 20s and 30s grew up seeing some progression, we saw women CEOs and holding power in government, so having a baby is typically not something we worry about too much when it comes to having a career. Many companies that do offer some form of a paid leave, do not offer job protection with it. So what can women do? It's something that you typically don't think about until it happens to you. Women throughout the country are being forced to choose between their careers and motherhood, something that needs to be addressed in better ways.
Wage gap exists, and increases with higher education
The Institute for Women's Policy Research found that the average working women in America will lose around $530,000 during their lifetime, due to the wage gap between men and women. And that gap increases with higher education. Looking further into the problem, West Virginia, Utah, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Wyoming are said to not reach equality in pay until the next century. Century!
Sex trafficking is here, it's not stopping, and even occurs at The Super Bowl
It's estimated that between 14,500 and 17,500 people, primarily women, are trafficked for sex trade in America alone. And that's just here in our own country. It's a $32,000,000,000/year business with no end in sight and it's becoming scarier and scarier every day that it continues. When we think of this problem, we think of young women in far away countries being captured for this sketchy underground sex ring. Maybe the Movie "Taken" comes to mind. But the problem is so much closer than that. It's out in the open, it's in the United States, and all women are at risk. Did you know that The Super Bowl is the number one sex trafficking location in the U.S.? In the 2014 Super Bowl, over 3,000 underage victims were rescued from sex trade. Those are just the ones rescued. Pimps across the country come for the immaculate amount of tourism that the Super Bowl attracts every year. Although effort has been placed to prevent this in the future, sex trafficking everywhere is a scary thing that gets pushed aside in many ways.
