The Fight For Women's Equal Pay Rates

     While it has been a long set tradition to think of women as lesser workers and not able to handle as much pressure and highly ranked jobs, society is in need of change as women are acquiring higher or equal qualifications as men, but are still being payed less. This concept, although mostly focused on with more privileged women, can also be widened to take in women from developing countries, where there is an important pay gap, which doesn’t help to entice families to let girls get a proper education as they know this will not be as beneficial in later life to support their family. Women should have equal pay rates as men, and all people should be paid based on qualifications rather than on gender. Reasons to support this are that women should have equal opportunities to follow their dreams and should also be able to be the breadwinners of the family, which means that we need to change the mindset of men and communities so that it is both men and women who are in charge of the household and raising the children.

     First of all, men usually expect women to handle less work to take care of their children, or simply because of the stereotype of being too emotional and unable to handle pressure, and company owners want the hardest workers and the ones they can count on, so they usually see men as fittest. According to Trina Liang Lin, president of the Singapore Committee for UN Women, “Some women are still not equally paid as their male counterparts for the same job. In the 2014 Labour Force Statistics, women earn less than men in all occupational categories except clerical and support. In most categories, this differential is more than 10 per cent.” (Lin, 2015). This shows that there is a considerable pay difference for men and women even in privileged circles, and this is proven to be because women are expected to take care of household matters and raise the children, and have to balance career simultaneously. In some cases, this makes for having to compromise one thing or the other, and as a result, women are generally not trusted with highly-ranked and important roles in a company, which could affect their family.

     Furthermore, for women to reach equal pay and esteem in their work environment, there seems to be a crucial need for a mindset shift for men, CEOs of companies, government officials, and especially in the family environment, all need to see that if they claim to give women equal opportunities and esteem, why are they still paid less and in most cases are expected to take care of the children and household, and if they work, have to balance career on top of this. Under some conditions, women may be faced with having to decide between these two, and they cannot drop their family, so they stop working to take care of the lather. In this case, families could start dividing house chores more proportionately so both parents can work as well as managing their homes. There are many cultural and societal reasons why women are not being paid as much, as said before, and having communities supporting this cause will help them use the education they receive and not be held back more than men when they attempt to achieve goals as independent women who are not forced to depend on men or their family as adults.

     Lastly, a reason to show that setting women on an equal level to men in a work environment is beneficial, is that it will help to push society into a more socially accepting and advanced global community which will empower women to be a more influential part of society. If communities are able to implement the family balance of house and work, more women would be capable of handling a greater workload and pressure and society would be more open to women being in control and in turn they would feel more encouraged to pursue ambitious goals and a fuller career. This will enable society to move forward in the current goal to include women in entrepreneurship business and to have a figure in the government, which still faces controversy. This controversy, although mainly widely seen in government issues, are seen in workplaces of any size, and affect communities as a whole because of how we see a woman’s place in society, and these prejudices stay with people throughout their lives and later affect individuals’ pay rates.

     In conclusion, both women and men should have equal pay rates and not be deprived of the opportunity to follow a career they want and have the appropriate reward for it. Women are often underrepresented in businesses even if they are the ones behind the work or have more qualified diplomas. These reasons prove that this is a widespread societal issue that we need to deal with on all levels, from families balancing work and house together, to teaching children about equality, all the way to enforcing a law of pay rates based on qualifications, not gender.

Murder Of the Innocent Girls

In my perspective, both men and women are equal. You may not feel the same but ask yourself why? What is it that makes men superior to women? We are the same species, and DNA. In the weaker societies in India this is not considered to be true. Some people go to such an extent, that if their newborn child is a girl, they kill them. This is due to the prevalence of the disgraceful practice of an old Indian tradition called dowry. Dowry is the act of the bride’s side giving, money, land or expensive gifts to the bridegroom on their wedding day. Because this is still prevalent in some of the weaker societies in India, some families believe that the education and marriage of a daughter is a financial burden on them. For this reason they kill newborn, baby girls either before or just after birth. Every day, across the country 2,000 infants are killed. The current sex ratio in India is 914:1000. Is that fair? Your answer is most probably no, for this is clearly murder. This can have horrible effects such as imbalanced sex ratios and decrease in population. Women are equal to men, and deserve to be treated the same and be given the same opportunities, for women are an equal part of society. In this modern era they cannot be discriminated against. 

In today's day and age, women are just as important in society as men are. By evolving from times when women stayed at home and did not work, women are hold a strong status, equal men. Killing the female child is not only murder but also discriminating against women. Malala Yousafzai and activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate says, “ When God created man and woman, he was thinking, 'Who shall I give the power to, to give birth to the next human being?' And God chose woman. And this is the big evidence that women are powerful." This shows that there is no natural reason for women to be considered inferior to men but quite the contrary, women were chosen to reproduce humans. They should be treated with respect and treated the same way men are treated. However the most important reason why infanticide is bad is because it is simply murder of children. The dictionary definition of infanticide is ‘the crime of a mother killing her child within a year of birth’. Simply put, this is not civil and should be considered as murder. Pope Francis, the head of the Christian community says, “Life once conceived, must be protected with the utmost care; abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.” This also suggests that babies, whether they are just born or not yet, are alive and infanticide is killing them and that this is no different than murder. They should be nurtured and appreciated and they should not be killed just because of gender. Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the U.S.A. said, “Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide.” This also shows that man cannot decide to kill a newborn child as it is human and killing it is a crime. It is not in their hands to kill. It is bad not to take care of that child but killing it is unacceptable. This killing leads to an inevitable and terrible effects. With a drastic decrease in the number of women, the number of mothers also decrease leading to a decrease in the country's population. This will inevitably lead to several problems for the country, the most important of which is that the living conditions will decline. This is because of the inadequate labor force which would have boosted the output and production of goods and services. This will also reduce the manpower and income, as well as investments. There is also the fact that this will result in fewer people in the army, who would be defending the country during time of war. E.A. Bucchianeri, a known author says “Abortion should be listed as a weapon of mass destruction against the voiceless.” This means that when a child is born, it knows nothing, it can say nothing. Yet, it is human and killing it is basically denying it it's human right- the right to live. These girls are meant to be the next generation but by killing them, they are limiting the next generation.

In conclusion, I feel that infanticide is a horrible crime that has drastic short term and long term effects. It could lead to several problems such as decrease in the population and also the decrease in the power and dignity of women. This is idea of infanticide is growing more and more have thousands of victims every day. Though it happens in first world countries as well, this seems to be a major problem in India. A valuable suggestion that should be taken into account is the idea of baby hatches. This idea has been taken up by several countries such as the U.S., UK, and several European countries. Baby hatches are safe places where a parent can leave their child without the fear of prosecution. They will then be looked after by the government and if possible, be placed with an adoptive family. The Ministry of Women and Child development should take this into consideration as it will help a lot of people, and save a lot of lives, helping us nurture and preserve the future generations.