I was told by a man this week, “The women’s rights movement is dated. It’s not the 1940s.” He was right about one thing: it’s not the 1940s — it’s 2013, and ending injustice toward women is long overdue.
This dismissive statement of the women’s rights movement followed my informing him that I’ll be spending my summer working with the Worldwide Organization for Women in Geneva, Switzerland.
Despite the belief I hear all too often that the movement is dead and feminists are just men-hating lesbians that want free birth control, there are still millions of women who are denied basic human rights.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), the practice of removing all or part of the clitoris and labia, still affects 140 million women and girls, according to World Health Organization. The purpose? In most circumstances, this inhumane and traumatic procedure is performed not only as a social convention, but to reduce the likelihood of a woman losing virginity before marriage.
Worldwide, an annual rate of 14.2 million girls under age 18 will marry, according to WHO. In the United States, this statistic might refer to a 17-year-old girl marrying her high school sweetheart. In developing countries, it means a higher likelihood of intimate abuse, the end of education and early pregnancy, which is the leading cause of death in girls ages 15-19.
Though the list goes on, we don’t have to look outside the United States to see gender inequity. We just have to look a little closer, as the signs aren’t as obvious as FGM.
Maybe my misinformed friend was only referring to the United States. But in the United States alone, nearly 6 million acts of physical assault occur each year toward women, and between 22-35 percent of emergency room visits from women are because of domestic violence, according to MAITRI. This number skyrockets in developing countries. Take Ethiopia, for example, where 71  percent of women surveyed reported suffering from domestic physical assault, according to WHO.
FGM and child marriages are often religiously supported in the countries where they are prevalent. The United States is no exception to religiously-perpetuated inequity. Just last week, an article was published in The Salt Lake Tribune expressing disappointment with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for allowing women to pray in the April 2013 General Conference.
The author chastised political correctness and quoted 1 Corinthians, demanding “women keep silence in the churches” and reminding us “woman was created for man.”
I’m only sorry he forgot to mention Leviticus 21:9: “And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore … she shall be burnt with fire.” As unjust as this might be, there are even more inconspicuous ways sexism creeps into our lives.
Sunday, Dec. 16, marked the first “Wear Pants to Church” protest. While it’s wonderful for women to make a stand for their rights, I don’t think something as trivial as wearing pants to church will do the trick. Rather, it only reinforces women have to dress like men to be given the same privileges as men.
Even worse, we still have to ask men to give us permission to stop asking men for permission.
BIC sparked quite the rush of cyber-sarcasm last year with their release of BIC – Cristal For Her pens designed in pink and purple and “thinner for a better handling for women,” according to the company’s website. Because — as many women pointed out in satirical product commentary — our male-counterpart pens just weren’t working for our grocery lists. But in all seriousness, what woman ever complained about a regular, old pen being insufficient?
From the serious issues — though hard to ignore are still largely ignored — to the implicit signals of inequity we experience without a second glance, the women’s movement hasn’t accomplished its mission just yet. Perhaps the worst injustice is that so many people think it has been accomplished. If all that wasn’t enough, this article wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t remind all the women reading that we’re still only making 69 cents to every dollar men make in Utah.