“On average, female university graduates can expect to earn 20% less than male university graduates” (Independent.uk)
“1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime” (UNwomen.org)
“In most countries, women only earn between 60 and 75% of men’s wages – for the same work ” (topMBA.com)
I recently had a conversation in which a male friend asked me why I would choose to be a feminist. I sarcastically responded “because I’ve grown up female my entire life”. This was not the weirdest conversation I’ve had about this topic but this time it got me thinking. This post is not meant to make one gender feel less than another but I realised something that I simply couldn’t shake.
Men do what they do, they follow their dreams and contribute to statistics.
Women, effectively, spend their lives attempting to prove statistics wrong. We do what we need to do to not be part of the 1 in 3 women who experience physical or sexual violence. We do what we need to do to in attempt to increase the 10% of female FTSE 100 executive directors (Guardian.com) to 10.5%, maybe even a 12%. This list could go on and on and on…
Like I said, this post is not meant to make men feel bad or cause a social media debate. It’s meant to bring to light a problem that we, for reasons I am yet to understand, choose to leave in the dark. Women are able to do great things but sadly, those who achieve great are exceptions to the rules so we celebrate them for all they achieve. We celebrate them because the female mind knows that chances are, they may remain in the rule and never break through as an exception. And even if you to become the exception, the stigmatism, criticism and comments you hear and face could break you.
So when we say “we just want equal rights” don’t try to tell us why we are wrong, try to understand where we come from.
Everything Adi 