by Melissa Lilly, 10D
Almost every girl with brothers understands early, girls don’t get to do everything their brothers do. Their brother gets to stay out until twelve and can do whatever he wants, but his sister cannot. She cannot be out until midnight because her curfew is six; she has to follow the rules that were made specifically for her, because she is a female. Her brother has different rules, her brother is allowed to do as he wishes when she cannot, she is being marginalized because she is a female. Women are marginalized in societies all over the world and in some cases die because people don’t believe they matter. This has been true for centuries. In ancient civilazations, women were considered property, and were pressed to the margin because the cultures refused to recognize their needs. They were looked at as the inferior sex. This is still true. In the present day cultures, women have less rights than men and in some cases are being trafficked for sexual purposes, so women are still property. This inequality must be eliminated in life. We must make it so men treat women with the respect that women have been giving men for centuries. The goal is to create equality in this world. However, so many things are standing in the way. Sex trafficking must be abolished, women should be able to get an education like men, culture should not decide how to treat the female sex, and women should have just as many rights as men do.
Human trafficking is defined in the dictionary as: “organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited (as by being forced into prostitution or involuntary labor)” (Merriam-Webster). One specific type of human trafficking, sex-trafficking is modern day slavery, and millions of women and girls are actually enslaved right now, all other the globe. According to CRS Report for Congress, “More than 700,000 people are believed to be trafficked each year worldwide; some 50,000 to the United States. Trafficking is now considered the third largest source of profits for organized crime, behind only drugs and weapons, generating billions of dollars annually.” This is horrendous. In most cases women and girls are taken from their families, homes, countries and shipped to serve in what is called a brothel. A brothel is a house where men can visit prostitutes; however as mentioned most do not come willingly. And the problem is getting worse. The prostitution rates continue to increase all over the world, according to Prostitution Policy in Europe: A Time of Change? “In Sweden there are approximately 2,500 prostitutes in a population of 8.5 million (0.3 per 1,000)” So in Sweden alone there are 2, 500 prostitutes, imagine the total number for the world. It’s impossible to know how many of these women are slaves, but whatever the number is, it’s too many if they are there against their will.
At brothels girls are raped, beaten and can come into contact with disease such as HIV, other STD’s which brand a female for life. Brothels are meant to break these girls and women and take advantage of them by rape, threats, forcefulness and embarrassment. Women die in these brothels, on the streets, because of diseases they get from of being forced into such a trade. However, as the book Half the Sky points out, “Women are not dying because of untreatable disease. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving” (Kristof and WuDunn 116). These women could be treated from disease, and from death, but they are not treated because women are seen as the less superior sex. And this is just one example of this. Trafficking has such an enormous effect on girls and women that it is indescribable. It has such a traumatic effect on the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of the women and girls that it involves itself with. These trafficked women undergo dangerous emotional anxiety, such as humiliation, unhappiness, distress, wariness and suicidal thoughts. Victims every so often receive post-traumatic stress disorder for such a disturbing experience that has mentally scarred them for life. In all conscience, this is absolutely inexcusable.
Sex trafficking is just one way men still make women an inferior sex. One’s culture also has an enormous impact on how women are perceived. In multiple countries women are treated differently from men. As it says in the Half the Sky, females in China, for instance, almost never went to school and were sold to become sex slaves before giving them a chance at life, “Girls were rarely educated, often sold, and vast numbers ended up in the brothels of Shanghai” (Kristof and WuDunn 207). Knowledge is one of the most amazing things that people must work towards; an education teaches us to explore, to think and investigate what is and what could be. With an education a person can see the truth in things for themselves so they will never have to be dependent on another. Furthermore it strengthens a person’s gifts, skills and gives them a chance to reach their full potential. But to never be given that opportuntiy is incredibly unfair; and frequently the brightest children are born into families who cannot support nor want to give them the education that they rightfully deserve because their culture says that women should stay at home rather than go to school with the boys.
Sex slaves and culture are just a few examples of the double standards of life, but women’s rights is most definitely another. Globally, women have far less rights than men do which is completely imbalanced. Laws help people to live in peace, so having unbalanced laws is harmful to the female sex. Yet, people have refused to equalize it. According to Virginia Law Review, “Equality of rights implies equality of law. As well as equality in the administration of the law. Without equal application of the law there cannot be equal rights.” The law must change so there can be balance but it is clear as day that men want to keep the law favoring them. For example the story of Goretti in Half the Sky, In Burundi, Africa she was a prisoner in her hut, for she and other women in her region had to ask her husband’s permission to leave their home. The men were in charge of their wives even when they weren’t home, and in Goretti’s case her husband Bernard was a horrible and nasty man and did not like to let her leave. Goretti, mother of six, wife, and the age 35 was not allowed to leave her home even to the market. They were barely making enough to survive and didn’t buy mosquito nets to help prevent malaria that is very dangerous for the reason being that Bernard was spending the little money they did make on trips to the bar, and beer which happened to be 30 percent of the family’s nonrefundable earnings. However Goretti was a woman, which means she had not gotten an education and was not permitted to buy anything or deal with money at all. She was a mother of six and still had no say in their protection from malaria or how to spend the money they had to benefit her children. Actually the only communication with her husband was when he beat her and when he forced her into having sex with him. She was home all day every day and didn’t know anyone, she was alone, for in Burundi it is said that it is a wife’s responsibility to cook, stay in the house or work in the fields, which is exactly what Goretti did. But she hated it, she wanted her freedom, but alas she couldn’t have it if she stayed in the same routine that she was in. She soon heard about a program called CARE, it was a program that focused on the needs of women and girls. She thought she had to go, so she asked her husband, and his response was no. So, she didn’t go, but the more Goretti heard about this wondrous program the more her heart longed to go, so she went, without consent and that was the first step she took towards helping herself. Goretti soon became president of a new CARE association that she created and soon her life changed for the better. She was able to handle money and spend it how she wanted it, on fertilizer for her garden, her loan etc... Goretti says, “This was a culture where women couldn’t speak” (Kristof and WuDunn 201). Now she has the courage to use the voice she was pressured to not use, she is able to be part of the community, she has her freedom.
People can use their power to enact change in the global community by using their voice, by getting the courage to speak their minds even though they are pressured into silence. Goretti is just one example of how just one woman can make a change; how women have been seen as inferior but are far from it. Small organizations, small voices, can bring attention to a subject that can be dear to one’s heart, whether it is to raise money to help improve something or a blog post to get the idea across, people can make a change, it is all up to if they actually do it. Nonfiction is read to gain knowledge, which is one of the best things to obtain. Nonfiction is read and is important because it helps one learn about a topic(s), to understand the difference between what is real and what is imaginary. Writing can be a tool for changing a society, the power it has is so vast that even if you do not enjoy it, everyone does it. Writing something powerful has the capability to encourage, to motivate, to change lives, minds, and even change history. It has the power to make a change, but people just don’t see it that way yet, they haven’t realized that just one person can make a huge change, and writing is one way in which it can occur.
The inquality that is happening towards women must come to an end. Women and men should be treated as equals. Sex trafficing must be eliminated, women should get an education just like men, culture should not influence how you treat women and women should have the same rights as men.
