Shocking Gender Discrimination
The U.S. women faced severe threat in terms of sexual harassment and sexual assault, with personal safety in lack of protection. They also face obvious discrimination of employment and in workplace.
High occurrence rate of sexual harassment and assault. As reported by National Public Radio on February 21, 2018, an online survey found that 81 percent of women had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime. It also found that 51 percent had been sexually touched without their permission, and 27 percent said they had survived sexual assault (www.npr.org, February 21, 2018). As reported by Des Moines Register on October 14, 2018, about two-dozen Iowa legislators and staff members were involved in the Anderson case of sexual harassment. Being afraid of losing job or retaliation, the victims had to remain silent for over 10 years. The state government paid a settlement of 1.75 million U.S. dollars. As reported by USA Today on September 26, sexual harassment and assault have become a systemic issue in Hollywood. According to an industry-wide survey, 94 percent of the surveyed women would have experienced some form of harassment or abuse during their career. As reported by Gallup on November 12, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 18.3 percent of women were the victims of rape at some point in their lifetime. The report also found that the percentage of the U.S. women who say they worry about being a victim of sexual assault has edged up to 36 percent, the highest this figure has been since 2011 (news.gallup.com, November 12, 2018).
Women under violent offending. Research by the U.S. National Institute of Justice showed that over four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, and more than half of them have experienced sexual violence. As reported by Huffington Post on November 14, 2018, 5,712 cases of missing Native women nationwide were reported to the U.S. National Crime Information Center in 2016 alone. As reported by Los Angeles Times on October 8, 2018, between 2006 and 2014, more than 5,000 women were shot and killed by a current or former intimate partner.
Significant wage gap between men and women. According to date from the U.S. Census Bureau, the average gender pay gap in the United States is around 19.5 percent, and a woman earns only 80.5 percent of the wage a man earns (www.businessinsider.com, August 27, 2018). The gender wage gap was even worse than the statistics. In the long term, women made slightly less than half of men's incoming. Among full-time, year-round workers, women with associate's degrees were paid less than men with just a high school diploma, and women with master's degrees were paid less than men with bachelor's degrees. A gender-based wage gap continues to harm women and their families (www.huffingtonpost.com, November 28, 2018; www.nationalpartnership.org, April and September, 2018).
Prevalent discrimination in workplace. According to a report by San Francisco Chronicle on December 21, 2018, discrimination against pregnant women and new mothers remains widespread in the U.S. workplace. Half of women working in science, technology, engineering or math jobs have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace. About 70 percent of women said that there were too few women in political and business leadership positions (www.pewsocialtrends.org, January 9 and September 20, 2018).
Upsurge of women's discontent sentiment about their social positions. The Gallup website reported on January 10, 2018, that 46 percent of women in the United States said they were very or somewhat dissatisfied with their position in society, up from 30 percent in 2008, when Gallup last asked the question. As reported by The New York Times on January 20, 2018, millions attended the Women's March 2018 to show intense protest against the government's policies.
