Gender equality has been an increasingly prominent concern in the United States in recent years. Some people have called it one of the least equal countries in the world, though the claim is likely exaggerated. Regardless, with the emergence of the #MeToo movement, the nation’s long history of discrimination and sexual abuse targeted at women has come into the light. According to Gramlich (2017), 22% of employed women have been sexually harassed at work, and 42% have experienced gender discrimination, though a majority of the population believes that men and women experience equal difficulty. One often identified reason is that men have traditionally occupied positions of power in the United States, not letting women have their concerns be heard and addressed. As such, until women can gain and reach high and real political and governmental positions, we will not have gender equality.
The introduction will provide some background on the issue, discussing recent events that have led to the emergence of the concern and broadly outlining the arguments of both sides. It will also highlight Finland as an often-cited counterpoint to the U.S. in terms of the presence of women in government.
The general public is the intended audience for this paper. Arguments about gender equality are often based on isolated incidents and not supported by data. This paper will attempt to partially remedy the issue by providing a more detailed analysis and comparison.
Review of Literature
Legal Situation: discuss the laws regarding general gender equality and the representation of women in positions of political power. There should not be many differences between the U.S. and Finland in this regard. Both nations’ laws oppose gender inequality strongly and prohibit discrimination, in letter as well as spirit. Most of the issues, if any are present, would be implicit and not rooted in law.
Political Situation: analyze the current political landscape in the United States as well as Finland and the presence of gender equality in it. According to Niethammer (2019), Finland’s newly elected prime minister, as well as the leaders of all five parties, twelve out of nineteen cabinet members, and 47% of the parliament are female. By comparison, Hansen (2019) claims that 102 out of 452 U.S. Congress members and 25 out of 100 Senators are women, though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is also female. Overall, Finland has a higher female representation in positions of the highest political powers.
Real Situation: discuss the practical situation of women in both nations and the prevalent concerns in them. The U.S. has issues with sexual harassment at work, along with overall gender discrimination accusations. However, Finland’s gender equality situation is also imperfect, with the U.S. Department of State (2019) highlighting high rates of intimate partner violence against women as well as potential female genital mutilation concerns. The section can also consider the reasons why these nations have their respective issues.
Discussion: attempt to link the political landscape of the U.S. and Finland with their respective gender equality situation. Discuss whether one nation’s situation is necessarily observably worse than the other’s and whether the political landscape can explain the differences. Consider other possible reasons behind the development of different sets of problems and gender equality movements in both countries.
References
Gramlich, J. 10 things we learned about gender issues in the U.S. in 2017 [Blog post]. Web.
Hansen, C. (2019). 116th Congress by party, race, gender, and religion. U.S. News. Web.
Niethammer, C. (2019). Finland’s new government is young and led by women—here’s what the country does to promote diversity. Forbes. Web.
U.S. Department of State. (2019). 2018 country reports on human rights practices: Finland. Web.