Disclaimer: In no way am I suggestive that men do not receive the same (or some sort of) treatment like this, I am focusing soley on the female view due to the large scale indifferences which are visible throughout society, law and legislation.

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The chances are you’ve heard this phrase before, and most of the time the attitude is “Oh not this again” or “The worlds gone mad” or how about my absolute favourite “All these different forms of inequality, it’s getting ridiculous now, the world was fine before”. We have all heard them, right? And chances are at some stage we have all had a conversation about it. Whether its Dave from down the local boozer who has stormed out because his wife is not home, and his dinner isn’t on the table and poor Dave’s ridiculously hungry after a 9-5 day in the office. Or perhaps a colleague, has made a comment about how the “new employee is a ‘bit of alright’, I mean come on, have you seen the way she dresses? Let me continue, perhaps its been a night out with friends, and you may have over heard “Fucking slut” whilst some blokes absolutely infuriated because a woman turned him down – I mean Jesus, who turns poor Gary down? In fact, this happened to me less than a month ago. My friend’s saw how much I kicked off, yes in a full pub, to only be then told “your making a fool out of yourself”, yes that’s right, not only was it socially acceptable to shout the word “slut” around but apparently the real issue was my reaction.

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The reason I’ve chosen to write about this topic, is because it is something which despite the start of women’s rights, for instance the vote being passed in 1928 in the “Equality Act”, that this is still very much a prevalent issue in today’s society. Most of the time I’m sure people don’t perhaps realise they are doing it, and don’t get me wrong, it’s not just men that come out with these comments, as women can be just as degrading and belittling towards one another. I think the best way to go about this is to steam ahead into discussing this from a women’s view. (side note again, for all you that may decide to send me messages following this – this is my opinion formed on the basis of previous experiences, my upbringing as well as circumstances whereby I have witnessed others – thanks.)

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Being gender unequal means various different things, the terms definition is “the idea that men and women are not equal and that gender affects an individual’s living experience” – in this I am discussing social constructions as a pose to more legal constructions (because of my psychology background obviously). People may say “well, me calling you a slut” isn’t affecting your ‘living experience’, well actually it is. Each time a woman is shamed or degraded by one of these derogatory words, that does not just disappear, that is long lasting. A woman will think about that each time she gets dressed up for a night out, each time she puts a bikini on to go to the beach, each time a man approaches her, each time she may want to get close to someone. I guess it’s probably similar to racism (which is something else that I really am totally baffled as to how that’s still in today’s society, but again, there will be a whole different post for that).

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Let me put this into perspective. Since I was I’d say around 14, I came to realise that women are seen as a ‘sex symbol’, and I’m sorry if that offends any of you (I did say I will just speak the utter truth regardless of sensitivity of the topic). From TV media coverage or hosts, to “special” magazines (bit more PG Jess), to sexualising young female girls (for example, Britney Spears), even girls dolls (Bratz Dolls, and now even LOL!) all the way to air hostesses (dating back years) to the sexual image of short skirts, heels, tights, and a must have of red lipstick. This has not changed in decades; still young girls are growing up with the only view that it is “good to be sexy” and that is very very sad. I speak to girls day in day out in my job, girls who feel they need to dress or do their makeup a certain way to “make a boy fancy me” – some of which are only as young as 11. This is the cruel truth of female gender inequality.

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Most women, in fact I am that convinced, that all of us have been faced with a situation that has left us feeling utterly degraded. Perhaps a comment, perhaps a touch, found ourselves in a relationship where we’ve been made to feel that dressing a certain way is “asking for it”. Sound familiar ladies? This is exactly what is wrong with society, and very little women are strong enough to speak about it, that’s all because we feel shame, we feel disgusted, with the thoughts of “how can me in a dress cause this?”. Times need to move on, this has to change, we have to protect our dignity, our right to feel like an empowered women, but most of all to protect our girls childhood, to feel they can be who they want, they don’t have to conform to this ideal that only ‘sexy’ girls get boyfriends.

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As a teenage girl, I was very lucky that I wasn’t ever ‘peer pressured’ into doing what I didn’t want to do, my mum brought me up with a very strong sense of self, the ability to say no and be proud to just be a young girl who loved learning, enjoyed school. Despite having a boyfriend at 16 that was 2 years older than me, I had my dignity, and I was proud to say I didn’t loose my virginity until I was 16 (yes we’re going deep, but it needs to all be addressed). But yet, still so many girls feel they need to conform to all of this and act or dress a specific way in order to feel like a ‘woman’ even when they are a child. WHY? This is female sexualisation and gender inequality, and the issue is it’s becoming more and more prevalent with each day that goes by. I don’t want to have to bring in Love Island (I actually do get totally glued to the TV, but this is again an issue. Why? Usual dating shows are no longer – I mean, remember blind date? Now it’s all over sexualised. Girls in bikinis and men in skimpy shorts, this is the day and age we are living in).

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I’m aware I am going totally off track with this, but there we go. Another area I’d like to touch on, as I mentioned briefly at the start is the traditional ideology that “women should stay at home, have babies and men go to work”. Na. Not having that. The female body is amazing, I absolutely love being a woman, I love my body and I feel empowered when I look at what my body has created. But equally, a woman’s mind, their work ethic, their brain, their goals, their determination is just as beautiful. Usually this is a debate I get myself into in the pubs. As a strong 26 year old woman, with a role in young people’s lives, this is an area I am so very passionate about (particularly considering being a young single mum at 20).

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There is so much movement needed in gender inequality. Fighting to be able to wear what we want without being slandered or called names. Fighting for equal pay – I mean come off it, I know men who can barely step their foot in their place of employment even half the days their supposed to, but yet we’re treated as the minority, we’re treated as below men when we do the same job, have a strong work ethic and just want to succeed in life. Many jobs are now becoming more accepting, which is great. But so much more is required.

I want to end this blog, with a few hard hitting statistics. Sometimes it’s easy to write all of this, but the statistics speak for themselves.

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• Women are 47% more likely to suffer severe injuries in car accidents – because safety features are designed for men.

• 33,000 girls become child brides each and every day.

• Women in Africa spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water.

• Only 6 countries give women equal legal work rights as men.

• For every female movie character, there are 2.34 men.

• Number of female CEOS of FTSE 100 companies as of June 2018 is only 7.

• Only 34% of the house of commons are female MPs.

• Gender pay gap in the UK, between 9.1% and 35.7%. WHY?

• Around 1.2 million women each year suffer domestic abuse

• 250 rapes or attempted rapes in the UK every day, most without conviction.

• In the UK, a women earns 81p for every £1 a man earns on average.

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To end, it has been suggested it will take 108 years to close the gender gap. This is 108 years too long.

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If your like me and you enjoy reading and backing the need for change, head to https://www.womensequality.org.uk/