We pick up misogynistic themes from our everyday lives, involuntarily internalizing this ideology that men are superior or more deserving than women. Girls and women are forced to live in a world that has been molded for men.
Although women are less likely to be risky behind the wheel, they are more likely to die or suffer injuries from car crashes, due to the fact that safety seat belt tests used male crash dummies until 2011, and when they finally did use female crash dummies, they are just a smaller version of a male dummy instead of molding it after the average woman's weight distribution, and were often only tested in the passenger seat.
According to the article “Various Aspects of Sex and Gender Bias in Biomedical Research” medicine is less likely to work for females, because when testing scientists only use male cells, even for diseases that mainly affect women.
There is even something called the Pink Tax. This Pink Tax is the unseen tax added to products specifically targeted towards female consumers. Women, on average, spend about $1,800 more than a man for the same products due to the Pink Tax. As reported by the article “The Pink Tax: The Cost of Being a Woman” this adds up to about $80,000 to $18,800 just from the Pink Tax in the average woman's lifetime.
According to the article “13 Shocking Facts About Gender Inequality” 1 in 3 women experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. Many women experience discrimination in their workplace just because of their gender. Stated by the article “Sexual Harassment in Our Nations Workplaces” women get penalized in the workplace for being mothers, men get extra pay for being fathers. Studies show that women who mature in countries with less gender equality, have less ability to control their stress and emotions. Despite how far we have come, the article “Why Young Men Are Turning Against Feminism" states that young men hold more misogynistic views and beliefs than their ancestors.
This just shows that women and girls all over the world can’t escape sexism and misogyny from the car, to their medication, to the workplace.
Biologically assigned genders is one of the biggest dualistic concepts that divides us as a society.
At a young age boys are told that they can get away with fighting, bullying, and harassment, due to the term “boys will be boys”. This term just perpetuates rape culture and the ideaology that men are superior to women. We as a society need to bring more attention to this pressing matter. Instead of teaching your girls to protect themselves from men, teach your boys how to respect women and view them as equal. If our society taught our children (especially our boys) in their adolescence in this manner, we could speed up the feminist movement immensely. The interpersonal biases would be gone in just 20-30 years. Institutional inequalities would take around 50-80 years to change due to the fact that sexism and misogyny is etched into every aspect of our society.
SOURCES
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/shocking-facts-gender-inequality-international-wom/
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/12/female-crash-test-dummies-road-safety-gender-equality/
https://now.org/blog/the-pink-tax-the-cost-of-being-a-woman/
https://www.eeoc.gov/data/sexual-harassment-our-nations-workplaces
https://www.americansurveycenter.org/newsletter/why-young-men-are-turning-against-feminism/
