Blog 8 - Country focus United States

  The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or simply America, is a country consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km2), it is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area. Most of the country is in central North America between Canada and Mexico. With an estimated population of over 328 million, the U.S. is the third most populous country in the world (after China and India). The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City. The United States is a federal republic and a representative democracy. It is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), NATO, and other international organizations. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. A highly developed country, the United States is the world's largest economy by nominal GDP, the second-largest by purchasing power parity, and accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second-largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is 4% of the world total, it holds 29.4% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, median income, median wealth, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. It is the foremost military power in the world, making up more than a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally (The World Factbook, 2017).

Current issues for women

Social attitudes

More recent research in 2012 has found that attitudes towards gender and societal roles have changed very little since the mid-1990s, with attitudes hovering at about sixty to seventy percent egalitarian.

This study theorized that an "egalitarian but traditional" gender frame emerged in popular culture during this period, which supports each gender assuming their traditional roles without appearing sexistor discriminatory and is responsible for this backlash. Benevolent sexism, sometimes referred to as chivalry, which holds women as something to be protected, also has psychological effects. Women who hold these views are more likely to have less ambitious career goals and men who hold these views tend to have a polarized and stereotyped view of women, made up of both very favorable and very unfavorable traits. In such cases, the stereotyped view of women is "favorable in content and yet prejudicial in [its] consequences," and attempts to provide justification for discriminatory behaviors presented as helpful or paternal (Jost, John T.; Kay, Aaron C., 2005). 

Sexual assault

Research conducted at Lycoming College has found the enjoyment of sexist humor to be strongly correlated with sexual aggression towards women among male college students. In addition, studies have shown that exposure to sexist humor, particularly humor related to sexual assault, can increase male aggression and their tendency to discriminate against women. One study also asserted that the attitudes behind such humor creates an environment where such discriminatory and possibly violent behavior is acceptable. Men’s tendency to self-report the likelihood that they would commit sexually violent acts has also been found to increase after exposure to sexist humor, as reported by researchers from the University of Kent (Ryan, Kathryn M.; Kanjorski, Jeanne, 1998).

Political participation

The Center for American Women and Politics reports that, as of 2013, 18.3% of congressional seats are held by women and 23% of statewide elective offices are held by women; while the percentage of Congress made up of women has steadily increased, statewide elective positions held by women have decreased from their peak of 27.6% in 2001. Women also make up, as of 2013, 24.2% of state legislators in the United States. Among the one hundred largest cities in the United States, ten had female mayors as of 2013.In 1977, political science professor Susan Welch presented three possible explanations for this underrepresentation of women in politics: one, that women are socialized to avoid careers in politics; two, that women's responsibilities in the home keep them away out of both the work force and the political arena; and three, women are more often than men members of other demographic groups with low political participation rates. In 2001, M. Margaret Conway, political science professor at the University of Florida, also presented three possible explanations for the continuation of this disparity: one, similar to Welch's first explanation, sociological and societal norm discourages women from running; two, women less frequently acquire the necessary skills to hold a political leadership position from nonpolitical activities; and three, gatekeeping in party politics prevents women from running(Conway, M. Margaret (2001).

Workplace Inequality

The United States is falling behind other Western countries in the percentage of women engaged in the workforce. Researchers from the Institute for Women's Policy Research at the University of CaliforniaHastings College of Law argue that this growing gap is due to a lack of governmental, business and societal support for working women. They ranked the United States last out of 20 industrialized countries in an index that measured such programs as family leave, alternative work arrangements, part-time employment, and other means to make workplaces more flexible and family friendly. The United States is also the only industrialized nation that does not have a paid parental leave policy mandated by law, and is one of only four countries worldwide that does not; in addition, fully paid maternity leave is only offered by around 16 percent of employers in the United States (Hall, Katy; Spurlock, Chris, 2013).

Sex discrimination in employment

Jane Wilke from the University of Connecticut found that men's support the idea that men should be the sole source of income in a married couple decreased from 32 to 21 percent from 1972 to 1989;

 in practice only 15 percent of households were supported by a male spouse's income alone at the time of the study. Women continuously are being mistreated and sexually discriminated against explicitly in the workplace today. This has been an ongoing issue and will continue until something changes in the occupational sphere. According to a study conducted by researchers at California State University, Northridge, when an individual with a PhD applies for a position at a university, that individual is significantly more likely to be offered a higher level of appointment, receive an offer of an academic position leading to tenure, and be offered a full professorship if they are a man when compared to a woman of comparable qualifications. However, these findings have been disputed, with multiple studies finding universities pushed to hire more women, resulting in females being given a 2:1 advantage over males in science, technology engineering and mathematics fields (Williams, Wendy M.; Ceci, Stephen J, 2015).

Another study found that women were significantly less likely to receive a job offer or an interview for a high-paying waiter position when compared to equally qualified men; this study also found that such hiring discrimination may be caused in part by customer's discrimination of preference for male wait staff, but that it could not be concluded, since the male/female gap could be explained by the fact that more female waiters than male, such that the preferred hiring of male waiters could help equality. Similarly, research conducted at the University of California, Davis focusing on academic dermatology revealed a significant downward trend in the number of women receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health, which the authors concluded was due to a lack of support for women scientists at their home institutions(Cheng, Michelle A.; Annie Sukhov; Hawa Sultani; Koungmi Kim; Emanual Maverakis, 2016). 

Occupational segregation by gender

Occupational gender segregation takes the form of both horizontal segregation (the unequal gender distribution across occupations) and vertical segregation (the overrepresentation of men in higher positions in both traditionally male and traditionally female fields). According to William A. Darity, Jr. and Patrick L. Mason, there is a strong horizontal occupational division in the United States on the basis of gender in 1990, the index of occupational dissimilarity was 53%, meaning 53% of women or 47% of men would have to move to a different career field in order for all occupations to have equal gender composition. While women have begun to more frequently enter traditionally male-dominated professions, there have been much fewer men entering female-dominated professions; professor of sociology Paula England cites this horizontal segregation of careers as a contributing factor to the gender pay gap (England, Paula, 2005).

Housework

US women spend over twice as much time on housework as men, averaging an extra 65 minutes per day (7.6 hours per week) as of 2010. If the women are employed, or highly-paid, they don't do less housework. In fact, when women work or earn more than their husbands, they do more housework. This has been explained to make their career success less threatening and reassert traditional sexuality. US women are reluctant to delegate housework to men partly because they believe that it won't be done properly. Women are, on average, more concerned about undone housework, an attitude gap that has been attributed to socialization and societies that hold women responsible for the state of the home. In households and societies where gender equality is more highly valued, less time overall is spent on housework. (Treas, Judith; Tai, Tsuio , 2016). Researchers from the University of Maryland have found that while men have steadily begun to perform more household labor since 1965, most of the essential and traditionally feminine tasks are still carried out by women; men generally carry out more nonessential or infrequent tasks, such as taking out the trash or mowing the lawn. While both genders tend to have roughly equal amounts of leisure time, men have more uninterrupted leisure time when compared to women(Bittman, Michael; Wajcman, Judy, 2000). 

Pay Gap

With regards to the gender pay gap in the United States, International Labor Organization notes as of 2010 women in the United States earned about 81% of what their male counterparts did.[40] While the gender pay  gap has been narrowing since the passage of the Equal Pay Act, the convergence began to slow down in the 1990s.In addition, overall wage inequality has been increasing since the 1980s as middle-wage jobs are decreasing replaced by larger percentages of both high-paying and low-paying jobs, creating a highly polarized environment. However numerous studies dispute the claim that discrimination accounts for the majority of the pay gap. When adjusting for industries commonly chosen, "choices" often being the result of gender stereotypes, hours worked, and benefits received, the pay gap returns to 5%, which has been attributed to less aggressive pay negotiating in women. One study actually found that before 30, females made more than males, and hypothesized that choosing a family over a career resulted in the drop of the female wage advantage during the thirties.

  According to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, the primary cause of this gap is discrimination manifested in the tendency of women to be hired more frequently in lower paying occupations, in addition to the fact that male dominated occupations are higher paying than female dominated occupations, and that, even within comparable occupations, women are often paid less than men. In medicine, female physicians are compensated less, despite the fact that evidence suggest that the quality of care female physicians provide may be higher than that of male physicians. In addition to the gender pay gap, a "family gap" also exists, wherein women with children receive about 10-15% less pay when compared to women without children. According to Jane Waldfogel, professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University, this family gap is a contributing factor to the United States' large gender pay gap. She also noted that men did not seem to be affected by this gap, as married men (who are more likely to have children) generally earned higher than unmarried men (Darity, William A.; Patrick L. Mason, 1998). 

Government Response

   So, with all these issues the Us government, over time has passed several legislations to address gender inequality. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which insured women's suffrage, was ratified. In addition, the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor was created to monitor working conditions for women in the workforce. In 1961, the President's Commission on the Status of Women was started, initially chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. This commission found that women were suffering considerable workplace discrimination. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed, which made it illegal for a woman to be paid less than a man working in the same position. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also made discriminatory hiring on the basis of gender illegal. The affirmative action policy of 1965 was expanded in 1967 to cover women as well as racial minorities. In 1973, women's right to safe and legal abortion was established by the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade. In 1968, sex-segregated job advertisements were declared illegal by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, this decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1973; this allowed women to apply for higher-paying jobs formally restricted only to male applicants. In 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments, which reads "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in,

 be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance," was passed (Imbornoni, Ann-Marie, 2013). 

    In 1986, in the decision of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, sexual harassment was established as illegal and discriminatory. The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 guarantees that new parents can retain their jobs for 12 weeks after the birth of the child; this unpaid leave is the only form of paternal leave protected by law in the United States. In 1994, the Violence Against Women Act provided legal protection, as well as funds and services, for rape victims and victims of domestic violence. United States v. Virginia established in 1996 that gender-based admission practices violated the Fourteenth Amendment, and establishing a separate all-female school would not suffice as an alternative

to integrating an all-male school. Most recently, in 2009 the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 provides employees (usually female) who suffer from pay discrimination to file a complaint with the government ((Imbornoni, Ann-Marie, 2013).

   The Equal Rights Amendment, which reads, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex", was first introduced to Congress in 1923 and successfully passed both houses of Congress in 1972. However, it failed to be ratified by an adequate number of states and died in 1982.The United States is one of only a few countries which have not ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Imbornoni, Ann-Marie, 2013).

References :

The World Factbook, 2017, Central Intelligence Agency. Retreived from https://www.cia.gov/library/Publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2087rank.html

Imbornoni, Ann-Marie, 2013. "Timeline of key events in the American women's rights movement 1848–1920”. Retrieved from https://www.infoplease.com/history/womens-history/timeline-us-womens-rights-1848-1920

Imbornoni, Ann-Marie, 2013. "Timeline of key events in the American women's rights movement 1848–1920". Retrieved from https://www.infoplease.com/history/womens-history/timeline-us-womens-rights-1921-1979

Imbornoni, Ann-Marie, 2013. "Timeline of key events in the American women's rights movement 1980–Present".Retrieved from https://www.infoplease.com/history/womens-history/timeline-us-womens-rights-1848-1920

Jost, John T.; Kay, Aaron C., 2005. "Exposure to benevolent sexism and complementary gender stereotypes: consequences for specific and diffuse forms of system justification".

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 88 (3): 498–509

Ryan, Kathryn M.; Kanjorski, Jeanne, 1998). "The enjoyment of sexist humor, rape attitudes, and relationship aggression in college students". Sex Roles. 38 (9–10): 743–756

Conway, M. Margaret, 2001. "Women and political participation". Political Science and Politics. 34 (2): 231–233

Williams, Wendy M.; Ceci, Stephen J, 2015. "National hiring experiments reveal 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (17): 5360–5365.

Hall, Katy; Spurlock, Chris, 2013. "Paid parental leave: U.S. vs. The World (INFOGRAPHIC)"

Cheng, Michelle A.; Annie Sukhov; Hawa Sultani; Koungmi Kim; Emanual Maverakis, 2016). "Trends in National Institutes of Health Funding of Principal Investigators in Dermatology Research by Academic

 Degree and Sex". JAMA Dermatology. 152 (8): 883–888

England, Paula, 2005. "Gender inequality in labor markets: the rold of motherhood and segregation". Social Politics. 12 (2): 264–288.

Treas, Judith; Tai, Tsuio , 2016. "Gender Inequality in Housework Across 20 European Nations: Lessons from Gender Stratification Theories". Sex Roles. 74 (11–12): 495–511.

Bittman, Michael; Wajcman, Judy, 2000. "The rush hour: the character of leisure time and gender equity". Social Forces. 79 (1): 165–189

Darity, William A.; Patrick L. Mason, 1998). "Evidence on discrimination in employment: codes of color, codes of gender". Journal of Economic Perspectives. 12 (2): 63–90

Blog 7 - Country Focus Canada

    Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean,covering 9.98 million square kilometers (3.85 million square miles), making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern border with the United States,stretching 8,891 kilometers (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy in the Westminster tradition, with a monarch and a prime minister who serves as the chair of the Cabinet and head of government.The country is a realm within the Commonwealth of Nations, a member of the Francophonie and officially bilingual at the federal level. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, and education. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries.

    Canada's long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture.A developed country, Canada has the seventeenth-highest nominal per-capita income globally as well as the thirteenth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index. Its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Canada is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. 

        Canada’s HDI value for 2018 is 0.922— which put the country in the very high human development category—positioning it at 13 out of 189 countries and territories.Between 1990 and 2018, Canada’s HDI value increased from 0.850 to 0.922, an increase of 8.5 percent. Table A reviews Canada’s progress in each of the HDI indicators. Between 1990 and 2018, Canada’s life expectancy at birth increased by 5.0 years, mean years of schooling increased by 3.0 years and expected years of schooling decreased by 0.6 years. Canada’s GNI per capita increased by about 43.5 percent

between 1990 and 2018. 

    While assessing progress relative to other countries, Human development progress, as measured by the HDI, is useful for comparison between two or more countries. For instance, during the period between 1990 and 2018 Canada, Norway and United States experienced different degrees of progress toward increasing their HDIs .

    Canada’s 2018 HDI of 0.922 is above the average of 0.892 for countries in the very high human development group and above the average of 0.895 for countries in OECD. From OECD, countries which are close to Canada in 2018 HDI rank and to some extent in population size are Australia and United States, which have HDIs ranked 6 and 15 respectively (Human Development Report,2019). 

    Unfortunately, in 2019, Canada has fallen three places down the global rankings for gender equality, its first dip since 2017.With a self-proclaimed feminist prime minister and a gender-balanced cabinet, a person could be forgiven for thinking Canada was on the upswing. But on Tuesday, the annual World Economic Forum Gender Parity Report revealed Canada fell from 16th place to 19th — just below Switzerland, South Africa and Denmark. Developing and deploying one-half of the world’s available talent has a huge bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide. Gender parity has a fundamental bearing on whether economies and societies thrive.The 2019 report presents a mixed picture. Overall, the quest for equality has improved, with the report stating it will take 99.5 years to achieve gender parity worldwide, down from 108 years in the 2018 index. Greater political representation for women has contributed to this, but overall, the political arena remains the worst-performing dimension.The report suggests none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and it’s unlikely our children will either.

   Despite the drop in the overall ranking, Canada tied with a number of countries — including Australia, France, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand — for first place in educational attainment.

The report said 25 countries have mostly closed the gender gap in education at 96.1 per cent. Healthcare was also close to parity at 95.7 per cent (Bensadoun, Emerald, 2019). 

   The gender wage gap is perhaps the broadest of issues that need addressing, especially since its repercussions are felt across various ages and social demographics.Especially among Indigenous and racialized women and women with disabilities, who earn even less — 67 cents for every dollar, says Maryam Monsef, Minister for the Status of Women."We know that women who are seniors are at higher rates of poverty because their pensions are lower and they live longer, so they have to stretch their money out for a longer period of time,”says Jessica Mustachi, Ontario coordinator of Campaign 2000, a national educational movement to end child poverty. She points to the wage gap as also impacting women’s ability to enter the housing market, which is made even direr when a woman is in a violent situation and can’t afford to distance herself from an abuser because she can’t pay rent.

“Inequality will impact the violence rates and particular groups of people [i.e. those in a low-income situation] will be impacted by that,” she says (Gender equality in Canada: Where do we stand today? 2018). Below are several gaps to illustrate this inequality. 

    The effects of gender-based violence are far reaching. A survey conducted by the Canadian Women’s Foundation in May found that four out of five Canadians believe the next generation of women is likely or more likely to experience sexual assault, and 49 per cent of respondents feared

 that the country will not make more progress in the area of gender equality.There could be a number of things happening to result in this,” Senior says. “It could be influenced by what’s happening in the United States, or it could be what’s happening in our own society. We still have judges in Canada who say outrageous things like you should keep your knees together to avoid being raped. It is perhaps a realization that we’ve taken things for granted in Canada.” *****Graph 13

   So how can Canada effect more change? With more women graduating from higher learning institutions, the hope is that they’ll begin to populate the decision-making roles that can truly influence gender parity. We need to have more women on boards and heading up corporations,” Senior says. “This is also a huge opportunity for Canada to take the lead globally on issues of gender equality. Our prime minister has declared himself a feminist and now he needs to back it up with action through public policy and resources to address these issues.” It’s also an opportunity for the country to put more women in political positions.“If you know a woman who would make a terrific representative for your community or municipality, ask her to run,” Monsef says. “And then ask her 14 more times, because that’s how long it could take to convince her she has what is needed.” (Gender equality in Canada: Where do we stand today? 2018)

References:

Human Development Report, 2019.Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/CAN.pdf

Bensadoun, Emerald, 2019.Mind the gap: Canada falls 3 spots in global gender parity rankings to 19th place. retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/6306965/canada-gender-parity-report/

Gender equality in Canada: Where do we stand today? 2018. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/3574060/gender-equality-in-canada-where-do-we-stand-today/

Blog 6 -Country focus South Korea

South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. The name Korea is derived from Goguryeo, which was one of the great powers in East Asia during its time, ruling most of the Korean Peninsula, Manchuria, parts of the Russian Far Eastand Inner Mongolia under Gwanggaeto the Great.Its capital, Seoul, is a major global city and half of South Korea's over 51 million people live in the Seoul Capital Area, the fourth largest metropolitan economy in the world(CIA World Fact Book, 2019).The June Struggle led to the end of authoritarian rule in 1987 and the country is now the most advanced democracy with the highest level of press freedom in Asia. It has the 10th highest socialmobility in the world, with 17% of children born to parents in the bottom half of educational attainment ending up in the top quarter.

  South Korea is a member of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, the G20 and the Paris Club. South Korea is a highly developed country and the world's 12th-largest economy by nominal GDP. Its citizens enjoy the world's fastest Internet connection speeds and the densest high-speed railway network. It was named the second-best country in the world to raise kids in the 2020 UN Child Flourishing Index, with the best chance at survival, thriving and well-being due to good healthcare, education and nutrition. The world's 5th largest exporter and 8th largest importer, South Korea is a global leader in many technology and innovation driven fields (Human Development Report, 2019).

Gender inequality in South Korea refers to the unequal opportunities and treatment men and women face in South Korea. Derived from deep-rooted patriarchal ideologies and practices, gender inequality in South Korea is consistently ranked as one of the highest in the world. While gender inequality remains especially prevalent in South Korea's economy and politics, it has improved in healthcare and education.

Due to the various methods of calculating and measuring gender inequality, South Korea's gender inequality rankings vary across different reports. While the 2017 UNDP Gender Inequality Index ranks South Korea 10th out of 160 countries, the World Economic Forum ranks South Korea 118th out of 144 countries in its 2017 Global Gender Gap Report. In their 2013 study (Branisa et al.), explain that indices like the Global Gender Gap Index tend to be "outcome-focused", which means they focus on gender inequalities in agency and in well-being. Indices like the Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) focus on the origins of gender inequalities, such as laws and norms. South Korea is one of three OECD countries that did not receive a perfect SIGI score. While the SIGI did not give South Korea an overall ranking, the country was reported to have very low levels of discriminatory family code, low levels of restricted civil liberties, and medium levels of restricted resources and assets (Human Development Reports, 2018).

In 2010, 93% of South Koreans surveyed believed women should have equal rights to men, and among them, 71% believe more changes are needed before that goal is achieved. Gender inequality" in South Korea has been perpetuated and deepened by historical practices and events, such as military sexual slavery and Park Geun-Hye's scandal. However, contemporary South Korea has made

 great strides in attempting to reduce gender inequality through legislation and policymaking

Throughout modern history, South Korean women have been subjected to military sexual slavery.During World War II, thousands of young Korean women were forced to become "comfort women" for the Japanese Imperial Army. During the Korean War, the United States enlisted more than one million South Korean women into military prostitution. According to the Journal of Korean Studies authors Han and Chu, military establishments have depended upon and justified the systematic discrimination of women by promoting gendered notions of femininity and masculinity, weakness and strength, conquered and conqueror. Han and Chu believe that military sexual slavery has contributed to the patriarchal ideologies that perpetuate gender inequality in South Korea (Han, Ju Hui Judy; Chun, Jennifer Jihye, 2014).

     After the democratization of Korea, the number of feminist movements greatly increased. The Korean government began to address gender equality issues in the late 20th century with the following legislative acts:

Sexual Equality Employment Act (1987)

Act on Equal Employment and Reconciliation of Work and Family (1989)

Mother-Child Welfare Act (1991)

Punishment of Sexual Violence and Protection of the Victim Act (1993)

Women’s Development Act (1995)

Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of the Victim Act (1997)

In 2005, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family was established and the patrilineal family register (hoju) was abolished. While gender equality in policymaking and governance has improved over the last few decades, gender equality in labor markets and the division of labor has remained stagnant (UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1998).

    Although women gained the rights to vote and run for election in 1948, women have historically been underrepresented in South Korean politics. When Park Geun-Hye became South Korea's first female president in 2012, many viewed her election as a victory for gender equality in South Korea. Four years later, her scandal and impeachment nullified any progress made by her election and left many convinced that women are not fit to lead their country. The professional inequality in South Korea is atypically high among developed countries. This type of inequality can be seen in statistics concerning South Korea's wage gap, employment rates, occupational segregation, and parental leave.

In their 2001 article, Monk-Turner and Turner report that "all else equal, men earn from 33.6 percent to 46.9 percent more than women with comparable skills. In 2017, the OECD placed Korea in the last position of all OECD countries for gender pay gap, a position that has not improved since the OECD first published this ranking in 2000.The gender pay gap in Korea is 34.6%, while the OECD average is 13.1%.The gap has improved by 7% since 2000, though the rate of improvement has been slower than in other OECD countries. The Korean gender pay gap has been called "the worst... among the industrialized countries.

 Korea also ranked the lowest on the glass-ceiling index published by The Economist in 2014.The glass-ceiling index was determined by the country's performance on nine indicators such as wage gap, labor force participation, representation in senior jobs, paid maternity leave, etc. Women tend to occupy low-paying, non-regular jobs and are less likely to be promoted to higher managerial positions in the workplace; however, employment opportunities for women in South Korea have steadily

 increased in the past few decades. Before the Korean War, the employment rate of women was less than 30%. In their 2018 Economic Survey for Korea, the OECD recorded the female employment rate to be around 56.1%, which is below the average (59.3%) for all OECD countries. The male employment rate is 75.9%, which is slightly higher than the OECD average (74.7%). In addition to the societal and familial expectations of women to be primary caregivers, the OECD report explains that "women tend to withdraw from the labor force once they have children, in part due to shortages of high-quality early childhood education and care institutions. During the 1970s and 1980s, women left the workforce at a very "early stage in family formation. Currently, they are leaving the workforce later, usually right before or during their pregnancy. May notes that this trend could be due to women's growing financial independence ( Ma, Li, 2013).

   The Korean Ministry of Gender Equality & Family is focusing on ways of ensuring people can fully benefit from the different policies and systems we have in place to achieve work-life balance for both men and women. One example of how they are doing this is with “Best Family Friendly Management” certifications, which provide various incentives and government certifications for companies that have family-friendly policies for both men and women. It started with 14 companies back in 2008, and today they have 956 companies involved. And it’s not just for big companies, but also local government bodies along with small and medium enterprises. Certified companies are already doing a lot to make sure their policies are family-friendly. There has been a shift in mentality, and women in Korea are now considered as essential to the long-term development and success of companies. The successful cases of female employment and work-life balance, which are tailored for each company, are becoming the driving force for larger changes in society. National laws can be a burden for many companies, due to their uniform application, but these cases are easy to apply to all companies (How is South Korea closing the gender gap, 2015).

References:

CIA World Fact Book, (2019). Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Human Development Report ,(2019).2019 Human Development Index Ranking. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/2019-human-development-index-ranking

Human Development Reports, 2018. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII

Han, Ju Hui Judy; Chun, Jennifer Jihye (2014). "Introduction: Gender and Politics in Contemporary Korea". The Journal of Korean Studies. 19 (2): 245–255

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 1998. "Concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: Republic of Korea"

MA, Li (2013). "Employment and Motherhood Entry in South Korea, 1978-2006". Population (English Edition, 2002-). 68 (3): 419–446.

How is South Korea closing the gender gap, 2015.World Economic Forum. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/03/qa-how-is-south-korea-closing-the-gender-gap/

Blog 5- Country Focus New Zealand

     New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country has two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. It has a total land area of 268,000 square kilometers (103,500 sq mi). New Zealand is about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometers (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland (New Zealand Land Cover Database, July 2009).

         The 2018 New Zealand census enumerated a resident population of 4,699,755, an increase of 10.8% over the 2013 figure. New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with 73.7% of the population living in the seventeen main urban areas and 54.4% living in the four largest cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton. New Zealand cities generally rank highly on international livability measures. For instance, in 2016 Auckland was ranked the world's third most livable city and Wellington the twelfth by the Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Life expectancy for New Zealanders in 2012 was 84 years for females, and 80.2 years for males. Life expectancy at birth is forecast to increase from 80 years to 85 years in 2050 and infant mortality is expected to decline. New Zealand's fertility rate of 2.1 is relatively high for a developed country, and natural births account for a significant proportion of population growth. Consequently, the country has a young population compared to most industrialized nations, with 20% of New Zealanders being 14 years old or younger. In 2018 the median age of the New Zealand population was 38.1 years. By 2050 the median age is projected to rise to 43 years and the percentage of people 60 years of age and older to rise from 18% to 29%.In 2008 the leading cause of premature death was cancer, at 29.8%, followed by ischemic heart disease, 19.7%, and then cerebrovascular disease, 9.2%. As of 2016, total expenditure on health care is 9.2% of GDP (Statistics New Zealand, June 2007).

    Not too long-ago New Zealand once led in gender equality. In the World Economic Forum’s annual report on the global gender gap, New Zealand was ranked in 9th place in 2016. The Global Gender Gap Index ranks countries on how far women are behind men in regards to health, education and economic and political indicators. Instances, where women have rated ahead of men, are not counted as inequality. New Zealand is a party to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In the OECD's final report on Gender Equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship it was found that women in New Zealand do more unpaid work than paid work, gain more tertiary qualifications than men and women-owned new enterprises outperform men-owned enterprises. Nonetheless, despite the gap between wage equality slowly closing in, the report found that the government funding allocated to reduce gender inequality in New Zealand is on the low side in comparison to other countries in the OECD(Gender inequality in New Zealand, April 2012).

    Throughout history, gender inequality has generally affected women more so than men. As a result, there has been a lot of controversy in respect of the matter and activism since the 19th century. New Zealand has had a long history of promoting women's equality. It was the first nation in the world to give women the right to vote in the 19th century. Previously, women were unable to vote until 1893 and were not able to stand for parliament until 1919. The first woman to win an election was Elizabeth McCombs in 1933. Iriaka Ratana was the first Maori woman MP in 1949 and Dame Jenny Shipley was the first woman to be prime minister in New Zealand from 1997 to 1999. Historical inequalities for men include the prohibition of homosexuality for men until the homosexual law reform bill in 1986 and military conscription. 

   The legal framework in New Zealand provides comprehensive protection against all forms of discrimination covered by the CEDAW. In 1973 The Domestic Purpose Benefit was introduced for all parents caring for dependent children without the support of a partner (mainly women). The Accident Compensation Amendment Act 2010 also extended compensation to non-earners, benefiting women who do full-time unpaid work in the domestic home. New Zealand has also enacted a number of legislative means to provide for equal pay for women, outlawing sexual discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace and proposes to set out rights in regards to equal employment for career progression in the workplace. Legislation in respect of gender equality in the workplace include the Equal Pay Act 1972, the State Sector Act 1988and the Human Rights Act 1993.The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 protects all New Zealand citizens from discrimination on the basis of sex(Legislation for gender equity, n.d.).

    Despite these strides in the legal framework New Zealand still has some old laws which have not been repealed or replaced. Abortion is still listed under the Crimes Act 1961. Two certifying consultants (doctors) must agree that continuing the pregnancy would result in serious danger to a woman's mental or physical health in order for women to access abortion. Rape is not a grounds in itself for abortion in New Zealand. Secondly, the Crimes Act, ‘assault on a child, or by a male on a female’, sets the maximum penalty for a male assaulting a female at two years and such assaults are not covered by the less restrictive 'bail as of right' provisions. The equivalent charge of common assault has a maximum one-year penalty and is covered by 'bail as of right' provisions. The Law Commission reviewed the Crimes Act in 2009 and recommended a repeal of this law and suggested that the maximum penalty for common assault be increased so that the more serious cases can still be dealt with appropriately. The proposed Family and Whānau Violence Legislation Bill seeks to address the limitations of using ‘male assaults female’ as a mechanism to address domestic violence. There are some other laws refer to ‘male assaults female’ which creates further gender inequalities. The Accident Compensation Act 2001 allows victims of certain crimes the ability to make claims for compensation for mental injury. Male assault female is one of those crimes. Thirdly, A woman can be charged with the lesser crime of infanticide if she kills her child and "the balance of her mind was disturbed". There is no equivalent for men.

    In New Zealand, there is at least one case of a man being charged with murder where if he was a woman he would have been charged with infanticide (Prosecuting family violence, 2000). Although New Zealand consistently ranks in the top half dozen of countries in the world when it comes to equality between men and women, it is not complacent in terms of gender equality. New Zealand women still do not experience the full equality guaranteed by the law. Across the economy, women's skills are under-used in leadership and women continue to earn less than men – even if they have the same qualifications, and similar job descriptions. Family violence also continues to be a cause of considerable disquiet. Firstly, New Zealand has had a high level of participation by women in public life and this is evident from the modest female representation in politics and the judiciary. However, women continue to be under represented in parliament. Currently, there is a 40.8% female representation in parliament. At present there are no adopted quotas and targets to increase the number of women to ensure the equal representation of women in all publicly appointed bodies by the New Zealand Government. Rather, the government has developed a policy of ‘soft targets’ to promote equal representation. This was criticized by the Human Rights Commission as being insufficient as there is no dedicated machinery to guide it.  The government's current goals and priorities in terms of employment equality for New Zealand women are linked to its broader goal of improving New Zealand's prosperity in the economy. This is to allow women to have more choices and opportunities to use their strengths to maximize social and economic success.  The New Zealand workforce shows a pattern of occupational segregation. For example, women tend to work in lower paying jobs, which contributes, in part, to the wage gap. Dangerous jobs are tend to be mainly male occupations, leading to significantly more workplace injuries and deaths among men. With regard to pay equity, the domestic gender pay gap in New Zealand when comparing full-time workers is rather low in comparison to other countries. The gender pay gap in New Zealand was calculated to be 9.9% in 2014, which was the lowest in the Asia Pacific Region. In terms of education, generally, women tend to outperform men and women tend to fare better in participation.

       New Zealand women have the right to non-discrimination in the ownership and access to land. The Maori Land Act 1993 provides for gender equality in the control and use of land and resources. In terms of non-land assets, there are no restrictions on their equal rights to property, regardless of marital status. Women also have the equal right to financial services pursuant to the Human Rights 1993.Women can access the same comprehensive range of health services as men, as well as having a range of services in place specifically designed for women's health needs – such as maternity services and population screening programs. On average, women have better health outcomes than men and women generally have a higher life expectancy. However, there are areas in which New Zealand does not fare so well in terms of health. New Zealand has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the OECD with the Māori teen pregnancy rate being rather high.

    New Zealand is making great strides to reclaim its place as the top nation in gender equality.

References:

New Zealand Land Cover Database, July 2009.Ministry for the Environment Retrieved from https://www.mfe.govt.nz/more/science-and-data/classification-systems/land-classification-systems

Subnational population estimates at 30 June 2009. Statistics New Zealand. 30 June 2007. Retrieved from http://archive.stats.govt.nz/

Gender inequality in New Zealand, OECD report 22/04/2012. retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/tacklegendergaptoboostgrowthsaysoecd.htm

Legislation for gender equity,(n.d.), National Equal Opportunities Network. Retrieved from http://www.neon.org.nz/payequitymonitoringtool/legislationgenderequity/

Cabinet Social Policy Committee REFORM OF FAMILY VIOLENCE LAW Paper Three, 2000.Prosecuting family violence. Retrieved from https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/documents/publications/fv-reform-paper-3-prosecuting.pdf

Blog 4 Country Focus - Yemen

* *Fellow Students I know there is so much uncertainty and nervousness regarding the Covid-19 Pandemic. I hope that you and your families are all keeping safe and following guidelines spelt out by the Federal, State and Local governments together with recommendations from the CDC and the FDA. **

  Yemen, sometimes spelled Yaman, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is the second-largest Arab sovereign state in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 square kilometers (203,850 square miles). The coastline stretches for about 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles). It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel to the south, and Oman and the Arabian Sea to the east. Yemen's territory encompasses more than 200 islands, including Socotra, one of the largest islands in the Middle East. Yemen is a member of the Arab League, United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Yemen is characterized as a failed state with high necessity of transformation (Global Fragile States Index, 2019).  

   Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab States region, is experiencing a complex war and humanitarian crisis. According to UN OCHA, over 76% of Yemenis are in need humanitarian assistance. The situation of women and girls in Yemen is very challenging; conflict has added layers of vulnerability for women and girls and exacerbated existing gender inequalities, and in 2017 Yemen was ranked at the bottom of the Gender Gap Index 2017, 144th out of 144 countries (The Global Gender Gap Report, 2018).

   Even before 2015, Yemeni women were subject to discrimination, both in their homes and in the workplace. Women are systematically denied access to jobs, are under-represented in public office, and bear disproportionate responsibility for unpaid caregiving and domestic work.

Source:Care International

  In the context of conflict, gender inequalities are both greater and more visible. One-fifth of Yemeni households are headed by women younger than 18 years old, and women and children account for three-quarters of those who are displaced. Conflict is also correlated to a rise in gender-based violence, which was documented 36 per cent more in 2016 than it was just one year earlier. And in times of economic hardship, girls are less likely to stay in school, more likely to marry early, and less likely to receive basic health services – including gynecological and obstetric care. Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, it is crucial to sustainable development.

    Experience demonstrates that empowering women stimulates economic growth and development in all areas. Ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health, legal protection and access to justice, opportunities for education and income-generation, and right to economic resources such as land and property are vital to achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls (Gender Equality: Yemen,2015).

   Against this backdrop, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) seeks to address issues of structural gender inequality, and to meet the urgent needs of women and girls. In doing so it implements a variety of projects – from assisting vulnerable women in places of detention to supporting women’s rights actors working for peace. UNDP has pledged to expand its partnerships with all stakeholders including Member States, UN agencies and local and international civil society organizations in cooperation with the relevant authorities. UNDP will continue to seek to expand humanitarian assistance and longer-term recovery and resilience programming in the country in support of gender equity, equality and the empowerment of women and girls. 

  Yemen has several key challenges to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Firstly, Women’s participation and leadership in the public sphere is low. The 2018 Gender Gap Index rated both women’s economic participation and political empowerment in Yemen at 140 of 142 countries. Secondly, Yemeni women record low levels of participation in formal paid work. Thirdly, there is a very high rate of violence against women and girls reported, including forced and early marriage. Also, structural inequalities hinder women’s and girl’s access to basic services, resulting in a dramatic gender gap in literacy and basic education and high maternal mortality rates. Lastly, both the formal and informal justice systems discriminate against women in many aspects contrary to Yemen’s commitments to international conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (The Global Gender Gap Report, 2018). 

    Despite all these challenges, the United Nations is committed to helping girls and women in Yemen. In 2014, UN Women established a presence in Yemen, working in close collaboration with the UN system to provide coordination, normative and program support to strengthen gender equality and women’s empowerment efforts. UN Women Yemen works with its partners to eliminate discrimination against women and girls, empower women and promote equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security activities. This work aims to achieve three strategic goals: 

a) Humanitarian action: Address the needs of vulnerable women and girls to ensure those affected by the crisis can participate in, are empowered by and benefit from response and recovery efforts.

b) Gender mainstreaming in humanitarian response: Provide capacity building support to leaders, networks, civil society and UN agencies on gender mainstreaming in humanitarian programming.

c) Women, Peace and Security: Increase women's leadership and inclusion in peace processes and enhance gender in peacebuilding in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UN Women Arab States, n.d.). 

    Despite all these efforts The United Nations has done to empower women, it came under sharp criticism over the election of Yemen to be the Vice President at the UN's Gender Equality Agency. According to a human rights watchdog organization, “Electing Yemen to protect women’s rights is like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental human rights group. How could the UN choose Yemen, a country that tolerates female genital mutilation, denies women hospital treatment without the permission of a male relative, and counts a woman’s testimony as worth half that of a man?” We remind the UN that women in Yemen cannot marry without permission of their male guardians, and face deeply entrenched discrimination.in both law and practice, in all aspects of their lives, including employment, education and housing (UN Elects Yemen, Worst on Gender Equality, as VP at UN’s Gender Equality Agency,2019).

References:

Global Fragile States Index, 2019. Retrieved from

https://fragilestatesindex.org/data/

Gender Equality: Yemen,2015. Retrieved from

https://www.ye.undp.org/content/yemen/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-5-gender-equality.html

The Global Gender Gap Report, 2018. World Economic Forum. Retrieved from

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2018.pdf

UN Women Arab States, n.d. Retrieved from https://arabstates.unwomen.org/en/countries/yemen

UN Elects Yemen, Worst on Gender Equality, as VP at UN’s Gender Equality Agency,2019. Retrieved from

https://unwatch.org/un-elects-yemen-worst-gender-equality-vp-uns-gender-equality-agency/