A human rights issue

In the national debate about income inequality, working women are the best example of injustice and discrimination in our country.

For several decades, women have successfully held various jobs that used to be the exclusive purview of men. However, this equality is not present when it comes to salaries and promotions, in addition to having people understand and adapt to situations inherent to their gender.

For example, the issue of pregnancy exposes many young women to discrimination. Even worse, the number of discrimination complaints increased 35% in the past decade, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This kind of discrimination prevents women from having enough resources to support their families.

As far as resources, compensation is the main way to discriminate against almost half of the American workforce. Women doing the same work as men get paid on the average 77 cents for every dollar that men get. In the case of Latinas, who are the worst-paid, after Anglos and African Americans, compensation equals 60 cents for every dollar.

On the other hand, budget cuts to social programs for the needy disproportionately impact women and children. Many of these political decisions are made by male lawmakers who arrogantly also want to control women’s reproductive health.

That is all happening in the U.S., where the conditions for women are better than in other places—where they are bought and sold into prostitution, or unable to go outside without a man accompanying them, among others.

On this International Women’s Day, let’s not forget that economic injustice, gender violence and cultural discrimination are human rights issues.