In Where the US Falters
Jessica Ravitz explores areas where the United States lags behind in equality of women either in practice or principle.
CEDAW Ratification
To start with, United States is among the seven countries that are yet to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) provisions. CEDAW is seen as the international bill of human rights, and thus failure to ratify it in a country might point to an unwillingness to promote equality (Ravitz, 2015).
Lack of Paid Maternity Leave
Also, new mothers are not guaranteed of paid leave in the United States which leaves one wondering whether the US is committed to gender equality (Ravitz, 2015).
Gender Wage Gap
Another worrying statistic that Ravitz reveals is that men in the United States earn 22% more than women for the same work done. This situation is even worse for women of color where white men earn 36% more (Ravitz, 2015). Although the United States is taunted as a place where men have equal opportunity as men, the statistics reveal otherwise since one cannot talk about equal opportunity without taking into account economic empowerment or lack of it. It is no wonder that countries such as Burundi and Thailand are ahead of United States when it comes to wage equality.
Lack of Female Presidents and Underrepresentation in Congress
Ravitz also observes that the United States has never had a female president and that women account for only 19.4% of Congress (Ravitz, 2015). In the last fifty years, 52 countries have had female presidents, and the United States is not anywhere in the list thus questioning the wisdom of declaring the United States as a country that cherishes equality.
Lack of Explicit Guarantee of Gender Equality in the US Constitution
Finally, Ravitz notes that the US constitution does not explicitly guarantee gender equality (Ravitz, 2015).
Reference
Ravitz, J. (2015). Women in the world: Where the U.S. falters in quest for equality. CNN. Retrieved April 14, 2018, from https://edition.cnn.com/2015/04/16/us/american-women-world-rankings/index.html
