Cam Tavan Teorisi

If you were asked which century you would like to live in before you were born, what would you answer?

I sometimes ask this question to people around me. While the answers for men can vary considerably, women generally prefer after 1900s. This is no coincidence, of course. As a woman, I am very happy to have been born in the 2000s.

A few centuries ago there was a world where even when we talked about "human rights" we meant free men. Women were not seen as a part of social life, their role in social life was restricted as much as possible. Such a demand could not come from women either, because they could not think of breaking the stereotypes of thousands of years, and the punishment for thinking and expressing this was very severe.

It has not been easy for us to come from those days. In many countries of the world, women can now work in any job they want, receive education at the level they want, and have a say in matters that affect their lives. Many men, women and LGBT activists fought for this cause. Feminist movements have taken the world by storm. Finally, we have come to the 21st century, the period when men and women are most equal before the law. For other genders, there is still a long way to go.

So, are all the problems really solved? Even in the most developed societies in social life, men and women are seen as equal before the law, but there are still various injustices behind the scenes.

For example, one of the topics that has been popular in recent years is wage inequality. Many feminist NGOs and activists continue to advocate "equal pay for equal work". Because in many parts of the world, wage differences can be observed between men and women who still work in the same positions.

In the chart below, we can see the difference in earnings between men and women with the same education level. As soon as we look at the graph, what draws our attention is the increase in the income gap between men and women as the level of education increases.

I came across an account on Twitter on March 8 explaining whether companies celebrating International Working Women's Day in the UK do not give equal pay to their male and female employees. The "gender share gap" is at a terrible level in some companies that celebrate March 8 with literary phrases and with great enthusiasm. In some companies, this equality seems to have been achieved, but the number of these companies is quite low. You can find the link to the account here.

All these problems cause women to have more difficulty in active business life than men. Our social prejudices and perceptions also argue that women should not come to certain positions in business life.

For example, let's say you have a meeting with a CEO with a unisex name. You will probably be surprised that when you enter the room, the person in front of you is not a man but a woman. Because our minds are conditioned that high positions like CEO are only suitable for men. We, the individuals who carry traces of the society we live in, will not be able to leave these patterns easily.

Here, the Glass Ceiling Theory is a metaphor that represents the barriers that prevent minority groups, such as women or blacks in America, from rising in the hierarchical order. Members of one of these groups are forced to work and strive harder than other advantaged groups, and often this effort cannot be rewarded.

The coming centuries give me a lot of hope in terms of such social issues. The century we live in has made unprecedented progress on gender inequalities. In the next centuries, not only the equality of men and women, but also a world order in which all genders are considered equal will prevail.