#MeToo

2017 something that will go down in history happened, #MeToo. MeToo is a hashtag woman can use if they have experienced sexual assault and harassment. MeToo started out in USA when a woman named Alyssa Milano tweeted out on the evening of October the 15th, “If you have been sexually harassed or assaulted write “MeToo” as a reply to this tweet. #MeToo went viral really fast and has showed the magnitude of the problem with sexual harassment in our society. Twitter and Social media are a power not only men control, and I am glad Alyssa Milano saw that possibility. Today thousands of experiences have been reviled, and a change have happened. Sexual harassment at work led to public shame around the world. The consequences of this was that men won't be able to sexually assault women as easy as before. Men finally need to take responsibility for their actions. The bosses in the branches also need to attend the problem to be able to uphold a good reputation

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International Women's Day

Today men and women are treated differently in their lives. Women are limited by being women and that’s why we live in an unequal world. Therefore, we need the international women’s day. A day that we use to bring awareness to the discrimination of the female sex. It is important to know that the international women’s day is not a day we celebrate, it is a day to observe injustice and try to change the world. None of us should be satisfied with the change until the day when every woman is seen as an equal by everyone all around the world.

The thought of international women’s day was created in the beginning of the 20th century through the labour movement and the women movement. It was a time when women did not have the possibility to vote and change the society. That requirement was something that people fought for.

In 1977 the United Nations, decided to introduce the international women’s day on March the 8. The next year when this day comes, I recommend you look up if there are any local demonstrations in your neighbourhood. If there aren’t, start one yourself. We can all make a change!

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Gender Pay Gap: Egypt

Welcome to the fifth post of this series! Today we'll be talking about Egypt and the way they look for equality. Hope you like it!

In 2017, the UN Women organization made a campaign where they showed a lack of representation and presence of Egyptian women in the job market, especially in disciplines such as science, politics, and technology. According to the Capmas, women are only 23% of the labour force in the country, while most of the females are pushed into the background, where they can only work on non paid jobs or even scarcity.

That year, Egypt was on the 134th position of the Global Gender Pay Gap from the World Economic Forum (WEF), which measures the level of equality between genders on the participation on economics and the access to education, healthcare, survival, and political empowerment. a mixture of economic, conservative, religious and sexual harassment obstacles has made it very complicated for women to gain access to jobs and to have equal salaries. Traditionally, woman’s task was to take care of her children and to do the housework. however, females are slowly taking to the streets and getting new jobs. There is merit on this, considering that, while the country suffers an economic crisis, these women are going to university and studying a wide-ranging of degrees to make a good living.

Virginia Apgar

A few days ago, while I was looking for information for a school project, I saw the name "Virginia Apgar". To be honest, I didn't pay much attention to it since I was running out of time, but somehow that name got stuck in my head. When I finished my project I decided to search her on the Internet to know why was she famous.

When I found out, I was very surprised. She had invented such a great thing! Why wasn't she well-know then? The answer is simple: she was a woman. Maybe some of you will not agree with me, but trust me on this. 

Of course, if you don't believe it, you can read this little article I have written about her life. Hope you enjoy it! You can tell me what you think about this woman or mention other wonderful people that should be more famous than they are now on the comments.

Virginia Apgar was born in Westfield, New Jersey, US, on June 7, 1909. She was a physician and obstetrical anesthesiologist. She is known for the development of the Apgar Score System, a method of evaluating an infant shortly after birth to assess its well-being and to determine if any immediate medical intervention is required.

She carried out her secondary studies in the Westfield High School, graduating in 1925. That same year she entered the Holyoke College, where she studied zoology. She obtained a Bachelor Degree in 1929. That same year, she joined the University of Columbia to study medicine. She graduated in 1933. After an internship at the Presbyterian Hospital, New York City, she held residencies in the relatively new specialty of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin. She decided to specialize in that discipline due to the lack of awareness at the administration of the right amount of anesthesia (which was based on empiricism). However, anesthesiologists were considered inferior to doctors, and they were paid less.

Apgar and a nurse of the hospital, Anne Penland, decided to create a manual. In Notes on Anesthesia, they explained the use of anesthesia.

Between 1933 and 1939, the number of patients that needed anesthesia for a surgery increased, but the number of anesthesiologists working at the Presbyterian Hospital didn’t. It was not until the attack on Pearl Harbor that things started to change. Many people enlisted in the army as doctors or nurses. When they came back after the war ended, they had changed their minds: anesthesia was vital and it should be treated equally to other specialties.

An interest in the obstetric procedure, and particularly in the treatment of the newborn, led her to develop a simple system for quickly evaluating the condition and viability of newly delivered infants. As finally presented in 1952, the Apgar Score System relies on five simple observations to be made by delivery room personnel (nurses or interns) of the infant within one minute of birth and—depending on the results of the first observation—periodically thereafter. It measured the heart rate, breathing rate, response to stimulation, colour of skin and muscle tone. The Apgar Score System soon came into general use throughout the United States and was adopted by several other countries as it was a huge success. In fact, it helped to save a lot of young lives!

In 1959 Apgar left Columbia and took a degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University. She headed the division of congenital malformations at the National Foundation-March of Dimes from 1959–67. She was promoted to director of basic research at the National Foundation (1967–72), and she later became senior vice president for medical affairs (1973–74). She co-wrote the book Is My Baby All Right? (1972) with Joan Beck.

She won several prizes, such as an honorary Ph.D. from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania and other from the Mount Holyoke College. She also got the Elizabeth

Blackwell medal, given by the American Medical Women's Association. Finally, she got a honoris causa from  New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry.

She died due to an hepatic failure on august 7th, 1974, in the Medical Centre of Columbia.

Great Women Throughout History

Women are great. This is a fact, and people should start assuming this.

Women have been great for a veeeeery long time, but, for some reason, men didn't accept this. Therefore, a lot of this wonderful ladies had to hide behind pseudonyms or explain their discoveries to the society through male relatives.

I am aware that many books about women throughout history have been written, but I wanted to do my bit. Therefore, I will post some little articles about great women many people won't know about.

Hope you like it!

Gender Pay Gap: Mexico

Hello, everybody! It's me again with more information. How is the gender pay gap in Mexico?

Gender pay gap in Mexico reaches 16,7%, slightly over the average on the countries that form the Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE). On the last report from this organization about fighting for equality, Mexico stands out for its recent politics to close the gap between men and women. for example, 42% of the House of Representatives are female (OCDE average is around 28%). This success has been achieved thank to these politics. In addition, new scholarships have been given so that the number of men and women is almost the same in order to help women to get to the job market.

However, only 44,9% of the Mexican women on working age are employed - the third lowest rate after Turkey and Greece. On the other side, 78,5% of the Mexican men have jobs, which shows a huge inequality due to stereotypes that limit females.

In accordance with that, Mexico is a very traditional country. Three-quarters of the housework is done by females, a non paid work that doesn’t let them get a job. The long working day causes difficulties to reconcile job and family life. Furthermore, women suffer a high rate of femicide, what makes the environment unsafe.

Gender Pay Gap: France

Hello! This is my second post on this topic. This time I'll be talking about France. Hope you enjoy it!

According to official statistics, French women earn 9% less than Frenchmen do in the same job position, and 25% less in global terms. The average salary for women is 1.962€ per month, while for men it is 2.410€. In fact, one in every two women in France thinks their condition as females curbs their professional careers.

In order to contain this gap, there is a “compulsory” plan that tries to establish wage and professional equality in business. However, only 61,4% of the companies have signed agreements that take this into consideration. Although 60% of the economic and business sectors have agreements that support equality, the reality isn’t always as they try to make us believe. In fact, 82,5% of the half-time jobs are held by women, which shows how the insecurity of employment is different between men and women.

All of the official representatives insist on equality as an absolute priority. Moreover, Emmanuel Macron affirmed that it is the great national project during his presidential command.

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande also promised that same priority. For the last ten years, consecutive legislative projects have tried to reduce the gender pay gap as well as they have tried to accomplish professional and salary equality. The results have not been as good as expected.

Last February, France’s minister of equality between men and women, Marlène Chiappa, announced two bills to be discussed in the National Assembly: one against sexual violence and other against sexual harassment on the streets.