world

The strike and demonstration staged by women workers in Chicago, the US, on March 8 117 years ago were an eruption of their wrath at the unequal social system where women are the objects of contempt.

Since then, fierce struggles for gender equality and emancipation of women have been waged on the earth, but there has been little change in the status of women until today.

In the society where contempt for and ill-treatment of women have become a social trend, the plight of women is as good as that of fallen leaves in autumn.

The US constitution has not yet the provision banning discrimination against women. Such issue was placed on the agenda of the Congress in 1972, thanks to the struggle of the broad working masses against sexual inequality, but the relevant bill has not yet been passed even after a lapse of over 50 years.

The number of deaths of expectant and nursing mothers has gone up dramatically in the US over the past 20-odd years. More than 2.2 million women fail to receive obstetric care and nearly 5 million live in areas where obstetric care conditions are very poor.

In the country, about 54 000 women lose their jobs each year for the reason of pregnancy.

And more than 6 million women suffer from violent crimes. In the US, a law was adopted in order to prevent domestic violence, as it is so rampant in the country, and even an “additional domestic violence tax” is collected when issuing a marriage certificate.

In Japan, even the women who conduct political activities are subjected to sexual harassment.

In the country, women are regarded as "childbearing machines" and encounter all sorts of unjust discrimination. As it is commonplace for women to get fired by reason of childbirth, pregnant women and nursing mothers opt for suicide or unhesitatingly kill their babies out of fear about the harsh environment for existence after childbirth and for other reasons.

According to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour of Japan, the number of children born in 2024 dropped by 5.7 percent over the same period of 2023.

Contempt for and ill-treatment of women are a social trend not only in the US and Japan but also in many other countries.

For women to get a job is “as hard as a bull going through a pinhole” and even if they get jobs, they suffer from extreme discrimination in their workplaces. The first targets of unemployment are also women.

The word "glass ceiling" in vogue in many countries figuratively refers to the situation of women who are suffering misfortune and pain in their work and life for the reason that they are women.

A UN agency stated that many women across the world are being killed by their spouses, relatives and other people close to them, deploring that "family is the most dangerous place for women".