Do we still need to talk about equal treatment of women and men?

Since the middle of the 19th century women in Europe have been fighting for equal rights in Europe. The realization in Germany started in 1918. Over 40 years later gender equality was passed by law. Today women have formally the same rights as men. But the discussions about the equal treatment between both genders has not stopped until now.

For sure in these days the differences are not as big as they used to be in former times, but unequal treatment is still alive, especially in topics like work and prejudice gender.
Many people are sick of talking about this topic, even though it is still current. But still kids learn the typical behavior of men and women starting in primary school or even earlier. Girls play with dolls and boys with cars. When they get older the unequal treatment goes on, with phrases like “Girls don’t behave like this“ or “Boys don’t cry, they are fighters“.
The role model starts to subtly takes shape in the thinking of the young adults. Later, when they are grown up, most of them think they are equal treated but they are not. One example is that a lot of German women do not work at executive levels of big companies. Those jobs are given to men for reasons that are full of the prejudices which were built up in the childhood.
To employ women in those jobs is too unsecure because they can become pregnant: on the one hand this situation disables the employer to dismiss the women and on the other hand forces them to pay the women during the time they are on maternity leave. One other reason is that the chance of mothers staying at home increases if the children become ill. The employer then also has to pay the salary. Additionally women are thought to be not able to work under pressure as they are deemed be too emotional.
But no employer will ever officially tell these things as a reason not to employ a women – then they would probably be denounced as being sexist. That is why it is almost impossible to take the company to court and prove they did not appoint a woman because of her gender. The discrimination can go on – as a German byword says: “If there is no plaintiff, there is no judge.“
Also many women do not get the same salary as their male colleagues for the same work. Especially Germany is one of the European countries where the differences between the salaries are very high. This can only be explained by the fact that the skills of women are generally rated lower than the skills of men, said the former Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the European Union, Vladimír Špidla.
In Germany public employers have pledged themselves to pay both genders the same salary and to use quotas for women. But in most cases they get paid less and thereby they are higher pernentage of persons living in poverty.
There is still discrimination against women in working life today, even they have been given the same rights as men at least on paper. In general you do not really recognize that there is unequal treatment, because it has become so subtle. As it is so subtle, it still exists. Therefore it still needs to be discussed, to bring the topic to the surface. The realization of equal treatment will still need a lot of time, power, intelligence and awareness training. True to the slogan “Emancipation can only become reality if it isn’t be needed anymore“, the discussion about the equal treatment of women and men is still needed to create the same possibilities for both genders.