By The newspaper
08 Mar 2024, 04:32 AM EST
An international report released by the World Bank makes us put our feet on the ground to remind us of the heavy battle that women have to deal with due to the lack of equity policies.
With the report titled ‘Women, Business and the Law’, the World Bank makes it clear that not even the richest economies in the world provide equal opportunities to women. In general, they only have access to two-thirds of the legal rights enjoyed by men.
The economies of 190 countries were analyzed. And once again it was demonstrated that women are the ones who have long hours and earn only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men.
Even at the time of retirement, they receive fewer pensions because at some point they had to reduce their hours or stop working for a while to take care of a family member.
The x-ray that this report paints is not alien to what women in the United States experience, especially those of minorities.
Although it has been 61 years since the Equal Pay Act was passed in this country, the progress we have seen is moving at a snail’s pace. In fact, research from the American Center for Progress (CAP) projects that if things remain as they are, full-time, year-round working women will not achieve wage parity with men until 2056.
How is it possible that we have to wait three more decades for women to have the same income as men. Specifically for Latinas and black women, it means that they will have to continue earning 54 cents and 64 cents, respectively, for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic white men.
It is unfortunate that we arrive again at the “celebration” of International Women’s Day emphasizing old issues such as equal pay.
We cannot sit idly by, we must continue to insist on the approval of laws that protect and grant the benefits that women deserve. We need to accelerate the closing of the gap that has kept women in the background for so long.
Congress and the federal government cannot forget that half of the population in the United States is female. That companies with Latina owners have grown 87% in the last decade, being the business group with the highest growth, generating $65 million in income. That women’s empowerment is beneficial for everyone.
The woman has already passed all the tests, she has been overcoming barriers. She has nothing more to prove to be treated with equal opportunities.