What is the biggest challenge facing girls and women in your country today?
Do we just deal with it?
When I first started thinking about this question nothing immediately came to my mind, which I thought was a good thing. After all, Germany is generally a rather modern society so on the outside it would appear that Germany does not have gender discrimination, similar to other developing countries, where females have absolutely no rights and do everything they are told without questioning it.
Even though, according to the law women and men are both equal they are not and will never be entirely equal. All over the world, including in Germany, girls and women are harassed by boys and men in various ways. Whether it is online, in the workplace, or by sexual harassment, it occurs everywhere and constantly. The most common form of harassment I would say is street harassment. This is one of the best examples of why women and men will never be equal in every aspect. Men will always have a certain “power” over girls and women. This “power” makes them feel uncomfortable and ashamed, when they make a disrespectful comment about them. I believe that this will never truly change. Girls and women in my country are confronted and have to deal with this issue every day of their lives. They try to ignore it but nearly no girl or woman ever confronts a boy or a man when they do this. In situations where the harassment gets seriously dangerous or to a point where you cannot just deal with it anymore some will ask the police for help.
Another point, which shows the unequal treatment towards males and females, is the devotion we have for our male national soccer team. In Germany we have a women’s national soccer team and a men’s national soccer team. Although the women’s team has been world champion two years in a row and have been European champion a total of eight times, they do not get nearly as much attention or media publicity as the men’s team does. It is the exact same when it comes to German soccer league and the champion’s league. The majority of people do not even know that these exist with female players. I myself cannot name a single female soccer player. This shows that in Germany you are raised thinking that the women’s national team is less important, because they might not play “as well” as the men’s team. In this case the situation might change over time and they will become more popular, well- known and respected. But until then this is another factor women have to deal with.
On a personal note a friend of mine who has a 13 year old brother who plays soccer, told me that in their club they often shift the girl’s practices to inconvenient times for the sake of the boys. They neglect the equal importance that both boys and girls are allowed to practice there. Instead, they make the field more available for the boys, rather than the girls.
I have also experienced these factors in my personal life. In school girls are underestimated by others, for example in Physical Education (PE). Furthermore, at the end of the year we always have to clean our classrooms before we go off into summer vacation. I have heard the boys say, that this would be a job for the girls, many times. Personally, it does not really bother me and we normally just try to ignore it or we start joking about it. Most of the boys just say this as a joke anyway. However, this does not make it acceptable, but it makes it easier to not take them seriously. I find it sad though, that some of the boys actually believe this, because this is what it is like at their own homes.
In summary you can say while Germany is not 100% perfect, it is a very fortunate country when it comes to this difficult topic because the biggest challenge facing girls and women today is to how be strong and empowered when dealing with inequalities that come their way.