Sadly, we live in a world where inequality still is a big issue. What’s even sadder that some people deny that certain groups of people are being mistreated or that they have a harder time going through life. For example, gender inequality, which even resulted in the huge feminism movement, is often discredited or accepted as normal.
Tiktok user @mrvdk is not one of those people. He made a video responding to a person asking if women really have it worse than men. In that video, he provides us eye-opening statistics that, yes, indeed, gender inequality is not a made-up concept.
More info: TikTok
TikToker does his research and provides us with some statistics showing that women are often mistreated
Image credits: mrvdk
The app user @mrvdk's real name is Stefan. Bored Panda reached out to him and we got to know that he is a creative writer, podcaster, and occasional actor. He was raised in Washington State, and moved to California in 2012. And he got married just last year, so congratulations!
On TikTok, Srefan creates videos in support of feminism and trying to teach men how to get rid of toxic masculinity. If you would like to see more from Stefan, here is his TikTok and Instagram accounts.
One of his videos really blew up with 7.3 million views and 2.4 million likes. In this video, he responds to another man questioning if women really get mistreated and asking some statistics for it. You can tell from his facial expression that he is in disbelief. Stefan puts this man down by presenting some really concerning numbers that have to do with women.
Image credits: mrvdk
Stefan told us that he was very surprised that the video blew up, "I’m still not totally aware of what makes this video as special as it has become, but I’m incredibly grateful for it, because it’s allowed me to connect with other creators about what they go through, and has evolved my understanding of feminism in ways I might not have been aware of before! "
When asked, what pushed him to speak about feminism publicly, Stefan answered, "I think feminism needs to be as mainstream as possible, because I truly believe it holds a lot of answers to a great many problems all genders go through. I’m aware of it’s checkered past, and I don’t ignore the “radical” feminist, because to me they aren’t radicals but instead rational. What women go through on a daily basis requires action, some of which is radically unjust, and thus requires radical action."
Woman are 47 percent more likely to sustain severe injuries in car accidents because the safety measures are designed for men
Image credits: mrvdk
The fact that women are 47 percent more likely to sustain severe injuries in car crashes while wearing a seat belt is taken from a study published in 2011. The researchers concluded that "vehicle regulations must focus on effective safety designs specifically tailored toward the female population for equity in injury reduction."
Women, in general, are shorter, so they need to sit more upright; women have less muscle in their necks, so that makes women more vulnerable to whiplash.
Over 30,000 underage girls get married every day
Image credits: mrvdk
The United Nations estimates that 140 million girls married between 2011 and 2020. Of these 140 million girls, 50 million are under the age of 15.
The UN reports that the situation isn't getting any better and if anything, it's getting worse with the expanding youth population in the developing world.
Women and girls spend 40 billion hours a year collecting water to meet their family's basic needs
Image credits: mrvdk
In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls of all ages have the responsibility in the house to collect water. Often they have to walk long distances and that is one of the factors why girls can't go to school regularly.
The UN reports that collectively, women and girls spend 40 billion hours a year just collecting water, which is the equivalent to a year’s worth of labor by the entire workforce in France.
The gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years
Image credits: mrvdk
The global gender pay gap is getting narrower little by little, but Stefan said that at the current rate, it will take 108 years more to completely close it. However, this statistic is from 2018. The World Economic Forum released this year's report and this number has increased to 135.6 years. The setback is caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, because, for example, more women than men lost their jobs.
Only 6 countries in the world guarantee legal and economic equality between the genders
Image credits: mrvdk
The World Bank released a report in which they evaluated countries across eight indicators: the ability to travel, start a job, get married, have children, run a business, get paid, manage assets, and obtain a pension.
The six countries that have achieved equal rights under the law over the last decade are Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Sweden.
There are 2.24 male characters for every female character in films
Image credits: mrvdk
Researchers from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media have found that there are 2.24 male characters for every female character. The report also reveals that only 30.9% of the speaking characters are female. Maybe movies and TV shows don't seem as such a big problem, but after all, they reflect our reality and impact it too.
People in the comments were mentioning other things that women have to deal with
What do you think about these numbers and what is your view on gender equality? Did any of these facts surprise you? Let's have a discussion in the comments!