Nearly 90 per cent of young women in US have experienced sexual harassment, report finds

Nearly 90 per cent of young women in the US have experienced some form of sexual harassment
during their lifetime, according to a new report.
Despite the high number, the research carried out by the prestigious Harvard Graduate School of
Education found that many weren't talking to their parents or educators about the issue.
The study, based on a survey of more than 3,000 18 to 25-year-olds across the US, found that 87 per cent
of young women reported having experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime.

However, more than three quarters (76 per cent) of its respondents, both male and female, had never
had a conversation with their parents about how to avoid sexually harassing others.
More than half (56 per cent) of respondents meanwhile said they had never spoken with their parents
about the importance of not pressuring someone to have sex, while an even higher proportion (62 per
cent) had not spoken to their parents about the importance of not continuing to ask someone to
have sex after they have said no.

It also found that third of young men think they should be dominant in relationships.
Among all the respondents, 48 per cent either agreed or were neutral about the idea that “society has
reached a point that there is no more double standards against women", while 39 per cent said it was “rare
to see a woman treated in an inappropriately sexualized manner on television.”

Women around the world earn a quarter less than men, finds UN report

Women earn 23 per cent less than men around the world, a new study has found. In other words, a
woman earns 77 per cent of what a man does, and it will take more than 70 years before the gap is
closed.
A report from the United Nations Population Fund, called The State of World Population 2017,
found that no country was left untouched by sexism and discrimination when it came to women in the
workplace.
“Once in the paid labour force, women everywhere find themselves earning less than men for the same
types of work; engaging more frequently in unskilled, low-wage labour; or spending less time in income-
generating work and more time in unpaid caregiving work at home,” it read.

Across the world, about 50 per cent of women participated in the global labour force in 2015,
compared to 76 per cent of men. Yet women make up 52 per cent of the world’s population and men
only 51 per cent.
Partly, the gap comes down to education. While 479 million women are illiterate, only 279 million
men cannot read or write. Illiterate people earn up to 42 per cent less than everyone else. Women are
also more likely to face pressure not to take up subjects like sciences and maths, limiting their future
opportunities. If women want to work and start a family, they should know that three in five women
lack maternity leave and many more pay some kind of "motherhood penalty".

Women 'arrested for riding bicycles' in Iran

A group of women has reportedly been arrested for riding bicycles in Iran and made to sign pledges
not to repeat the “violation”.
They were planning to participate in a cycling event in the north-western city of Marivan when police
told them a new government directive had barred women riding bicycles in public.
The opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran said officers ordered them to sign written
pledges vowing not to repeat the “unlawful violation” and took several women who protested into
custody.
Official signs appeared in May saying “bicycle riding for women is prohibited” in public walkways and
police chiefs have previously warned that women caught cycling would be prosecuted.
Some parks have gender-segregated cycle lanes but in 1996 a mob of around 20 Islamists attacked
women using one such facility in Chitgar Park, Tehran.
Without a defined penalty in Iran’s legal code, officers have previously used dress laws and other
alleged offences including being in the company of unrelated men to harass female cyclists.
It is illegal for women to go out in public without wearing headscarf or “modest” clothing in the country,
where thousands of undercover agents and morality police patrol the streets to check for violations.
Farideh Karimi, an activist from the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said restrictions on
women’s freedoms were being “stepped up” under President Hassan Rouhani’s government.