Women in the work place is nothing new.

Sexual harassment towards women is nothing new either.

All the sexual harassment lectures, classes, and information provided by the workplace are simply not enough. I learned more about sexual harassment in one class setting than I ever have in my entire life.

I’d like to share what I have learned and some statistics about sexual harassment with you today.

There are two different types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work environment.

Quid pro quo is “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.”

Hostile work environment “must be determined whether or not the conduct unreasonably interfered with an individual’s work performance or created an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”

According to a 2006 study by the American Association of University Women states that “62% of female college students report having been sexually harassed at their university with 80% of the reported harassment being peer-to-peer.”

The federal law that prohibits sexual harassment is the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This law holds certain employers responsible for preventing and stopping sexual harassment at the workplace.

 A link with more in depth information on this topic is:

http://www.equalrights.org/publications/kyr/shwork.asp

How does all this relate to women? Sexual harassment occurs more often to women than men and because of that reason I believe we as women need to be educated and stay informed on what sexual harassment  looks like and how to handle it.

Have women truly shattered the glass ceiling as some proclaim?

Do women have complete equal rights, same pay, same ability to progress in the work place?

Some may answer yes to all of these situations but do we truly have equality?

I came across an article that I found most intriguing about actors. Hollywood glass ceiling is shattered, but women are still losing out in film and TV. This article states that during the Oscars of 2010 the first woman in the 82 years of its existence finally won an Oscar for Best Director. Wow! It continues to mention how actresses continue to earn less and receive fewer speaking parts than their counterparts. If this situation is still occurring for the elite of society what does that say about the rest of us?

Have women shattered the glass ceiling? talks about us common folk. It point out how everyday women that strive for the best still face great obstacles to obtain the best. We are still seen as the weaker ones. We receive less pay and fewer promotions than men. The one shocking fact it mentioned was that on average of the 4,100 women and men that were polled women earned $4,600 less than the man!  The everyday man can make that in two months while a woman would have to work for six months to make the same amount.

While I do agree that in some aspects we have cracked that infamous glass ceiling, I do not believe it has completely shattered yet. We have a lot more work to do before we can truly say the ceiling has been 100% shattered for all women.

Modern slavery, although not in the Webster dictionary, has become synonyms with sex slavery.

Over 160 countries across the world are known to be affected by human trafficking.

In 2009 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in the Report on Trafficking Persons stated that 66% of the people were women.

Does this horrified and inhumane act occur here in the precious United State of America? YES!! Every single day a young girl or woman is in some manner coerced into slavery in order to make money off of them for the pleasure of other men whether they want to or not.

As many as 50,000 people, mostly consisting of women and pre pubescent children, are trafficked into the United States from all over the world every year. 

Polaris Project is an organization that works to combat all forms of human trafficking in the Unites States as well as around the world. They operate a National Hotline (1-888-3737-888), advocate for the advancement of legislation, offer services for victims and promote awareness.  The interesting thing I found on this website was a page about recognizing the various signs of someone that might be a victim of human trafficking and modern slavery. http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/recognizing-the-signs

Since the beginning of the National Hotline in 2008 there have been a total of 25,261 phones calls with 15.59% coming from California and 13.41% from Texas.

Finally, I have posted a video. Although, it talks a lot about the trafficking in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area, I think we can learn a lot from this.

Information for this blog was obtained from the following websites:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/human-trafficking-statistics.html
http://www.polarisproject.org/index.php

Did you know that this day even existed? I didn’t until I was in class on Monday.

On the calendar for the United States the only recognized day of the entire 365 day calendar year that somewhat recognizes women is Mother’s Day and some could say because if a woman isn’t a mother it reflects on that day as well and in some aspects can make a woman feel less like a woman for not being a mother. I don’t include Valentine’s Day in this because I believe that is a day to celebrate love for the one’s you hold dear, not just to celebrate the love you have towards a woman (mother, sister, girlfriend, whatever the case may be).

So what is International Women’s Day? In a nutshell it is a day that began on March 19, 1911, in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.  It started being celebrated on March 8th in 1913 and has stuck ever since then. It began as a day of remembering the negatives towards women and moved to a celebration about the positive changes and to celebrate the achievements of women. It is now an official holiday in fifteen different countries. It is celebrated in the United States but is not an official holiday as of yet. For a more in depth history and further information on this day check out www.internationalwomensday.com

This day is celebrated in a variety of ways: concerts, luncheons, parades, speeches. As of February 8, 2011, there are 429 events by 44 different countries in place to celebrate this day.

Last but certainly not least, I’ve posted a link to a video I hope you will watch. It mentions a little about celebrating women’s day this year but what I really like about it is that it showcases several of the women that have impacted society and legislation for a woman in today’s society. I will say, yes, it is a little long (7:19) but it’s definitely worth watching, in my opinion. So enjoy the clip and hope you learned a little something new and remember, celebrate the women in your life for who she is and all that she can be! www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jL1fGEzmWg