I remember two times in my life when I felt insulted by people’s comments related to me being a woman. The first incident took place in one of the classes back in my home country when I was pursuing my B.A. in teaching. Once I was giving a presentation to my groupmates, and a few times I stumbled over my words and said something incorrectly. My attempt to apologize to my groupmates was disrupted by the teacher who said that I was free to make any mistakes since I was a pretty woman with a nice voice and good manners. Saying that I was shocked to hear such a remark would be an understatement. I was angry. Frustrated. Furious. Because what I heard was that no one cared if I had any intelligence – it was all about my appearance. Another comment that I heard from a different person was related to taking up a job with an X the size of the salary mount salary which, according to him, would be fair enough for a woman. What the person meant was probably that there was a limit that a woman should never exceed when it comes to a career.

Does it sound familiar? Do you think it’s all fair?

For a while, I used to think it is. And unfortunately, many women from all over the world still have an assumption that they are what people might call “a weaker sex.” What can we do about it? Maybe…at least stop being silent and start talking about it? Even though it seems impossible to immediately solve the issue of women’s oppression and underrepresentation, I do believe people ought to be aware of such a problem because it is global.