New York City faces may health issues that cause preventable illness and premature death among New Yorkers. These include the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and recognizing and treating Depression. Addressing these health issues is made even more difficult due to disparities in health found in different areas of New York City. New Yorks living in high poverty neighborhoods and ethnic groups disproportionately experience higher rates of preventable illness and premature death. These areas include South Bronx, East and Central Harlem and North and Central Brooklyn, which suffer from limited access to healthy food options, poor housing quality and limited safe spaces for recreation. (Source 1) Many policies have been made to address these problems; however, I believe that it’s important to try to find solutions on a more neighborhood-based level.

New York City is statistically home to the country’s largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS. More than 113,000 New Yorkers are living with

HIV/AIDS and thousands are unaware that they are infected at all. (Source 1) Deaths among people with AIDS have decreased by 45% over the last decade, which is historically low; however, the amount of people infected remains at a high rate.

Fewer African Americans are dying from HIV-related diseases; however, they remain disproportionately burdened by HIV/AIDS as nearly 45% of New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS are black. In 2011, homosexual men accounted for 66% of new diagnoses among those with known HIV transmission risk. (Source 2).

Stress and depression rates in New York City also remain at an all time high. More than 400,000 New Yorkers are affected each year. Treatments are highly effective; however, depression is often undetected and untreated. Only one in three of individuals suffering from depression in New York City receive treatment. Depression is the second leading cause of healthy years of life lost in New York City. (Source 1) In 2012, more than 50% of black and Hispanic adults had untreated serious psychological distress. Younger New Yorkers have higher rates of depression than older. Those in their 20’s and 30’s are affected at about twice the rate of people over 60. Depression is often an illness that is put on the back burner, due to the fact that is purely psychological and its effects are not promptly visible; however it is a disabling and fatal illness and needs treatment. Depression can undermine overall health and wellbeing. It is the leading cause of suicide and affects all aspects of live – work, family, and friendships. (Source 3)

STD and HIV/AIDS rates and depression are two very separate problems that ail New York City and its residents; however, I believe both can be addressed jointly. Community efforts and involvement can greatly diminish the rate at which these illnesses target individuals. In New York City, there is little to no sense of community or togetherness. If community efforts such as neighborhood yoga classes and STD awareness workshops are created, not only is information being released and publicized, a sense of togetherness and unity is also instilled, which is important to have in order to create a network of support in the City.

Sources:

1. A Policy for a Healthier New York City. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/tcny/tcny-5year-report2013.pdf
2. Fund for Public Health NY. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://www.fphny.org/topics/stop-the-spread-of-hiv-and-other-sexually-transmitted-infections
3. Fund for Public Health NY. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2015, from http://www.fphny.org/programs/recognize-and-treat-depression

As recent research has shown, gender issues in the workplace not only affect women, but our economic growth and society overall. Therefore, it is important for us, as a nation, to dedicate ourselves to finding a solution to gender disparity and the gender wage gap. I believe one solution could address the multitude of problems that women are faced with: empowerment

. A major issue that women face is lack of presence in leadership positions and in high-paying and professional careers, such as engineering and academia. Several studies have been done on why these fields are so male dominated and results have shown that women often feel uncomfortable attempting to enter a profession where they have little support and often times, where sexism still exists. Empowering women in the workforce means giving them the comfort and the confidence they need to follow their goals, despite the odds. The importance of empowering women and promoting gender equality in the workplace is documented in “The Business of Empowering Women,” a survey done of 2,300 business executives. It was found that companies that focused on empowering women reported growth within their business. A third of businesses reported that their investments in their female employees resulted in an increase in profits. Another third reported their investments were expected to grow in the short-term. (Source 1) This should give businesses the incentive to take measures not only for women and our nations economic growth, but also for their businesses’ advantage.

The pay gap between men and women has barely budged in a decade. In 2013, among full-time, year-round workers, women were paid 78 percent of what men were paid. Women face a pay gap in nearly every occupation. From elementary and middle school teachers to computer programmers, women are paid less than men in female-dominated, gender-balanced and male-dominated occupations. While higher education is an effective toll for increasing earnings, it has no effect on the wage gap. At every level of academic achievement, women’s median earnings are less than men’s and even in some cases; the gender pay gap is larger at higher levels of education. (Source 2) Faced with all the statistics and data, closing the wage gap seems like a far-fetched dream; however, empowerment may also be the key in this case as well. Surveys have shown that 2.5 times more women than men said they feel “a great deal of apprehension” about negotiating. By not negotiating a first salary, an individual stands to lose more than $500,000 by age 60, and men are more than four times as likely as women to negotiate a first salary. This plays a major role in the wage gap. Women should feel empowered to ask for the salary they believe they deserve and argue for it.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. This was our nation’s first step in accelerating the global goal of gender equality and the empowerment of women. Since then, the “Women’s Empowerment Principles” were created, which outline practical guidance to businesses on how to empower their female employees as well as women in the marketplace and community as well.

In brief, the principles urge businesses to establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality, treat men and women fairly, ensure the safety of both genders, promote education and professional development for women, implement enterprise development to empower women, and promote equality through community initiatives. (Source 3) I believe that if these principles become engraved in every company and business across the United States, we can see great improvement in our gender disparity problems.

Sources:

1. Women & Empowerment in the Workplace. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2015, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/women-empowerment-workplace-17827.html
2. The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Spring 2015). (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2015, from http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
3. Women’s Empowerment Principles. (n.d.). Retrieved April 28, 2015, from http://www.unwomen.org/en/partnerships/businesses-and-foundations/womens-empowerment-principles

The disparity between the two genders is a major issue in our society today. Most women in the business world make 30% less than a man would for the same occupation. Only 19% of C-suite executives are women. In many developing countries there are approximately 50% less females than males in secondary education. Such statistics show that change is necessary for our society and economy to prosper.

In the class we heard from a few female guests that not only lead successfull organizations and firms but also worked towards creating opportunities for other women. One such organization was Arielle Kandell’s non profit New Women New Yorkers which has several initiatives in order to help women immigrants adapt to their host country and give them the tools and skills necessary to succeed and become leaders. Another fascinating organization was Kim Wales’ crowdfuncing firm called Wales Capital. Kim Wales explained how crowdfunding allows women to acquire capital in ways that would not have been possible for women.

Inspired by these ventures, my group and I designed our own solution to the problems that women face in the workplace. By analyzing the statistics stated above and talking to two anthropology students at the City College of New York who conducted research in women in male dominated majors, we saw that a major issue seemed to be the lack of women in leadership positions in business and in politics. We therefore decided to create the Society of Successful Women – a network for motivating women to pursue leadership roles, providing them with the necessary skills, and providing such opportunities. Looking at our campus here at the City College we saw that we have two highschools with 891 female students, approximately 8,750 female college students, and a myriad of highly accomplished and esteemed female professors in all the various departments. Our organization would work by creating a network between the college faculty, the college students, and the high school students. The college students would talk to the high school students, offering skill building and confidence workshops, encouraging them to pursue male dominated majors such as economics, business, politics, engineering, architecture, and other sciences. The City College faculty would serve as mentors to the college students, providing opportunities and advice, as well as leadership and skill building workshops. We hope for our network to grow within itself; the high school students becoming mentors when they enter college, and the college students expanding the network once they graduate and become professionals, providing our new wave of college students with opportunities and workshops, and even more importantly serving as role models.

As a beginning, in order to attract members we would host promotional events in the college, present at the two high schools AP Randolph and HSMSE, reach out to professors, and coordinate with the City College Alumni Association. At these events we will be distributing interest surveys in order to gauge how the City College community would respond to such an organization. A sample of what the Society of Successful Women will offer its members is a series of resume writing, college interview, and other skills based workshops, open discussions with professional women about the issues faced in the workplace, and social events for networking and skill building.

In my previous post, I discussed how cultural gender roles created barriers toward women trying to become and stay successful in professional fields. I brought up how this was shown through people’s opinions on abuse, women in stem fields, and women in the workforce.

Culture and gender roles are ingrained into us starting from birth. Boys tend to be put in blue hospital clothing while girls tend to be put in pink. Boys tend to get action figures while girls tend to get dolls. As we get older, the differences may become more distinct, and possibly more damaging. Girls tend to be taught that it’s ok to tell others how they are feeling while girls are not. Boys tend to be taught that it’s impressive to have many girlfriends, and may be shamed for not doings so, while girls tend to be taught that they should be more modest and may be shamed for not doing so. While society is trying to push for equal pay and equal gender representation in government and professional fields, there may not be enough attention being paid to actually raising children in an equal fashion. This may be an important factor in why certain gender disparities exist. For example, it is noted in multiple studies and publications that women tend to spend more time and resources taking care of family than men. The main cause of this is most likely because of how children are raised. Men tend to be raised thinking they must provide financial support by getting a job, while women tend to be raised thinking they must provide support by literally caring for others. Cases such as this aren’t caused by workplace biases that need to be corrected. They are caused by raising children to be different based on gender. As a result, it isn’t just biases that create gender disparities; it is also how people have been raised to respond to situations differently based on their gender.

Therefore, my solution is to educate parents on how to raise their children without gender bias. This means emphasizing the importance of taking care of family, as well as the importance of being successful without emphasizing one or the other based on gender. It means instilling the same amount of confidence in children regardless of gender so that neither males nor females feel that they aren’t smart enough to pursue a career or that a certain activity is too “girl” or “boyish” for them. In this way, children can make decisions based solely on what they enjoy and not one pressures that they might feel to fit into certain gender roles. Not only would this decrease the gender disparities in various fields, it would also most likely remove certain pre-existing biases among both genders and make people more likely to see each other as equals. This is because for the first time, people, regardless of gender, would feel like they were raised and treated equally by their families and others. This form of training could be given in pre-natal classes as well as through pamphlets available at health facilities.

Sources:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/14/on-equal-pay-day-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-gender-pay-gap/

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/educators/resources/pamphlets

In my post discussing the problems regarding a gender lens and economic growth, I touched upon several important and crippling obtsacles that women and girls are faced with in today’s society regarding their own personal success. Many of these, including the gender wage gap and lack of eduation for girls in third-world countries, are extremely deeply rooted and difficult to tackle on a City-College scale. Change does have to start small, however, and I thought the issue that would be best addressed on this campus was the lack of women in leadership roles.

As I discussed in my problems post, research done by two anthropology students at City College found that only about half of the women who enter CCNY as engineering majors graduate as such. The percentage of incoming female engineerings is only about 34%, so when half of that is taken away, the school is left with very few female engineering graduates.

The problem here is two-fold; there are not nearly as many female engineering students entering the Grove School as men, and the rate that sticks with the program through to graduation is staggeringly lower. To me, this shows that young women in high school do not feel empowered enough to consider engineering as an option, and in college, women do not feel as accepted, encouraged or able as male students to continue. This is why I propose as a solution, a network of City College women who inspire, and empower each other towards success.

City College’s unique environment makes it the ideal place to begin such a program. With two high schools located on a campus of over 16,000 college students and countless successful professors, it has the perfect target group of women for a mentorship and leadership network.

In this program, female college students would volunteer their time at the high schools on campus, offering workshops and other events that would allow high school students, particularly girls, to connect with them and see their female peers in leadership roles and STEM education. In addition, the extensive female faculty at CCNY, could potentially create a network of opportunities for these young girls, and even the college volunteers. This group of female CCNY students would also serve as a support system for one another. When committed to and involved in a group of other successful, driven females, I hope they will be more likely to feel empowered and supported in whatever they are doing at CCNY, hopefully eradicating the idea of what is “socially acceptable” based on gender on all fronts.

To establish this network of women helping women here at CCNY is a small step in increasing the women in leadership roles but nonetheless would be a great accomplishment. Ideally, this would transcend this campus and spread to college campuses across NYC and the US, dimishing gender stigmas in the workforce and education.