Do we see the women?

What is the status of women in today's United States?

1. The National Gender Gap widened in 2023 for the fist time in 20 years. Women make 82.7 cents on the dollar compared to men.  (link)
2. Abortion bans not only remove women's choice regarding their bodies, but they also endanger women's health and harm state economies.  Most states with the lowest gross domestic product per capital also have total abortion bans.
3. Women experience higher poverty rates than men, women face specific adverse health conditions, and women are under represented in political office (link)
4. According to Pew Research, there have been gender gap gains  and gaps.  Women outnumber men in the U.S. college-educated workforce.  While women have increased their presence in almost all of the higher-paying jobs, they are still a minority in many of them.  The gender pay gap has remained flat over the last 20 years, and women still lag in leadership positions in business and government. (link)
5. In 1994, the Violence against Women act was signed into law (with bipartisan support).  This law improved law enforcement response to violence against women and provided critical services to women.  Since 2019, it has not been extended due to political disputes (Link)

Adam Hamilton, in the book Luke, says, "Regarding violence and harassment against women, the United Nations reports that 741 million women around the world have been victims of some kind of violence, usually at the hands of a spouse or boyfriend.  In the United States one our of every six women experience either attempted or completed sexual assault - this is over 463,00 women in the US every year. In a recent national survey of 2,009 Americans, eight-one percent of women reported that they had been sexually harassed at some time in their lives."

The full title of Hamilton's book is Luke: Jesus and the Outsiders, Outcasts, and Outlaws. The second chapter is called, "Simon, do you see this woman?"  In it, Hamilton makes the point that one of Luke's themes is that Jesus saw the women.

Do we see the women?