Although most developed countries put considerable effort into battling gender inequality, and humanity managed to achieve remarkable progress in this area over the last century or so, it still remains one of the most problematic issues modern society has to deal with. Unfortunately, most of the aforementioned progress has been only conspicuous in western societies, while in many developing countries there were no noticeable advances for a long time, sometimes for centuries.

Even today, in the 21^st century, barbarous practices like forced marriages and female genital mutilation are still rampant in Africa and Middle East, so it is safe to assume that we have a very long way to go towards worldwide gender equality. Therefore, it is no wonder that students are so often assigned to write opinion essays that deal with this topic.

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