Are We Equal?

We live in a world where women have always been thought of as inferior.  Since the beginning of time, women have had to fight for rights such as the right to vote, the right to go to school, the right to play the sports they want to play.  Women have had to fight for the right to be considered equals, and even in this day in age, in the year 2014, there is still a significant and obvious gap between the two genders.  As much as people would like to believe that men and women are equal, there is a lot of evidence to support the exact opposite.

One of the earliest and first social movements for women began in the late nineteenth century.  People came together and began to fight for women’s suffrage because, even though the constitution left the rules of suffrage undefined, women were being denied their right to vote.  It was not until the year 1920 that the amendment was passed saying that a person’s right to vote cannot be defined based on their gender.  This is less than 100 years ago that women were not thought of as equals.  They were not even thought of as equal enough to men to be considered citizens of the United States just like anybody else.  Although it took a lot of effort and convincing, after many years of fighting they were only granted some of the rights they deserved but were being denied.

One of the more recent advances for women’s rights was when the Title IX portion of the education amendments was passed in 1972.  Title IX stated that no person can be denied the opportunity to participate in sports or be discriminated against under any education program that receives federal funding based on their gender.  Up until this bill was passed, women were not being allowed to play school sports in both high school and in college.  There were not even an equal amount of sports for them to play, and Title IX also changed this.  Although this changed the way women were viewed in sports, they are still seen as inferior to this day, even in professional sports.  Women’s sports are not as popular.  They don’t sell as much merchandise as men’s professional sports and they are not even close to being advertised as much.  They are still seen as “just girl sports”.  They are seen as not as interesting or competitive just because women are playing in them.

The biggest issue and one that is still relevant to this day is the fact that women do not make the same amount of money as men, even if they are working the same exact job in the same exact position for the same amount of time.  The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963 and it prohibits discrimination in the payment of wages based on sex.  Even though the gender pay gap has decreased significantly since the act was passed, men and women still do not receive the same amount of pay.  Based on a study taken in 2011, it was learned that women made 77 cents for every dollar a man made for the same job.  This just goes to show that as much as people would like to think it is true, men and women are still not completely equal today.  We are all citizens of the United States and we should all be treated the same, not discriminated against for something as insignificant as the genders we are born with. 

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/history-womens-rights-movements