Just by my title I've probably already made a couple people angry. But please hear me out on this. I don’t typically write about politics or my own beliefs but I feel that this needs to be explained.

Yesterday, while getting my early morning Starbucks, two women in front of me were arguing about whether or not women will ever be equal to men. One of them turned to me and asked: “What do you think? Are women ever going to be equal to men?”

As I thought about how to answer this question, I pondered about my future career. As a nurse, my starting salary would be at least $10,000 lower than a man in the same position with the same education level. This frustrates me, but I try to get some more information about what they were truly asking.

“What do you qualify as equal?”

“When women do everything a man does without being oppressed.”

I giggled a little to myself thinking about what this actually entailed, as I’m not sure that equality was really what they meant.

Today, women all over the world are standing up for what they believe in, and I support that every step of the way. But there is a catch:

I do not support women being entitled over men.

I support women from all around the globe to someday be able to experience equality with men. But I do not want to go from far right to far left either. I feel that suppressing men will just create another conflict where men will struggle for years trying to get back to what they consider as “equal”. This will cause a continuous teeter-totter of a struggle to be “equal” when in all actuality, someone is on top.

I do believe that women should be treated equally in some aspects though. I believe that women and men with the same education level, same experience, and same position should be paid the exact same amount. I believe that when women and men are on equal circumstances, we work together as a team without bias or jealousy, and I believe that makes us better as a whole workforce.

I also believe in original feminism principles, such as reproductive rights and the discontinuation of sexual violence. But, again, here is my catch.

I don’t believe that every woman has to be 100% independent of men.

To be completely honest, if I can’t open a pickle jar, or reach something on the top shelf, you can believe I’m going to ask him to get it. Men are created genetically different from women. Their distribution of body fat and fluids are all different from that of a woman’s, and to that I believe that there are some things men are probably better at than women in certain circumstances.

With that being said, I also believe that a woman has the ability to do anything a man can do, I just do not argue with others that this must be done 100% of the time. I believe in a man paying for the date, or opening the door when I walk inside. I feel that these are signs of respect, rather than signs of oppression.

Now I do believe that women in other cultures are being oppressed, and I believe that sexual violence occurs. I stand up for these women. I speak out. But I do not believe in making men the enemy as a feminist. I want little girls to grow up thinking that boys and girls are as equal as possible, but that one day her boyfriend or husband will show up and open the door for her, and pay for her movie. I want little girls to know that men are neither something to be afraid of, or something to push over. I believe in equality. I believe in men and women being equal in opportunities and socioeconomic standing. But I do not believe in how some of the new feminists are trying to reach this point of “equality.”