Dear Reader,
If the title of this article bothers you, that might be our first problem. It is truly incredible that in this day and age of progressive human beings, we still cannot fathom women being equal to men. No, this letter is not intended as an "all women are better than men" sort of idea, but to instead provide a better understanding of the f-word people are so afraid to say today.
In case you didn't know, the definition of feminism is to have equality between the two sexes, not a constant battle over who is better. If this still doesn't seem right to you, here's the actual definition.
Now as someone who has a brain, it would seem silly to tell another human being that they are incapable of a task simply because of who they are on the outside and not what their strengths are. Sadly, not nearly enough people believe that this idea is crazy since it seems that too many people believe that feminists only want to eat men for breakfast. (Trust me, men taste so much better around dinner time.)
Personally, as a woman, I am very disappointed in this world still not coming to grasp with equality for all. In 2015, for every dollar that a white male made, a white woman would make 78 cents, whereas an African American woman would make 64 cents, and a Latina woman would make 56 cents. Luckily, in 2016, this jumped up to 79 cents out of a man's dollar. So in comparison, if a man made $50,000 in a year, a woman would make $39,500 instead of $39,000, because $500 more than last year makes up for the $10,500 that should be in our pockets. Sure some will say "but there are women that make more than men!", which is true because statistics don't cover every job in America. Looking at CEOs alone, in 2016 female CEOs out-performed and out-earned their male counterparts, but those three awesome women in the top ten still can't take our focus away from the fact that only 5% of CEOs are female.
Talking about the ridiculously low amount of women in higher positions, have I mentioned that women in Congress, the Senate, and the House of Representatives all ring in under 25%? Of course, this makes any decisions that have to deal with women difficult since men in suits can't seem to grasp that women deserve health care and are, you know, people. Even now, Paul Ryan is trying to tell his female counterparts that sleeveless attire is "not acceptable" for working in the Capitol. Though this may seem like a silly argument, at this point, women who show their shoulders aren't even allowed in certain areas, proved by this tweet;
Like honestly, we get it. Our bodies are simply just too sexual for any man to handle when we show off any skin. Dress codes have told us that for years, but to not be able to do your job because a man could see your shoulder is a little ridiculous. I mean I would much rather cover up than be sexually harassed at work like every other 33.33% of women, but we do understand that if a man can't control his "natural urges" from seeing a shoulder that we are really the only ones to blame-- just ask the 45% of women that are afraid of walking alone at night.
But the simple question here is why aren't we as important as the men around us and what makes it so hard for people to take us seriously? Looking back into ancient times women were deemed as inferior to men in many cultures, even people like Charles Darwin and Aristotle believed that men were more important. To this day, women are treated as much less than equal to the men in their lives, and even in India women have fewer rights than cows do, most recently posing the question if cattle are safer than the women.
Though we have made many strides in equality within the last few years, it seems as though we have begun to backtrack, losing focus on the more important parts of our lives. With the world going backward as quickly as it is, now is the time to come together and work for a larger goal that all women of the world can share. I strongly believe that if everyone works for this a better tomorrow, that we can finally agree that no one is free when others are oppressed.
