In our society, girls are born every day and automatically wrapped in the color pink. As they grow up, they are handed a Barbie or a baby doll to play with. And then eventually, toys like the Easy-Bake oven; the point is that, from a very early age women are taught that their priorities are to be caretakers and nurturers. So, when they enter the working world they struggle to break the proverbial glass ceiling. Take journalism for example, audiences don’t take women seriously enough when it comes to the hard news stories. Editors stick them on page 17 and send off them to cover a story about a Labrador giving birth to a pack of brand new puppies.

Unfortunately, anyone who is under the assumption that women are treated as equally as men in this country are sadly mistaking. Just because on the surface it looks like they are on the same playing field, doesn't mean they are. it seems that the majority of men in this country are under the illusion that the women's equal rights battle stopped after August 18, 1920 when they were given the right to vote. However, that could not be any further from the truth.

Women struggle on a daily basis to get respect, it seems that they are pushed into stereotypical career choices such as a nurse, hair dresser or even a stay-at-home mom. Even when a woman gets the opportunity to have a job that steps out of the stereotype, they are lucky to find employers that will look beyond their gender. Unfortunately, in many cases when you look at a man's salary and a woman's side by side in the same position, the woman's salary is much lower.

As a man, there is no way that I can begin to relate to the struggles that women go through in the professional world and otherwise. However, what I can say is that as men we need to get over the idea that being a woman makes you inferior. In reality, that thought is what makes us inferior, because our inability to recognize intelligence and talent makes us men look pig headed. The women in my life are some of the most intelligent individuals I have ever known. They are more mature and capable than any man I know, so maybe it's time to stop putting women in a box and realize that they deserve to be treated with respect and equality. Women are strong, full of ideas and intelligence that could be greatly used. To quote a well known song, "This a Man's world, but it wouldn't be nothin' without a woman."