All people feel strongly about certain aspects and issues in their lives. Personally, I am a major advocate for women’s rights and equality. Gender should play no role when factoring in one’s education, pay scale, job opportunity, health care, and spiritual or emotional needs. Women’s social rights abuse can be eradicated, and although one person cannot do it all themselves, one is the beginning of the movement called change.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights website, “Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.” We all deserve equality; all were born with it, and now we demand to have and be shown it.
Amnesty International states, “Violence against women is compounded by discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sexual identity, social status, class, and age. Such multiple forms of discrimination further restrict women's choices, increase their vulnerability to violence, and make it even harder for women to obtain justice.” This alone shows how gender based society has become. If we don’t stop and ask why, then the movement to eradicate cannot be completed.
The situation is still occurring because we have not reached the point of time where women are looked at like equals. It has, in my opinion, been occurring since the very beginning of time. Examples of this can be seen from the fact that women have been seen as property, slaves, and as homemakers, and men still dominate the major domains of our country.
Another example of women never given the opportunity that their intellect and character should allow them, is the fact that even in 2016, there is still never been a female president. Women have in the last decade or so, been given more opportunities. However, women are still not reaching the top of their chosen professions. The reason behind this can be concluded to men feeling challenged by women and their ability to succeed far ahead of their own.
I feel that this problem can be solved if we take steps to motivate the new generations of our country and let them understand the possibilities the future can hold for them. Women can hold the same positions of power when they put in the same work as men did to reach them. The youth’s strengths, characteristics, and qualifications are not based on the things such as gender, race, and age. By the time they reach academia and the work force, women and men should see each other as equals. We all are going for the same degrees, and one day, we will be applying for the same jobs.
Women deserve the equal opportunities that men have been privy to, and we deserve to live out our goals based out on our intellect rather than our gender. If women begin to be held to the same standards as men, then there has been a change in the traditional and archaic ways of the past. Even if one person gets the message and starts to live differently, we have succeeded in sending a message to women and men, of any age, everywhere. Women were born with the same characteristics as men, but have not been given the same opportunities.
By one person bringing to light these inequalities, a change towards a future of equality can occur. We are the start of change. By globally displaying this message and method for change, I am given a speakerphone to express the ways of equality, something women have been lacking for centuries.
“How can we effect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?" –Emma Watson
