Sadly, there are still many issues regarding women’s rights that plague our nation to this day. Living as a woman in America, I am more than frustrated at the less than active effort in preventing male favoritism in the work force, the government, and the home. Although laws have been passed along the way to protect women in specific circumstances, no preventative laws have been passed to protect the rights of women. And, annoyingly, the laws that have passed based on courtroom decisions are frequently overthrown, i.e. Roe vs. Wade.
Women in the work force generally make less money than their male counterparts, despite legislation in the Equal Pay Act declaring it unconstitutional. Women are still statistically less likely to get promoted over a man, despite the overthrow of the “glass ceiling.” Although the ratio of women to men in congress is at its current all-time highest point, there still has yet to be a female president.
When Hillary Clinton ran for president this last term, womankind heard some of the most shocking sexist viewpoints from the people of this country. Many expressed concern that a woman could not run this country’s militia since females tend to be more nurturing and forgiving. Critics said she would be incapable of making the “hard decisions” like the choice to use nuclear force if necessary. There was fear that if Mrs. Clinton became Mrs. President, our country would not be taken seriously in national affairs, especially since women still don‘t have any rights at all in some countries. Since women are generally more emotional than men, many feared that her decisions would not be made rationally, and this could put everyone at risk in a crisis situation. All of this is pretty ridiculous, especially if we consider the track record of most of the male presidents in the past who were driven by nothing more than greed and power, not to mention the many infamous corrupt political and sexual affairs and indiscretions.
Although there are many laws in existence that protect women’s rights, like title IX and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, there is still no national constitutional law that protects the rights of women. The ERA would declare women’s rights as equal to men’s, but in nine decades it still has not passed. Without the proper legislation to permanently and unarguably protect the rights of women in this country, who’s to say that at any time the rights that we have fought for to this point will not be overthrown?
Women have made countless contributions to society in every field of study, and as intelligent human beings we deserve the identical rights of the men with whom we share this country. By not including a clause in the constitution declaring women as equal counterparts to men, we limit ourselves as a species. How can we ever expect to reach our full potential as a sophisticated and dominant country, setting the standards for countries we wish to reorganize, when there are still so many wrongs on the