Modern feminism has left women with unattainable expectations placed on them by our society, while being classified as second class citizens in many ways. Our ancestors fought hard for equality and would be disappointed to see how far we haven’t come. In today’s world women are expected to maintain the household and child rearing duties, while climbing the corporate ladder outside the home.
Religion is a large part of daily life for most American and people around the world. Most of the major religions claiming fairness and equality actual contribute to the second class rating the female population receives. Catholicism is a prime example of this, Pope Benedict XVI stated women could no longer be assistant priests in their parishes; ones who had been there for years were forced to step down[i]. In Hasidic Judaism men and boys are encouraged to deeply study and lead their faith, while women are considered lesser beings and are not allowed to study[ii]. In Saudi Arabia, Saudi is their religion, women are not allowed to drive or travel without the company of a male who is related to them[iii].
There are still places in the world today where women are subjugated to their male counterparts in many ways, some are obvious and some are subtle. You may look at places like Africa and think they are a backwards nation not giving all people equal rights. I would urge you to take a look at Italy, a perfectly westernized country that has a very high college graduation rate. Yet 50% of women in Italy are unemployed because they are deemed less viable option based solely on their sex[iv].
Here in America women can expect to earn 30% less than their male counterparts, pay higher health insurance premiums, and have more difficulty establishing credit. When it comes to health care women are more likely to die from a heart attack then men due to a lack of understanding from health professionals[v]. After establishing credit, in the case of death or divorce when you have a male and female on the account, the banks and credit card companies will automatically hand the accounts over to the male leaving the female to start a new regardless of who originally opened the accounts.
While fighting an uphill battle to gain proper medical care, pay, and credit; society proudly sets standards on what’s beautiful. They show pictures of unhealthy, skinny people with airbrushing or many forms of plastic surgery. To match the “in” styles women are expect to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to be fashionable. There are thousands of elective surgeries costing millions of dollars done every year by women trying to look like the cover of a magazine.
Women have to be ever vigilant on demanding true equality. From the work place to the home front women are still playing catch-up in hopes of equal treatment. As long as inequality exists we as a society will not be able to fully move forward, and see what we can really do.
Works Cited
[i] wide, W. o. (2010, July 18). Text of our Letter to Pope Benedict XVI. p. http://www.womenpriests.org/dreamshareact/phpPETITION/.
[ii] http://www.rossel.net/basic04.htm Basic Judaism Seymour Rossel 7/18/2010
[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia Women’s right Saudi Arabia 7/17/2010
[iv] http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Italy/Women%E2%80%99s-Rights-in-Italy/314 Women’s rights in Italy 7-17/2010
[v] http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6154484.html Baylor Study: Women less likely to get proper care for heart attacks. 7/18/2010
