3 Things Women Need to Step Towards Equality

It’s no secret that women for generations and centuries have been below men. We have struggled and fought to be equal or receive equity from men. Here are 3 things I think would help women take a step toward equity and equality.

More Resources

A very important change would be to have more access to resources. Before you groan and complain about the liberal agenda, it would be very wise to introduce more Planned Parenthoods. Planned Parenthood focuses on the health and wellness of reproductive rights. Their expertise ranges from testing and treatment of STDs and STIs, pregnancy tests, access to birth control, and information regarding sexual orientation or gender identity (Planned Parenthood, 2022). They focus on much more than just abortion. Although, it is great that they provide a safe place for emergency contraception and abortion.

Funding is extremely difficult as they receive no money from the government, however, that should change. The government should become more focused on the health and liveliness of women. No longer should they push the conservative views that their fathers originally had or push their religion as an excuse for their incompetence. Women of all economic statuses deserve the right to safe and experienced health care. Planned Parenthood provides just that. It would be more than wise to make this a safer space with less protesters and open more accessible Planned Parenthoods.

Mentorship and Guidance

The next important task would be to make a mentorship program for women wanting to go into business and the government. These women will learn to understand their power. There are 3.905 billion women on the planet, making up about 49.58% of the population (Statistic Times, 2021). We are almost half of the planet, yet we only make less than 15% of the CEOs in Fortune 500 companies, which breaks down to 74 women out of 500 (Buccholz, 2022). Just wait, it gets worse. Women make up only 27.9% of the House of Representatives. 27.9%! That means 72.1% of the House of Representatives are men trying to speak on issues that don’t affect them. . . as men, since they’re not women. With a mentorship, women would be able to speak on behalf of their own bodies and beings. They would learn to understand the power and influence they possess. Soon, it’ll be common for a woman to be in politics being heard with men and not below them, and for women to be involved in business ventures.

I know what you’re thinking. “Oh, but a woman is surely not capable of making large decisions like what’s needed in those roles. Too emotional.” Let me correct you because you are extremely incorrect. Women are successful leaders, prime ministers, and presidents in other countries. Women are concise and exquisite creatures. We are much stronger than how our physical features may appear. Our minds are sharp, quick, and full of ambition and ideas, but living in a society that condemns women's excellence. We are allowed to be great at the dispense of men. Great, but not too great.

There’s still a pay gap. . . yes, there is. As of 2020, the pay gap between men and women was 83 cents. This means that while a man received his full dollar of pay, we as women received 83 cents (Wiseniewski, 2022). In this article, it was mentioned that per year with full-time work, men received over $53,000 and women received $43,000. Why is this, you may ask? It could be because of a difference in education, type of job, or presence of children. These all stem back to a lack of opportunity for women. Education is difficult. Women are stereotyped into a career and seek education for it. After a while, the men in her class excel her despite her being the best in her class. They excel professionally. They find a job that will pay for more education. Women struggle to get called back for an interview after school ends. The man already has the job. Women don’t have access to affordable childcare after the birth of a child. Women are tasked with the difficult decision of going to work and spending the ridiculous amount of money needed for the care or staying home, risking the loss of opportunity, and watching the child.

Many things were mentioned in this segment, but with the proper guidance and mentorship needed for women, they could excel professionally and personally.

Education

It’s so easy to think of what we should do to help that we sometimes forget to help. Education is an easy way to help women. Start by teaching them in school health classes about consent. Consent can be of anything. Consent to play tag, consent to try someone’s food, or consent to be touched. We first teach them the importance of strong, healthy boundaries. As puberty begins, education can shift to hard lines between what’s right and wrong about consent. When consent is firmly given, etc.

I remember when I was in the 9th grade, we were supposed to have a day of fun. While the boys went off away from the school to play tug of war and yard games, the girls stayed in the school and learned proper etiquette. How to properly place your fork and knife, the best way to eat bread (break a piece off from the loaf, butter it, then eat it), and where your napkin should go. Why did they have fun and we had to learn how to be the proper girl? There was never a class, an assembly, a club, that showed the boys how to be proper gentlemen. How to tie a tie, how to cry when it's needed, and how to treat women like people and not objects.

Speaking more on the lack of education in those areas, all information regarding women's success was removed from lessons. We didn’t learn about feminism, suffragettes, or the Equal Rights Amendment. We didn’t learn about Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, or Susan B. Anthony. But we definitely learned about man’s success with wars. Going forward, it will be important for boys and girls to hear about the successful things women have done in the past. This helps inspire girls to dream higher than what they’re confined to and for boys to see that women and girls are equal to them and have accomplished powerful things.

Although free college should already have happened in America, it would be essential for there to be a program where single mothers could finish or begin a college degree. This could help young single mothers get ahead in their professional life by providing them with financial support to attend college. In return, the pay gap may get closer.

Although these are a few of the many things needed for women to step closer to equality, these things are tremendously important. Without these things, women are stuck in a constant pattern of disrespect from men and society.