Equal Rights
For years, women have fought for the equal opportunity and equal rights that men have. In the 1920, women known as suffragettes launched a major campaign to allow women an equal opportunity to vote in elections. It was this achievement that truly began to pave the way for women to have equal rights as men, although women still have to fight for equal opportunity in many situations.
• One place in which women fight for equal opportunity in is in the workplace. In the 1950s, equal opportunity did not exist and most women worked as secretaries or nurses. Only one in every three women had a job. Men had positions of power in the workplace. Some brave women began fighting for equal rights early by trying to achieve success within their careers. Even as late as the 1980s, seeing a business woman was rare. As of 2008, the workforce as a whole was made up of 48% women and 52% men.
• Equal opportunity is still not so equal though. Women still statistically earn lower salaries than men do. Jobs that pay a lower salaries tend to have more equal opportunity available for women. At the top of the business game however, women generally earn less money than their male counterparts. Jobs that pay large salaries do not have a reputation for giving equal opportunity to men and women. In fact, many jobs paying upwards of $100,000 pay men a higher salary than women. This problem is being fought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This is a federal organization that made equal rights and pay in the workplace a law. The law is called the Equal Pay Act and it specifies men and women must be paid the same rate if they have the same job title in the same work place. Many states also have their own state and federal agencies that look into possible discrimination cases to try to restore equal opportunity in the work place.
• Another type of gender discrimination is sexual harassment. Although sexual harassment is usually associated with men harassing women, anyone can be the victim of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is defined as any unwanted sexual advances, whether physically or verbally. When it comes to sexual harassment, men and women have equal rights and can both file claims if they feel the need to.
Women continue to fight for equal rights and equal opportunities in the work force. Within the last century, women went from not being able to vote to running for President of the United States. Because of incidents like this, women’s organization think that they are making progress.
