I believe in the social and political equality of the sexes. I didn’t know there were gender boundaries in the world around me until I came to college. I learned about the inequality of pay and experienced the minority of women in a professional field. I’ve heard plenty of people stereotyping feminists into a category of women that should not be dealt with and left alone (ignore them). Studies show that women are still being left aside and not taken into consideration.
I’ve recently learned a bit more about the patriarchy and how it is like a tree that was rooted into the ground since the beginning. The thought of men in power has always been in existence since the tree was planted. It wasn’t until the 1960s that women realized they were just as equal as men and they did something about it. We gained voting rights and were able to work in positions that were held by men. Since then we have become CEOs, Doctors, Lawyers, and Supreme Court Justices. All positions that are considered roles for men. We have proved that women can take on positions of power and succeed.
But we have ceased to progress from the 1960s. Even though few of us have gained these accomplishments, we are paid differently then that of men in the same position. We are still sexually assaulted because we are women. We are discriminated in our abilities to succeed in academic fields and in the entertainment industry. Men are still considered the only ones to rise to power and have the right to win awards with requirements that women can also fulfill.
You can’t uproot a tree easily, therefore it’s obvious that you can’t just change everyone’s thinking into feministic view.
…
Maybe we should teach from the beginning. Maybe we should begin educating in schools that it’s okay to want to be a scientist and to be fair to girls. We shouldn’t teach boys that because they will grow up to be men means that they should make women inferior. It’s tough do this when the majority of households think this way. I can say all I want about educating boys, but it also comes down to what they grow up learning at home. As my mom would say, “Eso es cultura.” Translation: “That’s culture.” What she means by this phrase is that whoever is not polite or has manners must be from what they learned at home. I agree, it’s one thing to work so hard on education in school, but there’s only so much you can do to reach their homes. I don’t have a plan or a solution to help parents understand, but what I can do is this, write about it. Here’s me typing my thoughts on this topics in hopes that maybe you try to understand how women have not progressed and how you should teach your children that they are equal. I always disliked the boys vs. girls games during school because most of the time we were playing a game that only boys could win. If girls won, boys got really upset. Where is the camaraderie? You can teach someone to say “Good game,” but if they grew up in a household where losing wasn’t an option, they won’t mean it when they say it. This all starts at home. If you wan to learn more, don’t hesitate to research feminism and women. Don’t hesitate to speak to professors. You can still e-mail a professor even if you don’t go to school there. I’m pretty young and it’s too early for me to be thinking these things, but if I have children I want them to grow up in society that doesn’t discriminate gender, religion, or race. The way things are going, it’s not looking so great for them.
Voyage Checklist 