Women's Equality | Teen Ink

Women's Equality

July 3, 2024
By lucindawharton BRONZE, Bellingham, Washington
lucindawharton BRONZE, Bellingham, Washington
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

1920. That is when women were first allowed to vote. It was not until 1965 that colored women were allowed to vote. In factories during 1920, men started out making 40 cents an hour. Women started out making 25 cents an hour. As of 2024, there is a sixteen percent difference in the pay between men and women. That is only a small amount of all the inequality and discrimination women have faced and suffered throughout the years. 
For years, women have had every accomplishment and achievement masked and hidden away by a man and our society. I am not ignorant to the fact that over the years as a community we have produced many movements and organizations that strongly go against the issues that women have faced but unfortunately, it is the people who are not against these things that affect how women are treated today. To this day for every dollar a man makes, a woman only makes 84 cents. For actors and actresses there is a wage difference up to 25 million dollars, and I am assuming you can guess who is on the downside of that. In some people's eyes a difference of 16 cents is not significant but to the women who spend hours every day working so hard, overall, 16 cents can mean a difference of being able to provide for your family, your kids, even yourself. This wage gap can cause people to lose their homes and can cause women who are a single parent to not be able to provide basic needs for themselves and their children. In some states, this wage gap can determine whether you get to live a quality life or not. 
According to the U.S department of Justice, 99 percent of sexual and assault and rape perpetrators are male, and 91 percent of those victims are female. More than 600 women a day get sexually assaulted a day in the U.S. 2.9 million women (about the population of Connecticut) in the U.S have experienced a rape related pregnancy. Some of those pregnancies happen to people that are not able to have a child, and with abortion being banned in 14 states as of 2024, when getting pregnant, some situations leave you no choice but to have a child that you are in no way prepared for. Some of these girls are as young as 12 years old. Imagine having no choice but to give birth at 12. This is making a child give birth to a child. Aside from the horrific affects that come with rape, people justify their actions by deciding that what we were wearing or how we were acting is the reason for us having to go through these things. They are telling us that we are getting sexually assaulted, harassed, and raped from being ourselves.  
All these things that have affected women's lives for years have caused us to barely live a life. We are always on alert, never knowing the true intentions of the man walking behind us. We have had to construct different versions of ourselves just to make sure our outfits and words are not too “provoking.” We have had to carry alarms and pepper spray and other self-defense weapons that we should not have to carry. These things have caused women to live in fear. Even though there are so many people against these things and so many movements and organizations against these things happening to women, the fact that they were made a thing in the first place is enough to keep me and many other women and young girls up at night. 
For so many years, we have had to deal with this. We had to fight to have a voice just for it to be taken away repeatedly. We cannot go backwards, as much as it feels like nothing you do will ever be appreciated, and as much as it makes you feel small when a man yells out something at you for walking on the street or being called overdramatic for stating your opinions. We must keep moving. Women through generations are the ones who have helped us get this far in the first place, we have to hold onto that and just keep going, do not let anyone take your voice when we have fought so hard to have one that is heard. 2024. That is when we realize that we have the ability to touch the sky and beyond. 
 
 


The author's comments:

I wrote this because as much as these issues have tried to be fixed there is still an amount of people who dont believe women should be treated as equally as men. it is those people who affect how women are treated in the world today.


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