A Perspective Story on the Inequality of Women
It’s not a revolutionary observation to say that the average woman is not taken seriously. It’s seen plain as day anywhere you look in our modern society that there is an open attack on women of all colors and backgrounds, but especially women of color. It attacks us in every checkbox you can imagine: Financially, we fall behind everyone else.
The wage gap still exists, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere anytime soon. The ever so imposing period tax reminds us that our feminine products are not medical necessities, but in England shaving is. And womens clothing costs more, and is made of thinner fabric then mens. We as a gender are expected to pay more while making less. It’s an old and tired systemic form of sexism, and that’s before we even bring race into it.
Yes, like everything else in this world it’s important to see this issue from all sides. While white women make an average of around 80 cents to the dollar of their white male counterparts, black, hispanic, and indegenous women make even less than that.
Medically, women are given the silent treatment from the majority of male and sometimes white women healthcare providers, and denied the right to their own bodies. Most women will suffer in silence because they refuse to be ignored by a doctor. Women will be misdiagnosed by a male doctor for the simple reason that they won’t listen to their patient.
Pregnancy and childbirth is incredibly dangerous for the mother, and can result in lifelong medical conditions and even death if not handled right. There are countless horror stories of women in labor, or pregnant whose complaints and concerns were completely ignored due to her being “a hysteric pregnant woman”, and to this day, some modern healthcare students still believe that black women have a different pain tolerance and anatomy.
In the case that the women does’nt want to have a child, she is either denied the right to her own body and forced to carry it to term and face being ignored by a doctor and having to care for a child, or she must feel shame and hatred for herself for simply getting an abortion.
And of course, since the creation of pop culture itself, women, more specifically teenage girls, have been the butt of the joke. Their either the dumb mean girls, like in TV shows like the Big Bang Theory, “Girl Bosses”, like in Riverdale, or simply a nameless love interest for the hero to fall in love with, like in anything ever aired.
Not to mention the new “not like other girls” sentiment on social media. Any time a teenage girl participates in a trend, she’s seen as basic, lacking personality,
and plain. Women aren’t allowed to do anything anymore without coming off like they’re faking who they are, and it’s exhausting.
So why is this happening? Why does the wage gap still exist? Why are women ignored? Why can women no longer breathe without being called a fake? I’m not sure, but I do know that the answer to the problem lies in current mothers and fathers teaching the idea of equality to both their sons and daughters.
It lies in mothers not making their daughters clean up after their sons, and getting mad at their daughters for something their sons are allowed to do. It lies in fathers enforcing the idea of respecting women onto their sons, and teaching young boys to listen to the women in their life as well as the men. It lies in our society realizing the wrongs it’s done to our women, and working to make it better.
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