Every great civilization in history has been faced with times of hardships and sorrow; where a group of the population is treated improperly and unfairly. The United States is well aware of that situation; slavery and women’s equal rights were the biggest social injustices since our country was founded. America’s society was classified into an idealism of race and gender prejudice; men were seen as physically and mentally superior to women. Men viewed women as a tool for tending of the house, a vessel that bears his child, and even for his sexual pleasure. If we look to the present day, sexism is only prevalent in the most extreme uncivilized regions of the country. So the question arises, have women finally found equality in society? Despite the fact that women can now own property, vote, and pursue political power in the United States, they still have demeaning occupations, and there’s established data that women get paid significantly less compared to men working the same jobs, doing the exact same work. A woman’s equality in today’s society can be debatable; it has progressed throughout the years, but can be improved upon.
Although inequality is morally wrong, some people continue to live a life filled with discrimination, which should is completely unnecessary and must not prevailed in today’s society. The Declaration of Independence states that every human has the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”; this was later established after the approbation of women to vote. Women have integrated into the male dominated society, but some fail to take advantage of their rights to vote and an education, and choose to become ignorant. “But when I was in the fifth grade and shared my plans for college with him, I was sure he understood. I remember my father saying, "Qué bueno, mi'ja, that 's good." That meant a lot to me, especially since my brothers thought the idea hilarious. What I didn't realize was that my father thought college was good for girls—good for finding a husband.”(Excerpt from Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros) As stated by Cisneros, certain ethnic groups see a women’s education as a way of finding a decent husband, and not as a way of becoming successful. Cisneros makes her point to show that not only does discrimination of women happen in America, but also in other countries.
Scientific studies show that a woman’s brain is not the “same” as a man’s brain. Women have smaller brains than men and, therefore, could not equal them in intelligence. This fact, anthropologist Paul Broca argued, reinforces a common prejudice in male society, but is also considered scientific fact. However, this is not the case amongst today’s societies, mainly because it was scientific data in which some of the ever changing variables can affect the result of the experiment and therefore create a faulty conclusion. Anyhow, society believes the nonsense that some people have created, to not only discriminate but also to make themselves seem superior to society through defending that “logic”.
Women’s suffering is very intense at the moment when their husband dies; they cry for joy expressing their happiness, and not sadness. In The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, the author describes the female character as someone who is oppressed by her husband. “And yet she had loved him-sometimes. Often she had not.” A woman in a state of joy is someone who has born again, and feels no chains attached to their body they see the world different. “Free! Body and soul free’ she kept whispering”. This quote simply explains the bliss of a person that has been free from an oppressive life; Chopin tells the story to show the reader that even though women have rights, they are not free from oppression; just because a law is created it doesn’t mean that people will stop practicing inhumane actions.
As stated by Deborah Tannen in, There Is No Unmarked Woman, “but men are given a “choice”, unmarked by garments.” The article tells clearly how typical it is in our society for women to be outwardly judged for character on the basis of their looks. In the end, society will continue to do what is “normal”; discriminate against women and what will become of the world? Will we develop into our ancestors, that instead of eliminating inequality and injustice, we will only strive to make it worse? We shall change our views, because in the end who will do it for us?
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