When we’re little, we are told that we can be anything we want to be. And I think most parents really mean that.
Up until today, that sentence really should have ended with “Unless you want to be President, little girl. Too bad for you, that job is for old men. Also Vice President. But you can do anything else. You could even MARRY a President!”
Women have had to fight, and are still fighting, to be equals. This is not about race, religion, or anything other than gender.
You think this is about race over gender? In 1869, Congress passed the 15th Amendment, giving African American men the right to vote.
The 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, wasn’t ratified until 1920, the victory followed “decades of agitation and protest.” Woman suffrage supporters were lobbying, marching and protesting in the mid-19th Century, and we were still made to wait 70 years.
Women still struggle for equality in many ways. There is a glass ceiling in many jobs. There are only 14.2% of the top five leadership positions at the companies in the S&P 500 are held by women, according to a CNNMoney analysis.
Women are often told that they can “have it all” as if there was a reason they couldn’t have both a family and a career. For highly ambitious men, having a family is seen as stability and a great thing. For women, people wonder if their family is a distraction or if they will need more time off than other employees because of sick kids and family stuff.
Men are often considered to be “babysitting” when they are alone with their own kids, as if it is some amazing feat that they keep the kids alive for a couple hours. It’s not babysitting when it’s your child, it’s just parenting. Why are women still always considered the primary caregiver and the likely stay at home parent? Why aren’t more men staying at home while the woman brings home the money? Why do we consider it weird when that is the situation?
Men claim that everything is fine, we’re all equal, we should all get over it. Men have NEVER had to worry that their government will continue to make regulations regarding their reproductive organs or their choices regarding them. Men have never had to worry about what they are wearing, where they go, how people will perceive them at night, alone. Men are the skeptical ones when women are raped. "Well, did you see what she was wearing? And she was drunk!" You will never know the fear of walking in a dark parking garage alone, or walking home and hearing steps behind you, but you don't look because you don't want to draw attention to yourself.
Instead of teaching our daughters how NOT to be raped, how to be careful, never put down their drinks, always have a buddy, don't go off alone, don't wear too revealing clothing, perhaps we should be teaching our sons "DON'T RAPE."
This is perfect explanation of our society until now. We blame the victim, we teach the victims how not to be attacked instead of blaming the attacker.
Men get all up in arms. Some call themselves “Meninists,” mocking feminists. Which makes zero sense to me. The majority, the unencumbered, the white men in the US are angry that women want NOT to take what they have, but simply to be allowed to also have those things? Why in the world would people be upset about that?
This is a huge day in American history. It will absolutely be taught in our country’s schools and government classes. The day that a woman is an official Presidential candidate.
When I talk to my nieces, when I have children of my own, I can tell them “You can be anything you want, even President, if you work hard!” And for the first time in US history, it will be true.
