The Expectations and Progress of Women

Confucius once said, “a hundred women are not worth a single testicle.” Kurt Vonnegut thought that “Educating a beautiful woman is like pouring honey into a fine swiss watch, everything stops.” And Clayton Williams expressed that “If rape is inevitable just relax and enjoy it.” These are all but a few examples of how many view or have viewed women. For centuries women have been mistreated, belittled, and objectified with the justification that men were superior.

To this day some still believe that a woman’s place is solely in the home, to completely submit to her husband and to bear and raise children. Make no mistake, a woman displays significant strength and courage to give birth, but haven’t history shown that women are stronger and have exceeded societal expectations of them?

Take World war II for example, with no men around the women had to work to provide for themselves and their families. Women became drivers, mechanics and took on roles in offices and factories. The education of women after the war continued and although a woman with any political view or independence seemed to be chastised as if she wore the scarlet letter herself, the pursuit to be more than just a housewife continued.

This present day, women are doctors, lawyers, politicians, prime ministers, soldiers, and teachers not just mothers. But with all this progress inequality still seems to exist and its seen in the comments and opinions of others reflecting their actions. Why would a female news anchor with the same ratings than her male co star be paid less? Or a female doctor with the same experience than her male counterpart? Inequality is seen in our pay checks, the hiring ratio of females in a business or cooperation and the acceptance rate of females in what we call male dominated fields. Like science, Why can't a female scientist make tremendous scientific contributions? Last I fact checked it was Rosalind Franklin’s work that identified the helical conformation of DNA, it was Alice Ball, a black female who at the age of 23 developed an effective treatment for leprosy in the early 20th Century. And Jennifer A. Doudna, who won the 2020 Nobel prize in the field of chemistry for her remarkable work in CRISPR gene editing. Those were just a sample of brilliance women have shared and are capable of so if you ask me a hundred women overpowers a single testicle. Educating a beautiful woman is like planting poisonous herbs in a garden, making it lethal. And rape is not inevitable, but an act committed by the twisted and weak minded.

This stigma that stains a female’s ability to succeed as been proven wrong time and time again. Unfortunately, you can take a stained shirt off, but the stain will still be there. So, lets wash the stain off. We can change the sexist ideals being expressed through our actions and teachings and it all starts with our generation. Revisions on maternity leave, abortion and pay equity laws are imperative as well as the endorsement of salary transparency. And by continuing the chain of enlightenment we can achieve what others could not complete, we need to teach our children to be and do better so they may do the same with the generation after.