Dear Future President,

Even though I may not meet the voting age requirements, I still feel like there are some things U.S. citizens need to consider before voting for a president. Of course, there are the well-known problems such as hunger, poverty and homelessness, which are all very serious concerns. But there are also other important problems that still go unnoticed to most of the public such as wildlife preservation and college tuition. While all of these are justified concerns, the problem that I have with today’s world is something that I am quite passionate about and means a lot to me and many others, especially women, worldwide.

October 9, 2012, changed women’s rights forever. On this day, 15 year old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by terrorists for protesting for young women to go to school. This act of cruel violence and inequality was definitely a violation of women’s rights worldwide. What happened to Malala hit close to home for me because I feel like women are losing more and more freedom and opportunities every day. I started to wonder what other rights girls like me are losing. I wonder how many of my rights will be gone by the time I am in college. I wonder about what my life would be like in the future and if I would even have fewer chances to achieve my dreams. This discrimination keeps getting worse every day and I would like to do something about it. First, I needed more information so I took to the internet to find out more resourceful evidence about this topic.

Many people do not know what gender equality is or how it affects women in the U.S. According to Genderequality.com, gender equality is “the state in which access to rights or opportunities is unaffected by gender.” This definition is the complete opposite of what is happening in the U.S. Women are being discriminated against by wage, opportunities, privileges, or just being treated unfairly; the U.S. does not show gender equality.

The information I have found was downright shocking. According to a recent report by U.N., “More than 63 million girls worldwide are kept out of school due to people’s beliefs.” Along with girls unable to go to school, 70% of the hungry people around the world are women. This is a massive issue because one of the leading causes that women are left on the streets starving is due to unfair financial pay. This one problem can lead into another problem which is how women are not being treated fairly not only around the world, but right here in the U.S. iwpr.org states, “In the United States in 2015, female full-time workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent.” This claim shows that women are not being paid fairly in the United States. This can lead to women not having enough funds to pay for all of their needs to live and they could eventually end up on the streets.

Though many men around the world still feel that women are being treated fairly, facts and studies show that women still have a long way until they can say that they have the same rights as men. I feel that women around the world should be treated fairly and what I hope that you, the President of the United States, will choose to do is to enact a law of equal pay between both genders for the same amount of work. I hope that you put my thoughts into consideration.

Sincerely,

Devin R., Pennsylvania