Womens Inequality in America

Women's inequality is something that has become a large issue for many people in America. Dear Madam or Mr. President, There are many disadvantages of being a woman in today’s world. As a teenage girl this affects me, but it also affects people I care about deeply. Sometimes we don’t realize when it's happening. There are so many ways that women are treated unfairly and unequally. Everything from what women are expected to look like to how much women get paid. I simply don't understand why there is this huge gap between women and men. In America, from the day we are born, we are taught stereotypes about how women are supposed to be treated and what they should act like. It’s time to change that. Although women’s inequality is something many people are passionate about, I believe that as a country America should be doing more to fix this issue. The two women's inequality issues I’m going to focus on are unequal pay for women and false stereotypes put on women. Firstly, in the Washington Post it says “there is a persistent wage gap between men and women and that women working full-time earn 79 cents for every dollar that a typical man makes.” Women do just as much work as men but get paid less, how is that fair? It’s not fair. Women should be paid just as much as men because women are just as capable to work as hard as men are. It simply makes no sense that women should get paid less. There are so many stereotypes put on women. Stereotypes saying that women can't work as hard as men or that women should stay at home instead of working. These stereotypes have been passed down for many years. Yet, they are incorrect because women are just as capable to work as men are. Because of these stereotypes, throughout history women have not gotten the same opportunities as men. If society is not letting women be pushed to their fullest potential and are not held to the same expectations as men are, than we are wasting the potential of half of our population. Imagine what America would be like if everyone was pushed to their fullest potential. We could be an even greater country. It is time for us to make a change. Hillary Clinton posted “20 years ago, women made 72 cents on the dollar to men. Today it's still just 79 cents. More work to do. #EqualPay #NoCeilings.” That is the kind of spirit we need from more people in America. I believe that we can achieve equal pay in America. Yet, in order for that to happen we need to pay more attention to this issue. In the New York Times Carli Lloyd wrote “If I were a male soccer player who won a World Cup for the United States, my bonus would be $390,000. Because I am a female soccer player, the bonus I got for our World Cup victory last summer was $75,000.” That is outrageous, a male soccer player would get $315000 more than a female soccer player. This is a real life example of unequal pay for women. Americans need to work together to fix this issue so we can have equality in our country. Sincerely, Samantha Donahue