Dear Mr./Mrs. President;

The women’s rights issue has been around for many years. Even in the year 2016, women are still faced with inequalities regarding equal pay and the right to make choices about their own bodies. Today 98% of women are still paid less than men because of the gender inequality that has been going on for hundreds of years. Although many people all say that the Americans are equal among each other it is sadly not completely true. As stated by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, “ Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Yet, on average, women continue to earn considerably less than men. In 2015, female full-time workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent.” This gap does not just start after college, but at the young age of 16 years old. Not only are all women paid 20% less starting at a young age, but they are also paid less based off of their race. As each year goes by we continually get closer to an equal pay rate as men, but women aren’t supposed to reach that until the 2059.

Women should be allowed the right to make choices about her own body in peace because women are also human beings and still need to feel comfortable living in society without being judged for her choices. Even though women have the right to control her body and have an abortion people still insist on protesting about this outside of offices specializing in this area. As said by CNN, “ The Republican leadership in Congress, along with every one of their presidential candidates, opposes women's right to safe, legal abortion. Yet, the majority of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, support access to safe, legal abortion. Stunningly, Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted 11 times in the current Congress to limit women's access to health care, including contraception. We believe that every woman should be able to make decisions about her pregnancy, including whether to end it, without shame, judgment, harassment or intimidation -- and certainly without interference by politicians.” Many women feel ashamed for getting an abortion and that their privacy is being violated because of protesters. 

Of course there are are ways to not become pregnant in the first place and that yes it is very difficult to completely turn around the way things have been for hundreds of years. When women get an abortion it is considered killing an infant and that its is the woman’s fault for getting the child anyways. However, we are all human beings and mistakes do happen. Sometimes we aren’t careful or we are young and naive. Regarding equal pay rights, it is hard for some people to understand that women work just as hard as men do and that women can be just as hardworking and smart as men.

The women's rights issue is not a new one. Although we are in the year 2016 women are still seen as less compared to men regarding unequal pay and the right to make choices about her own body. In fact there has been a significant gap between men and women for hundreds of years. Some of the main issues with this is the pay gap between women and men of all races and abortion rights. Both these things undermine women's rights, privacy and general intelligence.

Works Cited

"Abortion Rights Threatened in 2016 (Opinion)." CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

"Pay Equity & Discrimination." — IWPR. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.