Dear Ms. or Mr. President,

Congratulations on being voted into office. I look forward to seeing what you do as president. Unfortunately I could not vote this year but I look forward to voting in 2020 when I am 18.  Something I would like to talk about is women's rights. Women in the workplace are not treated as equal as men. Women often are not paid as much men even though they might have the same job or a similar job. These women might even outperform men in the workplace. 

Despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963  women on average are paid 24% less than men doing the same job. The median woman makes 79 cents to the median man’s dollar. The gap widens by race with black women earning 60 cents and Hispanic women earning 55 cents to every white man’s dollar 

A good example of women’s inequality is the women's US National team getting paid less than the men’s US team even though the women’s team outperformed the men’s. The US women’s team, after winning 5-2 against Japan in the 2015 World Cup, filed a complaint because they earned significantly less money than the US men’s team. Even though the US women’s team won and the US men’s team did not perform well in the 2014 World Cup the women earned roughly a quarter less in pay. 

Since women comprise about half of the labor force and now outpace men in college enrollment, economists say it’s important to study why one gender still makes much less than the other. In a 2016 study of biology students, the male students were ranked by their peers more as most knowledgeable while the female students with the same grades were largely overlooked. This shows that even before people get a job, women can be overlooked even with the same grades as men. The problem starts early in our culture.

I want a President who will try to help to fight for equal rights and try to get women equal pay. Women have come a long way, we now (hopefully) have the first woman president and I couldn't be more proud, but we still have inequality and more to accomplish.  

Sincerely,

Lexi F