Gender & Equality

I was reminded the other day of something I heard a few years ago from someone who had been at the Beijing conference. That women from other countries felt sorry for women in the western world as we had been sold a “bill of goods” that we were better off than women in other countries when it came to equality. The reminder was during a discussion on gender equality when a young woman stated that things were different today and that gender equality was no longer a problem. How sad when the younger generation believes that what we have been fighting for is achieved when women are still not guaranteed equal pay for equal work. When our government declares we are equal and then enacts laws allowing government and other employers to discriminate against us due only to gender by not paying us what is our moral entitlement. Being in my mid 50’s I agree-we have come a long way but until we are guaranteed equal pay, allowed into the higher paying jobs in order to achieve that pay and when a woman can be elected to run our country how can we say we are equal. When women can walk down the street alone in the middle of the night without fear perhaps then we will be approaching equality.