The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, “It’s a girl.” ~Shirley Chisholm
I never considered myself a feminist. I also used to be one of the many women that felt pretty good about where we, as women, stand today in society. I thought that we had pretty much won the equality thing, and the women’s issues were smaller these days compared to a whole heap of other forms of oppression. Then I started reading more about women’s rights. There are so many ways in which women are oppressed that we don’t even realize. It is in our language and subconscious attitude.
Women try to overcome this oppression by attempting to do it all. We want careers so we go out into the work place full of ambition. We also want to be mothers and comfort our children when we get home or read bedtime stories. We don’t necessarily want to do all the housework but many husbands just aren’t that good at it if they’re willing to help at all, so we do that too. We keep track of appointments for everyone in the household, plan parties, and make sure Christmas cards get sent out on time-among a thousand other things. Because we’re women and we’ve fought so hard to get opportunities we think that we must do it all and not fail. We go above and beyond what most men do –physically and emotionally.
Before I started reading more about women’s rights I thought we had won the majority of the battles for equality. But what I realize is that we are winning them every day and it’s difficult- and we still have quite a ways to go.
