Women are still fighting for their place

Recently in college I have taken an American women's history class and even though I was already aware of the fights we've had to pose, I was never truly aware of how severe society views females.

In our class we have studied about the women who were at the forefront of women's rights. Fighting for the right to vote, work, be in the military, even to have birth control options available. Anywhere from things as controversy to abortion, and even obesity.

It seems as if history is always doomed to repeat itself. We found while in this class that many circumstances that may have happened in the 1700's happened again in the 1950's. We are sad creatures, us humans. And unfortunately most of us can't see our own faults. But even today in a society where women are becoming more powerful, are we really?

So while we all know the ongoing debates for the elections to take place before we know it let's take a look at some numbers. We have three Democratic candidates, two of which are male. For the Republican side we have fourteen people running and thirteen of them are male. The democrats almost had two but Elizabeth Warren chose not to run.

Below is a link to the New York Times page so you can view it for yourself.

The video above even though made in 1959 still reflects a lot of views still in our society today.

My mom works for a company in which they don't respect her or appreciate how hard she works or for how long she's had to work to get where she is with the company which isn't very far up the ladder. Both my parent's could be doing great things but the trouble with my mom's workplace (ironically both my parent's work in the same place) is not only is she a woman but she is a minority. My mother is from central america, she's small but headstrong. She is extremely opinionated and has no problem speaking her mind or speaking to her supervisors as an equal. Because even if a person has a higher job then you doesn't mean you don't respect people "below" you. And if you all work for the same company then nobody is below anyone.

But even as I was discussing these exact issue with a friend the problem is that whenever a woman speaks her mind, says what she thinks and is authoritative. She automatically becomes a bitch. I don't know when women started becoming referred to as female dogs but it goes without saying. Yes I've used this word on many occasion I won't deny it. But I would never demean another female because she works hard and has authority. Men are the ones who decided this word was best to describe a female dog and then turned it toward women. What do you call a male dog? Just dog right? And yes now we use that as a demeaning term towards men who cheat. Well a dog isn't in a monogamous relationship with one dog for life. It doesn't know anything except it's urges. But what characteristics does a female dog hold that means female humans are "bitches". Let me explain. The word bitch actually comes from old English and the spelling was bicce. Nothing to do with any characteristics given. Below I've provided a link describing what the word bitch means. Take a look at how disturbingly demeaning this word has become all because of society.

Now it's not to say I don't expect people to stop using this word, it's become a part of the way everyone talks but I just wanted to make a point of how it's directed only toward women. When you say "Life's a bitch." do you know you're saying "Life's a female dog"? Bet you don't think about it like that. What you really meant when you said it was, "Life sucks" but what comes across in reality, "Life's

1. a malicious, unpleasant, selfish person, especially a woman.
2. a lewd woman.
3. a person who is submissive or subservient to someone, usually in a humiliating"

Here are some statistics for those who are skeptical and I'll provide a link below.

50.8 percent of the population is made up of women. 52 percent hold professional level jobs and yet they are still behind men. Only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.

Financial services industry: women make up 54.2 percent of the labor force, but are only 12.4 percent of executive officers, and 18.3 percent of board directors. None are CEOs.

78.4 percent of the labor force in health care and social assistance, only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 12.4 percent of board directors. Again, none are CEOs.

Women control 80 percent of consumer spending in the United States, and yet they only make up 3 percent of creative directors in advertising.

• "Women accounted for just 16 percent of all the directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors who worked on the top-grossing 250 domestic films of 2013, and were just 28 percent of all offscreen talent on broadcast television programs during the 2012-13 primetime season." (Fact Sheet)

There are in fact more women behind the camera in editing, the representation of women onscreen is better of course: Films being written or directed by women consistently show a higher percentage of female characters with speaking roles.

This is just a tidbit of information and I plan on providing more. Women are still struggling today in society and the workplace and most professional women are very hardworking. Look for more on this issue.