PROVING Equality

Megan Looby

In 1960, a child, named Kim, was born in Atlanta Georgia to a very

southern old-fashionedwomen and a prominent business man. Kim’s

mother worked as a homemaker when she was young, but when she

went to school her mother went back to work as a secretary. Kim’s

mother was very conservative but did not accept inequality. Her

mother was perfectly okay with doing most things around the house,

but would not stand for being treated unequally by any man, like her

mother was. They raised Kim to do whatever it takes to achieve her

goals, and that is exactly what she did. She grew up to be astrong and

independent woman. She was a Junior Olympic swimmer, with the

support f her parents, and succeeded in school. She also grew up to be

a very successful business woman. She was the director of a YMCA

branch, a consultant for the YMCA of the USA, and is now a Vice

President of People ManagementInternational, an international

consulting firm. This woman is my Mother. She is very respected by

all of her co-workers because she has earned it, however she had to

work extra hard to earn that respect. That just proves that no matter

how talented a woman is they still have to work twice as hard to be

considered equal to men. I remember when I was a child my Mom

always made sure that Iwas aware of the inequality between the

sexes.She always reminded me that I would have to work harder to

achieve the same thing as men. It helped me growas not only a person,

but as a woman. In all of her work places, she has tried to create an

atmosphere of equality between both sexes. This is a goal that she tries

to achieve in each new job she gets. Her first job was challenging because

she was the only female. She was a lifeguard and worked only with men.

She felt like she was treated unequally so she promised herself that she

would never settle for inequality again. She is the reason that I feel so

strongly about equality and want to end sexism in the world. She is the

reason that I applied to an all male staff of head guards instead of settling

for a regular guard position. She is myrole model; she never gives up and

she achieves every goal she sets for herself.
Although I am aware that there is still inequality towards women in our
world, my Mom has proved to me that you do what you can and push

through it. I do believe that there should be equality among sexes but I

also believe that the way to correct that wrong is to succeed in everything

we do and prove those skeptical men wrong. In addition, when I asked my

Mom about this issue she responded bysaying, “Although protesting and

bringing the issue into the media is important, nobody is going to take it

seriously until you prove that you are equal to them. It is something I

would rather not have to do, but until there is equality it is up to us, as

women, to prove that we deserve equality.” We can not just assume that

they will believe that we are worthy of the equality, even though we are

born equal, we have to show them that we can do things as well or even

better than they can. Feministshave been writing and protesting about

equality between sexes for over a century, and there have been many
improvements, but I believe that the protesting and writing of articles

have taken the movement as far as it can. I believe it is time to take it to

the next level and prove that women can do everything we say we can.

We each have to succeed in what we do, we must work harder and prove

that no matter what obstacles are put in front of us that we can work

through them and be as good as or better than men are.
In my interview, I asked my mom what roles women played when

she was a child. She responded by saying, “although many things

had changed from the beginning of the feminist movement, it still

was not at the level it is is today. Many women were still confined

to being a homemaker or having a low-level job, like a secretary,

there were very few women who held an xecutive position and I

never knew any of them personally.” She went on to say that, “it

was not until I was in my twenties that I saw more women taking

those positions n a more regular basis.” This shows us how much

we have achieved in the last thirty years, and that our effortsare

not going unanswered. However, there are still many obstacles

that women have to overcome in the near future.

I have thought about how we, as a new generation of women, can
help change the way that we are treated and how our future

generations of women will be treated;we have to work harder in

order to achieve the same things as men. This is unfortunate

because it is almost as if we are giving up our cause, but we must

do this to show men that we are equal to them. We deserve

executive positions as much as they and we deserve to be treated

as equals to them. My mom said, “In order to be considered equal,

we must take it upon ourselves to prove to men that we are just as

strong and smart as they are. They are not just going to change

their ideas of women because we say we are equal, we are going to

have to change their minds for them”, this statement made me

realize that the future of feminism and equality for all is relying on

the youth of today, my generation and the generations that follow

me. It is our job to use our skills to bring ourselves to the exact

same level as men. We have to do this if we want to obtain

equality for all women! Nobody is going to hand equality to
us; we are going to have to earn it.
The Feminist movement is unfortunatly going to be around for a

while. I say unfortunately because it is unlikely that men are just

going to give up the fight. We as women must “put down the picket

signs (meaning go into the workforce and use that to prove

equality) and not take ‘no’ for an answer when applying for jobs.

We must strive to be CEO’s or any other higher-level positions and

prove to men that we are equal and deserve their respect. We must

change the minds of men to see that there should be no sexism in

the business world, as well as in our regular lives. We have to do the

‘dirty work’ just so that we can be considered equal to men.” When

my Mom said this, I realized hat I could not rely on protesting or the

media to obtain equality for women; I have to go out and get a great

education and apply for the high-level positions in big corporations in

order to prove that I am equal to every man working in the business

world. I have to do it for myself; this also applies to every other

woman in the world. Each woman must prove herself in the work

place as men do; however, I do realize that men have a much easier

time proving themselves. It is up to every woman to prove to everyone

else in the world that they deserve the equality that is given to men.

However, I do believe it should be a “no brainer” giving equality to

women like it is given to men. We have been studying all different

feminist writers and issues and every time we read a new piece it

brought up things, for example abortion issues, that my Mom has taught

me. When we read the pieces on abortion, it brought back my memory

of when I asked her what abortion was. I was twelve when I heard the

word abortions while I was watching the news; she explained to me that

abortion was a choice that women have on whether to end a pregnancy

if she decided it was in her and her potential baby’s best interest. While

interviewing my Mom Iasked her if she remembered me asking her

about abortion when I was a child. She said that she did and that, even

at twelve, I believed that women should have the right to choose. I was

very curious to see exactly what her definition and views on the subject

were. When I asked her about this she responded by saying that her

definition of abortion as “the right that women have to make their own

decision on whether or not to end a pregnancy based on their moral

beliefs, their financial abilities, and the best interests of themselves and

the potential child.” I felt that this definition fit right in with our

discussion that we had on the piece in class. It was as if she was in my

class discussingit with my classmates and me. I also asked if she
was “pro-choice” or “pro-life,” and she said, “I believe that women

should have the right to choose. If they are not capable of taking care

of a child then they should have the right to end their pregnancy. It is

their body and therefore their choice. However, I do not believe it is a

form of birth control.” I believe that if my Mom had had the

opportunity to take a Women’s Studies class she would have ended up

majoring in it. Equality is very important to herand I believe that it

shows in how she raised my sisters and me. She has shown me how

important it is to stand up for what we believe in and defend ourselves

against sexism and inequality.
The history of feminism can be seen in each of the past generations
of women. Each generation has received more benefits from the

feminists of the previous generation. My Mother is able to have an

executive level job because her Mother fought for her to have more

women’s rights. In addition, I will now have all the opportunities in

he world because my Mother fought for me to have choices of what

I want to do with the rest of my life. We are only going to make the

lives of women better with each generation. Feminism is a part of

every woman’s history and it is what will give our future

generations of women equality to men.