I Believe

In all societies around the world there is some form of a family unit. Most consist of a mother, father and children. I believe that the mother is one of the most important pieces, and in the past was treated with less respect than she deserved. Women are a very influential force in society. Over time woman have become the caretakers in our homes. Women traditionally are the ones who care for the children and maintain the home. They have what we call the sphere domesticity; the home traditionally is their domain while the men go off to work. In many societies, including America, women were oppressed. They were put on a lower level than men, robbed of opportunities and rights. One of the most horrible examples of this in the world was in Afghanistan with the Taliban. What occurred in Afghanistan was very similar to what happened in America, but it was to a much greater level.
In America and Afghanistan one of the ways women were oppressed was by being deprived of education and jobs. By not having education open to women, that hindered their thinking. This made them not wonder what the outside world was like, or what other kind of things they could be doing, it lead them to be less ambitious. In America this was to limit the women to staying home because they felt that the family would fall apart without a woman there to maintain it. In Afghanistan this also occurred but due to the Taliban’s interpretation of scriptures. Either way, women were not given equal opportunity to show what they could do, or pursue what they wanted. A woman’s life was set once she was born. I feel that what happened was very unjust because were not given the opportunity to do what they wished, even though the men did.
However, in America women were eventually allowed to have an education and a job. This did cause huge changes in many aspects of life. Firstly there began to be more job competition. Also with the women away from home men have more responsibilities around the house. Most importantly would have to be the newly required sense of freedom. Women began to feel more independent, they began to rely less on men which led to more unmarried women. When women got the right to be educated it caused a complete transformation in American society. There were times in history when women became the driving force in the labor world. When men went off to war that left only the women to work and run businesses. During these times everything was held together, things often flourished. This shows how powerful education can be in a person’s life and also how influential women are in society. By introducing them to education, a commodity that men had taken for advantage, life for them and others totally changed. Today it is only natural to think that everyone deserves equal rights, but there was a time when it was not. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
In life today women are now on the same playing field as men. Meaning, anything a man can do a woman can do. Women are beginning hold high positions in society, our governor is a woman, and quite soon we may have a woman president. They have great influence in our society by going to work and still maintaining the control over the home. However, there are some things that still remain unequal. Even today there is a substantial gap between men and women’s salaries, but the gap has been reducing over the years. But this does mean that they have more room to grow and improve their position in society. After all it has not been very long since the civil rights movement, and things have only been improving since then. In fifty years imagine what women’s role in society will be. Will their overall status eventually surpass the men? Maybe, they sure have the opportunity to, but we will just have to wait and see.