Why gender difference?

This is a question that I have been thinking about for a long time. As you must know by now I am a champion for women's rights and I want to take this opportunity to explore this subject a bit more.

Discrimination against women is also called sexism, and this injustice has been around for a very long time, going all the way back to the ancient world. As most of you know, women were relegated to second-class citizen status in most of the ancient civilizations. The main reason this happened is because men were the warriors and thus commanded authority over women, who were taken up with child bearing and maintaining the domicile. Even in ancient Rome, a woman only had status because of her husband.

Women were always considered the weaker sex both physically and emotionally. When women were given in marriage to their husband their legal status literally evaporated because of the system of 'Coverture' in which the woman became one with her husband. It wasn't until modern time that women won suffrage--the right to vote, thus gaining citizen status. Even in the U.S. women were punished for advocating suffrage in the early part of the 20th century. Even today, this lingering stigma has persisted in the fact that there is not that many women in politics and the U.S has yet to elect a woman as president.

We still see a lack of gender-neutral language. We still have 'mankind', 'man', 'guys', and the obnoxious 'man and wife'.

And, don't get me started in the fact that women were persecuted for witchcraft because many overzealous religious leaders considered women to be evil or the handmaidens of the devil.

Then we have the idea that women are not as smart as men. We have the good old adages about the dumb blond and the bigger the boobs the dumber they are. Ha! I got news for you guys. Women are smarter and better at a lot of complicated tasks. This idea that women are dumber is an old gender stereotype that is just not true. The only reason that women haven't excelled in science and math is that parents adhere to the old stereotype that women are only good for marriage and childbearing and discourage them from pursuing those careers.

The most egregious examples of sexism occur in the workplace. Women are routinely not paid as well as men in the same position. This wage gap has existed for a long time and continues even in the modern era. The income gap in the U.S. is 0.77. That's substantial and a gross injustice.

Another way that women are discriminated against in the workplace is not being promoted when they deserve it. The ostensible reason for this wage and promotion gap is that women have children. No kidding! I didn't know that. That's a bogus excuse for many reasons. One is that not all workingwomen take time out for childbirth. The other is that women take too much sick time. Bullshit!

The so-called 'Glass ceiling effect' is still in existence. Women make up 47% of the work force but only 6% of top executives are women. Yes, progress is being made in this area, but it's been a slow painful journey up the corporate ladder.

I could go on forever about this, but the bottom line is that women should have the same status as men in everything. Case closed!

Thanks for reading.