ERA: Equal Rights Ammendment

From a young age I have been told of the myriad of opportunities that were available to me.  Being raised by a single mother due to divorce, the youngest in a family of all girls, the idea that my gender could hold me back in life was never a question.  Although my mother certainly did not sugar coat the world, she made sure we knew the advantages and disadvantages of our gender and understood the extra hard work that would be required of us.  She also modeled a disciplined woman who worked hard for her family and in what seemed like a very short time, graduated college and purchased a house which would become our childhood home.

When considering the questions posed for this assignment, I could not help but stop and think of how many societal disadvantages women are still facing now in 2013.  I am absolutely grateful for the work of women such as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Stone Blackwell.  Thanks in huge part to these women I have an incredible number of choices and opportunities available to me today.  It is truly incredible and inspiring to know that their work made such a difference and nothing was in vain. 

However, with that being said us women still have more work to do.  In 2012, women in America earned 80.9% of that of their male counterparts weekly.  The gap has reduced significantly since the days of the Woman's Suffrage Movement, but it has slowed tremendously since the economic recession and now may be widening yet again.  We may be in need of some modern day Susan B. Anthony's, although we are do have Representative Rosa DeLauro who sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act which was blocked in the house just last month.  I think many expected more support from the Obama administration, but given that black men were given the right to vote before women, maybe it is only fitting that a black man reach the highest office in the United States first.  If history means anything, then now is the time to hear the voice of the women and equalize the wage disparity in our lifetime.

When taking into account all of the strides and progression that has been made, in addition to the momentum behind the movement that has never waned, I believe that we will see a female president within the next ten years.  I do not, however, believe it will be in the next election.