The Importance Of Equality In America

A land of safety, liberty, and pure happiness is all America standards. America provides a residency full of freedoms. It was a popular place to seek a new beginning. Many people came to the country to find something they had always longed for. They only saw America for its dream.

The United States was founded on freedom so we are technically supposed to have all terms of political equality. We do have political, social, and economic equality to an extent. Social equality for example, differs in states and with certain people. Things like race riots and killings of colors still happen today like recently in Ferguson. Our social equality has improved from the eighteen hundreds, but for for 2015 we could improve immensely. I do wish we had perfect social equality though, because I believe everyone should actually be treated equal no matter the race, age, or sexual orientation.

Throughout the nation’s history, American’s have sought to put an end to discriminatory practices and bring equality toward minority groups. For example, Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech were directed at putting an end to mistreatment of African Americans. Likewise, Jane Adams and Susan B. Anthony used their authority as women’s rights activists to push for greater equality amongst the genders. While some may argue that women are lagging behind in the race to equal rights, others claim the opposing approach. In today’s society, women are achieving true equality due to a shift in the old stereotypes toward women, increasing opportunities for women to become educated, higher expectations for women in the workplace, and a stronger influence of women in government positions.

In America, the land of the free, people believe that it’s the greatest place to be. And America would probably be what everyone believes, but it has a very serious problem that could eventually destroy the country as whole. America is built upon Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but it has a strong equality issue that has to be taken care of. Equality is a social contract in America and unfortunately it is a broken one. A social contract is an agreement amongst the members of a society, but equality is a serious issue. Equality poses the biggest problem to America simply because in any country the people make the country, and if the people can’t get along either internal conflicts occur, or people eventually leave. Throughout America everyone regardless of race, color, or sexual orientation has experienced inequality in some part of America. Words are exchanged, fists are thrown, and in serious cases lives are lost because people are racists to one another. Equality is a broken social contract in America that will eventually be its demise if not attended to.

Women have come a long way ever since the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 and thereafter with the Equal Rights Amendment Act in 1972 to the U.S Constitution. After decades of struggling and protesting, the 19th Amendment was passed and ratified to grant women the right to vote. Fifty-two years later worth of revisions and persistency, the Equal Rights Amendment was ratified in which it declared that everyone had both Human and Civil rights in the States regardless of sex. Not only did these amendments have an immense impact on the lives of women and sequentially with the rest of the citizens of this nation, but on the people of today’s century. Women have done a tremendous job in proving society wrong about the roles women are

Marriage has always been a sacred agreement between a man and woman. However, as times have changed, our ideas involving marriage are forced to change with the times. Our country has developed throughout the years to enforce the belief that all Americans should be granted equal rights no matter what their skin color or cultural background. Granting gays the right to marry would simply be giving all people equal rights in the issue of marriage.

Equality is a concept that humanity fails to completely grasp even to this day. While the battles for racial equality have been championed profusely, the fight for gender equality has hardly started. In contrast to their male counterparts, women are seen as inferior and overly sexualized in many forms of entertainment such as movies, novels, even classic literature; the “feminine” stereotype is associated with weakness, fragility, and sensitivity. This is due to the sheer fact that since the birth of the United States as a country, women were perceived and treated as the inferiors of men. Abigail Adams, the esteemed wife of John Adams—one of our founding fathers and the

Equality for women has been an ongoing debate for years. Most people recognize the inequality for women in areas besides the business world. However, women in politics is one of the most well-known topics. Until a few years ago, the thought of having a woman as president was absurd. It wasn’t until the 2008 election that the idea of a woman for president would change drastically. Both Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton decided to run in the 2008 presidential election. Although neither of the two were elected, they both still made a dramatic impact on the views of women in politics. Michelle Bernard states that the 2008 election was a breakthrough for women in general. However, Marie Cocco disagrees, stating that the loss was a major disappointment for women. Although both authors feel strongly about their

Many people doubted women’s abilities to take care of the same issues that men handled. Nonetheless, over time, women have been able to spread awareness about their deserved rights; they have “established strong lobbying groups, won legislative and judicial victories, survived the defeat of the ERA, changed public attitudes about the equality of women, and helped overcome some of the gender imbalance in elective and appointive public office” (Women, 1961-present). Although equal rights have not been fully granted, women accomplished many feats in the past ninety years. Females have gained access to holding public office, with many of them reaching high positions. Women still must work to gain equal rights, but they have come a long way in terms of political

From women’s suffrage activists to female Presidential candidates, America has accomplished a lot on its road to political equality. Forty years ago, electing a woman to hold the office of the President of the United States was an unachievable ideal. This concept was considered too far-fetched. And yet, as a nation, we know that this ideal is now a conceivable reality.

For centuries the concept of gender and equality have been issues and talking points. Attitudes toward women have gradually softened and changed for the better as they are viewed as being equal with men. Women throughout history have been referred to as housewives, and factory girls. They weren’t able to gain the respect from men until they took a stance against inequality, also known as women’s suffrage. “I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand”, stated Susan B Anthony. Many factors have contributed to the rise of the status of women throughout the history of the United States. These factors include education, income status, and political contributions.

While America has improved over the past few decades, females are still very underrepresented in the government today. As Lili Gil quotes in her article entitled The Gender Crisis in Politics: U.S. Congress Fails at Equality, “The Nordic countries (Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Denmark, and Norway) lead the world regionally with 42.1 percent female representation in national legislatures” (Congress Research Service para 3.) It is very sad to see that America is beginning to fall behind in modern day thinking. While those countries may lack a modern landscape, they do not fail in modern thinking regarding gender equality. Iceland was the first country to elect a female into office 35 years ago, they also required that females have a 40% representation on the board of publicly traded companies, or for the companies to go out of business. Another shocking fact is that America, while being a progressive, democratic and developed country, has “greater gender disparities than Rwanda, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Bolivia and many other “developing” nations” (Gil para 3.) As proven in these successful countries, females being in higher positions do not hurt the country's prosperity, but help the countries in the long

What does it feel like to not have the right to vote, work, or even marry? Thousands of Americans through the centuries have experienced this, solely due to the way that they were born. America has fought for equal rights for hundreds of years. America has battled for the equal rights of slaves, segregation, women’s right to vote, and the right for men and women to marry the same gender.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal,” the Declaration of Sentiments, Grievances, and Resolutions, 1848. It has been exactly 100 years since suffragists marched the streets of New York City with a banner that read “President Wilson favors votes for women.” Political, social, and economic inequality may seem like a thing from the past because of the accomplishments of women like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama. However, women on average make 21 cents less than men and 62+million girls around the world don’t have access to education. First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama have launched a campaign with the

In 1968 and 1865 Lincoln and Kennedy were trying to persuade Americans that the country is better united. Throughout America’s history I believe that a common goal was to build relations among the diverse nation. I think that Lincoln and Kennedy wanted to make a change because they saw the difference and unfair circumstances. However there has not been a lot that has changed. I believe a lot of people want to get rid of racism but a lot of people haven’t made an honest effort to make change. However I also think that many people do not know how to acquire change. Recognizing racial injustice can help create various steps toward racial equality in America’s society. When we as a society speak explicitly about race, we will accept everything that make us different from one another.