Women and the Illusion of Equality

Equal Rights Amendment: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Did you know that this was never ratified? It is not a Constitutional Amendment. It has only been ratified by 35 states. It still needs 3 more before it could become an Amendment. We do not have equal rights under the United States Constitution.

According to a recent blurb in the May 7, 2007 issue of Time Magazine, women with college degrees still only make on average 70% of what their male counterparts make. For doing the exact same job, women are paid 30% less than men. And the gap just widens over time. Louisiana has the largest disparity of 64%, while West Virginia has the smallest with 89%.
Let's put a dollar amount on that. Let's say a man makes $35,000 annually for being a Customer Service Representative. Well, a woman doing that exact same job will only be making $24,500 annually. Do you have any idea what that means over her lifetime? How much less money she has to invest? To save for retirement? What that means if she is the sole breadwinner for a family (ie. divorcee, widow, single mother)?

Look at all the nasty comments that people are making about Hillary Clinton. She is an intelligent, ambitious, strong woman who is perfectly capable of being the President of the United States. I think she is one of the most qualified people running for 2008. But she is reviled by so many people. Because she is a woman.

We claim to be so righteous in this country, telling other countries that they should want to be like us. But the truth is, we are not all equal in the United States either. If you are a woman, a minority or a homosexual, you are not equal. You have to obey all of the same laws and pay all of the same taxes, but you are not afforded all of the Constitutional rights. How is this fair?