Equal Rights for Women
Throughout history, women have fought for equal rights as they still continue to. They fought for little things that made such a big difference from working inside of businesses instead of being housewives to becoming CEOs/business owners, or even managers. And, there are still many stereotypes of things “men can do” that “women can’t” when it comes to professions.
Kamala Harris has made history as the first not only female vice president but black vice president. This accomplishment will go into the history books forever because this is something many thought couldn’t and wouldn’t happen. Along with Kamala Harris many other women have made a big impact as business owners, entrepreneurs, humanitarians, and even scientists.
Women like:
Angela Davis, an African American activist for civil rights and other social issues as well as being an educator/professor at The University of California, Santa Cruz.
Nicky Goulimis, the Co-Founder of Nova Credit to help immigrants from all over to transfer their credit over to the U.S. because lack of domestic credit history keeps millions of immigrants at a disadvantage from accomplishing their dreams.
Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook right under Mark Zuckerberg. She is one of the most powerful businesswomen who contributed to a platform where it allows you to connect with family and people from all over.
Amanda Gorman is an African American poet and activist. She recently spoke out at the presidential inauguration for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. History. Her poems revolve around the topics feminism, marginalization, race, and African diaspora.
Of course, women have accomplished a lot in history, but we still have a long way to go.
Institutional Barriers
It has been scientifically proven that both women and men are significantly more likely to vote to hire a man applicant versus a woman applicant with the same academic record. This goes to show there is no other reason but gender involved in this decision. And, throughout history, not only men but women have been trained to feel that men can do a better job than women even when they have the same qualifications.
Labor Force
American women on average earned 81% of what their male counterparts earned. According to BLS[http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2011/women/pdf/women_bls_spotlight.pdf], about 20 years back approximately 65 million women in the labor force, and 53% of these women were concentrated in three industries: education and health services, trade, transportation and utilities, and local government. This just goes to show women were overrepresented in several industries and underrepresented in others. For example, women in the past would be represented in the health and social services workforce and the education services workforce. However, the other women were underrepresented in the professional, scientific, and technical services. Now, women dominate the dental, administrators, and medical fields.
Women and Corporations
In terms of women in leadership positions, stated back in BLS p.9 [http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2011/ted_20110216.htm], about 11 years back women only made up to 24% of CEOs and earned a little over half males made. Now women make up 29% of CEOs worldwide. This was a drastic improvement in all-time history although there is still a lot of improvement to go. For the simple fact this is still less than half and women do have the capability to do and be more.