What specific barriers or challenges do you think women still face today in achieving gender equality, and how do you believe we can overcome them?

3 comments

1. I mean. Roe V Wade is still overturned I think that’s a pretty big one. My grandma and my mother had the ability to get an abortion their whole reproductive life. I live in a state where I still can but what if I get a great job offer in Alabama or Texas? Do I have to weigh if it’s better to turn that down? I know there are plenty of other issues for women at hand but that’s the scariest for me rn at this point in my life.

2. We’re not equal. As women, we face scary things most men don’t. Men have a different set of challenges. Feminism means equal opportunity; women should feel safe and be able to pursue what they like, and men shouldn’t be stigmatized for talking about mental health and able to access services that are typically for women and children. Women often aren’t taken as seriously as men or seen as having authority even when they’re experts in their field, and get disrespected and humiliated for simply doing their job or speaking out; men work dangerous jobs and get their kids taken away. A woman can become completely dependent with no safety net when a relationship ends in the same way a man has to pay alimony or child support or give up his home.

   So maybe it’s not about equality but equity and making up the difference where we can. But it’s a societal attitude. Don’t make fun of men for needing help, or deny it when they do, so they resort to suicide or substances (Deaths of Despair); don’t degrade and disparage and brutalize women, especially in police and military. Don’t make men feel weak for wanting a stereotypical female job or role.

   Call people out for misogyny. Stop telling young boys not to cry or have feelings. Stop telling young girls that a boy hitting her means he likes her, or that she has to hug the handsy uncle; more importantly, teach males and females both to ask and respect boundaries.

   We spent decades since the women’s movement making advances in education and careers, but boys and men fell behind. If we attend to their issues, it has a positive effect on women, as well. It’s not a coincidence that we see such vitriol regarding women after recent years of telling men they’re toxic while simultaneously not doing much about it. Our barriers very much have to do with those problems. Recent media personalities spewing awful stuff about women have an effect bc they also speak to these truths about men. Bc there’s a huge void and they fill it.

   We can’t put it all on men to change and magically act better to women as a society; if we did, we’d have to say the same about women for men’s problems.

   Raise up boys to be teachers and role models on how to treat women. The word “overcome” makes it sound like an oppressive battle when it’s an interdependent relationship. Raise up girls to be women who recognize this.

3. Issues such as the glass ceiling and lack of universal quality childcare.