Feminism

This past month in class we have been focusing very heavily on feminist literature. While I never, ever considered myself to be a feminist, this unit has caused me to question that. Reading A Doll’s House was extremely uncomfortable, because I couldn’t handle the idea that a woman might be considered nothing more than a pet or an object to the rest of the world. Nora, the main character, had been sheltered from any proper schooling by the men in her life. She therefore had no concept of the way society worked or what the real world was like. Instead, she remained inside her “bubble” where she did very few things. She had children that she barely knew how to take care of; that was the nanny’s responsibility. She does the sewing and the shopping, and even shopping is above her head, as she is frivolous with money. To her husband, she is little more than a pet. He calls her his “little bird”, and their relationship is best described as completely superficial. He takes her to parties and dresses her up to perform for the crowd, and then whisks her away before she can socialize with anyone. As a woman in today’s society, I can’t imagine being confined to that role. I don’t want anyone else to decide what I can wear, what I am allowed to do, and if my husband tried to liken me to a bird there would be some huge issues. There is something so demeaning about the way that she is treated, almost as if she is less of a person then the men who control her. I am glad that as a society we have progressed beyond that point, and that I have the option of choosing a career and picking a husband based on love and not money or security. However, I still do not think our society has completely reached gender equality. I read an article from 2012 that covered the wage gap between men and women. It showed that when comparing a man and a woman with the same type of college education, similar grades, and holding the same type of job, a man would make 5% more right out of college, and the gap increases as the years go on. By 10 years out of college, it is up to 12% more. I had heard about the wage gap issue in past years, but had never put too much weight on it because I figured it averaged the overall salaries of all men and women. In that case it is more understandable why there would be a difference between the salaries because many women work part time in order to take care of the children. The instance above, however, makes me angry. If I work extremely hard in college to prepare for my position, there is absolutely no reason that a man with equal qualifications should get more money. Until this issue has been resolved, our society is still sexist and women will still be continued to be seen as lesser. So how do we solve this problem? We teach our children to respect women. We stop objectifying them in magazines and on television. It is only then that the wage gap will disappear, because the world will finally view women as people, not objects.