Women: How much progress have we really made

Since the early nineteen hundreds when women started to fight for their rights we seem to have backpeddled to some extent. While there are many women who are in positions of power, are doctors, lawyers, company owners, polititions and so on we are still expected to hold on to that job and then come home and be super mom and sexy wife.

Child rearing duties still fall to the woman, household chores are still our domain and arranging and planning activities, school enrolement and transportation to and from shool is still left up to the woman. So where is dear old dad? Dad comes home from work, complains he's had a bitch or a day then plunks his ass down in front of the television as he bellows "What's for dinner".

While cries of burn the bra went out throughout the west in the sixties we are now back to wearing our bra's especially in the work place so we won't be accused of looking too sexy, unprofessional and provoking office sexual harassment. In the workplace we still have to listen to off color sexual jokes, put up with sexual innuendo and grin and bear it for fear of looking as if we aren't good sports.

Today most women can do the same job as a man, do it just as well or better and yet we are somehow overlooked for promotions, the excuse being that we are not as reliable as a man because of our kids. Lets face it, when a child falls sick it is usually up to the woman to stay home with them because we are the nuturers. If an agreement is made between husband and wife to have one spouse stay home and one goes out as the breadwinner it is usually the wife who stays home mainly because most men can't stand to be home with the kids twenty four seven.

While most women can do anything a man can do there still has not been a women president in the States. We are still seen as sex symbols. Open any fashion magazine and you will see women dressed in skimpy clothes, outrageuos hairstyles, garish makeup and rediculous shoes, most designed by men. Let's face it sex sells. We are made to feel inadequate if we are not thin enough or pretty enough and expected to act dumb. On the flip side men walk around balding and sporting pot bellies and that's ok. In the office if a man yells and screams and pushes his weight around he is considered a go getter, if a women does the same thing she is a bitch. We are still seen as the weaker sex and violence against women is on the rise.

One thing we can't change though is the fact that we give birth to our children, we are nurturers and care givers and it ends there. Anything a man can do we can do and so much more. We are expected to now. While we can hold jobs, vote, start our own businessess, manage our own finances and buy our own house, to some extent we are still oppressed. So as the old cigarette add goes "You've come a long way baby"apparently though not far enough.