COLLINS: Women are still playing second fiddle to men
-
Share on Facebook
-
Share on Twitter
- Copy Link
WHILE IT IS EXCITING that women have — or likely will have — taken on the nominations for president two of the last three U.S. elections, women are still facing an uphill struggle to gain equality with men.
‘Kamala Harris to run the USA? No way — she’s a woman!’ So go the vicious ads that will start to permeate our senses in the final months leading up to the November 5 election. Fortunately, Harris has more going for her than Joe Biden. She is more charismatic, she is firm in articulating her beliefs, and she has made great inroads already in appealing to young people.
But even with the knowledge that women can aspire to the highest office in the land, there are still far too many areas where women are struggling for recognition. It’s only been 100 years since women were given the right to vote. They were literally subservient to men. They didn’t have control over their own bodies, couldn’t make up their own minds on whether to have an abortion — and God forbid if they were a member of the armed forces, or a police officer or firefighter. The harassment and sexual assault in those fields is a serious situation.
We only pay lip service in our courts when cases of ‘no means no come forward. I was appalled after the Trump incident that people were questioning the ability of Secret Service boss Kimberly Cheatle, not because she may have made some bad decisions, but that those bad decisions were made because she was a woman. Not to mention other social media comments saying women shouldn’t be on Secret Service detail because they couldn’t protect the president as well as men. They blamed diversity efforts, efforts to give more minorities and women an equal footing in finding work. These points are only the tip of the iceberg. It wouldn’t take much looking to see a lot more.
