Gender equality is not a woman's issues, it is a human issue.  As Amelia Earhart I flew airplanes when women weren’t seen as aviators they were seen as homemakers.  As a woman in a male career I had an incredibly hard time breaking through stereotypes that had been put into place, saying I was just like any other woman.  Thats the problem with gender it says how we should be, rather than recognizing who we are.  

 

I was fortunate enough in my life time to begin seeing gender barriers being broken as we had the first woman to ever fly a plane in 1903 and then woman were given the right to vote in 1920, but even today we are struggling to receive equal pay for equal work.  It’s not the 1960’s anymore, but women still earn 23% less than men and only 19.5% of working people are women.   Every job has hurdles in itself, it makes it even harder when people begin to label you before you even get a chance to show them what you’re capable of, but people have already begun to level the field for men and women.  70% of women will go to college, whereas only 61% of men will.  We aren’t looking for free handout or special treatment but, we want to stop being stereotyped saying we are only capable of being housewives.  This may be the life that some women want, but not all.  Don’t stereotype us, let us make the choices for ourselves.  We want to be given the opportunity to choose our careers and our lives.  But no matter if every woman stops thinking and believing these stereotypes are what is expected, it will never change the thought in others head of how we should act.  People need to begin having an open mind, like I said its not the 1960’s anymore its time for a change.  For generations to come the world can be a better more equal place if we allow people to show who they are instead of placing them in boxes society says they should be in.   If not us then who, if not now then when?  Life’s to short to be a passenger.