Women have been through a hell of a lot over the years. We have fought for our right to vote, civil rights, fought to have control over our bodies, right to education and so much more. Women still to this day do not receive equal treatment and rights and are up against many challenges.

1. Women are represented poorly in the media

The media we consume on a daily basis is skewing our perceptions of women and degrading them in more ways than one. The media today focuses on the negative aspects of women instead of their positives. If women are discussed in the news it is usually about the way they look. (This goes for female politicians, celebrities or anyone in the public eye) You don’t see men having to put up with this. When a woman is in a TV show or movie she is sexualized and nothing else is more important than that. Women are often treated as objects to men and that is all of their importance. The lead characters in movies and shows are usually men and the men have to save the woman somehow. Women are often the ‘damsels in distress’ and can only be saved by a man. This is not the message we want to be sending to young girls about their self worth and putting these ideas into the minds of young boys.

2. Violence against women

Some women never report their assault or rape because they think they will not be taken seriously. Most assault or rape cases do not even get reported because women are sometimes ashamed or even blame themselves for what happened. I’m not saying women are the only ones that get raped, but it is the case the majority of the time. Violence is embedded into our society through the media. Every day we see images of men violating women and this gets acted out in real life on women. This is far from acceptable and needs to change.

3. The gender wage gap still exists

Women are half the workforce today, but are still not receiving equal pay to men. Currently, women are only approximately making 77 cents per every dollar a man makes. If a woman is doing the same job as a man and has the same qualifications why is she being paid significantly less? Women went to college to get a degree just like a man did and worked just as hard so they should receive the same payment.

4. Women always have to be on 'high alert'

Ladies, how many times has someone told you to not walk alone by yourself at night? Or to always lock your doors if you are home alone? Women are constantly being told this because they are more vulnerable to being attacked than men. Why is this? We have taught our society to conform to these ridiculous means. Women are taught to always have their mace with them, take self defense classes and make sure they know what is going on around them at all times so they are not assaulted. Instead of teaching women to stay on high alert at all times, maybe we should teach our society (men) to not abuse women.

These challenges may seem small, but after all this time we still have not been able to overcome them. Women as a whole have come a long way, but there is still more to be done to gain equality.