Having just celebrated Women’s Equality Day yesterday, the 94th anniversary of the 19th (Women Suffrage) Amendment, it is important for us to understand the condition and reality of American women in 2014.
Women still make 77 cents to a man’s dollar.
One in five college women will experience sexual assault.
Some companies deny birth control coverage to their female workers under the Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case.
Two thirds of minimum wage workers are women, and many are single mothers.
America is one of only a very few industrialized nations with no mandated paid maternity leave.
Many states have passed more abortion restrictions, interfering with a woman’s rights under Roe V. Wade in the past three years, than in the past ten years.
We still have women being fired for becoming pregnant.
Twice as many women as men live in poverty when over age 65.
Child care costs more than college tuition in 36 states, making it impossible for women to work and pursue a career, and make up for loss of support from men, so often the case.
These realities are unacceptable in a nation that promotes justice and fairness, or claims to do so.
So much work needs to be done, and we cannot sit on our laurels at whatever advancements have been made!