By Marie Tolouse
Here's some food for thought: did you know women still do not have equal rights in the United States today? Crazy isn't it? In a country where Hilary Clinton runs for the presidency you would think we live in a nation that is progressive enough to support equal rights, regardless of sex. The Equal Rights Amendment however was never passed; it fell three states short of the 32 states that are needed to ratify. So even though a lot has been done to raise women's status in our country, women still do not have equal rights.
"When I hear the word 'feminism' I think of bra burning, angry man haters," senior Erica Whitfield said.
In a recent poll only about 25 percent of women in America today view themselves as feminists. Feminism is the belief that women should have political, social, sexual, intellectual and economic rights equal to those of men.
The most recent cover of Ms. Magazine showcases Barack Obama as the newly appointed superman for the feminist's cause wearing a shirt saying, "This is what a feminist looks like." Some of the more extreme feminists view this as a setback for women, saying that the magazine issue makes it seem like women need men to champion their cause. On the flip side others view this as a potential catalyst for change, especially in regards to America's stance on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
CEDAW, adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Once a nation signs onto CEDAW it commits itself to examining and identifying gender discrimination in every possible arena including education, health care, legal rights, work, culture, governance and then taking concrete actions to overcome them.
To date 185 countries more than 90 percent of the members of the U.N. General Assembly, have signed on to CEDAW.
The unsigned nations are Iran, Nauru, Palau, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Tonga, and one industrialized country, the United States.
Hopefully with the new administration we will see some changes start to take place in the area of equal rights and opportunities for women as well as a decrease in the pay gap between women and men.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics attests to the fact that women get paid less than men, currently women make around 80 cents to the dollar of what men make.
Over the last decade women have come a long way, but the term "feminist" has been locked into the '60s modality. Perhaps the term feminism needs to be redefined so that it can be more relatable to society today. It seems that most women want what feminism stands for but cannot seem to identify with being a feminist.
Obama on the cover of Ms. Magazine, in my opinion seems to be a step in the right direction to make being a feminist more relatable to men and women alike.
Marie Toulouse is a senior marketing management major
