In a lot of ways, being a girl is unfair. But we all know that. We experience it, we see it, we know it’s true. It’s important, though, that we don’t forget to be grateful for how much things have changed. So, instead of complaining about how bad we have it, for once I’m going to list a few of the ways in which our lives are far better – at least, in comparison to our counterparts up to 100 years ago.
1. The 19th Amendment
It was finally decided in 1920 that women were, in fact, capable of making important decisions…like deciding who’d rule the country. The 19th Amendment, also called Women’s Suffrage, was passed in the August of 1920 – but not until over 70 years after the campaign for women’s votes was started.
2. Equal Pay Act
Passed by President Kennedy in August 1963, the legislation was designed to eliminate women being paid less than men for performing the same work in the same environment. Yes, the pay gap is still there, but it was worse before the bill passed. In 2015, women earned 80% of what a man earned in the same job. In the 50s and 60s, though, it was between 59-64%.
3. Roe vs. Wade
Need (yet another) reason not to vote for Donald Trump? He wants to repeal this legislation from 1973, which keeps state government from interfering in a woman’s decision to have an abortion during the first trimester.
4. Political Representation
Globally, female representation has doubled since 1995. This means that the number of women filling political positions across the world has significantly increased – and is continuing to rise. We might not be properly represented statistically yet, but we are still there in force. With any luck, we could see the first female President.
5. Domestic Violence Programs
Thankfully, we no longer live in the kind of world that thought it was okay to give your wife a bit of a slap when she didn’t behave. Instead, domestic violence programs and initiatives are widespread, and doing significant work. In 2006, there were almost 48,000 of these programs registered in the US; in 2015, there were almost 72,000.
6. Female Literacy Rates
The number of women with basic literacy skills has been increasing slowly for years – and currently sits at the highest it has ever been. For women aged 15 to 24, literacy levels have gone from 78.5% to 88% between 1990 and 2010. Adult female rates have increased from 69.5% to 81% in the same period. It can only get better.
These might be pretty boring events and statistics – I haven’t talked about the Free the Nipple campaign, or the improvement of female roles in the film industry, or the dramatic upsweep in ‘every body is beautiful’ type campaigns.
These are all amazing and important and fun, but I wanted to share some concrete evidence that things are, in fact, getting better. Don’t get me wrong, we still have so far to go.
But we should never forget how far we’ve come, either.