Discrimination has been a common thing in many parts of the world, with the women being more affected than the men. This is due to the misconception that women are inferior compared to men. America was among the places where discrimination against women was very common a decade ago. The rights of women were also a major neglected feature in many countries in the last couple of years. Due to the realization that all genders are equal, legal steps have been taken in the USA to ensure that all people are treated as equal before the law. The rights for homosexuals, minority groups and the physically and mentally challenged have also been regarded and increasingly valued in the last couple of years.
How has America advanced equal rights in the last 10 years?
America, being one of the superpowers had to step in and lead by example to eradicate segregation of people on their basis of their race and gender. Some of the steps taken to ensure equality include the following;
Representation by women to political positions. The political positions held be women are approaching 30% of the total political positions. This is a huge increase as compared to a couple of years back where women were not even allowed to vote.
Education and employment are also other key factors in equality. The number of women CEOs has been steadily rising every year. The International Women’s Day was to help advocate for women’s rights in workplaces. However, the day has also been diversified to cover the girl child education which has continued to rise even above the male gender.
Some laws have been put in place like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. The aim of this was to enable women to earn equal wage as their male counterparts. Prior to this, women received an average of 80.4% of their male counterpart’s salaries for equal work done.
Rights of other categories of people including the gay and lesbians, mentally and physically challenged and other minor categories of people have also been reinforced. This ensures that all people have equal opportunities for employment, education, political positions and even social lives.
Conclusion
America still has a long way to ensure that all people are treated equally, but we cannot ignore the major strides that have been taken to this effect. America has been ranked among the top 200 countries in the world in human rights. Women, who were most affected now have the avenues to defend themselves by having equal opportunities as the male gender. Areas like politics and employment which were once a male territory have been diversified to accommodate women. Studies have also shown that the population of the female gender in education has supposed that of the male gender. Other marginalized groups like refugees, physically and mentally challenged, blacks and even lesbian and gay communities also have equal rights in all of the aspects. There is still a lot of work to be done on that, but America has made great strides to ensure fairness for all its citizens.
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