Sex discrimination

For centuries, worldly cultures have considered women to be the lesser, subservient sex. In the United States, when women first gained the right to vote with the 19th Amendment, they paraded signs that said “Emancipation.� Along with the right to vote, the 19th Amendment was also a giant step in women’s liberation, and they saw this as a “freedom,� of sorts, from the chains or confines of social standards that had oppressed them. Of course the social standards that oppress women today in 2002 are nothing like those of 1920; however, some feel that women face more challenges than any other social group in the way of opportunities available to them. The advances that women have made since the passing of the 19th Amendment have been great, yet discrimination towards women in United States society still exists. Although it can be argued, in areas such as the workforce, the family, and in the military, women are constantly faced with discrimination.
Many women feel that they experience injustice in the work place. Lower wages than men for women is a struggle that has been around since women set foot on the job site. Women are rarely promoted to managerial positions and those who are must work twice as hard as men to get th

Ground combat, however is still not an option for females according to the military, still considered too physically demanding. There are valid biological arguments that the physiological composition of a female in comparison to a males does not put her on an equal level in terms of musculature and strength- due to lack of the male hormone testosterone. Some might say that provided this argument, in the time of battle, she would not prepared to help her fellow soldiers if they needed to be carried, or to haul equipment. But, if a female has the aspirations to be in the military, then she has the honest desire to serve her country. This means that in a time of war, when she is needed from her fellow soldiers, her patriotism and devotion will compensate. If one is dedicated to a cause, then this notion of compensation is easy to understand.

The age-old concept of a family structured around the providing father and nurturing mother has actually been forced to develop with the times, though. As the cost of living has increased, it has barely become possible for a family to live off of one salary alone, forcing many women into the workplace. According to the Department of Labor Statistics, in 1999, there were 10.5 million married couple households where only the husband was employed, up from 10.2 in 1998 (Employment Review). So, the family structure still includes a father as the provider and mother as the nurturer, only the mother has taken on the providing role, as well. Yet, while the father’s provider role still remains his main responsibility, in most households across the United States, the mother still carries out the conventional female duties, household chores, childcare, groceries- while acting as a secondary financial contributor. This can be seen as an obvious inequality of roles in the new family structure that needs to make an effort to become shared as society realizes the amount of stress resulting from the load of tasks put on a woman who is a part of a family.

Furthermore, if this female soldier is dedicated to serving her country, she is willing to work and to compete against males in a test of strength. In doing so, she should be willing to be put on an even keel with them, being tested as they are and drilled as they are, thus allowing only the best of the best female athletes into the military. Besides, recent tests have shown that the “rigorous male body,” is not tougher than a female body, after all. Actually, in a scientific study taken place at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, when male and female strength training athletes performed various weightlifting tests, the scientific research suggests that, “females actually lose less strength than males during the course of a rigorous workout and recover their muscular prowess more rapid