Liberty and Justice for All
Thomas Jefferson, in The Declaration of Independence, wrote “all men are created equal” and we today assume that this means men and women, but the real case is actually far from the truth. While women have gained an increasing level of equality, there is still much to be done. The term equality implies that some benchmark exists, providing a standard by which we may measure things against. In this way, we could determine whether someone is above the line and getting more than his or her fair share, or below it and getting less than his or her due. To bring those above and below the benchmark to the same point on that line is to mete out justice. Justice is the process whereby we generate equality. As the African-Americans who struggled for their civil rights showed, just because the government provides for the rights of its citizens does not mean it does so with equality and justice. In the case of women’s rights, the United States government does not provide economic equality, and its failure to do so has denied women justice. Income is an area of disparity between men and women in which an obvious statistical standard exists. The notion of “equal pay for equal work” is still just
a notion; in fact, women make seventy-four cents to every dollar a man makes, regardless of their education or experience. Positions that are traditionally considered “woman’s work” pay less than those traditionally considered men’s, whether you’re comparing secretaries and truck drivers or secretaries and executives. President Bush’s recent tax rebate actually contributed to this inequity: 43% of the money rebated went to those in the top 2% of earners, but made no tax cuts for single persons earning between $6,001 to $27,050. Because the average income of a single woman is $26,324, the average woman got nothing. (NOW) Consider that since the average woman makes 74% of the average man, and that means that he makes $35,573 and is therefore well within the guidelines for getting a rebate. So, not only does he make almost $10,000 more but he got to keep more of it. President Bush, legally, made legal inequality more unequal. A direct comparison can be made between the African-American civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement. As King pointed out, “law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and…when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” (World 189) When law and order not only fails to provide equality, but also perpetuates its opposite, it is clearly unjust. As King says, “This is difference made legal.” (187) It is this difference that needs redress before the dam of so
Some topics in this essay:
Declaration Independence,
African-Americans King,
Congressorg Laws,
President Bush,
President Bush’s,
Roe Wade,
King Jr,
African-American Senators,
women’s rights,
Supreme Court,
Jim Crow,
issue women’s reproductive,
maternity leave,
issue women’s,
civil rights,
human personality,
average woman,
tax rebate,
women’s reproductive,
women’s reproductive rights,
decisions regarding,
traditionally considered,
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Approximate Word count = 1021
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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