International Woman’s Day is a momentous event for a number of reasons and signals how far women have come in the last 100 or so years. Before 1920 women weren’t even allowed to vote and had no say in deciding who would be their president or who their elected officials would be. Even worse, the expression of that time “A woman’s place is in the home” was a virtual reality and women were consigned to being a faithful wife and raising children and being subservient. Letting men run the world was the unwritten law of the land in virtually every country. Women were denied roles in business, politics, as civil servants and literally any influential field you can think of. Professions open to the opposite sex such as teaching or being a librarian were low paying with little room for advancement. As the “gentler sex” , women were expected to defer to men and their husbands in all matters in which important decisions had to be made and were regarded a second class citizen by society. How time has changed! Today women are present in almost every influential and prestigious field you can think of including high finance, politics, as civil servants, as administrators, corporate heads, high ups in the police and fire departments and so on down the line. In addition women exert a much more significant influence in the home than they once did. The road to get to this point hasn’t been easy and has taken decades of concerted efforts by woman’s and civil rights groups to challenge the male power structure in court, in the press and in church to change the minds and hearts of public opinion to give women the same rights and opportunities as men for jobs, financial advancement as well as in the home in which their full potential could be utilized. Although significant progress has been made, women still lag far behind men in all major fields in salary for the same position as well as men still far outnumbering women in in higher level administrative and corporate jobs. In conclusion, it needs to be said that although obvious gains have made by women over the years, there is still a lot of work to be done before women can truly said to be equal and have the same opportunities as men in the workplace and the home.
Take a moment to thank a women in your life. #householdstaffingInternational #internationalwomensday #loveyourself