Women in Career 

Imagine being a female and going into an office or company wanting to apply for the manager position. You have obtained all the necessary credentials, you have gone to college, earned a bachelor's degree, and you are highly qualified for the job. The person interviewing you tells you that there are other applicants for the same position and all of them are men. What is the probability that the woman will get the job? More than likely, the probability is very low.

This is because you're a female in a world with a glass ceiling. If you have never heard of this before, it's a phrase that was coined by feminists decades ago. This phrase is a metaphor used to represent an invisible barrier for women that prevents them from rising (being able to get a job as a manager) in a certain workplace. Women have struggled for years trying to break this barrier. They struggle to find good jobs and maintain equality with men in the workplace.

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Not only do women have trouble finding equal job opportunities, but they also have complications with equal pay.

Now imagine that you are a female wanting to become a nurse. You acquire the job and you are told that your annual salary would be $51,100 (Diamond 2014). Then you ask a coworker of yours, whom is a male, how much he makes annually, and he tells you that he makes $61,000 (Diamond 2014). This is called the wage gap. This is a challenge that female workers face with obtaining equality in the workplace. It becomes very discouraging for women in the workforce to find jobs because of this wage gap. The solution to this problem would be to ratify the ERA in all states across the U.S, eliminate gender-based discrimination in the workplace, and to do away with the wage gap.

Not many people want equal job opportunities or equal pay for women in the workforce. Some men feel superior to women and express that in the jobs they work/positions they hold. One example of this is an article by Dina Gerdeman (research by Katherine Coffman, Christine Exley, and Muriel Niederle) who explains why employers favor men over women when hiring. A point she made was that "Employers favor men not because they are prejudiced against women, but because they have the perception that men perform better on average at certain tasks:. She then goes on to say, "We find ample evidence of discrimination against women, as employers are significantly less likely to hire a woman compared to an equally able man. Women are not able to be hired because of a preconceived idea that men are more capable of doing the job and would do it better. This is called "Statistical discrimination" (Gerdeman, 2017, pg 2). This author makes a good point when you consider why females are not being hired, but this should not be the reason. If a woman is not being hired it should be because she does not have to credentials/qualifications for the job, not because she is a woman.

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is an amendment that is supposed to guarantee equal rights for all American citizens regardless of their gender. It is supposed to eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace and other matters. There are 37 states in the U.S that have been ratified and 13 states in the U.S, including North Carolina, that have not been ratified. By ratifying this amendment in all states, it would guarantee that women have the opportunity to get any job without the worry of gender discrimination, no matter where they are in the U.S. To ratify this amendment, it would have to go to congress. The first step we can take as citizens of the U.S would be to raise awareness to this amendment. This can be done by protesting, posting on social media (social media has a huge influence on today's society) and creating flyers/websites. On the ERA website there is a donation tab where you are able to donate to the Alice Paul Institute. Alice Paul was a feminist in the 70s that pushed for the 19th amendment to be ratified. This money that will be donated to Alice's foundation will go towards the efforts of getting the amendment ratified. The website also says that the donations will: Financially support the annual fees and maintenance of this website, support the manufacture and production of ERA-related posters, postcards, buttons, stickers, and other items that are given away for free at events to advocates for the ERA, [and] support the creation of free public events to bring awareness and provide information about the history and importance of the ERA."