Mary’s Musings

Changes continue for women

Wed, 06/06/2018 - 8:45am

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. This old-time philosophy is the rule many of today’s females live by, and they’re striving to see that it’s the rule of the land in one circumstance after another.

One of the earliest goals has been to demand equal pay for women. For years, generations, really, it was common practice for employers to pay men more than women for the same job. Why? We’ll never know for sure, but it’s generally accepted that most of them felt that since men are normally the bread-winners in the family, they should be paid more. For the most part, women have been successful in gaining equal rights in the workplace.

Women have also fought hard to gain admittance to many of the nation’s men-only clubs, such as Rotary and Lions, and we all know that in our own area, these clubs have been successfully integrated with women playing major roles in similar organizations all over the country.More recently, the Boy Scouts began accepting girls, and we believe has changed, or is changing, its name.In the military, women are doing jobs that for many years were always performed by men but it hasn’t advanced to the level where women must sign up for the selective service when they turn 18. We’re not sure women had that in mind when they began their campaign to gain access to many of the men-only jobs in the various branches of the military.

We can truthfully say it’s no longer a man’s world in the same sense of the world as experienced by our parents and grandparents. Likewise, women are no longer willing to tolerate being sexually harassed or abused by men convinced they have power and control over them. This has been especially apparent in many career fields in which men hold the cards, so to speak, and can hire, fire, or affect job opportunities big-time. They’ve been able to significantly intimidate.

We’ve all seen the high-profile instances on television in recent months, with one woman after another stepping forward to reveal they’ve been a victim, often many years ago. More than one prominent male has stepped down from his position rather than face ongoing criticisms that might grow worse with time or result in additional victims coming forward  

We’re sure women aren’t done fighting to be treated as equals and to be free from unwanted sexual advances. May common sense and fairness prevail.