There is but one side to the argument concerning gender inequality. No one but an asinine misogynist would dare argue that women do not deserve to be equal to men. This, however, does not prevent some from retaining such antiquated and erroneous
beliefs to themselves. After all, gender inequality is a millennia-old phenomenon, and oppression, of whatever form it may take, tends to benefit the oppressor.

While gender inequality no longer constitutes oppression as it once did, its continued effects are omnipresent in all respects of life.

However, the issue no longer finds itself atop the list of reform agendas, for gender inequality, at this time, is a nebulous and confused matter. Its workings are often hidden and difficult to discern, which can be attributed to a number of factors.

For one, in this country, private employers need not reveal the wages of their employees. Thus, pay differences are just about impossible to observe.

Moreover, the gender divide leads to unique biological differences between the sexes. This can be extended by some to justify women’s unique involvement with the family, and ultimately who is to decide who is responsible for what respect of family life?

Lacking a clear cut answer, many Americans default to what they find natural, and what they find natural are the patterns they see in their society and in their past.

This conservative approach results in the propagation of past gender roles, many of which constrain women’s potential.

The perceived severity of the issue is lessened by the reality that women do hold positions of power, both in government and in corporate positions. Nonetheless, far more men occupy these positions.

The laughable argument that this is due to superior male suitability to these jobs by more appropriate intelligence or likewise groundless and sexist claims is insupportable considering that women far surpass men with respect to the education they obtain. In 2012, according to the Pew Research Center, 71 percent of young women enrolled in college compared with 61 percent of young men.

However studies done by a number of sources, notably the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Pew Research Center, indicate significant pay differences to this day. A 2012 Pew Research study revealed that women earn 84 cents for every one dollar a man earns. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an even grimmer estimate, finding that in 2012 women earned 81 cents to the dollar.

Exacerbating the issue posed by unequal pays is the reality that the United States is especially retrograde in terms of women’s rights compared with its developed counterparts.

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in the world that fails to provide paid maternity leave. In fact, of the 167 countries studied by the International Labor Organization, only Lesotho, Swaziland and Papa New Guinea join the U.S. in failing to provide paid maternity leave. Some company.

Moreover, it must merit mention that many, myself included, find that women continue to suffer from regulations that limit their rights to their own body.

However, most sickeningly of all, the firestorm that has broken out in recent weeks and the federal government’s investigation into Title IX violations at 85 universities highlight the continued prevalence of sexual assault across the nation – a vomitous plague to moral sensibility and human progress.

Rape remains exceedingly common, even in this supposedly civilized society. Conservative estimates, as those done by the CDC in 2010, indicate that one in five women, over the course of their lifetime, become victims of this indefensible depravity.

Amid these sobering and painful truths is hope. The pay gap has significantly closed over the last few decades, and over time, it will continue to close, and eventually will disappear. Sexual assault has declined drastically since 1993, with estimates indicating that it has been cut in half. With more progressive, and grounded thinking, women will no longer suffer the same abuses of their rights at the hands of duplicitous dissemblers.

Nonetheless, without an active awareness for the current situation, such progress cannot simply be awaited hopefully. After all, deeply engrained diseases ought not to be neglected, but need to be actively combated, for only then can their vile trace be purged and our lofty principles of equality for all strengthened.