January Post

   Last night President Obama delivered his State of the Union address. The President outlined what he plans to accomplish this year with help from Congress.  In his speech he touched on the pay gap between men and women.  The President noted that women make 77 cents for each dollar a man earns, which he called "wrong" and "an embarrassment" which then prompted a loud and long applause. We often see society being judged on how far they have come, or in other words how civilized they are by seeing how equal women are to the men of the society. When we analyze the books in class, we often discuss the differences in cultures between us and the characters in the book. We are quick to judge their culture and how women in their society are treated, but I can’t help but think how people in twenty or thirty years will see how we handled certain issues including, the wage gap.   It’s easy to judge something from the outside but it’s difficult to judge something from the inside and to realize the mistakes that we make today and as a country.  When we look at books such as The Awakening and A Thousand Splendid Suns we are astonished on how women are treated in their society.  However I wonder how Europen countries or people from thirty years from now will think of us.  Will they be as disgusted of us, as we are with the books we read in class on the treatment of women? I believe they will be, we cannot be so full of ourselves thinking that they won’t and that we are doing the right thing with the wage gap, I agree with the president that it is long overdue to close this wage gap.