Will Women Ever Enjoy The Same Rights As Men?

The term women’s rights refer to the freedoms that women are entitled to and that are recognized by the society. The issue of women’s rights has always been a controversial issue especially in the area of gender equality. Women have always been given lesser rights as compared to men and this sparked many uprisings especially after the eighteenth century. Although this issue has lasted for a very long time, I feel that it is not very accurate to say that women will never enjoy the same rights as men.

The situation of women has drastically improved over the last couple of centuries. In the past, women were not allowed to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to own property; to education; to serve in the military or be conscripted; to enter into legal contracts etc. However, today women live in a very different world. Almost every female receives basic education, are awarded many rights that women of the past could only dream of and hold many top positions in jobs. Examples would be the wife of Singapore’s Prime Minister, Ho Ching. She is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the government-owned Temasek Holdings which is one of the most powerful firms in Southeast Asia and the Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Although even today women do not completely have all the rights that men enjoy, especially in the more rural countries, we definitely cannot deny the fact that the situation of women has improved very drastically. In my opinion, it has improved as much as it possibly can over such a short period of time. If the improvement of women’s rights continues its ascent at this rate it is very possible that women will soon achieve the bench mark of equal rights as men in the near future. Thus I feel that the notion that women will never achieve equal rights as men is not true.