Will there ever be complete equality between males and females in the United States? Should there be? What would constitute complete equality?
In many respects, the genders are more equal now than at any point in U.S. history. Although there is still a wage gap between men and women, it is lower now than ever; women's earnings were 58-60% of men's earnings throughout the 1960s, but today the average woman earns 79.6% of what the average man earns. Job segregation has decreased, and although female-dominated professions still earn significantly less than majority-male fields, there are more women doing jobs once dominated by men (and vice versa) than ever. In 2016, women held about 19% of seats in Congress, an institution that included no women at all between 1922 and 1931. In 2016, the Democratic Party nominated Hillary Clinton- the first female presidential nominee in a major party in U.S. history. It is impossible to know the future, but U.S. society throughout history has moved towards becoming more equal, and if this continues eventually the genders will reach full equality.
Complete equality would consist of equality of opportunity between the genders. Women are likely to earn less money, dominate underpaid fields, and lack access to the ruling institutions of U.S. society relative to men. Equality between the genders would look like equal pay for equal work, equal representation in government, and equal value between work perceived as "women's work" and the more powerful, higher-paid jobs considered "men's work."
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