I am thankful to be female.
In middle and high school, girls are more likely than boys to be discouraged from participating in sports, and clubs like debate, math, and science.
Millions of women throughout the world live in conditions in which they are deprived of their basic human rights for no other reason than their gender.
Combatants in conflicts, like in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Rwanda, have raped women as a weapon of war without consequence. Men in Pakistan, South Africa, Peru, Russia, and Uzbekistan beat women in the home at astounding rates. Women from Ukraine, Moldova, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, Burma, and Thailand are bought and sold, trafficked to work in forced prostitution. In Guatemala, South Africa, and Mexico, women's ability to enter and remain in the work force is obstructed. In the U.S., students discriminate against and attack girls in school who are lesbian, bi-sexual, or transgender, or do not conform to male standards of female behavior. Women in Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia face government-sponsored discrimination that renders them unequal before the law.
Woman worked very hard to gain individual freedom and gain their rite of passage. There are many women who contributed to the freedom that I have today and have proven to society that woman are as strong as men.
During times of war, woman have stepped up taking up male occupations while their husbands were in battle. Rosie the Riveter is a cultural icon that represented woman working in American factories.
Billie Jean King proved that women are as good as men in tennis, as Serena Williams is making a name for herself as she has the ability to serve as hard as a male.
Amelia Earhart worked incredibly hard to become a woman pilot and faced many barriers to earn her title as first female to fly.
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female doctor in the United States.
Women are now earning more degrees than men at every level, and with higher grades and honors.
More women are starting businesses than men, more women are in the workforce than men, and the majority of degree-holders are now women. Y