Hey, do you want to hear a joke? Women’s rights. Do you want to hear another one? I got kicked out of the library for putting the women’s rights books in their proper section: fiction.

Honestly there’s nothing funny about those “jokes”. Women’s rights are a serious issue in today’s society. Some people believe because girls and boys have access to public education in the United States, the genders are deemed equals in society. However, this could never be further from the truth. Not only do some children in America not all have this convenience of school because of poverty or family issues, but many girls around the world are denied access to any form of education along with a long list of other rights.

Women in India are denied basic rights that would horrify many Americans. Trafficking for prostitution is a norm and which many Indian women have no choice. Maybe the woman was not married and was a burden to the family so she was sold into prostitution or she was kidnapped. Either way, she is trapped in a living hell where she has no ability to empower herself.

Another form of slavery for many Indian women is slavery. The phrase “’til death do we part” are not ones women praise there. These words are more like a life sentence in which women are subjected to be sex slaves to their husbands and are forced to bear as many children as he wants. According to UNICEF’s “State of the World’s Children-2009” report, almost half of Indian women in their early twenties were married illegally before their eighteen birthdays. It is not hard to infer that most of these marriages were arranged by their parents in which the daughters had no say. Imagine bearing three children before you are even eighteen! How women trudge through these terrible conditions, I have no idea. Maybe they think or at least hope they’ll be saved by someone soon.

So, what else make these arranged marriages unbearable by our standards? Well, domestic violence is prevalent and often not punished. The men are expected to control their wives, who have no out. Trapped, they are forced to accept customs that inevitability keeps them from obtaining their full potential.

China is another prime example of the sexist society in which we live today. Infanticide is still common today. Like Indian society, boys are favored so many families choose to kill their girl babies because of the one child policy. Illegal abortions that put he women’s lives in danger are common because the families find daughters useless. How can women ever be empowered ever if they fail to exist?

Back in America, although nothing compared to the terrors occurring in India and China, women still are subjected to sexism. I saw a news report that said colleges seek diversity and because fewer men apply than women, men have a greater chance of getting into a college than women just because of their gender.

Here’s a riddle for you to test if you allow sexism to influence you. A man and his son had a terrible car accident and were rushed to the hospital. The man died on the way, but the son was still alive and a surgeon was called in to operate. However, the surgeon saw the young boy and said, "I can't operate on this boy. He's my son."
How is this possible? Did I stump you? The answer is the man was the boy’s father and the woman is the surgeon. I definitely stumped some of you because in American society some positions are deemed feminine such as secretaries while others are deemed more masculine such as construction workers.

Politics is another hot topic in America concerning women. While countries around the world have had women as presidents, unfortunately America never has. Many of the women in politics today, such as Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann have given women bad images because they appear to be ignorant of basic knowledge such as American history. Clare Boothe Luce described this perfectly by saying “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." However, when men such as President Bush or Senator Wiener have flawed, the rest of men do not share their negative image.

I think every country needs to counter this problem so this “equal men and women” ideal world can be achieved. I think the real joke in today's society is not women's rights but how many people treat them. The Feminist Abigail Adams once said: “If all men could be tyrants, they would.” So girls, are we going to let them be?