Ronald Bohannon

Salt Lake Community College

3320 5600 W
West Valley, UT 84120

Dear fellow classmates and Instructor Ron Bohannon,

This Autobiographical Narrative will be showing my personal views on Gender Equality; the following
will be stating how far I have gone to change my ideal on Gender Equality, the reason I choose the
topic was because I found a high interest in Equality not only for females but for all. Talking about
Gender Equality is not an easy dance? What I mean is you wont make everyone happy with your
ideals but its not about make a Feminist or an Anti-Feminist happy its about me and how this
changed me and how it will affect my future. In this Essay I have written mostly of how Gender
Equality is still a big problem and yes its bad for some women in certain areas of the United States
and other countries, women have gained a bigger voice than ever and its amazing but I also want to
talk about how having a bigger voice doesnt mean youre right. I guess this essay has a lot of
thought behind it and I hope one of you will understand why I choose this perspective on Gender
Equality.

Sincerely,

~ Gabriel Silva

Gabriel Silva
English 1010
SWV Room: 124
6-21-16

Gender Equality (The Most Ignored Topic of the 21st Century)

As a child I never thoroughly paid attention about amount of equality or lack thereof with
genders other than male, I guess I can say I was ignorant with on the topic. On certain occasions I
found myself thinking of gender equality but, negative thoughts always followed. Now when I say
"negative thoughts" I mean women aren't depended on as much as men are in today's work force or
Men are the superior drivers and women are at their most dangerous behind the wheel, even as far
as thinking that women will always be fragile, weak things and in turn these thoughts or comments
are ultimately oppressive.
Not too long ago I still wanted to find out more on women and how they couldve of possibly
helped shape the country and I decided to do a bit of research to help my idea even further,
traditionally speaking women have always been looked to as the ones who needed to be looked after

more next to children; this made me think even more. Women nowadays have gotten stronger jobs
all ranging from Construction worker to Architects even jobs as a Firemen, going all the way to Police
work following the Navy to the Marines ending with Political seats in Washington D.C. Looking at the
word Firemen its stating that the job is more suited to men, and yes the is greatly physically
demanding and even going as far as having PTSD because of certain conditions, that doesnt mean
women arent strong enough for it women have always been more capable from the beginning.
Around World War II in the 1940s women from Canada have been petitioning to gain jobs and
potentially giving women a chance in the Second World War. Canadas government gave them their
very own Air Force and even replacing men from their jobs. These women started having jobs as
Scientists to Munitions workers. From the start of the war there were jobs populated by women
starting at 600,000 peaking to a total of 1.2 million new jobs for women! (Woot! Woot! ). Countries
like Italy, Poland and even the Soviet Union noticed women for their potential. Sadly it took a war for
the United States and other Countries to realize the potential of women. After the war it didnt really
seem to matter how much they helped it all switched back to men monopolizing the physically/mental
workforce.
When you think about the current changes going in the past few years its amazing
considering the thought process of the old generations but as anyone could expect there still a
certain type of ideals ranging from Women arent able to be as strong as men and even women are
too sexualized. Yes its very true women are sexualized but so are men. If you could ask yourself
what is your Perfect women you will probably have a either a very smart woman or an extremely
beautiful women and even both but when someone is asked what is your Perfect man, almost

every single depiction will be an extremely fit man, one who works out every day, is physically fit and
has great hair, all physical traits everyone wants and hopes for. All type of depictions of a male and
female are conceived through a thought process that our own brain tells us is a great partner for
reproduction and yet now this how we would perceive Man and Women in things such as video
games. Women are sexualized almost everywhere from books, movies and video games to comic
books, but men are equally sexualized in video games amongst other things for example: They have
tight suits showing off every crevice, they have the most defined abdomens anyone could want, they
are the coolest of cool, and theyre MEN. But if someone from the feminist wave 3 or 4 sees a female
in a tight body suit, they get trigged on a cosmic scale. Now none of this is to diminish my ideal but
its to show how the ignorance of the past decades still linger, its great that feminist groups have a
bigger voice now but having a bigger doesnt mean youre always right, it just means youre the most
obnoxious and loudest in the superfluous room.
I have a very vivid memory of when my mom was fired from her job, It was a very sunny day
in California, scorching hot typical for California and my little brother, my mom and me where going
her job because she didnt want to leave us alone at home. We got there after a 30 minute ride we
arrived at her work place and we all entered her office it had this type of paper smell to it. I recall her
boss calling her down while my brother was in her office playing with his toys he brought; she was
holding my hand while we walked to her bosss office. After she introduced me to her boss, her said
if I could wait outside for a bit and what I remember hearing was something along the line of I am
truly sorry but we have to let you go, she was outraged to say the least and they started arguing and
he said he was hiring this new intern who had no type of recommendation or diploma and she asked

Is this why you were interviewing new men, Im pretty sure he was silent the whole time and after
all that she was escorted out like all her time in the job was worth nothing, not compared to a man at
least, my mother worked her hardest to get where she was and she was discarded because of her
gender. This experience showed me that not things where not going well for women especially my
mom.
A talk that helped change my mind well, more like a push to pass the threshold was talking to
my dad on this. What I remember about the talk is when my dad and me we were out on a cool night
driving, my dad driving and I being on the passenger side and we started talking about equal rights
for women or a talk that led to that topic. What I asked was "How was it back then? You know for
your mom and dad." and he said "Well it was simpler, I mean for its time", "What do you mean" I
said, he continued with "My father in the 50's was the worker, the one who paid the bills and brought
home the bacon practically, he worked day and night while my mom, your grandma tended to us,
your aunts and me apart from cooking, cleaning, small chores and she even pressed your grandpa's
suits every day, but that's how it was in the 1950's, not only for my family but for everyone, even your
mother's family". When I got home I thought about this talk unusually more than usual and what I
understood was that it wasn't easier or even simpler for women because, women were always
represented as fragile things, making it difficult for them to join the workforce more "suited" for men,
It would've been a rare sight to see an independent women joining the physically/mentally
demanding workforce that's why since, this was the thought process at the time women had to settle
for jobs as a Secretary or a Nurse, yes jobs but in the end it hurt their chances for equality even
more.

Maturing through high-school I've had more time to think about the progress with equality for
women in the United States. I remember while I was in the middle of class, bored but I was not
daydreaming on video games I was looking at my classmates, just simply looking and what I noticed
was that barely any of them men were focusing on the assignment but the women ALL of them
literally all of them were doing the work and it AMAZED me it was something I've never noticed but it
also gave me a thought that was molded and reshaped into a better perspective for new and better
Gabriel Silva. Now of course this idea wasn't taken on the very second it was conceived although, it
did help me form a type of original idea for myself in the end. Around a year later after high-school
and the passing of various personal experiences, ranging from talks to physical and mental fights,
this idea took hold and made me better for the future ahead of me.
My thoughts on Gender Equality now are of I'm allowed to say, its the best it could be for
ME. For example - Women or rather some women are the worst drivers but so are men and very
much so too, Men are idiots and equally for women, we both can be irrational, angry, and happy and
even scared. My mom is a bad..... A really bad driver but so is my dad, we're all just humans in the
end truth be told but, my mother gave birth to me, she is tougher than I'll ever hope to be. I'd rather
be a human with imperfections than a monster thinking women are inferior and won't be as smart or
as strong as me. Im content of who I am because of this outlook I couldnt have asked for a better
ideal.