Overall, the rights and status of women have improved

considerably in the last century; however, gender equality has

recently been threatened within the last decade. Blatantly sexist

laws and practices are slowly being eliminated while social

perceptions of "women's roles" continue to stagnate and even

degrade back to traditional ideals. It is these social

perceptions that challenge the evolution of women as equal on all

levels. In this study, I will argue that subtle and blatant

sexism continues to exist throughout educational, economic,

Women who carefully follow their expected roles may never

recognize sexism as an oppressive force in their life. I find

many parallels between women's experiences in the nineties with

Betty Friedan's, in her essay: The Way We Were - 1949. She dealt

with a society that expected women to fulfill certain roles.

Those roles completely disregarded the needs of educated and

motivated business women and scientific women. Actually, the

subtle message that society gave was that the educated woman was

I remember in particular the searing effect on m

brought up the idea of college to him:

movement and the women's movement: Blacks have long been

illegal abortions no one really knows. But the illegalization of

same trends in legal action for the use of affirmative action

This is another example of women being labeled as selfish for

child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family

she didn't experience oppressive sexism in her life. However,

society sets in front of her. Society and media attempt to

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2176
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)