Some Days I Wonder........

Some days I wonder what it would be like to be a man.  No, I do not want to be a man.  I wonder if I would encounter the same struggles if I were a man.  For example, as a female dentist working in a co-located business which is predominantly male, I think that I encounter struggles that a man in my position would not.  There have been times in which I have been told to do something, to which my response was "no thanks"(for a good reason), and then I am the difficult person in the room.  I think that a strong men are seen as a leaders and a strong woman are seen a pushy, needy, b*^#hy (I have been called all of these and even more).  I just wish that gender could be removed as a factor on how we react to and treat people and we could just take people at face value.  I am so grateful that my parents always taught me that I can do anything a man can do, and I believe this to my core.  So when I get treated a certain kind of way just because I am a female, it gets me a little worked up.  

Not only do we get treated differently, we also make less money.  "According to data from the US Census Bureau, the average gender pay gap in the United States is around 19.5%, meaning that, on average, a woman earns 80.5% less than her male counterpart. That gap can be larger or smaller depending on the state someone lives in" (https://www.businessinsider.com/gender-wage-pay-gap-charts-2017-3#the-gender-wage-gap-varies-widely-depending-on-the-state-1).  So to all of my women out there, stay strong.  Our time is coming when we really will be true equals to men.  To all the men out there, please see women as your equal and treat them no differently than you would your male counterparts.  In reality, we are all working for the same greater good!

Thank you Rosa Parks for not only advocating for racial equality but also for gender equality!