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After nearly 5000 years of recorded history, it is truly amazing to see how little we have progressed concerning ‘true equality’ between t...

5000 years of recorded history flew past entailing enormous and overturning changes in humans’ life. Who expected that those, once primitive, cave-oriented creatures would one day become the rulers of the planet. Although the runway for the bright future has been paved by change in our styles of living and ways of behaving, there is still a 5000-year-old hurdle to be jumped over. The inscription on the hurdle says ”true equality between the sexes”. 

From the time when the history of humans began, up to the time of the world wars, the position of men was dominant. This position, I think, did not result from different social roles ascribed to both sexes, imposing the man to protect and provide food, and the woman to take care of the children. It resulted, instead, from the physical strength of males thus making them act as rulers of small family kingdoms. Not only did women feel inferior but also they were treated as simply worse human beings. 

Many centuries flew past, but the hurdle remained in front. Alfred Tennyson, a British poet mentioned such a sad oddity in one of his poems, whose first four lines are as follows: 
“Man for the field and woman for the hearth: 
Man for the sword and for the needle she: 
Man with the head and woman with the heart: 
Man to command and woman to obey; “ 
At the time when the institution of higher education was set up, women did not have a chance of being admitted to high schools and universities. When first political parties and other governmental bodies settled down, women, again were refused, this time, to decide about the future of the society they were part of. Very strong position of men was weakened in the 20th century. Many women’s organizations whose aim was to struggle against social inequality won the battle. In the age of fast development of technology and business, physical strength was no more recognized as superiority. 
Rights were finally levelled up, however, positions and roles held by both sexes – not. 

Nowadays the woman is still expected to bring up children and serve her husband with well-prepared dinner. She is still expected to obey her husband in financial matters even if it is she who provides for the family. She is expected to turn on the hoover and it is she who is the one to clean up dishes. The man is expected to work and get salaries, but she is expected to work too. Her salaries, though, are expected to be lower. Great expectations, one could say; did equal roles just go away? 

In conclusion, the hurdle is still to be jumped over. It cries and screams, jump, jump over salary-injustice, jump over physical-abuse, jump over the sad past of women’s struggles and head for the equal and just future. I hope one day the hurdle will be jumped over and the man and the woman will be running together at the same pace, on the runway of life.