This shows exactly how the world has been portrayed to me. A young girl growing up in the 2000’s and 2010’s. The fact of the matter is women are not seen as equals. Not in sports, arts, work, and life. If we do achieve anything great it is shown to the world as a fluke or just some crazy coincidence. Either way we don't get the credit. Look, I'm going to be honest with you. Most people don’t even care. Those people that don't seem to care? Are the people in power the ones making decisions. The important ones too. Not the ones on whether you should be able to park in a parking lot between one in the morning and two. No, I'm talking about the ones who are banning us from making decisions about our health. Look at it this way, we are equals. It's as simple as that. Humans couldn't survive without women. They could not survive without men either. 

I looked up who was the first woman on the moon. This is the exact wording that google answered me with, and I quote, “Unfortunately, no woman has visited the Moon. At the time of Apollo (1969-72), there were no women in the U.S. astronaut corps.”(Google.com/search) NO women in the U.S. astronaut corps. The first women weren't even in there until 1978. Yet she wasn’t even in space until 1983 her name was Sally Ride. Twenty two years after the first American man in space Alan Shepard who went in 1961. This is the same pattern in every single important association, government, organization you look at; it's the same in soccer. For example I was looking for my for you page on TikTok and a video popped up. This was a video about how much women get paid for playing on the national team. The US women's national team. The best women's soccer team in the world as of June,17th, 2022. Winning five of the nine women's world cups ever to be held. Every time they were in the finals. This video talked about the reasons women get paid less than men. In the end the person asked what everyone watching thought of the situation. I answered honestly. I said that women should have the opportunity to be shown on regular television as men are. If you want to watch them you have to go through five different networks and three different apps to watch one game. The women's world cup is the only women's soccer tournament to be shown on regular television. Some replies said things in my favor encouraging people to find an easier alternative to watch the team more often. Others said it's boring and they don’t play as well. I’m sorry but how many world cups have the men won? None. They have appeared in ten world cups out of the twenty one that have been held. The closest they've come to winning one was third place and that was in nineteen thirty. Ninety two years later they have not made it to the finals. Hundreds of players have passed through. The women's team only first started forming when the first women's world cup was going to be held. 

Government is the exact same story. Kamala Harris is the first woman ever to be a vice president. This comes in the 245 years that America has been its own separate country. Independent from Great Britain. I will let you make your own decision on whether we are treated equally. When you see all we have faced. What we have done for the world. Then you will see our side of it but for now, you have seen some. If it opens your eyes to the cruel reality of society towards women or not, you have learned something in reading this. Half of the battle is just getting recognized and treated as equals. The other half is staying equal in the eyes of the world. It is a battle. So until next time.

Like it or not,

Ava C.