Diversity and Women’s Rights
Christian A. Nevins, Sr.
April 20, 2013
ETH/125 Facilitator: Jacquelin Leshan
University of Phoenix

Women throughout United States history have had fewer rights than men. Women were often viewed by men as inferior and weak. Women were once viewed as a gender that only should do manual labor such as house cleaning, cooking and taking care of children. Men did things that required heavy manual labor such as building a barn, plowing fields or stacking hay. For a time men also viewed women as less educated and less capable of being educated. Higher education or more formal education was not considered as important for women and almost expected for men. It was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that a large population of women began to obtain formal undergraduate degrees ("Women's History in America", 1994-1995). By the mid 1980’s women were obtaining approximately 49 percent of all undergraduate degrees, 49 percent of all master degrees and about 33 percent of all doctoral degrees. Bu 1985 it is estimated that approximately 53 percent of all college students were women. In 1890 women comprised about 5 percent of doctors in the United States of America. By the year 1980 about 17 percent of doctors in the United States were women. Throughout American history women have typically not held decision making jobs and were paid on average about 32 to 45 percent less than men for the same jobs. Women in the United States today have almost equal opportunities for jobs or professions than men do. Women now comprise a large percentage of the U.S. workforce and also continue their professions even after child birth. It is said that there is a glass ceiling for women in regards to professional advancement (“Women in the U.S. today,” 2013). There are far less women corporate executive officers than there are