Gender equality, something our modern society seems to encourage, yet at the same time, the average wage gap can range from 4.8% to 7.1% and why is it that I always seem to be hearing the phrases, "you throw like a girl", "you're strong for a girl", "you're weak for a boy"? Why is it that people look down upon an emotional boy but when a girl is being emotional, it's normal? In what world does anyone believe that equality is just the phrase, "we support the idea that the two sexes should have equal rights," yet you treat the genders differently? Okay, most girl may be emotional, but so may a boy, some girls may be weak but so may a boy.

I believe that the traditional view of men being superior is wrong, I believe that the view of man completing a woman and being his "other half" is wrong, we're all individual people, we're not puzzle pieces, we shouldn't feel the need to fit, in whatever context, why should we fit in anyway? Why can't society embrace us all for however we choose to be?

Why is an emotional boy seen as "weak"? When in reality, the showing of his emotions shows that he is strong enough to break out of the social construct that, for some reason, depicts men as emotionless other than their aggression, anger and their love for science, maths and sports. It sounds crazy when you think about it, women only just won the vote 99 years ago in 1918 but only for the ages above 30. Why is it that women had to fight for something as simple as a vote, why did women had to fight for anything? Women are strong enough to give birth yet they aren't emotionally stable enough to vote? Women are the reason men are alive yet men are the dominant ones? Should men be able to oppress women? The very reason they're alive?

Of course, some changes have been made since 1918 that show that we are inching closer to gender equality, such as Margret Thacher becoming the first woman prime minister of the United Kingdom and Marie Curie becoming the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

So I leave you with the simple question. Gender equality, is it our reality, is it in our near future or is it just a myth, an illusion?

By Saima Ali

-The Sydey Russell School