To the Journal editor:

Gender equality is important, or so I’m told. When I was in high school, I did a research project on women’s rights with most of my research coming from the book “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg.

As I was volunteering at my school, the principal came over and made an extremely sexist comment. I was 17 and outraged. I still, to this day, do not understand why he did that. At that point in my life, I knew that women were facing inequalities but as I’ve gotten older, I realized that it’s both genders.

Men are also facing them for things that they can’t really control. Most people that I’ve talked to have experienced something like this whether it’s a boy playing with a doll at a young age or a girl playing football. Nothing really is done about this problem.

As a young woman, I need to be aware of the issues that are happening with my generation and know how to combat them. There should be gender equality in the workplace as well as everywhere else.

This issue is important to me because I want children in the generations after me to feel comfortable growing up to be whatever they want to be.

In a study done on mother gender role stereotypical beliefs on their children, both the parents and the girls thought that they would score lower on a math test than the boys. The girls scored better than their male counter parts and proved a point. This process begins with the parents.

Teaching your children that everyone is different and we need to work together to create the best world possible. While some people may say this is a generalized statement, it is true that women are still stereotyped as housewives and men are seen as the classic macho man with no feelings.

While this is still the stigma, it is possible to break it. If we encourage the youth to be who they want to be in a safe environment, it will be possible to start the journey to gender equality. If we all work together we can make a more equal world.

Molly Egelkraut

Marquette