Gender Gap

"We can not all succeed when half of us are held back (Malala Yousafzai)." Woman's rights have been fought since the beginning of time. It has not been until just recently that woman have had the chance to vote, to work, to have their own individual rights in striving for equality. Why should men be the only ones to be able to make something of themselves? Why can't the roles be reversed, the woman now being the breadwinners, the successful? These questions have been asked time and time again, but when will it truly be equal among sexes?
In stories like The Awakening by Kate Chopin and The Doll House by Henrik Ibsen we became more aware of the oppression of woman, particularly during past time periods. Even though these novels/plays are in a different time period, they are still relevant today. We have come a long way, but equality is still not prevalent in today's society. You witnessed the utter desolation that Edna and Nora went through when they realized they were not in control of their own lives, their world governed by men and essentially their society. They could not do as men do, men were always smarter, stronger, perfect in every aspect; flawless. They had to be subservient to their invective husbands who were pedals talked by society, a society governed by men.
In our current society there still continues to be a major gender gap, sometimes without most people realizing it. "According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women made up 50.8% of the population. Starting in 2010 women became half of all workers in the U.S. Yet this mere presence of women in the workforce is anything but a show of equality when men hold the top management positions in a variety of professions in extremely unrepresentative numbers." In the work force woman are also usually overlooked by men and do not even receive equal pay, even if it's for the same profession. "Approximately 70% of people in national minimum wage jobs are women." Everyone should be able to be independent of the opposite sex, not have to determine who earns more than who, but work and strive for better, together.
As a woman I believe that as we have come along way, their is still major room for improvement. I will not settle for less, I do not ask for more privileges than men, I ask for equality.

Traumitized

"PTSD isn't about what's wrong with you, it's about what happened to you." Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a serious issue that as a nation we must confront. Soldiers face traumatizing experiences everyday, wether it be directly inflicted upon them or someone else, a brother/sister, fellow soldier. So many people who have fought for our safety, risking their own lives, and do not receive proper treatment and care for their health or are homeless or disemployed.
In The Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim the principle figure in the story deals with the aftermath of his war experiences in surviving the Dresden bombing. He retells the events in a disordered fashion, which can be related to PTSD. Vonnegut's novel has several indirect anti war sentiments to show his readers the inflictions war does to someone.
Victor Gregg was also a survivor of Dresden he stated "Like Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse-Five, I wrote as I witnessed. I have no axe to grind. I just sat down and tried to empty my mind and clear away the residues of the nightmares that I still occasionally suffered from." That's what many of are soldiers have to deal with upon coming home. They may need more than just the minimum support, they need to be understood and properly cared for. Their thought maybe jumbled, they can relive their war experiences at any second, they can be a danger to their loved ones and even themselves. "Every day, 22 veterans take their own lives. That's a suicide every 65 minutes. As shocking as the number is, it may actually be higher."
By bringing more attention to the need of our returning soldiers, we can aide them in coping, we can save a life.  Just as we have felt the whirlpool plot of Vonnegut's novel, we can come to terms with how this may be just how all other soldiers may be traumatically affected. As a nation we have to act to bring a stop to the ailments of our brave soldiers and lessen their burdens and traumatic experiences that will be reoccurring with PTSD and other impairments, physically and psychologically.