In the past, society has thrown prejudice towards women in the working world, sports and other events that include females. Today, society imposes the same discrimination against women. Despite the fact that there are things that women can do better, they can without a doubt do the same things that men can do. Although women are gaining a more respectable position in society today, I still think that there are large barriers that need to be broken when it comes to women in the work force, women's athletics, and most importantly their gender discrimination.
Women in the work field are overcoming the barriers that have been set for them in the past, but still have more to overcome. My mother for instance, is a lumber trader, and has had 100% male co-workers for her entire career. She started out at the bottom doing secretarial work, and soon got tired of making little money and being under males. So she began to trade on the side, secretly, without her boss's permission. She got her own clients, and worked her way up. My mother is now making $350,000 a year, is still one of the few women in the business, and is more successful than most of the men doing the same job she is. I think women need to take charge, and even when not given the opportunity, they have to do whatever it takes to get to the top. In Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Myth of the Latin Woman", the "boss-men talked to [women] as if sexual innuendo was all they understood" (161). My mother went through the same situations, and did not stand for it. Cofer also states, "Even today some people, including those who should know better, still put others "in their place"' (161). Even in an educated time, people are still stuck on old fashion customs where they think women should be below men in the work force. They think women should not make a lot of money, let alone work. My mother succeeded in the work force against tremendous odds, and has made seven times as much as my father makes.