The glass ceiling

Think of any television show of the 1950s or 1960s that involved a family.  How was each family member portrayed?  The children would often leave the house to go play outdoors, while the father would leave for work.  What about the mother?  Did she have a job to help the family?  Would she spend her days with friends attending meetings or clubs?  Most of the time, the mother would sit at home making meals or doing housework.  During the time period, women were expected to do nothing more or less.  This inequality among sexes may not be as extreme in the present day, but it is definitely still present.
The inequality was first addressed on a large scale at the First Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848.  Elizabeth Stanton delivered a speech entitled "Declaration of Sentiments", which addressed the feelings of oppression women felt by men in society.  By utilizing a format similar to the Declaration of Independence, Stanton was able to convey a message of the feeling of restriction similar to that that the colonists felt as they were under the power of Great Britain.  Stanton's bluntness was criticized, but her argument held a truth that was never before acknowledged.
In the present day, women are not looked upon as equal to men.  Take, for example, the amount of time and money women spend of beauty products like makeup.  Men are not expected to look flawless every day, and don't need to as society places more value on a man's internal characteristics.  Women are still viewed as objects, and external appearance matters just as much, if not more, than personality.  In the workplace, women do not often hold management positions.  According to the Center for American Progress, about 47 percent of the workforce in the United States is composed of women, yet 3.6 percent of the CEOs in America are women.  Although women are just as capable as men of operating a company, it is this preconceived notion of the insignificance of women that hold them back from achieving the greatness they embody.