Religion has often been used as an excuse for inequality between men and women. Historically, and even today within many world religions, women find themselves restricted in what they are allowed: in their appearance, their behavior, and of course their opportunities. I wish I could say that has never been true within the faith I hold, Christianity, but throughout time Biblical texts have been pulled out and used to justify the bad behavior of men and reduce the importance of women.

My daughters entered life as different creatures when it came to the opposite sex. One whom the attention of boys meant a lot, the other, well, it did not. I can’t say what created the difference, perhaps just their personalities because they came from the same gene pool.

It appears a lot of women are waiting for their man to propose. They have been a couple for a while, and she finds herself wondering where their relationship is going. Is what they have enough? Their dating relationship, which started as an exhilarating sprint, has turned into a 100K marathon, one where the finish line never appears.

When I was loading the car to fly my elder daughter off to college, I stopped and made her look me in the eye to tell her this: “Life is hard.” Not sure why that was on my mind except that whether she knew it or not, up until that time in her life she had been fairly, though not entirely, insulated. She had yet to face much of life’s reality that she would be venturing into.

I’m not sure about you, but I’m getting fairly weary of the angry women. The ones who seem to have a multi-tiered platform they are fighting for. Amidst the placard-carrying, strident-marching, hat-wearing, mic-grabbing females is a long list of items that they deem need to be changed. It makes me want to walk the other way or turn the channel. But just because they are capable of becoming tiresome (at least to me), it’s not to say they have nothing to be frustrated about.

I think there is one item in particular that is deserving of a little more inspection: equal pay for equal work. A lot of women today find themselves as the primary wage-earner. Whether supporting themselves or a family, it is the responsibility of many women to earn enough income to pay the bills. So, if there is truth that this disparity still exists, the effect on the ability to maintain independence is significant. This suddenly becomes a platform in need of change. Before a problem can be addressed or change can be created, one must fully understand the real story behind today’s statistical gap.