Letters to the Editor

June 15, 1995

To the Editor:

In response to Melissa Luthro’s column (“Feminism has ceased to be a

worthy cause,” May 3), I would like to make several comments.

Although Luthro claims that women have achieved equality, women today

are much farther from the utopia her article suggests. For one, she claims

that “pay has equalized and so have the benefits.” Yet, according to the

1992 U.S. Census figures, women in the United States earn seventy cents to

every dollar men earn.

Additionally, the United Nations issued a statement which discussed

equality throughout the world. This stated “women, half the world’s

population, do two-thirds the world’s work, earn one-tenth of the world’s

income and own one-hundredth of the world’s property.”

Furthermore, equal pay is only one cause with which feminists in the

U.S. concern themselves. The increase of violence in the home recently has

become a major issue. Participants in Iowa State’s “Take Back the Night”

ceremony learned about what we can do to help this disturbing

situation.

Another issue involves the 1991 American Association of University

Women’s survey that found major inequalities in our school system,

especially in teaching methods for math and science. This has since become

a major cause for the women’s movement to work on.

Additionally, an environment in which the primary goal of 33,000 women

is to lose ten to fifteen pounds hardly has equality. These are not the

only issues, however; others include parental leave, alternative child care

programs, reproductive choices, welfare, education and health care.

Indeed, today’s feminists have accomplished many of the goals desired.

Yet change takes more than a generation’s commitment to achieve. Today

women and men must continue to work together towards this ideal. Although

Luthro is convinced “women were created to have children and men were

created to perform hard labor,” I believe our purpose is considerably more

complex. Thus, I urge every woman and man to not be afraid to be a feminist

and to continue to work towards feminism’s numerous, worthy causes.

Whitney Roe

freshman in apparel merchandising, design and production

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