Throughout the 20th and 21st century America has experienced an upswing in progressive and liberal thinking. From a political and social perspective it can often seem to Americans that the past was an elimination of issues leading up until now; the present era representing the pinnacle of progress. Those who believe this are unlikely to be motivated or moved by any appeals of their current peers demanding equality, because to them the idea that equality doesn't actually exist conflicts with their perception of the pinnacle of progress. Unfortunately, this is the case in a large portion of the world; where the true obstacle for a culture's progression is the culture itself. Specifically in the context of gender equality, society as a whole has been unwilling to change their stance allegedly due to tradition, religion or biological evidence. With the increased analysis of these subjects and others, a vast amount of research supports that neither gender is objectively better than the other. So if America as a culture claims to revere rational thought and evidence, how can so many people ignore injustice? America's indifference to gender equality is reinforced by insufficient representation, minimal gender education and negative public perception.

More than any society, Americans should know the importance of representation in the government, media and economy that one is a citizen of. Like the settlers of early America who questioned the rationale of passing colonist legislation without colonist representation in Parliament; those for gender equality have been questioning the reasoning for a monopoly of men voting on private healthcare decisions for women. In 1916, Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and since that day women have been fighting from the inside for equal representation in government (Colbert). A hundred years later and the results are disappointing with only 20% of women holding seats in Congress.   Cynthia Terrell, chairperson of FairVote's "Representation 2020", a study of equality in government positions, remarked that if progress continues as slowly as it is, "women won't achieve fair representation for nearly 500 years" (Hill). When skeptics counter by saying that the progress of equal representation takes time, one can point to three countries who put a concentrative effort to extend opportunities to women and are closing the gap exponentially: Sweden with 45% representation, Finland with 42.5% and the Netherlands with 39%. The United States even ranks 98th country in the world in regards to opportunities for women in legislature (Hill). Disregarding the fairness that comes from equal representation, multiple intensive studies of the political process found that when women were allowed to influence the legislature far more bills were introduced and passed regarding "civil rights and liberties, education, health, and labor" which benefit the common American citizen directly (Hill). When half the population of a country is only being represented by a small portion of the law makers, their interests are not priority and their input is not heard. 

Being heard and understood is crucial implement for cultural diversity, and unfortunately American media and many programs have questionable portrayal of female characters without much female input about their design or character traits. Those who draw influence or attempt to understand their world better through different television shows, movies or videogames view women in these scenarios as how women are or rather how they should be. Since media is such a large portion of our lives, most people spend an average of 10 or more hours on an electronic device of some kind, and at least 8 hours of that browsing the internet and consuming media (Richter). This constant misrepresentation takes a large toll on the bias and expectations that society develops for women. Yet, this reinforced image by the media is not driven by outward belief in female stereotypes, as Americans typically seem aware of this misrepresentation and in the recent years have rebelled against Hollywood's idealization of women, but rather by the greed of movie industries who pay careful attention to the amount of money a film makes rather than the societal or cultural impact it has. A movie with no female characters of any depth beyond sexual objects or foils for the male characters can easily make three times the gross of a film where gender is balanced and the characters have realistic traits (Lantange). These numbers are mostly swayed due to the amount of source material for one over the other, the percentage of population who grew up biased towards those movies, and the reinforcement that this movie formula works so why change what's making millions? (Lantange). In any case, this system just reinforces dead stereotypes and makes it more difficult for women to advance careers in film or television.

Ignorance is another major hindrance to gender equality, as the majority of schools in the United States don't discuss gender equality as a separate and significant field of study. When NOW and a few other organizations questioned the reluctance of the American educational system to incorporate a comprehensive gender equalities that was compulsory for students, they were met with criticism as to the importance of the matter on adolescents and children. Joel Peterson acknowledged the implication of this study as not simply an academic one but a social and cultural one. According to the 2015 census "one in four children in the United States is part of an immigrant family" and oftentimes American cultural elements are lost on them. Children whose parents were raised in a more male dominated culture will likely raise their children the same way, and without any other reference to acknowledge those children will grow up with the same ideologies. Although America defends freedom for citizens to practice their own beliefs, gender equality is protected by series of laws and rights enforced by our country and every citizen deserves the right to understand and wield those rights (Peterson). 

Additionally, a large portion of the population who do not agree that gender equality is a relevant issue often believe we have already achieved equality. To these individuals the fight for equality ended in 1912 with a women's right to vote, and since then women have naturally progressed through the ranks of society. There even are those who argue that gender equality was harmful, that "feminism didn't result in equality between the sexes  --  it resulted in mass confusion"(Venker). In most cases these are the same people who believe the feminist movement was unnecessary as Susan Venker also questions how women could possibly be oppressed "in a nation in which men were expected to stand up when a lady enters the room" and boldy states that "prior to the 1970s, people viewed gender roles as equally valuable" (Venker). These kind of comments damage the gender equality movement as a whole, nitpicking about the structure of marriage or the benefits of being a housewife without taking into context the most important part of the fight for equality: the opportunity to follow whatever life path we want without being forced into a subservient position. 

Additionally it should be acknowledged that simply because women have progressed in America, the fight for equality is not over until women are respected all over the world. Women in business often experience uncomfortable situations where representatives from international companies will refuse to meet with them purely on the grounds that they are a woman. In the Middle East and Asia this is a common occurrence as gender equality is scare in that portion of the world. Zara Hayat Khan, on her book "Gender Discrimination in the Media" summarizes the treatment of women in Pakistani media.

Pakistani media has played a vital role in casting women as to how a society wants to see a woman ... . Females are always suppressed in almost every field. Mostly in under-development countries it is thought that women do not possess the ability to work for the progress of society. Women are not considered capable enough by males to work for the betterment of country. Females are not considered capable or worthy enough to make important decisions and it is consider that females as compare to males cannot work efficiently at offices. This discrimination has led to severe discouraging and degrading of women in many fields.

The truth is that discrimination exists against both men and women, and although it may be a daunting task to attempt to level a playing field riddled with years of tradition and bias, social progress in cannot continue without cooperation and respect of all people. In her TedTalk "We Should All Be Feminists" Chimamanda Adichie challenges those who believe discrimination doesn't exist. She delves into the social treatment of women, how women are often left out of discussions if her husband is present, how waiters will greet her husband first or even thank him for tipping when she left the money. She doesn't blame the waiter in this instance but questions her husband on why he didn't correct the waiter or introduce her into the conversation; her point being that feminism is not a women's issue but a collaborative effort to respect both men and women (Adichie). The same issue is tackled by Jackson Katz who went even further, arguing that feminism and the fight for gender equality is entirely a men's issue. He acknowledges that many men do not consider themselves sexist but are unlikely to correct or argue against another man who is, and in that way are they not endorsing their behavior? He champions workshops to acknowledge this behavior to promote integrity and diversity in sports and business practices and is often met with criticism. He remarks that society has forced men as well into a subsiservant position as well, making them afraid to stand up for the women they love in fear of appearing less masculine or too sensitive. However, sensitivity is essential and he firmly believes that every little sexist joke or degrading remark a man makes unravels years of progress and respect that women have struggled generations for (Katz).

The most damning obstacle in the struggle for gender equality is the way the public perceives the feminist movement. As Jackson Katz had acknowledged, a large portion of men are indifferent to the push for equality believing themselves not to be sexist they take no further action to help. Additionally a lot of people are reluctant to speak out or make any statement regarding gender equality due to the intense amount of stigma surrounding it. The forefront of which is fear of being labeled a 'feminazi', a term used modernly to describe a radical feminist or more accurately a person who is overzealous about the struggles of women to the brink of being misandrist. Feminazi was originally coined by Rush Limbaugh, infamous radio right wing conservative who originally used the term to describe "a woman to whom the most important thing in life is seeing to it that as many abortions as possible are performed" (Rudman). Since then the insult has evolved in an all-encompassing term to discredit anyone attempting to discuss the topic of gender inequality or women's rights by making them seem radical or illogical. 

This concept sprouted a modern movement away from radical feminism, eliciting the 'Definition of Feminism Debate' which only served to divide up the movement for unnecessary reasons. Many women and men are hesitant about claiming themselves as a feminist or supporting certain events or ideologies or fear of being labeled and publicly shamed. As a result, anti-feminist organizations began to sprout up. One organization that has gained a fair amount of popularity is the Women Against Feminism movement, originally started by a blog on Tumblr that eventually became a touring speech group. The general idea is that there is a group of women who support equality but are ill-informed enough to believe that the infamous 'feminazis' actually represent all of feminism. To this, they rebelled by sending in reasons why they didn't need feminism, the reasons of which were generally that they respected equality for both men and women and saw feminism as a construct that only support women, or that they themselves feel equality has already been reached and the feminism movement is now irrelevant (Filiana). Longtime supporters of gender equality were baffled when these anti-feminist organizations began to spring up, generally in social media and reacted with anger eliciting the exact reaction expected from 'feminazis' only entrenching those anti-feminists deeper into their beliefs. The academic response that women and men high up in positions of gender equality gave was that those who supported the anti-feminist movements were misinformed and used the publicity as a platform to express how crucial gender equality education truly is (Lilian). Unfortunately this leaves the movement divided and draws attention away from what both groups actually support, which of course is the progression of gender equality.

Feminism and the fight for gender equality has been a long suffering struggle, and the use of slander and discrediting those involved is not a new tactic. In the early 1900s when the push for women's rights was finally beginning to gain momentum, these women were often dismissed as lesbians, men in disguise, ugly foul creatures, mentally insane, or of course, accused of being on their periods. A whole propaganda movement was put forward to ensure the image that a man's wife was not a feminist, and that if she was the man was publicly ridiculed and emasculated (Rampton). However, the leaders of gender equality did not cease their efforts and progressed to higher state of equality experienced in America today. 

In contemporary society the major obstacles left in the way of true gender equality are lack of representation and education, as well as the public perception of the movement itself. Once a population becomes educated enough on the history, intentions and benefits of gender quality, more support for equal representation will be funneled into more women getting involved in politics, media, and business and eventually over time the public perception of how feminism is viewed will change with the implementation of respect and understanding for the opposite gender. To tackle these obstacles America as a nation needs to overcome the temptation of indifference and acknowledge societal constructs of oppression for both men and women, working together to improve a diverse and complex community on the grounds that all humans are created equal and deserve the same opportunities.

