A few months ago, I got into a fight with this guy — let’s call him Brad — about gender equality. It was as ugly as any altercation on that topic has ever been. Brad tried to argue that men don’t have any sort of innate advantage in America, which was as cringeworthy as it sounds. Women can vote and work and advance in society, he said, so equality has been more than achieved; by the way, Lily, what does the word “patriarchy” even mean? Brad wasn’t alone in his views; 43 percent of Americans believe our country has done enough in giving women equal rights with men. The truth, though, is that even as America approaches the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, gender equality is far from a reality in our country. Labor force gender disparities, the pay gap, and misogyny still plague our nation today, heightened by the fact that they disproportionately affect women of color. On August 18, women’s rights advocates can’t simply celebrate the hundredth birthday of women’s suffrage. Proponents of equal rights must speak out about the injustices that are preventing the ideals of the 19th Amendment from fully becoming reality. While we’ve come a long way from pre-20th century days during which the cult of domesticity prevailed and women were largely unable to get jobs outside of the house, America has perhaps even longer to go in ensuring that gender isn’t a hurdle to getting jobs — powerful jobs, in particular. Women made up just six percent of CEOs for S&P 500 companies in December 2019, and currently, women run a mere 7.4 percent of Fortune 500 ranked companies. Worse still is the fact that only eight percent of these latter CEOs are women of color. These numbers speak volumes — and the figures aren’t even close. Gender disparities aren’t limited to corporate careers, though. Women make up just 23.6 percent of Congress, and Vermont still hasn’t sent a woman to either the House or the Senate. For those like President Trump who spend a lot of time golfing, a reminder: small numbers aren’t the goal when it comes to proportions of women in high-profile jobs, no matter what field they’re in. In addition, when it happens that women attain a position in which they can perform the same work as men, fairness in wages is but a hypothetical. For every dollar a man makes, a woman working full-time in America will earn only 82 cents on average. The pay gap also disproportionately affects women of color: Black women earn 61 cents for every dollar a man makes, Native American women earn 57 cents, and Hispanic women earn 53 cents. And it’s worse too for transgender women, whose salaries decrease by almost a third following their transition. But perhaps the most significant example of gender inequity is the misogyny that permeates an outsized number of politicians. One need only look to the recent incident in which Rep. Ted Yoho accosted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the steps of the Capitol and called her a profane, decidedly sexist insult to realize that biases against women exist even in the country’s most powerful legislative body. (Yoho’s “apology,” which lacked direct mention of the profanity but noted that he couldn’t express regret for his “passion,” compounds this fact.) Misogyny isn’t limited to Congress, though. Trump’s Cabinet consists of two women out of 16 total members, meaning women make up less than 15 percent of the president’s most prominent advisory group. Trump has also made a number of lewd comments about women, which I’ll forego repeating, but for those in need of a hint: curiosity can be cured by looking up “Access Hollywood tape” online. Trump’s behavior, like that of Yoho and countless others, is reprehensible; true equality cannot be achieved until misogyny is eliminated from the minds and hearts of all Americans, including politicians. But what about the fact that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pledged to pick a woman as his vice president? That, those like Brad will claim smugly, is proof that our country works for women. How can America do better than that? And the promise of a woman candidate for vice president on a major party ticket is wonderful! Truly, it is, especially if Biden picks a woman of color. But her primary job in the White House would be … serving a man. An old, white man, to be exact. And yes, it would be symbolic and historic, and the power of the vice presidency has certainly expanded. But having a woman as vice president would in no way be evidence that gender equity has been achieved. So Americans need to wake up. Suffrage, even a century’s worth of it, isn’t enough. This 19th Amendment ratification anniversary, if we really want gender equality in all aspects of life — from jobs to paychecks to our representatives’ innate biases — we need to take it upon ourselves to educate our fellow citizens about the truth.