United States

American women have made such remarkable gains in the past half century that people often refer to the United States as a postfeminist society. Women like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi occupy powerful, high-profile positions in the government. For the first time in history, roughly half of American wage earners are women. Women also constitute nearly 60 percent of college graduates and half of all those who obtain professional and advanced degrees. Yet in many other respects, the designation postfeminist appears decidedly premature. Today, American women are living in a society where they are presumed to enjoy equal rights and opportunities, despite the stubborn persistence of sexual inequality in numerous realms.