BIG RAPIDS — Women have been keeping their foot on the gas for equal rights in the United States.
Having faced challenges like working toward the right to vote, work and have equal pay, women have come a long way in the societal landscape.
March is Women’s History Month and we’re taking a look at just how far women have come.
“The long history of sexism goes back to the founding of our country when women weren’t allowed to be active participants in the creation of political structures,” said Ferris State University history professor Tracy Busch.
That history first began to change in the 1960s and 70s when the women’s civil rights era began to take shape.
Women yearned for the right to have access to higher education, work with equal pay and the right to vote.
Ferris State University history professor and curator for the museum of sexism objects, Tracy Busch, said despite progress, women are still facing stereotypes in 2025.
One of those stereotypes Busch called the gold digger stereotype.
“If you look at Kanye West and his song not too long ago, he had a whole song called gold digger, so it’s still there in common parlance, I think that one is still around,” said Busch.
Ever heard that men are better drivers, Busch said that’s another common stereotype.
“There’s a lot of stereotypes out there about female drivers.”
In 2025, it doesn’t end there, throughout history women have often been reduced to body parts, solely there for men’s gratification and nothing more.
Think of the blonde bimbo stereotype, or worse, what Busch calls rape culture.
The section in the Museum of Sexism objects educates on rape culture and details what it has looked like throughout history.
“There’s a poster here, it’s called diary of a rape. It’s from the 1970s and I think the fact that it’s so egregious and its romanticizing rape really kind of attenuates people in the space to oh, it use to be much worse than it is now. So, they start to feel like we’ve made progress. Then in the next case we have other objects that actually note that it’s still normalized today,” said Busch.
Jaclyn Bresano is a freshman at Ferris State University taking the intro to women’s studies course.
She said it’s an important class for her to take because of her future career field.
“Women’s studies as a whole is kind of giving me a better understanding of the struggles that people have (gone) through. It also teaches why they’ve had those struggles, and what I can do differently to better help those people.”