Index of a Civilized Society One of the greatest socialists said that the status of women in a society is a pretty reliable index of a civilized society. If it is true, then the present status of women (which seems equal with men's though in fact women's status are much lower than men's in many fields), in my point of view, should make us ponder about whether our society is civilized at all. Traditional ideology is so deeply rooted in people's minds that it is rather hard to be uprooted. Twenty or thirty years ago,it was believed that a woman must either get married young or risk becoming a spinster. Those who did not get married were thought to be inferior and abnormal. Fortunately, today's women have numerous options open to them besides early marriage. Actually, a single woman is no longer looked down upon by societ—in civilized region, to say the least. However, in those backward areas, things don't go as we expect. I was a larmingly shocked by last winter vacation's experience. I went to Huizhou, a small town next to mountain Huang, with my friends. I still remember the array of memorial archways inside the town. A local told us that they were all in memory of those so called "virtuous" women, whose husbands died early or left the town, never coming back and they stayed unmarried for the rest of their lives. In fact, I was shocked at the maintenance of these meaningless gateways, which serves as a symbol of despise on women. How can the locals regard them as glorious women? Another important factor that hampers the development of women's status is women's counterpart men. Men's resistance to women's equality is partly caused by their awareness that what the male does is no longer indispensable and women may be superior in some fields. Actually, they have proved to be brilliant in the fierce competitions time and again. Moreover, with the rapid development of technology, few tasks involve much physical strength. Therefore, women can do more work than men sometimes. As a matter of fact, the society itself also lays a heavy burden and unequal standards on women. Although remarkable progress has been made in achieving better social status and sharing more equal rights for women in the past decades, their roles in their families remain basically unchanged. The double burden of working inside and outside home renders them no possibility to make full use of their talents and hinders them from taking the leadership. We should admit that women are favorable for occupations such as services, which are paid less than male jobs and have less opportunity to be promoted to top management positions. Women often drop out at critical points in their careers for the sake of their families and children. The decade from twenty five to thirty five has proved to be vital in achieving success or securing a promising post, which is also the years when women are likely to have children. Thus, they are left far behind men in the competitions for fame and power. In modern society, we do see women powers, such as Mad am Thatcher, Hillary Clinton, and Wu Yi, the vice Premier of China who played an important role in these critical days against SARS. But why have they drawn people's attention? Just because they are women and female leaders are too rare to be seen. Taking into account all the relevant factors, we may safely conclude that we won't make progress in the achievement of women's status and their equal opportunities if people's traditional ideas, men's attitude, society's burden remain unchanged. The picture isn't quite rosy. Equality with men continues to be the goal of modern civilized society.