After reading the article regarding Sen. Barbara Mikulski by Luke Broadwater, Erin Cox and Yvonne Wenger ("Mikulski remembered as plain-speaking trailblazer for women in politics," March 3) praising her lifelong hard work, I felt compelled to write.
It was quite inspiring to read about the road that the senator paved, not only for the city of Baltimore but for women in politics. Senator Mikulski surpassed cultural prejudices that surrounded her at the time of her election and until her retirement, and she worked to change the prejudices against women by helping to pass important legislation including preventive care for women under the Affordable Care Act. She also helped pass legislation regarding discrimination against women and fair pay in the workplace.
While legislation has legally helped women face sex-based discrimination in the workplace, there are still challenges to women. Networking is one challenge that women still face in the workplace. Some of the most intimate bonding and networking happens in places such as locker rooms or saunas. Places such as these only allow for one sex, leaving out women. If the workplace shifted to an equal ratio of men and women, then networking would not be such an issue for women. For now, the workplace remains male-dominated.
For these reasons, it is important for ambitious women like Senator Mikulski to continue to push the bounds for women in today's society. Therefore with her retirement from Senate, I can only hope that the next person elected to the office can fill her shoes and use them to walk even farther forward toward equality and a cultural change for women in the workplace.
Ashley Withers, Highland