Gender Inequality
My name is Jim, I'm an advocate for women's equality, and I'm angry.
There are several advantages to being a man in our world. One of these is that men are allowed to get angry about things. If a woman gets mad about gender stereotypes, inequality, or voices an objection to the manner in which she's being treated, it can easily be dismissed as hormones or her period or some such nonsense. I'm not the owner of a baby oven, so I don't menstruate, so you're not going to shut me up that easily. Also, a man can so easily dismiss a woman's point of view, simply because she is a woman, but such a sexist dismissal doesn't work if the objection comes from another man.
It occurs to me that all men have this advantage in their respective corners of the world. Eric Metaxas wrote in the introduction to his book Seven Men, "Men are meant to use their strength to protect and bless those who are weaker." I'm not claiming that women are inherently weaker than men, but where gender-based discrimination exists in our society, women are too often made weaker by the circumstances imposed on them. This is where men have a duty to fight such discrimination.
I've barely started going around telling people that I'm interested in fighting for women's equality in our society for a week now. I present my ambition as a nascent idea, one without specific form or direction, but merely as a passionate interest on my part. I've already encountered resistance to the idea. One man did exactly as I would have expected by emasculating me, implying that it made sense since I prefer the company of women as friends given the kind of person I seemed to be. I've always greatly preferred the company of other men, which anyone who knows me would gladly attest to; I have no idea what he was talking about.
Gender inequality seems to affect those of lower social or economic standing more than those in privilege. This is not to say the privileged are unaffected, but the effects are more pronounced as you go down the social ladder. One middle class white woman, who would discourage me from pursuing this ambition, reassured me that she felt in no way disenfranchised by the current structure of our society. I slept no better that night.
For the most part, I've met with general apathy. I mention that I feel this is an important issue to discuss, and people wish me luck, but I get the sense that people feel this isn't a fight that needs to be fought anymore. More likely, I suspect this issue is easy to dismiss simply because it's so huge. It's incredibly pervasive. It's a social problem. It's an economic problem. It's a political problem. It's a legal problem. And so on. It's gets even more complicated when you consider how enmeshed these domains can get with each other.
I'm a technologist, which doesn't seem to fit neatly into any category where this issue could be addressed...but I'm also determined. I believe it's worth exploring what can be done by me with my own set of skills, and learning better how to do it. This has done little to dissuade my interest; indeed, the sheer enormity of the problem keeps me engaged. It's almost impossible to ignore, simply because half of the people that I encounter when I leave the house every day are affected by it.
There are several advantages to being a man in our world. One of these is that men are allowed to get angry about things. If a woman gets mad about gender stereotypes, inequality, or voices an objection to the manner in which she's being treated, it can easily be dismissed as hormones or her period or some such nonsense. I'm not the owner of a baby oven, so I don't menstruate, so you're not going to shut me up that easily. Also, a man can so easily dismiss a woman's point of view, simply because she is a woman, but such a sexist dismissal doesn't work if the objection comes from another man.
It occurs to me that all men have this advantage in their respective corners of the world. Eric Metaxas wrote in the introduction to his book Seven Men, "Men are meant to use their strength to protect and bless those who are weaker." I'm not claiming that women are inherently weaker than men, but where gender-based discrimination exists in our society, women are too often made weaker by the circumstances imposed on them. This is where men have a duty to fight such discrimination.
I've barely started going around telling people that I'm interested in fighting for women's equality in our society for a week now. I present my ambition as a nascent idea, one without specific form or direction, but merely as a passionate interest on my part. I've already encountered resistance to the idea. One man did exactly as I would have expected by emasculating me, implying that it made sense since I prefer the company of women as friends given the kind of person I seemed to be. I've always greatly preferred the company of other men, which anyone who knows me would gladly attest to; I have no idea what he was talking about.
Gender inequality seems to affect those of lower social or economic standing more than those in privilege. This is not to say the privileged are unaffected, but the effects are more pronounced as you go down the social ladder. One middle class white woman, who would discourage me from pursuing this ambition, reassured me that she felt in no way disenfranchised by the current structure of our society. I slept no better that night.
For the most part, I've met with general apathy. I mention that I feel this is an important issue to discuss, and people wish me luck, but I get the sense that people feel this isn't a fight that needs to be fought anymore. More likely, I suspect this issue is easy to dismiss simply because it's so huge. It's incredibly pervasive. It's a social problem. It's an economic problem. It's a political problem. It's a legal problem. And so on. It's gets even more complicated when you consider how enmeshed these domains can get with each other.
I'm a technologist, which doesn't seem to fit neatly into any category where this issue could be addressed...but I'm also determined. I believe it's worth exploring what can be done by me with my own set of skills, and learning better how to do it. This has done little to dissuade my interest; indeed, the sheer enormity of the problem keeps me engaged. It's almost impossible to ignore, simply because half of the people that I encounter when I leave the house every day are affected by it.