Can the Gender Gap Be Solved?

Submitted by Mastodon on Wed, 2014-04-23 02:16

Article here. Excerpt:

'The gender gap debate has taken some surprising turns in recent days. Conservative critics have argued for years that the reason women make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men is that they work fewer work hours and in lower paid occupations, not because of rampant sexism at the office or factory. Once it came to light that President Obama and several Democratic senators presided over sizable gaps in their own offices, this criticism of the 77 cent meme gained some new followers, including reliably left-leaning Ruth Marcus who went so far as to accuse the administration of “demagoguery.”
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Get rid of gender stereotyping, inflexible workplaces, bastards on the couch, and mom-shaming, and we will have a society where, as Sheryl Sandberg has put it, “half our homes are run by men and half our institutions are run by women.”

In the conservative view, it’s the natural differences between men and women which lead them to make many of the life choices they do, differences that could probably not be resolved by anything less than mandatory universal hormone injections.'

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Re-write that one paragraph:

'Get rid of gender stereotyping, inflexible workplaces, bitches on the couch, and dad-shaming, and we will have a society where, as Sheryl Sandberg has put it, “half our homes are run by men and half our institutions are run by women.”'

Considering women are much more likely to be the "stay at home parent" in a couple, who is more likely to spend time on the couch at home? As for inflexible workplaces, agreed. Most people can't just walk away from their job during the day whenever it's desired/convenient. That's why it's called a "job" and why people frequently wish they could win the lottery sooner in life rather than later. As for "mm-shaming", umm, what universe it the article's author living in? Given the degree to which dads get pilloried in pop culture, the legal system, and kept away from their homes via double-standards that allow women in fact far greater workplace flexibility than men (maternity leave but not paternity leave in most countries/states/provinces/etc., de facto greater leniency and "understanding" from bosses when women need to leave work early to pick up kids, etc.) I rather think that it's very much a stretch to say that moms are shamed. Mothers' Day, in case no one has noticed, is treated almost as a sacrosanct religious holiday (a "holy day of obligation", as it were) while Fathers' Day comes and goes with nary a notice. In short, "hogwash". These ludicrous feminist screed articles are getting soooo old...

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Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2014-04-24 04:55

"Get rid of gender stereotyping, inflexible workplaces, bastards on the couch, and mom-shaming, and we will have a society where, as Sheryl Sandberg has put it, “half our homes are run by men and half our institutions are run by women.”"

And yet, the very same people who routinely argue this oppose equal, shared parenting, and argue to maintain the current status quo. It is incredibly damaging, both to the cause of equality, as well as to men specifically, to so heavily invest in something that can be, with the aid of the government and family legal system itself, be striped away from you at a whim. You want to get rid of stereotypes, how about you start addressing the ones that are enforced by the system, instead of demanding everyone conform to this social engineering. So long as divorce will ENSURE the mother is the child caretaker and the man is nothing more than a provider and, if the mother allows it, babysitter, nothing is going to change.

But equality's not really what you want, is it? This is about ensuring that women are not held accountable for their choices and actions. That, they should be allowed to do whatever they want, and be compensated for it just like everyone else around them. Why else would one create a "society made me do it" scapegoat, and ignore the realities of time worked, time taken off for childbirth/care (because we all know there are absolutely no differences between men and women regarding giving birth), field of study, etc.

Instead of trying to establish a thought police state, how about addressing the actual systemic issues that contribute to this, so called, problem? Or are you unwilling to advocate for equality when it is beneficial to men, possibly at the expense of denying women who use their children as weapons of revenge to continue using that option

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Submitted by Kratch on Sat, 2014-04-26 03:52