Crimes Of Ignorance Part 3: The Designation of Women As Second Class Citizens
So call me Captain Fearless as I plod on regardless.
Let me first lay out my biases here. This will be easy because I only have one.
I am biased against stupidity. I have no time whatsoever for people who hold prejudices against other people simply because they have been told to hate and are too stupid and ignorant to even bother to question that dictum.
When it comes to the treatment of women in society , this, I am sad to say, quite likely includes, about half or more of the male population of the earth.
The Roots Of Gender Bias
Back in the beginning of humanity, gender roles were defined by the idea that the women, who bore and reared the children, would stay at home and take care of that. The men would go out and hunt for food.
It could just as easily been the other way round and in some cultures it actually was.
But the human race has grown up with these gender roles and over time they became stereotypes and biases.
But with the coming of industrialization, women slowly started making their way into the work force. In fact, it could be argued that in both world wars, they actually were the work force, while the men, for the most part (because a lot of women went too), went off and fought the wars.
Ever since the early days of the women’s suffrage movement, women have been fighting for equal status with men. I personally have never seen anything wrong with that. But I am very much in the minority here.
In that mysterious way that prejudices get carried down through generations of men, who labour under the delusion that they are the superior sex, sexism and hatred of women is still quite common in our allegedly evolved society.
I’m only talking about North America and maybe Great Britain and Scandinavia here, because these are models I know and understand to some extent.
What happens in a great many Middle Eastern, Eastern European, African and Asian countries, often defies belief, because they tend to run on ancient tribal customs and don’t really seem to have any desire to modify their view of women as a lower class of human.
But sexism in places where you would think that is all but history is the stuff that fascinates me the most. Because these are the places where the women’s movement is the most active.
The letter contained in this article (link below) pretty much sums up what I think is a widely held belief by men in our society. If you are an enlightened person this will come as no surprise, even in this day and age.
http://www.upworthy.com/angry-about-wonder-woman-a-man-wrote-austins-mayor-a-letter-huge-mistake?c=ufb1
Domestic Violence & Prejudice Against Women
I have seen interviews with women who allegedly supported Trump, but who only did so, and by their own admission, because their husbands threatened then with physical harm if they did not vote that way.
Violence against women in the form of sexual assault and physical assault is at epidemic levels, and it really is a prime indicator of the amount of deep resentment towards women that is felt by men.
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/domestic-violence-statistics_n_5959776.html
“On a global basis, the health burden from gender-based victimization is comparable to that from other conditions already high on the world agenda. Female-focused violence also represents a hidden obstacle to economic and social development. By sapping women's energy, undermining their confidence, and compromising their health, gender violence deprives society of women's full participation.”
Lori L. Heise, Jacqueline Pitanguy , Adrienne Germain
from Violence Against Women : The Hidden Health Burden
http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US2012420219
Women As Second Class Corporate & Entrepreneurial Citizens
Rather than rail on about the inequities that are so obvious in the male dominated corporate world, I would refer you to this article in Forbes which really explains this issue in vivid detail.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2013/02/12/the-top-6-reasons-women-are-not-leading-in-corporate-america-as-we-need-them-to/#6ce6ea02406e
What Ca We Do About This?
The trouble with such a deeply ingrained and generations-old prejudice is that it will probably take as long to alleviate as it did to grow to the chronic level where it sits today.
It really is up to government to create access and support education initiatives that would help to level the perceptual playing field.
It’s up to businesses to start making more opportunities available to women, in much the same way as affirmative action did for minorities in the US.
It’s up to educators, especially at the high school and university levels to start educating young people about gender equality. It’s up to churches and civic organizations to do the same.
It’s up social media to generate conversations about gender equality.
It’s up to the court and penal systems to always include gender equality education for sexual and physical assault against women offenders.
And it’s up to parents to educate their children by their own example.
Unlike wide-spread diseases which are subject to politics and corporate pressure from drug and insurance companies, I believe that gender equality is something that could be achievable in societies like Canada and the US. Maybe not in my lifetime. But doable all the same
This all stems from my personal belief that all humanoids are created equal and should be treated as such in all circumstances.
And that any prejudices held by men towards women only serves to diminish them as human beings.
jim out. Have a great weekend.
If your business has reached the point where talking to an experienced communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.
Download my free ebook