Well hear we are, back at the beginning of the debate. Do we want equal opportunities for all or do we want equal outcomes for all?
The U.N. released a report as noted in TIME that said the latter is what the world should strive for. I know this sounds like communism… Well it is communism, but apparently it’s for a good cause. It’s for the benefit of women. It’s not fair that they would be expected to perform the same as men. They often decide to stay home and raise children, and why should that affect their bottom line? Why in the world would anyone’s decisions have to change the outcome or solvency of someone’s lifestyle.
You think maybe I’m exaggerating? Nope, here’s a quote.
“We must go beyond creating equal opportunities to ensure equal outcomes,” the report says. “‘Different treatment’ may be required to achieve real equality in practice.” This report, called progress of the world’s Women 2015–2016,
I wonder how far this should go? Should we ensure that the decision to not go to college or university has no affect on a persons life outcome. It’s really not fair to stop someone from becoming a programmer just because they never went to school to learn to program! Maybe they couldn’t afford it? Maybe they decided that they just don’t have enough time to dedicate to study and work which would cause them not to be able to spend the time at home that they are entitled too.
Ahhh, the age old question. Do I spend more time at work and make more money or do I spend more time with my family? One allows me to provide a better standard of living for my family, the other allows me to be there for my family in person. It’s not fair that one seems to always come at the cost of the other, and life should always be fair you know.
Another jewel from the article addresses this apparent inequality
“Removing legal barriers to female employment is not enough, the report says, noting that “we also need measures that free up women’s time.”
I don’t know of any legal barriers to women’s employment, admittedly I live in the west and we have a much richer society than many of the countries they are referring to.
The U.N. is calling for more “decent work” for women, which they define as a job that is well paid, secure and “compatible with women’s and men’s shared responsibility” for children and housework. The report also says redistributing household duties is “critical” for achieving substantive equality worldwide.
So men should do less paid work and women should do more paid work. Who gets to decide how a household should run? Should it not be up to the people who live in that household? If it makes more sense for a man to work out of the house due to an income he can likely expect in comparison to her then who is the U.N. to tell these people they are wrong. That if only they would split each duty evenly, never one doing more than the other on any specific task regardless of what it does to a specific household, we can finally expect to see parity.
So how about these thoughts, mandate that half of parental leave be taken by the father, if there is no father then there is no second half of the leave, same would go for fathers if there was no mother in the picture. This would allow men to spend more time with their kids in their formative years and simultaneously force women to gain valuable seniority and experience in the job market.
We could ensure women are filling up the fields that have few of them by mandating what courses are available to them when they apply to university or college. We could say, no we have enough women nurses, you are eligible to take engineering or math this semester. How about we do the same for men, no sir, engineering isn’t available to you, you can take early childhood education, or nursing this semester.
I know that there are places out there where gender roles are fairly seriously enforced by society, but telling industries, companies, governments and employers that women need special rules and a helping hand helps no one. Especially women. I sometimes think the major difference between a feminist and a member of the MHRA is that the feminist doesn’t truly believe that Women are absolutely as capable of making wise decisions regarding their own life, or that they should have to bear the responsibility for those actions. The MHRA on the other hand says, ‘Go ahead, Make your bed and lie in it just as we all do.’
