by Michael T. Heath

Created on: June 05, 2010

Able To Discern

The status of gender relations in our world today has never been better - for women. Untold atrocities are still being perpetrated upon females worldwide including genital mutilation, sexual assaults and murder. The reason I say things have never been better is that at least we're aware of much more than we used to be and in many developed countries women have achieved legal parity with their male counterparts. Here in the United States, for instance, we can expect to see another  female Supreme Court justice this time around and the likelihood of a female head of state in our lifetime. Countries as diverse as Germany and Israel have sported women leaders. There is little doubt in educated circles that women have all the qualifications - and toughness of character - to be placed in such vaunted seats of power. 

But I digress. The essential question was whether men and women want equality. If we merely go by passage of legislation ensuring just such treatment under law, we would have to conclude that men, at least, are willing to accede to women their rightful place alongside policy makers, bank presidents and judges of the male persuasion. The thoughts of women themselves I will have to divine from my childhood growing up with six sisters, two marriages plus two daughters. None of these women ever deferred to me or any man on any matter of importance (Ok, we can open jars you can't. Big deal). My mother treated her eight children equally, so we all learned to treat both men and women fair and square when we grew into adults. Having differences is not the same as inferiority: I acknowledge that certain people - male or female - have skills which others don't. My sisters kill me at tennis, and I can build a chair from scratch. Barak Obama can run a nation and Hillary Clinton can ... well, I believe she could do the same, actually. Just because I don't happen to love Sarah Palin doesn't diminish the fact that she was governor of the largest state in the union. Sure, most of it is tundra and black flies and she didn't complete her term in office, but she did prove her equality with the manly men of Alaska when she whacked them wolves from an airplane. Wow!

But I digress. The evidence is all around that women and men can perform much the same duties, many of which were exclusively gender-defined roles in the gloomy past. We aren't ignorant of the facts anymore. They've been put before us, lived among us and tapped us on the forehead all through our lives. It's not truth's fault if we simply choose to ignore the facts. We need to accept and move forward. And of course wipe out all unfair treatment of women and girls and babies that is still perpetrated on them worldwide under the mantle of religion, of prejudice, or plain meanness. That has got to stop immediately.

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