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are typically unavailable to men in those circumstances.
(Schenk, pg 10)

While it is difficult to appreciate where these roles are initiated - it's always best to examine childhood and the types of social conditioning those children go through.

Beverly Stitt, in a Time Magazine article titled "Male Stereotyping Isn't Fair", outlined some of this conditioning. She wrote, "Tomboy girls are often affectionately tolerated, but 'sissy' boys are virtual outcasts. This disproportionately greater freedom for girls shifts the double standard into reverse, and the result is greater stress for males." (Stitt, pg 12)

She also stated in this same article that boys are punished more harshly than girls, receive low to mediocre grades, are retained more in grade, and encounter more reading problems. These facts aren't due to differences in intelligence, but according to Beverly, they are due to the fact that young boys are given "social pressure to be tough." They are provided role models on television and the movies that "call forth rebellious, obstreperous behavior, which is not welcomed at school." (Stitt, pg 12).

While most discussions regarding gender equality focus on the social repression of women - a truly all-encompassing discussion about gender equality would focus on what aspects of society repress either gender in different ways. More examples to consider in such a discussion, on the male side, would be:

- Men are forced to pay higher rates for auto insurance due to higher incidents of claims by men; however women do not pay higher rates for health insurance due to higher use of health care services.

- Men have shorter life expectancies than women, yet "women's health" clinics are being erected in every major city in the U.S, and funding for research on women's health issues surpass funding for men's health issues by far.

As a society, we have to start looking at the issue of gender equality from both viewpoints. We need to tackle *all* of the issues - not only a lopsided set of issues. The United States was founded on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Every one of us deserves those basic human rights. I do believe that our country is terribly apathetic regarding this entire range of gender inequality that remains untouched - even after decades of having them in place.

Some day, I hope, everyone who claims to believe in gender equality will learn to understand what the term "gender equality" truly means...and will work to remove those inequalities from our laws and our institutions that continue to keep our society from experiencing true gender equality.

Learn more about this author, Ryan Dube.
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