Sexism
is a serious problem everywhere and lately things don't seem to be
getting any better. In rich Western countries women still earn
significantly less than men and have less money to retire on. The vast
majority of rich people including billionaires are men. There are still
shocking levels of domestic violence and femicide.
The problems in Islamic countries are well-known. The biggest problem
in the global South -- and it will soon be the biggest problem
everywhere -- is climate change, which is affecting (and will affect)
women
more than men. That is because women are more often responsible for
children
(care, food, clothes, education...) and men are more mobile.
To solve any problem, we must first identify the causes. Although
sexism
is a cultural phenomenon, it has two obvious biological roots:
- Men are usually taller
and stronger than women.
- Women are the ones who
have babies and breastfeed them.
These obvious differences are
not going to go away, and we wouldn't want them to. But they do provide
clues for the best long-term sustainable approaches to reducing sexism.
- Regarding physical
strength, we need a criminal justice system that treats all violence
and all murder equally regardless of whether it happens within or
outside of relationships. Depending on the country, that might be the
case in the letter of the law, but not always in practice. Another
promising idea is free self-defence courses for women and girls --
another way of reducing the incidence of domestic
violence that also gives women more confidence to assert their equal
rights in any situation. Beyond that, women's and men's sports should
be treated equally at all levels. There has been progress, but there is
still a long way to go. For example, there should be just as much
women's football as men's, at all levels. There is not, of course, but
I know of no good reason why not.
- Regarding children, men
should -- generally and on average -- share all aspects of childcare
equally, and be expected to do so. Employers should be offering men
free and/or compulsory
courses on how to combine fatherhood and career on the assumption that
the father is equally responsible for everything including feeding and
clothing the children, dealing with medical and educational issues, and
simply spending time with them. Governments should be funding such
courses.
The economic system
should motivate men to take time off from work to look after their
infant by a combination of carrots (compensation for lost income) and
sticks (penalties for not devoting enough time to childcare). Divorce
is another example: after a divorce, children should, as a
general rule and on average, spend equal amounts of time with each
parent. Children should
grow up knowing from their own personal experience that men and women
are equally important parents and can easily break out of old-fashioned
gender roles.
Needless to say, the point is
not to make women and men equal. Obviously, they are not. But women and
men should have equality of opportunity. We have been talking about it
for decades, and progress is too slow. The reason some things happen
and others do not might be
that people seem to forget obvious things -- like the original causes
of
sexism and the most obvious ways of overcoming them.
There is also reverse sexism -- disadvantages for men, or at least
perceived disadvantages. They include high rates of male homelessness
and suicide, the readiness of countries to sacrifice male lives
in war, and the simple fact that women live longer. These problems
can be addressed alongside other aspects of sexism:
- Give women more power so
that men and women can see eye-to-eye in conflict situations, without
either side being seen as a victim or somehow disadvantaged.
- Include men in childcare
at the same level as women, encouraging men to be more caring in
general -- including toward ourselves.
Many women are happy with
old-fashioned gender
roles. They should be free to pursue that kind of gender conservatism
-- but
only for themselves, and only in private. They should not be allowed to
slow social progress toward equal opportunity, because equal
opportunity belongs to the most important social goals, enshrined in
the universal declaration of human rights. Gender-conservative women
need to
understand that giving women and men equal rights generally
means reducing or eliminating gender differences of all kinds.
Pretending the opposite, as many still do, perpetuates the differences,
which perpetuates the discrimination.
The
opinions expressed on
this page are those of the author