This pretty much sums up how I feel about gender equality! Lots of stomping and roaring, but very few overturned cars! Now get your undies out of a bunch, I am not saying that we shouldn't have gender equality. I am actually all for it! I think we need to overturn more cars and crush more buildings. I crave to see the day when women in the work force earn as much as their male associates in the same roles. I long for the days when men have equal responsibilities in maintaining a household and raising children.
As of today, women still earn about 78% of what men earn in the workforce. If you want to take a look at some of the articles and numbers, take a look HERE and HERE, or just Google the topic. Some argue that this statistic is misleading and leaving out many variables, however, closer inspection finds that even when men and women occupy the same jobs, the men usually make more money. They are also generally selected over women for job positions and promotions. If you look at this from an equality standpoint, this makes no sense, as both applicants for the job would have to have the same eligibility requirements (education, experience, etc.) to obtain the position. Isn't this discrimination? Corporations argue that it is not, it is just economics. Last time I checked, women do not pay less for their education. Nor are their housing and living expenses less than that of men. Economically then, this argument also makes little sense. In the 1970's and 1980's, orchestras began to ponder the question of equality in their workforce and started holding blind auditions. Guess what? The number of female musicians who qualified for the available positions went up. So both genders had the ability to do the same job and earn the same amount of money? Apparently so.
Delve further into the world of statistics, you might be surprised to find that higher percentage of women go to college than men, but that despite this, the wage earning discrepancy can be found in every state and in every occupation, including ones dominated by women. The same holds true whether the woman is single or married, with or without children, regardless of age. As a matter of fact, the older the woman gets, the wider the gap gets!
But the gender equality gap doesn't stop there. Move into the domestic arena and things often get pretty ugly. My accolades to the stay-at-home-dads who do it all, or to the single fathers who are raising their kids solo. I sing the praises of men, single or attached who can thrive in both the workforce and the domestic arena.
But all too often, as one father wrote in his blog, the bar is set too low. Men's domestic roles are woefully lagging. Research shows that women do twice as much housework as men, even when they work full time jobs. Despite the increase of women in the workforce, they still bear most of the responsibility for child care (yes, all puns intended). Men spend an average 7% of their time on child care, up from the 2.5% average in 1965! I am not even going to bother citing articles - do a web search for yourself if you don't believe me.
No, all men do not fall in the do-little category! My husband is a shining example of this. During his time as a stay-at-home parent, he cooked, cleaned, did the laundry, potty trained and took care of our daughter. He paid bills, ran errands, arranged any babysitters we needed and planned out all our vacations. He even braved the grocery store (still does, although whether he does this out of our pantry needs or to keep me out of jail is yet to be determined). Prior to his full time role, he had no qualms coming home from work and cooking dinner or cleaning house. To him this was stuff that just needed to get done.
Unfortunately, this is not the story I hear from most of my female friends. They are not only working for lower wages, but after a long day at the office, they go home and try and keep domestic order. They cook just about all the meals, do most of the housework and handle nearly all the child rearing duties.
Their male partners have to mow the lawn. Some of them even hold down a full time job. A job at which they make more money than the woman would.
And I ask myself - What is equal about that?
We have made great strides toward gender equality. Women can now vote. They can drive. They can pursue a higher education. They can strive for careers and get jobs that were previously unavailable to women. They can now legally hold property. At least in our country. But we still don't have gender equality. We aren't there yet.
If we were, my husband would not be such a bright shining example.
Today I found this picture on my desk with a note from one of my husband's co-workers. It made me smile. Yes, my husband is charming and handsome. Moreover, he is truly special and a hero to me in my isolated world of true gender equality. But Ron, I didn't need a picture to remind me how special my husband really is.
I opened the empty dishwasher this morning.
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