As far as the earnings gap goes, there are sound reasons for this. First of all, the Equal Pay Act has been in effect since 1963. If you believe you are being discriminated against based on your gender by your employer, you have a right to sue them in a court of law. Second, women and men typically have different ideas for what they want out of their career. Men typically are more ambitious in the workplace, while women typically choose to shift more focus from their career to their family after childbirth, most likely due to maternal instincts. On that topic, women's devotion to their family and maternity leave deducts from their hours worked, another factor that often goes unconsidered.
i personally prefer to believe the majority of the wage gap that exists is not accounted for by individually lowered wages since that is illegal, although realistically this is hard to prove in court in many cases, and traditionally businesses like to stretch the law wherever they find they're able. i do not, however, agree that men and women must be delegated to certain jobs be nature. this is purely a result of cultural influence, and there's no reason why a civilised society today should rely on primitive hunter-gatherer customs. in essence, my argument in this area goes back to gender roles and their tendency to cause social and economic equality by creating stereotypical expectations for men and women that lead them into particular fields.
Reproductive rights is a tricky one, but that is to be expected. It is a VERY controversial topic, so do not expect it to go uncontested. It is not just feminists that advocate abortion, the pro-choice crowd spans a wide variety of groups and individuals. I believe that is all that needs to be said for that.
true, however it's worth noting i was looking at abortion/birth control from a specifically feminist point of view, that it can be seen and argued as an issue of women's rights. the validity of those arguments isn't necessarily my concern, that's not what i'm meaning to promote, the purpose of stating all these points is to say that feminism is still an ideology geared toward the advancement of women's liberty and equality in society, and the widespread argument of abortion/birth control from the perspective of women's rights supports that claim. my statements about stigma concerning pregnancy and motherhood still stand.
Gender roles suck. They're unfortunate, but they're also how our species has survived, in a way. Gender roles are the employment of either masculinity or femininity to achieve the best results. It makes sense, evolutionarily. But we must look at the negative effects of this push. Masculinity is a fragile thing sometimes. A man wants to be needed, myself included. We like to provide. It's in our nature. When you attack masculinity, you attack us, in a sense. Male Self Delete rates are higher than ever, especially in England, where the leading cause of death for men age 35 and below is Self Delete. Why? It's because we have lost our role as providers. We have lost our use. Feminism does try to justify it to others like myself by saying, "look! Gender roles affect men too!", and while that is true, it is very obvious they do not actually care. I'm not attempting to argue for a strict enforcement of gender roles, I just don't think you see all the negative side effects.
there is no reason why we should live in the modern world bound by hunter-gatherer tactics. we have the medical power today to ensure that pregnant women and infants can survive and be safe, as well as sufficient safety from nature. gender roles are not tools; they are cultural expectations by their very definition (
obligatory wikipedia link for additional information). the effect you are observing with men is a negative outcome of gender roles; men and women have these cultural expectations impressed upon them from birth, and as a result these expectations quickly become natural to them. this is why it's incredibly difficult to study gender differences in a vacuum, gender socialisation (some links:
1 2 3) begins at the very youngest age. if your hypothesis about the source of male Self Delete rates is true, i would contend that this is a result of internal conflict concerning the cultural pressure to act as a sole provider in a time of relatively poor economic prosperity where fulfilling that role is significantly more difficult, and not the result of people's supposed natural tendencies being overstepped by feminists. the very idea that one would so easily push their nature would, in my mind, act as evidence against the idea that that nature truly exists; instinct is inescapable.
How are women underrepresented in politics? You do not have to be a woman to advocate for women. Hell, look at Obama, who tried to pass a law that was already in place, on women's behalf! I feel that is all that needs to be said.
women are have significantly less
direct representation. there is an incredibly apparent difference in the numbers of male and female representatives in public office. this again ultimately ends up back at gender roles, but the heart of the claim is that males
most closely hold the majority of political power in western governments, therefore women have much lesser direct political influence in comparison to males.
You will have to elaborate on the media part. I do not quite understand the point you're trying to make.
you've probably heard it before, so i won't spend too much time on it. media (television, games, movies, books, etc.) typically presents men and women as more idealised models that fit a cultural archetype, which perpetuates detrimental gender stereotypes and expectations that can negatively affect individuals by causing them to feel naturally pressured to conform to unrealistic standards. gender roles again oops
Feminism rarely even addresses the male side of violence. I have seen a few, however, but it is still very rare. Many feminists will cite the RAINN statistic for rape and domestic abuse of women, but forget that also according to that statistic, men are the biggest victims of overall violence. Usually their response to this has been something about how "masculinity is the root cause of that" or something along those lines. I will point out, though, that feminism did not start acknowledging that men could still be raped until it was brought to their attention by a large, unnamed, group of people. Still, we see some feminists that still feel this way.
admittedly my opinion on this topic is less-developed than mine on other topics. this is another point where i was simply pointing out an area where feminism works in areas that are perceived to contain some form inequality.
i've said it a couple of times in all that; my point in listing those topics was to show that feminism is still applicable in western culture and is being used in ways that are actually legitimate rather than petty. whether or not you agree is a matter of your own personal ideological alignment, but what i mean to express is that feminism isn't an effectively dead movement.
