Defining Inferiority and Superiority? Promoting Equality or Celebrating Difference? What do you think?

This post was brilliant and I agree 100%. We don't know how much of the differences are biological and how much are social.

Thus the only logical path forward is to remove all the social differences we can and see where we get stuck. Basically, there's 3 steps:

1) Equality under the law. This means now law that distinguishes based on sex, and everyone has equal treatment under the law. With the exception of a few dangling issues (abortion, birth control, the draft) we've achieved this.

2) Equality of application of the law. We're not even close to this. Even when the law is the same, we treat people differently based on gender or sex. Despite equal laws, a woman who molests a young boy is not sentenced appropriately in comparison to a man who molests a young girl. Despite laws banning hiring discrimination, women are likely to be paid less or discriminated against in hiring on the basis of their sex.

3) Equal social opportunity. This is the last hurdle. There should be no stigma associated with a woman entering STEM, or a man entering teaching or being a househusband. There should be no stigma associated with a woman having a lot of past sexual partners, or a man having none. Again, we're not even close to this.

Only once steps 1, 2, and 3 are completed can we make an effective judgement as to how much of our gender inequality is due to biology and how much is social conditioning. If men still outnumber women in STEM or women still outnumber men in caregivers, we just need to accept these differences. What's important is that no man who wants to be a caregiver, nor no woman who wants to be in STEM, feels that they can't be because of their gender - and that everyone has the opportunity to explore and pick what they want to do on an equal footing.

Thus, equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome.

/r/FeMRADebates Thread Parent