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Feminism. It came up, although indirectly, in the comments to my post on Monday. I do believe that women strive to "act like men" at times, and especially in the workplace. Now, before all of you men get your boxers in a bunch, I realize just how sexist that comment is to both genders, but I'm not eloquent enough this morning to put the concept into less sexist words.My dear friend Librarian Lee (who I've *known* for over 10 years now) said it best:
I think I sort of fell off the feminist bandwagon when I got the impression that all that won freedom was so that we could be more like men. That camp, to me, is buying into the notion that men ARE better, men are the rule and women the exception. And, I absolutely disagree. I had hoped that the goal was to say, something like, we are women, we birth and nurture babies and we cry and we make homes, yet we are valued, and so are our tears, and we are strong and capable and 50%, not the exception. We've accepted that the workplace should be "male" and I have to wonder what it would look like if it were male and female.
Feminism first got its big push when Title IX was passed in 1972. For those of you
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
In a nutshell, Title IX gave girls "equal" opportunity in many areas, but specifically in education and school sanctioned sports. It was needed as this country was still a bit resistant to the idea that women deserved the same opportunities as men.
The problem? Somewhere along the line, womens' equality morphed into "women must act like men." I don't blame men for this. In fact, I really don't blame anyone for this. I think it likely happened because women looked at the behaviors of successful men, and emulated those behaviors as they strived for their own success. What we ended up with was a feminist movement that moved women to act like men.
Men and women are different. We are physically different (don't get all d'uh on me here - you know what I mean). We are emotionally different. Women are not better, nor worse than men, but we are different. "Acting like men" minimizes our importance and contribution as women.
Gender equality isn't about sameness, it's about equal opportunities, and more importantly, equal value in society - for both women and men.
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