By James E. Pogue NEW YORK – If there’s one thing, we haven’t gotten right in all these years, it’s wiping out patriarchy and its obvious scourge of discrimination and sexual bias, across the board. I’m not simply speaking of patriarchal hierarchies in business in the U.S. – I’m reminding you that patriarchy rears its ugly head everywhere in the world. Suffice it to say, it’s a global pandemic that we as emotionally intelligent, Western or Eastern-educated adults must take responsibility for eradicating. Men especially, must step up and speak out against gender bias in the workplace and at home. In the fast-paced digital global-based societies, most of us live in – something has got to change. That something has to be our minds, especially the minds of conservative women, men, and boys. Traditions die hard, I get that, but personal tradition must not come at the expense of doing the right thing which means making the world a more egalitarian, fair place for everyone, not just for an elite few.
The fact is that women comprise the majority of the world’s population and the reason we are seeing pushback on total equal rights for women has a lot to do with people’s comfort zones and not wanting to rock the status quo. Those who want you to believe that rocking the status quo is a “bad thing” are those who remain exceedingly uncomfortable with giving others access to the base of power. One prime example is Donald J Trump aka ‘The Donald’ because he can’t stand to see anyone else in the limelight or anyone else take credit for a job well done. What ‘The Donald’ epitomizes are people’s fantasies of the way they would like to show up publicly – pretending to be fearless, all-knowing, and charismatic. But ‘The Donald’ is just one famous example because there are a plethora of wannabe ‘The Donalds’ all across the globe. That’s not the whole story though – men are still making excuses for why they can’t or won’t take responsibility for their behavior toward women and girls. Now, that is not only dangerous, it’s outrageous.
A case in point is the recent CNN article on October 4, discussing the controversy surrounding laws in India on marital rape, which states it’s currently outlawed in over 100 countries. Yet, the article also mentions that India still “remains among the three dozen countries – along with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia – where the law remains on the statute books.” The article goes on to explain that it’s a controversial issue in India and there is an increasing outcry to criminalize rape within marriage, there. What is particularly stunning is what the article states: “But the Indian government, religious groups and men’s rights activists have opposed any plans to amend the law saying consent for sex is “implied” in marriage and that a wife cannot retract it later.” Afghanistan is another case in point, where after U.S. troops pulled out, the Taliban took over and quashed all the rights Afghan women and girls had had for over 20 years. During U.N. meetings two weeks ago, well-known U.S. actress Meryl Streep said that in Afghanistan “cats have more rights than women” and that women and girls are not even allowed to go to parks anymore. But what about the U.S., where after Roe v. Wade was struck down, currently women and doctors are being penalized for men’s behavior – getting a woman pregnant. Even in the supposed “land of the free” – women are being prevented from making their own reproductive decisions by white, Christian, Republican men. Men who are unwilling to call men to take responsibility for getting the women pregnant in the first place. By the way, it was ‘The Donald’ who voted in the conservative Supreme Court justices who voted down Roe v Wade while Melania, his wife, has just publicly come out in favor of women’s reproductive freedom.
I would be remiss if I did not remind you of infanticide where baby girls are killed over a preference for boys, countries where women are still circumcised due to outdated belief systems, and where in Australia, women are still fighting to criminalize domestic violence. On several episodes of 60 Minutes Australia, there were programs that discussed, the fact that Australia still discriminates against women, not to mention the Aborigines. All this is more than a travesty, it’s something that could have been and should have been dealt with – if only women would make a stronger case for themselves and if men would stand up and admit that gender equality is a necessity. With gender equality, women would no longer have to fear being the victims of violent crimes because the attitudes that men hold would be that of seeing women as equals and not as the ‘weaker sex.’ It’s a sad fact that even in America as in other nations, we have a long way to go before women are properly acknowledged as the majority and not the minority. Certainly, a scary thought for certain men and women who prefer to define women within the confines of a “Leave It To Beaver” TV sitcom. There’s just one thing these men and women forgot – America left “Leave It To Beaver” behind a long time ago. When will global society give women their due because there are women who have forged and are forging extraordinary lives and careers – something most of us, including young children and students, never hear about?
If not now, when?
