Feminism 201
After the meeting
Therefore, what?
Step 1:
Talk to your children
All Ages
1. How are boys and girls different? How are they the same?
2. What do you think are good traits that boys have that benefit society?
3. What are good traits that girls have that benefit society?
4. What do fathers do for their families? (Protect, provide, watch over…)
5. Encourage your children to respect men and the positive role they play in society and in life. Don’t participate in the denigration of men.
Step 2:
Talk to family members and friends
Men's Rights
1. Are you aware of the Men’s Rights Movement (MRM)? What are your thoughts on it?
2. Are you equally interested in the rights and issues facing men and women? Do you think society is paying equal attention to both sexes?
Societal Benefits of Men and Women
1. What talents and benefits do men provide to society? Are those contributions interchangeable with women?
Masculinity
1. Are men less masculine now than in previous generations? Is it true that feminists want to turn men into women? Could the reverse also be true?
2. Do we shame men for trying to be kind?
Step 3:
Engage the Broader Community
Men and Education
1. Encourage your K-12 schools and universities to more fully recognize and address the needs of boys and men. Watch your child’s school curriculum for derogatory and unhelpful references and messaging to men and boys. Work towards correcting the problem.
2. Encourage your school district to actively recruit male teachers. Your sons need their influence. Studies show that male teachers have a highly positive influence on young men. Be a part of the solution by encouraging men, within your realm of influence, to go into the teaching profession.
3. Reactivate the school recess time; boys, in particular, benefit from recess. Recess time does more to improve grades than studying.
4. Support efforts to provide and improve vocational training opportunities. Vocational training grads get jobs.
5. Encourage the inclusion of organized sports at school, with specific focus on sports programs that incoporate all students and celebrate the achievement of less well-known boys.
Laws Affecting Men
1. Watch for legislation and policies that unfairly penalize men- including in divorce and child custody law. (See the work of Stephen Baskerville).
Encourage Discussion
1. Give permission for boys and men to speak up about their reality. Ask them their feelings about their role in society; what pressures do they feel- including the challenge of being a provider and protector?
Talking Points- Feminism II
If it were true that an employer could pay a woman $0.79 an hour for the same work he’d have to pay a man $1 to do, why would an employer ever hire a man?
Our sons, husbands, and fathers die at a younger age than women from fourteen out of fifteen leading causes of death.
Millions of moms make sacrifice of careers and millions of dads make sacrifices in careers.
The median full-time salaries of young women in America’s metropolitan areas are eight percent higher than those of the men in their peer group.
James Chung, Reach Advisors, Analysis of data from Census Bureau, American Community , 2008 (2010).
Men who work full time on average work 8.5 percent more hours per day than their female counterparts. When work included weekends or holidays, men work 17.3 percent more hours.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Time spent working by full-and part-time status, gender, and location in 2014,” TED: The Economics Daily, July 2015.
Women account for 51 percent of all workers in the high-paying management, professional, and related occupations.
CONSAD Research Corporation, “An Analysis of Reasons for the Disparity in Wages Between Men and Women,“ U.S. Department of Labor, Contract Number GS-23F-02598, Task Order 2, Subtask 2B, (2009).
Men dominate the 20 most dangerous, low-paying professions. When it comes to being crushed, mutilated, electrocuted, or mangled at work, men are at a distinct disadvantage. Over ninety percent of the 5000 American workers who die from workplace accidents each year are male.
Tests by the Program for International Student Assessment find boys are falling behind girls in almost every academic area in more than 60 of the largest developed nations. These countries have two things in common 1) Societal permission for divorce and 2) the normalization for women having children without being married.
Women outnumber men in graduate school, they earn the majority of doctoral degrees, and are the majority of enrollees in law and medical school. Single women buy their own homes at more than twice the rate of single men.
The more egalitarian the society, the more different from men, women become.
Armin Falk and Johannes Hermle, “Relationship of Gender Differences in Preferences to Economic Development and Gender Equality,” Science, Vol. 362, 2018.
The more a wife worked full-time outside the home, the less the husband earned; whereas part-time work actually increased the husband’s earnings.
Carla Shirley and Michael Wallace, “Domestic Work, Family Characteristics, and Earnings: Reexamining Gender and Class Differences.” The Sociological Quarterly 45 (2004): 663-690.
Women who adhere to feminist ideology (participation in women’s liberation groups, using one’s maiden name, voting for far-left political parties, etc.) have a 52 percent higher risk of divorce than do women with traditional values.
Matthus Kalmijn, Paul M. De Graaf, Anne-Rigt Poortman, “Interactions Between Cultural and Eco-nomic Determinants of Divorce in The Netherlands,” Journal of Marriage and Family, 66 (2004):75-89.
Compared to traditional marriages with stay-at-home mothers who assumed the expressed role of homemaker, nontraditional marriages emphasizing “role-sharing and egalitarianism” were more likely to end in divorce.
Nearly 70 percent of all divorces are initiated by women.
Sixty percent of college graduates are women- forty percent are male.
When only one sex wins, both sexes lose.
Good Intent
Assume everyone has good intent. People you come in contact with, even those who whom you disagree, are usually well-intentioned. When we acknowledge most people want to solve problems and help others, the focus of any discussion or debate can be: “How do we best do that?” Arguing about who has the moral high ground is counterproductive. Keep the conversation to: What will your law and policy suggestions produce – what are potential consequences?
Most people consider themselves to be well-intentioned and moral. The challenge is that people have different definitions and ideas on what is “moral.” Jonathon Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by religion and politics, addresses six different moral foundations from which all people operate: care/compassion, fairness/equality, liberty, loyalty, the Sacred, authority. Those on the left side of the political spectrum tend to respond to, and value, care/compassion and fairness/equality. However, all six of the moral foundations have been found to resonate for most individuals on the right side of the political spectrum.
Understanding people’s beliefs about what is “moral” helps you to understand people’s intentions. You’ll have a clearer understanding of why people do what they do. That can go a long ways toward increasing communication and arriving at the best law and policy decisions.
“Ascribing bigotry to those with whom you disagree is the last refuge of cowards.” Eileen McNamara