"BET SHE STANDS UP TO PEE"

This is still true despite all of the attempts throughout the last century to allow women to function as equals. This includes being allowed to vote as well as legal protection against workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.

Any changes are largely cosmetic because the fabric of our society, the weave, has not been altered. Putting aside obvious physical differences, the idea that women and men are equal has not taken root in human psyche even though average IQ is the same among men and women.

For eons, the male has been the gold standard of Homo sapiens. Things men did were valued; things women did were devalued. This continued into our present occupations where most women are in low paid “service” jobs, men are paid better and their jobs are “important.”

One seldom hears of “humankind,” a term that includes women and children. Instead we are told “mankind” is generic and includes all. But a female child early on knows she is NOT a man and a male child knows he is.

Only 10 years ago, Myra and David Sadker published, Failing at Fairness, which was based on their questions to children. What we learn and internalize as children is the basis for our attitude in later life.

Here are some responses from ten years ago. It is scary to realize that they are mostly the same today. [The Sadkers' book, Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls was published by Touchstone Press in 1995.]

When asked their reaction if they woke up and became the “other” gender, many girls feared change but they were intrigued at the thought of being a boy. Others were delighted with the power and opportunities they would have. “People would listen to me and will take me seriously.”

Boys found the thought of being female appalling, disgusting and humiliating; completely unacceptable. “If I was a girl, I would scream. I would duck behind corners so no one would see me.” “I would kill myself.”

These answers still reflect what boys and girls are taught by media, parents, school and peers.

Sure, there are women in high positions in government, universities and businesses but equality has not been obtained, only acceptance. When a woman in authority gives orders to men, one still finds the comment we used as title for this piece uttered derisively behind her back to the amusement of others.

It is not only males who believe in and flaunt their superiority; many women not only support it but contribute to it by never assuming adult responsibilities.

Why bring all this up now, wasn’t it all hashed out in the 60’s and 70’s? Hashed out, yes, but there were no changes made in societal attitudes. It is important now because we are teetering on the edge of trading our Democracy [where women still have hopes for equality] for a Theocracy [where women will lose ground in this struggle].

Women come in dead last in a Theocracy where religion in the hands of soulless men is used to beat them back into the position of property of their husbands, brothers or fathers. Already Bush’s cutting social programs has hurt women.

Already, the Bush government is falsifying scientific information to make it fall in line with their religious views. Case in point is the assertion that abortion causes severe medical problems.

Schools are being pressured to teach creationism as fact. Many articles are circulated purporting to prove that women suffer bad health if they work outside the home. Rush Limbaugh: "Women still live longer than men because their lives are easier" Does anyone know who discovered DNA? Watson and Crick, you say? They got the credit but based their discovery on the work of Rosalind Franklin who was never acknowledged by them or the Nobel Prize award committee for the discovery.

“If the cure for cancer is in the mind of a girl, we may never get it.” -- Myra and David Sadker, Failing at Fairness.

gapperserve@peoplepc.com

2005-010

Copyright 2005 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@peoplepc.com.