Monday, July 28, 2014

How does this equal rights thing work?

     I completely understand the push for equal rights between men and women. It makes sense that a women, that is equally qualified for a job, should be paid the same as a man. A women's opinion should never be taken less seriously than a mans. Women should be provided all the rights and privileges that men have. My question is, when will men get the same rights as women? I can think of many circumstances in which men get the short end of the stick in todays society.
     Lets start with jobs. If a man and woman are both doing the same job, and have the same skills, and can both accomplish the job, in the same fashion, in the same time frame, they should be compensated in the same way, without a doubt. The problem is, there are far more jobs that men do better than women. Almost all of the trades require physical strength. There are strong women, capable of accomplishing what most men can do, but the majority of women, are smaller, and have less muscle mass. This isn't discrimination, this is reality, or as I like to call it, fact. The average man is about half a foot taller than the average women and weighs 30+ lbs more. When it comes to lifting, hammering, dragging, pulling, or carrying anything of substantial weight, men are better. When it comes to being faster, stronger, more aggressive, men are also better. So whether it's carrying heavy piping up 14 flights of stairs on a job site, or trying to tackle a 300lbs linebacker, men are better equipped. So right of the bat, professional sports, and construction, goes to men. Add the fact that men either excel at, or at least have a much bigger interest in understanding how motorized things work, and almost all skilled trades go to men, and that's a huge percentage of the work force. Mens added strength and willingness to get down and dirty on a work site, make them more employable then women in a huge range of jobs, from firefighters, to cops, to mechanics, to plumbers, to professional athletes, to military. And when it comes to most other jobs, office jobs, sales, engineers, etc, men are at least as employable as women. So to demand that every employer higher an equal number of men and women is ridiculous and the government knows it. The government forces employers to higher a diverse workforce. A percentage of an employers staff must be a visible minority, to reflect the diversity living in the surrounding areas, but the government has implemented no such rule to include women. Why? Sorry but if you want to push for equal rights, then fine. A man that can lift more concrete on a job site, than the average women, therefore is more qualified, so the job must go to him.
     The other point that interests me, is the legal aspect of a women rights when it comes to divorce and child custody. Approximately 85% of court cases result in the mother of a child, or children, winning full custody of the children. When trying to decipher why that is, it comes down to a few things. 1: That's always how it's been, so that's how it goes. 2: The mother doesn't work, and the father does, so the mother has the time to take care of the children and 3: The father makes more money, and can more easily afford to pay child support. Now of those things, where does equal rights for men come in? Men either work, or make more money, so they can't have their kids? I would think it would be pretty easy for a man to not work, or make less money, then could he get custody?
     My last point, is on the home front. More and more of the work load that comes with children is being shared by both parents. I makes sense. It's both parents kids, so it should be both of their jobs. Traditionally, the man worked, made the money (being more easily employable as I've mentioned) and the women stayed at home and raised the children. Today unfortunately, the cost of living is high, and in order to afford all the shit we don't need, both men and women need to be employed. Again, it makes sense that if both parents are working 40 hours a week, they should both put in equal time to help rear the children. Men traditionally worked his 9-5 job, and maintained, the cars, and cut the grass, and trimmed the trees, did the renovations, and fixed the broken tap, and changed the hot water tank. Women vacuumed, did the dishes, cleaned the windows, did the laundry and spent more time with the children. There is one problem with this. Women want equality. They want men to do half the vacuuming, half the dishes, half the child rearing, which is all fine and dandy, but when is the last time the women in the house changed the oil in her car? Men still work 40 hours a week, and still do all of the "blue jobs" around the house, but are now expected to do 50% of the "pink jobs". How is equality sharing 50% of pink jobs, and leaving 100% of blue jobs to men? When did what men do for the household, become less important?

     There was once a time when men were respected and appreciated for taking care of the household. The ability to keep a house in good condition, keep the car running smooth, keep the yard trimmed nice and keep food on the table was desirable quality. Now it seems the more desirable man, is the man that can change a diaper in 45 seconds, run a vacuum cleaner while holding a baby and put baby to bed at night. Oh, and he needs to make enough money to pay someone to do the oil change on the car, change the hot water tank and renovate the bathroom, because he doesn't have time for, or know how to do blue jobs.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting point. I do almost all of the "pink" jobs, not because I'm a woman, but because I only work 32 hours a week. If my husband had Mondays off and never worked OT, I would expect him to do all the pink jobs.
    Funnily, we have a friend who has two children. His wife stays home to raise them, and yet he has to work and commute and is still expected to get up and see to them when they wake up in the night, though she doesn't have a job to go to.
    I'm not sure what my point is, but I will say there is some weirdness out there when it comes to the man/woman divide.

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