Why do women discriminate against women in developed countries?
I can understand why people in less developed countries hold ultra conservative views — it’s the trap of the culture, it’s the lack of opportunities to be exposed to progressive thought and education.
But I really don’t understand how WOMEN in countries like the US can support a stand to discriminate against women based on ultra conservative religious views.
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=1971&department=CWA&categoryid=nation
“Proponents of comparable worth say legislation is necessary to ensure equalization of wages. Feminists claim that a woman earns only 76 cents for every dollar a man earns. Yet that figure is skewed because it does not take into account job choice, position, age, experience, education and consecutive years in the work force. Using all women in their calculations distorts the statistics. Also, children change the earning equation—many women prefer to put their child’s best interest first and take a cut in hours to invest time in their families.”
This for example.
Can you tell if it’s supposed to be a feminist or anti-feminist argument?
Just a random thought of the day.
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And some women just earn less because they can afford to. Some wives have a husband who’s already earning enough. Smaller salary, smaller responsibilities.
Hi Mathia,
I think it’s a mistake to believe that “culture” encourages discrimination only in developing countries and not only in developed ones, or that “progressive thought and education” are dominant in all developed countries.
Perhaps one way of addressing the question is to ask, why do you limit the question to women? In other words, why do you think men and boys discriminate against women and girls in developed countries like the United States? It’s not because men and boys are immutably always going to discriminate against women and girls because of something inescapable in the Y chromosome. It’s because they live in a society and are brought up in a culture which encourages them to discriminate – not in the same ways and not always to the same extent as happens elsewhere, but nevertheless that culture is there.
Why should you expect girls and women to escape the same cultural forces that shape the thinking of boys and men? Girls and women are trained extensively in gender roles and discrimination from day one: when all the family turns up with the pink (gender-colour-coded) clothing and when the family only buys little Baby dolls and play-kitchen sets and when it’s okay for Brother to tumble in the mud and climb trees but Sister is told, “You don’t want to do that, girls don’t like such mucky things, do they? I bought you this lovely make-up kit to play with instead” etc., etc. I am over-simplifying and obviously there are conflicting dynamics at play, but the point is that women and girls are trained in misogyny and sexism just as much, if not more, than men and boys are. This accounts – to me – for a lot of the claims that women and girls are neurotic etc. Of course many are: we’ve been taught to hate ourselves!
The fact is that there is no necessary connection between a country becoming richer and its attitudes becoming more enlightened. What’s needed is work – consciousness-raising, activism, progressive art and media – and that work meets active opposition which is still trying to maintain a system of gender hierarchy, heterosexism, cissexism etc. As the feminist quip has it – we’ve got a long way to go, baby.
Jolene
On this note… this might interest you!
http://pennyred.blogspot.com/2009/05/humourless-feminazi-2-why-its-not-about.html
If I am not wrong, I think they belong to the same group as the pro-religion activists (creationism, pro-abstinence only, etc).
Personally, I think the main qualms they have against CEDAW are the sections on gender re-education, abortion, homosexuality and prostitution. The rest are just red herrings.
And I think it is due to the differences between a left and right winged brain (although I think they are on the extreme side).
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/09/20/liberal-conservative-brain-differences/
My opinion is that they rejected CEDAW just because of that few minor issues they disagree with and compromise doesn’t exists for them. It is either good or bad. And hence, CEDAW is considered bad regardless of how it may help women. To them compromise is the first step towards evil (Satan’s lies).
But personally, I feel that too much of anything is bad, including self-righteousness.