European Tribune - Babies are the best ally of male domination
What is the "silent revolution" that has been happening under our eyes these past thirty years?The economic crisis has made work harder, more unreliable, and more stressful. Women are the first ones affected: they get an education, look for work, are underpaid and get thrown away like Kleenex. That's the starting point of the upheaval. In the 90's, the right proposed maternal benefits that brought women back home with the equivalent of half the minimum wage as their sole compensation. At the same time, consumerism is looked upon more critically. The notion has taken hold that we've been on a blind path in race towards pointless ambitions, and that another life, more compatible with nature, is possible. Many women have been receptive to this view. And so they asked themselves, "What if I made it my [primary] goal to take care of my little child, in short, to be the perfect mother?" Along with this goes an overall criticism of scientific progress, of science "sold to industry". Everyone is suddenly so cautious about everything. All this has created new behaviors, new fears, that lead to a return to fundamentals.
And I think this quote is spot on, though very possibly for different reasons then Badinter. The story of progress where everyone would eventually live in luxury included a promise for material equality between the genders, as part of the general dream of freedom from work, at the core of capitalism and communism both. If robots can work the fields and manage the plants, why not raise the children and care for the home?
So yeah, that dream is dead, or at least heading there. And there is potential for a long backlash - women exit or are pushed out of the workplace, focus on home as the allowed area, that turns back the clock on expectations, women becomes expected to stay home more thus promoted less and offered fewer important positions, which lessens the economic importance for the family of the mother working, which increases the importance of the father working... all the way back to the 50ies.
Question is, given that the capital-/commun-/consumer-ism dream was unsustainable, what new narrative for equality can replace it? A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
The story of progress where everyone would eventually live in luxury included a promise for material equality between the genders, as part of the general dream of freedom from work, at the core of capitalism and communism both.
Indeed. And one of the ironies of feminism has been that men and women now compete in the same market and are supoosed to be natural adversaries, which makes organised resistance to market-think more difficult than it used to be.
I still find it wretchedly depressing that so many feminist arguments are about how much less 'women' earn compared to 'men', and not about how markets guarantee that neither women nor men have security, or personal and professional dignity - unless they have a seat on the board.
There is still a genuine pay gap issue of women being paid less than men doing like work or work of equal value. We have 20,000 equal pay claims in the Welsh Tribunal system and the vast majority of them are equal value claims.
'Men's jobs' ie refuse collectors and other low level jobs that are dominated by men are valued more highly than those women tend to be concentrated in such as cleaning and catering. So at that level, yes there is still a real issue about men being paid more than women. I'm writing an evidence paper to the Assembly on this right now.
However, I point out a great deal that the overall argument on gender equality isn't a women vs men one - it is that 'type' of alpha male/female vs the rest of us who aren't willing to sacrifice our lives and stomp on other's to get to the top. But those who dominate at the top continue to set the standard the rest of us must meet if we want to get there too. This argument is sinking in more lately. It is about changing the entire culture of how people are expected to live and work and the values we want in our society.
It is entirely self defeating to carrying on screeching about men as a collective being the sole culprits of gender inequality. Ad astra per aspera
