The Great Gender War: Women Win in a Rout!

For about 40 years now women have complained that they haven't been treated fairly. In all walks of life, the complaint went, they were handed the short end of the stick. Their role in our unjust society was as the old German cliche, Kinder, Kuche und Kirche (children, church and kitchen). And it must be said, more often than not they had a point. Women should be paid as well as men for the same job. Women should be given the same opportunities and access, all things being equal.

But the pendulum has swung in their favor, in some areas years ago. Women are the majority on campus in every discipline apart from engineering, and they're quickly catching up there. They earn most of the degrees, graduate and post graduate. Women make up the majority of the labor force. 40% of women make more money than their husbands. Women's healthcare, both funding and research are skewed heavily in their favor. And it goes on and on.

But now we have reached the point of diminishing returns. Women quite obviously no longer need a helping hand, and the unintended consequences of many of these perhaps once needed programs have been to degrade opportunities for men. For example, Title IX was designed to give women more athletic opportunities in high school and college. Ok fair enough, but women are less interested in athletics than men and they tend to participate in non revenue generating sports. And although quotas were specifically prohibited in the law, it would be useless without de-facto quotas. As a result hundreds of men's golf, tennis, track, swimming etc. etc. have been eliminated by schools all across the country. And just for the record I haven't seen any affirmative action for college theatre or dance where males are woefully underrepresented.

The facts are crystal clear. If there is one sex that is falling behind, it ain't women. If the criteria for affirmative action, set asides or quotas is the actual state of men, especially young men, then we need a law for them. Unfortunately perception is not always reality and politics rule the day, and women hold the victim card.