Women's Equality - Less Self Evident?

More and more news stories are covering events that are concerned with women's issues. How the US military defines the role of female soldiers in battle. How the crime of rape is prosecuted in India, and, surprisingly, in California. How a few religious zealots could be convinced that God would approve the shooting of a 14 year old girl because she believes that she, and other women, have equal rights as men. All this is deeply troubling for me especially since all this, and more, has been occurring for centuries. So I am encouraged to see so many of these stories in the headlines.

To solve a problem, you first have to admit you've got one. And we've do indeed got one.

It's the oldest one we do have - treating women as if they were property instead of people. I don't know about you, but all of the women I've ever met were people so I can't fathom why so many of us behave as if they were something less than that.

If the US military has certain qualifications for a job, then every person should have an equal opportunity to qualify. No double standard. "Here's what we need, can you, Mr. or Ms. Person do it?" Enough said. (In the corporate world, we must ask the same question and then PAY the same compensation.) There is no need for paternal protection for the females. Just can and will you do it?

The paternalism endemic to the old policy grows out of the centuries long practice of bartering and selling daughters by their fathers. Or brothers. Or uncle. Or chieftain. Or king. Etc. While the military's approach had been on the benign side of the scale, it arises from the same motive as the attitude in India that was sensationalized when a young women was gang-raped and beaten to death on a bus. The sensation coming from the surprise that this time the culprits were actually going to be prosecuted. But, we Americans should be careful not to deride India's legal actions as antiquated when California was unable to prosecute a rape because an 1876 law that is still on the books defines the rapists actions as a crime only if the woman was married. So much for equal treatment and protection before the law.

Should our government then address this and other such laws? Oh yes, but it, and we, can't stop there. We voters also need to address the government that represents us. This country which was founded on the premise that all men are created equal, was in existence for 144 years before women were granted the right to vote. Representative government has existed on this continent since 1619 but the first women didn't take a seat in either House of Congress until 1917, and 1894 for a representative to sit in a state legislature. Currently women occupy 19% of the House and Senate but 50.8% of the population. We've never had a women President, Vice President, or Chief Justice. There have been only 36 women Governors in US history and 26 states have never elected one.

All people have strengths and weaknesses. It is all our responsibility to stand with our fellow community members even if their strengths or weaknesses might seem incomprehensible or discomforting. They have every right to expect that we men treat them as equals. Equal protection before the law. Equal consideration for positions in battle, compensation, and government. Just equal.