Women's Issue

I thought I might enter a contest wherein I write an essay about a “women’s issue”. Being a woman myself, I thought this might be a fairly easy essay to write… until I really thought about it. Frankly, I couldn’t think of a single “issue” I have that most men I know don’t have also.

Well, there used to be issues I guess. Men don’t have to deal with the inconvenience of monthly-well-you-know. But I’m way past menopausal, so that “issue” doesn’t exist for me anymore. Of course, men don’t have to deal with pregnancy and childbirth either, although nowadays many of them think they do, because they go to prenatal classes and learn to put a diaper on a baby, and learn to “coach” the mother through childbirth. I won’t EVEN go there…

Many companies give new fathers Family Medical Leave so they can spend quality time with their newborn and bond with him, so even THAT isn’t a women’s issue. By the way, nobody gets Family Medical Leave when the kid is 3 or 4 or 5 years old and needs someone to read to him, teach her the alphabet, colors and numbers. That is generally left to Day Care Workers (predominantly female). The mother MIGHT be able to take a sick day if her child is sick, but the daddy usually doesn’t have that same option. Oops. Maybe I should write about men’s issues. Is there a contest for that?

So aside from obvious physical differences and the “issues” they spawn, what are the other issues that are particular to WOMEN? I admit I couldn’t think of any, so I asked a friend, who happens to be an almost militant supporter of women’s rights, and who has actually marched for women’s rights, “What were the rights you were marching for?”

“You know. WOMEN’S rights.”

Oh. “Can you give me an example?”

Looking at me like I was a dimwit, she said, “You know. Like equal PAY.”

Oh. “OK. You’re a nurse. I’m a nurse. I don’t know when any male nurse was paid more than I was for the same job, and for the same time in the job. Do you?”

She didn’t believe that. “Male nurses are ALWAYS paid more.”

That ended that conversation, because pretty much universally in the USA, male nurses are paid on the same pay scale as female nurses in whatever hospital or clinic they work. There is not a separate male and female nurse pay scale. I’m guessing the same goes for teachers, data entry and IT personnel, police officers, food service workers (wait staff), pizza delivery workers, bartenders, cashiers, and just about every other job I can think of.

I know there was a time when some jobs paid men more than women. When I worked for the telephone company as an operator (always females back then), we were paid less than the men who went out and climbed the poles, and back then, women didn’t work the pole-climbing jobs. But that was 1965. Times have changed.

So anyway, I looked it up. I need a CURRENT issue.

According to the Huffington Post, “Men dominate many of the most esteemed professional fields – and get paid more for their work.” So I stand corrected, I guess. I was thinking of women in general, not the small percentage of women who could afford medical school or law school. But the Huffington Post goes on to say, “ It is a fact that women … (doctors, lawyers, architects, etc.) are neither met with the same confidence as their male colleagues, nor receive equal remuneration.” Well THAT’S an issue I guess. For the upper 2 percent of the economic strata. “In 2004, only 16.8 percent of large law-firm partners were women.” Considering that by 2004, almost half of law students were female, that’s an issue I can write about!

Or thought I could, until I read the second Huffington fact: “Work stress disproportionately impacts women. … to succeed in the workplace, women generally do so at the expense of their physical and psychical well-being…”

So in essence, women are smart enough to graduate from law school, but are not always physically or psychologically equipped to handle the stress of being a large firm partner? Could THAT be the reason more of them aren’t large firm partners, rather than the fact that they have ovaries instead of testicles? Oh… I sure can’t write about that. I would be LYNCHED by the NOW, even though I used to personally have two ovaries of my own.

Even in the still male-dominated military, pay is based on rank and time in grade. A female Staff Sergeant with 12 years service and 2 years of it as a Staff Sergeant is paid the same as a male with the same years. Ditto for officers. And this is regardless of branch of service, or incidentally, their ability or inability to handle the stress of the job.

Just so you know, the other 2 women’s issues the Huffington Post claim haven’t changed “since 1911” are:  “The ‘freedom’ the workplace supposedly offers women sometimes doesn’t feel so free at all” whatever that means, and “Women are doubling up on work at home and outside the home”. That means they work a job, and then have housework when they get home. 

Well… uhm… what can I say? There are approximately 13.7 million single parents in the US, and 82% of them are female. I’m guessing the 18% that are male have the same housework to do when they get home from work too, so even THAT isn’t a women’s issue as much as It’s a single parent issue.

So I’m trying very hard to come up with a REAL women’s issue, not just a parroting of some slogan or poster.  Can anyone help me? Can anyone tell me a real, legitimate CURRENT woman’s “issue”?