Men recognizing their gendered privileges is the first step in leveling the playing field between the sexes, J. Ron Crawford writes.
I’m a white male in America. I’m tall, healthy, and consider myself decent-looking. I grew up in a stable home with two loving parents and many opportunities. I played sports and made good grades. I work hard for things and I think that I’m smart.
But I am aware that I am extremely privileged.
In trying to understand these privileges, I’ve found that gender inequality is wound up tightly in a fear of rejection and lack of self-confidence that many men cannot escape. Avoiding frank talk of sexual issues (and sexual performance) often leads men to fear female power and push to subjugate women. The changing roles of women in society, from the office to the home, have left many men uncertain of what their roles will become, and have amplified those fears.
A common example of gender bias is found in workplace salaries.
My wife is smarter than I am, in many ways. She’s more organized and more inwardly creative. We’re both architects, but she’s a better one.
But even so, I’ve always expected that my salary should be higher than hers. At first, when we were starting out together, I told myself it was simply because I had one more year of experience in the field—an incredibly minor difference. Later, I accepted the reality that men make more money than women and that if I wasn’t making more than her, I was not getting the cut that I deserved.
Is that fair? Of course it’s not.
I have no idea what women in my own company earn. But that’s entirely beside my point. My point is that between the two of us, my wife and me, I have expected to be paid more, for no real reason other than the fact that it is a statistical societal norm. I expect those norms to apply to us and feel cheated if they do not.
I don’t want to be the primary breadwinner, I expect to be. The former is competition-based, appealing to my own sense of self-worth or ego, whatever that may be. The latter is basic privilege, an assumption that society’s rules will (whether they should or not) treat me differently than her. And for the most part, they do.
What would happen if this all were to change—if male and female salaries were equal? Well, for us, I don’t think it would make a lot of difference, because she is still working as an artist and college professor. As such, I don’t fear equal pay, but many men do, and the uncertainties that may come with that are very real.
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My wife and I follow some elements of a “traditional” household (she spends much more time caring for the kids and I spend much more time on the road), but if she didn’t have her own career, pay equality would matter much more to us. A household with the husband as sole breadwinner and company man has much more invested in maintaining that traditional male privilege.
Households with one working parent aren’t exactly “traditional”—only upper-class women could afford not to have a job throughout most of history, and they were never the majority. While mid-20th Century America extended that lifestyle to a majority of families, we are returning to that historical norm, where only wealthy women will have such a choice. In fact, by 2002 only 7% of American families consisted of children, a working father and stay-at-home mother. Our return to the earlier norm of a majority of women holding jobs, however, is much different than before.
It is different not only because women now enjoy equal protection under the law. It is different because all women seeking their own work, whether out of necessity or self-fulfillment, are doing so with real and effective birth control.
That changes everything, especially the long-term dynamics of power. As Sara Robinson recently wrote:
With that one essential choice came the possibility, for the first time, to make a vast range of other choices for ourselves that were simply never within reach before. We could choose to delay childbearing and limit the number of children we raise; and that, in turn, freed up time and energy to explore the world beyond the home. We could refuse to marry or have babies at all, and pursue our other passions instead. Contraception was the single necessary key that opened the door to the whole new universe of activities that had always been zealously monopolized by the men—education, the trades, the arts, government, travel, spiritual and cultural leadership, and even (eventually) war making.
Modern forms of birth control have given women many of the freedoms that men have always had. This is terrifying to many men because they see the loss of their own societal privilege and especially their personal status.
When women gain power and experience many men simply believe that they, in turn, lose it. While some men see marriage or friendship as being part of a team, and are thrilled for their partner to gain power, others see a very different “traditional” dynamic, defining their own importance by their undisputed role as the head of household.
The logic of an anti-feminist is fairly straightforward, even if the circuitous biblical justifications for it are not always easy to follow. It dictates that a woman’s career ambitions are a threat to her husband’s ego, value, and “natural” role as leader of his castle, and therefore a threat to his relevance.
Rejection and loneliness appear to be a much greater possibility for these men in this new world. Wise women and female leaders are very threatening for any man who already subconsciously questions whether he has earned or deserves his role. It’s much simpler to look to the teachings of those who say women should go back to their traditional role than it is to consider examining one’s own wisdom and relationships with loved ones.
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Even those men who are not threatened by female power have had to consciously learn from and adapt to it. We’re generally not socialized for these changes to be OK, and we have to acquire the self-confidence to embrace it. Our fear of losing privileges is closely tied to our fears of rejection, and we can’t overcome one without the other.
This fear of rejection obviously extends to sexual history. Men are threatened by women’s past partners because they fear they won’t measure up. As a result we have men who attempt to shame women for having sex, or for enjoying it. Since those women may be enjoying sex with other men, and not them, they feel diminished and weakened when they imagine other men achieving what they cannot.
If you think this behavior is paranoid and juvenile, you’re right. My wife makes a distinction between “men” and adult “boys” among the people we know. This has nothing to do with their careers, income, relationship status, or other “ego markers.” The terminology can generally be distilled to how they view women.
Men that are more controlling or lack the self-confidence required not to be aggressive or threatened tend to fall into the “boy” category. The consistent thread they share is their condescension toward women and fear of closeness or openness. Those that support women in their aspirations and are genuinely comfortable with strong women tend to fall into the “man” category. Part of this is her definition of masculinity, which many others share, of course. Part of it, as I’ve learned over time, is literal maturity. Those she calls “boys” often have been so sheltered that they have never had to confront their own privilege, or learn from it. They have never had to grow up.
To be fair, these aren’t simple shifts for some men to make. One does not easily go from insisting that female freedom is immoral to dreaming their daughter will become the next PJ Harvey. It takes serious self-evaluation. I have seen acquaintances turn from boys to men after a divorce, for example. That’s a difficult and unfortunate way to get there, but more engaged and supportive men have emerged afterward.
In my own life, I was forced to confront those feelings of inadequacy in much less earth-shattering situations. Once, for example, in my early twenties, I dated a woman who was very adventurous and would talk openly about her past boyfriends. Her most recent boyfriend at the time was doing quite well in the NBA.
I was three years younger than him, and as far as I knew he was a millionaire. I was, on the other hand, an intern who could barely pay my rent. I would see him on TV, eight inches taller than me, with arms literally twice the size of mine, and feel threatened. Still, I cared for her and trusted her, and I understood that she cared for me. So I had no choice but to accept that it didn’t matter that I didn’t have his strength, his money, or his fame. I was better for her than he was; she said so and I believed her.
That was a specific moment in time, when I looked at myself and realized how little he or anyone else from her past actually mattered. I had no reason to be jealous. I was beginning to be liberated from my fear of being inadequate, and that feeling of liberation—of self-confidence in the moment—stayed with me well after we parted ways. What I learned, and continued to learn, was that I didn’t negatively compare the women that I had dated, why would she (or any woman that I would trust) do the same to me?
It takes learned confidence and self-awareness for men to accept women as partners. Some can never get to that point, continually seeking younger women with less experience in the world. Frankly, it’s sad to watch, for it shows just how far those men have to go in order to be truly comfortable with their own place in the world, or confident in their own ability to please.
I’ve learned that life is better when I am aware of when and how my own privileges exist. I’ll always have more to learn. I can be a better husband, a better father to my boy and girl. Evaluating the privileges that I have as a man inevitably leads me closer to understanding the prejudices my wife faces, and that my daughter may one day face. I simply hope I can understand those prejudices well enough to help them confront them, wherever they occur, and to guide my son to do the same.
—Photo H.L.I.T./Flickr
In my opinion in order for there to be privilege, that priv would have to include all members of the group and that it not be present in those who not in the group. I also believe that privilege has to provide a tangible advantage to all member of the gorup in order for it to be called a privilege. In reference to a list I saw on the net I reference one that is listed but IMHO is not a privilege. “When I view members at the top levels of government I see people of my own gender most… Read more »
A completely unrelated and funny thing I noticed.
Someone sent me this and I had to try it out. This is for those that are ANTI-PC
Go to google.com, make sure autocomplete is turned on
type FAT WOMEN ….Notice that it doesn’t autocomplete the women part. In fact after you type WO, it doesn’t diplay anything
now type FAT MEN …it will autocomplete it after the ME part
Coincidence or is it programmed that way on purpose.
This is completely misguided and ignorant propaganda. I’ve never felt any privilege from working in the glass cellar to put myself through university. I’ve never felt any privilege from having to work for everything in my life without mommy and daddy paying for it. I’ve never felt any privilege from not receiving women’s only scholarships in universities and having to live off kraft dinner and peanut butter. I’ve never felt any privilege from competing against less competent and less capable women to achieve gender quotas. I’ve never felt any privilege from women’s total control of dating, home and children. I’ve… Read more »
You are using your own personal experiences to dismiss and discredit the enitre article. I’m not saying I necessarily agree or disagree with this article, but the fact that you have not experienced any type of privilege =/= it doesn’t exist. You are one person. You cannot completely disprove his assertions on the basis that they do not apply to your life. “I’ve never felt any privilege from paternalism that cares for women and imposes responsibility on men.” Inequality works both ways. It can be beneficial or damaging to both sides, and at the same time. I may be misunderstanding… Read more »
Oh reallllly?
Virgin shaming, creep shaming, fetish shaming, there are plenty of sexuality insults for both genders.
“How often are promiscuis men believed to have psychological issues, low self-esteem, or lack of self-respect as the underlying cause for their behavior?”
Probably not as many as women, but there are plenty for male virgins.
Men having lots of sex is also seen as negative in some areas and religions, sex outside marriage, masturbation,etc.
How often are promiscuis men believed to have psychological issues, low self-esteem, or lack of self-respect as the underlying cause for their behavior?
Or even how often are promiscuous women told that they are supposed to be highly sexual creatures (to the point that being highly sexual is a defining feature of being a woman) and are then told that something is wrong with them because they are highly sexual creatures?
I think the concept of kyriarchy would go a long way here. We are not just men and women–our culture defines us by race, wealth, age, health, etc., and places us into a matrix of domination and abuse accordingly. We’re all victims, and victimizers to varying degrees. Can little boys and girls who’ve been taught who they are (supposed to be) by abusive families, abusive schools, and abusive churches not grow up to be at least somewhat abusive? How are we to even know what fairness and justice are when we’ve been alienated from our true selves by the roles… Read more »
Great article. Good insight. Thank you. I really detest how so many of these thoughtful pieces in GMP get machine-gunned into oblivion by those with clear agendas to maintain the status quo who masquerade as “thoughtful” and “rational” critics. They alone, it seems, remain unaware of just how transparent they can be.
BLah blah blah you are insecure whiny white losers blah blah blah,
I must’ve missed that. Were there apologies for parents’ and grandparents’ accomplishments on here somewhere? Interesting. I’m proud of it as well, but I don’t actually know people who do that.
Stable household, two parents etc. ? And there are some pieces out there about being privileged white cisgendered (omg…) male that are practically self-bashing.
I don’t understand one thing. Why some people apologize for their parents’ and grandparents’ accomplishments, like staying together, being cautious, saving for the future so the next generations can have a better life and live without fear ? It’s something to be proud of, isn’t it ? My parents’ lives were hard, but thanks to their dedicated work me, my brother and our future children will have a MUCH better lives then they had when they were our age. They do not have to start from nothing, but will be able to rely on us for support. It’s nothing to… Read more »
http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/wage-gap-women-still-make-less-men
@Woman:: thank you so much for posting that link. It goes a long way towards demonstrating the problem with the gender pay gap. The problem being that people don’t use critical thinking when it comes to the wage gap and they assume that ALL men and ALL women should earn the same pay. That link does not take any factors (such as experience, education, willingness to relocate etc etc) into account when calculating the numbers. The 77 cents numbers is a raw number only. Also, what most people don’t realize is that the very definition of Full Time/Full Year isn’t… Read more »
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8096761.stm
In another post the author points out that perhaps “entitled” would have been a better word than “privilege”. hmmm, doesn’t this admission completely make this article MUTE. WHY? What if the author was putting forth the assertion that the sky was PURPLE. He goes on at length to prove the sky was purple, his arguments are solely based around the fact that the sky was purple. After reading other posters he says “you know what perhaps blue would have been a better word to use instead of purple”. Would this completely negate every argument he made that the sky was… Read more »
Difference between entitled and privileged are semantic to me. I really don’t care.
The difference between blue and purple are much more clear, and so make for a poor analogy. The difference between mute and moot are clearer still.
If you think there isn’t a HUGE difference between Entitled and Privileged then it sure explains this entire article.
And of course the little JAB at someone who uses the wrong word……Being a Grammar and Spelling Cop doesn’t really help your cause either.
“What if the author was putting forth the assertion that the sky was PURPLE. He goes on at length to prove the sky was purple, his arguments are solely based around the fact that the sky was purple.” More like that his arguments are solely based around the fact that he saw the sky as purple (not that it is) and ignores the fact he was wearing purple sunglasses, as being unimportant to the conversation. After all, his evidence revolves around his own EXPECTATIONS, not any actually reality. At no point does he actually admit to knowing for sure that… Read more »
This article is extremely confusing to me. The author starts out by stating that he is aware of his privilege, but doesn’t state what this privilege is. Is it the privilege that because he has more experience (1 more year) that he is paid more, he says that 1 year is an extremely minor difference, I beg to differ , if you each had over 20 years experience then 1 year would be minor, when you are first starting out 1 year is NOT a minor difference. He also states that his wife is smarter than him and is a… Read more »
There are seemingly dozens of unfounded assumptions in the article and statements that are out of touch with reality. To address his wife being smarter than him but he makes more money than her. “Smart” can be subjective and the “smartest” people very often don’t make the most money. So, being “smart” or even highly educated doesn’t automatically make one a more valuble employee. I won’t bore everyone with examples of this since we all probably have seen situatons where this is true. I second this statement: “The author of course completely ignores virtually every major study over the past… Read more »
“To address his wife being smarter than him but he makes more money than her.” Technically, he never out rights says he does make more money than her. In fact, when he makes the assertion “I expect those norms to apply to us and feel cheated if they do not”, it implies that is not always the case. I suspect that, while he may usually make more than her, it is by a narrow margin, that can very much be explained away by a year more experience, more aggressive salary negotiation, different employers, and career details he’s chosen to leave… Read more »
Hang on, werent there about 20 replies here….. where did they vanish to??
I know most of them pointed out flaws in this article but they were not abusive.
Information control, perhaps?
John; I don’t think any comments have vanished, but this sites splits comments into pages. If you look below the last comment here there probably will be an “Older comments” link taking you to the previous 50 comments or so.
Uh no, thou dost project thyself unto others and ingratiate thee with though white knight grandstanding. “The latter is basic privilege, an assumption that society’s rules will (whether they should or not) treat me differently than her” You confuse “treat differently than her” with “basic privilege” relative to her. I understand the need for conspiracy, after all if the unique gender scripts historically imposed on men and women did not somehow provide men monotonic and ubiquitous privileges at the expense of women, feminism would lose the moral authority it needs to pursue a wholly gynocentric agenda. In point of fact,… Read more »
“Uh no, thou dost project thyself unto others and ingratiate thee with though white knight grandstanding.”
LOL, that really got me going….. absolutely right on target.
“But even so, I’ve always expected that my salary should be higher than hers. At first, when we were starting out together, I told myself it was simply because I had one more year of experience in the field—an incredibly minor difference. Later, I accepted the reality that men make more money than women and that if I wasn’t making more than her, I was not getting the cut that I deserved.” I’ve noticed you male feminists all suffer from this problem. Because you’re a sexist, you assume every other man is too. I have NEVER,in all my life, made… Read more »
I don’t feel guilty about much of anything in my life, but you can project that onto the article if you like. You say, “If men had told women “Keep your legs closed if you don’t want to get pregnant.” instead of legalizing abortion,they would have had a collective aneurysm over it.” That is in fact what some men are saying right now. Do you agree? What I don’t understand is why any straight man would make that argument, and that’s what compelled me to write this. I think it’s about issues of control, and that there are some men… Read more »
“I don’t feel guilty about much of anything in my life, but you can project that onto the article if you like.” And yet it’s you calling other men guilty. Seems to me you are the one projecting. You accuse men of a great many things in this article, and you also somehow equate your own sexist expectations as a privilege for all men in order to justify those accusations. But I don’t feel an expectation on me to be the breadwinner at the expense of my time with family is a privilege. “What I don’t understand is why any… Read more »
“I’d really like to hear other theories about why guys like Friess, Santorum, Blunt or Limbaugh are appalled by women having sex, so share them if you have any. ” I don’t know that Santorum or any other hard right conservative is “appalled by women having sex” at all. I’m pretty sure as a father he has had sex with a woman. But, he is Catholic which means (in theory) he disapproves of pre- and extra-marital monogamous sex, abortion, and birth control (of course, there’s no Biblical basis for that nor for priests being forbidden to marry). So, sex within… Read more »
You’ve apparently thought about #2 and #3 a good bit more than I have, and those are very interesting points to consider. Those are huge issues in and of themselves, and of course they relate to this. I’ll be honest– I’ve never had to deal with those two points and don’t know how I would. I mentioned in my article that we don’t grow if we’re sheltered from things, and that’s something I’ve not had to confront, and not chosen to, either. Obviously it’s easiest for someone to say “her body, her choice,” but if, for example, I and my… Read more »
“People choose their churches–I’ve chosen mine. We choose whether to follow the restrictions or not, and whether we want the government to enforce or discourage any of them. ” Does that also not mean those people are responsibly for, and accountable to, those choices they’ve made? Isn’t forcing a religious organization, who has made the choice not to use (or even enter situations where there is a need for) birth control, to provide to someone else the birth control that someone else chooses to make the choice to use? Is this not what the debate on BC is about, once… Read more »
“I and my partner both didn’t want kids, she got pregnant, changed her mind, and insisted I care for the child, that wouldn’t be fair. ‘ You could always go on Jerry Springer. . . It’s a shame that those who campaign for reproductive rights don’t even consider men’s rights worth discussing. This is a simple example as to why people outside the feminist movement don’t consider it as an equality movement. I don’t see the debate as a prohibition of birth control since >99.999% of corporate insurance plans have covered it for decades, at least 30 years or more.… Read more »
On this question about the unfairness of the current legal situation— could you clarify for me what you think is a better alternative? Because, while I agree that the present situation is unfair — and if I woke one morning and I was God, sure, I would fix the biology — it seems to me that, given the biology we’ve been given, the only real alternatives involve at least one of the following rules applying to accidental conceptions: 1) the man can force the woman to have an abortion 2) the man can force the woman to carry the child… Read more »
Men can financially abort in the early stages/time when they know of the child, if female wants the child she can continue pregnancy, if not she can abort, or adopt after birth? Sure it doesn’t allow him to stop her having the child but he at least gets the right to choose whether to be responsible for the child as she can as well. Is it fair that a woman can abort a fetus, which still is the man’s offspring and has full control over it’s existence? He still can be forced to be financially responsible against his will yet… Read more »
“yet financial abortion is argued as unfair for the child when abortion or giving the baby up is also quite unfair for the child.” This because people refuse to accept the concept that, if a man can not be forced to provide, women might be less willing to have a baby he does’t want. They also ignore the fact that woman are capable of financially supporting children on their own, and have the legal right to do so, and do so (such as going to sperm banks. but really, why would a woman go to a sperm bank and pay… Read more »
Great point! I find it troubling that those arguing for financial/responsibility abortion are told to be more selective n careful with their sexual habits, imagine the uproar of telling women to keep their legs together and if they get pregnant to say tough shit, you’re having the kid? What’s good for the goose isn’t good for the gander it seems.
Amaranth, None of those. Just as when a woman chooses an abortion, there is no child when the man opts out, and the woman is free to abort at that time as well. This is superior, since she knows in advance that, should she decide to have a child, she will be a single parent, or she can choose to have him/her adopted, or she can legally abandon him/her after the fact if she chooses. Thus, she has even MORE rights because, if she chooses to give birth, she doesn’t have to deal with another person legally. All of these… Read more »
It is often argued the man should be given a time frame from the time he is told, not dependent on how far along the pregnancy is. It is easy to just not tell him until the pregnancy time-frame elapses. But even then, she would be doing so knowing that the man will be able to opt out once he is told. So this is not much different than a woman telling her boyfriend she’s pregnant, him opting out, and her deciding to keep it anyways, without his support (which is where a lot of the liberal feminists claim “that’s… Read more »
Which brings up another legal hurdle. A pregnant woman has no legal obligation to inform the father. Ever.
Eveyrone that is truly on the side of equality should be bothered by this inequality and discussing the obvious ways to effect equality and fairness.
Santorum and Limbaugh have no business telling others what to do or not do with their bodies. It’s that simple. I don’t care what their religions or “morals” are.
so when I point out a fundamental inconsistency in your article it doesn’t get posted?
With that one essential choice came the possibility, for the first time, to make a vast range of other choices for ourselves that were simply never within reach before. We could choose to delay childbearing and limit the number of children we raise; and that, in turn, freed up time and energy to explore the world beyond the home. We could refuse to marry or have babies at all, and pursue our other passions instead. Contraception was the single necessary key that opened the door to the whole new universe of activities that had always been zealously monopolized by the… Read more »
“I have no idea what women in my own company earn. But that’s entirely beside my point. ” Please don’t try to justify male privilege if you aren’t comparing incomes on the same job and role in the same company, it’s silly. The wage gap would have to mean the same job, title and role varies between genders but the real problem is actualyl quite complex. Would you like to address the workplace-injuries gap as well? Does this prove female privilege? “The logic of an anti-feminist is fairly straightforward, even if the circuitous biblical justifications for it are not always… Read more »
I’m beginning to think Gender is the least significant predictor of privelege. All of these factors strongly correllate with metrics you could use to indicate privelege: 1. Race- obvious 2. General Attractiveness- facial symmetry. 3. Intelligence- positive correllation up to a certain point then diminishing 4. Family’s social status/wealth- easy to get in to Harvard if youre a legacy 5. Height- not raw but in difference from the norm across rational subgroups like race or gender. Tall women are more successful than short ones. Substitute men etc… 6. Comformance to expected behavioral norms- people who differ from the expected value… Read more »
@CW: Well done. That list have given me something to think about.
From a quick look , I can see privs for every person that belongs to the groups you list.
BTW, there are some great posts on other site from Women of Colour about white female priv. They can be quite controversial but really gives someone something to think about.
“I’m a white male in America. I’m tall, healthy, and consider myself decent-looking. I grew up in a stable home with two loving parents and many opportunities. I played sports and made good grades. I work hard for things and I think that I’m smart.” But I am aware that I am extremely privileged. If males have automatic privilege, men would, on average, have lower unemployment. They don’t. If males have automatic privilege, men would, on average, have more management jobs. They don’t. If males have automatic privilege, men would, on average, be victims of crime less often. They aren’t.… Read more »
Ouch. And well put.
Forget the Titanic analogy about women and children first. I just read about the Donner Party in 1847. 2/3 of the men died, while 2/3 of the women lived, and men were disproportionately the source of human flesh consumed by the lviing. Something quite allegorical there about gender privilege.
Hang on – thats right – being a “white” male makes you tall; stops your parents arguing; makes you good at sports; assures good grades; and makes you physically attractive.
Un-be-lieve-able
I was involved in a long relationship with an older Caucasian male when I was younger…on the outside, he seemed to have everything: a powerful position, lots of underlings to supervise, house and beautiful family in the suburbs….and yet, that was not enough for him….I didn’t find this out until 20 years after I broke it off with him…. he wanted what I had: being young and single, the ability to get an advanced degree and the career that I truly wanted…. The whole time I was with him, he was very manipulative and controlling as if controlling me would… Read more »
Sure, there is fear that comes from a sense that one’s status is under threat. But, that’s not the only reason that men may be afraid to express their feelings. It’s not the only reason that men may be afraid of the growing power of women in society. Perhaps there are ways in which this fear is quite reasonable under the circumstances and is not just paranoia in defense of privilege. You have to agree that not all fear is unfounded, even “masculine” fear. What this article seems to imply is that men have nothing to fear from women whatsoever,… Read more »
“I’m a white male in America. I’m tall, healthy, and consider myself decent-looking. I grew up in a stable home with two loving parents and many opportunities. I played sports and made good grades. I work hard for things and I think that I’m smart. But I am aware that I am extremely privileged.” Lets start that paragraph again to reflect an equally common scenario; “I’m a white male in America. I’m short, disabled, homeless and consider myself less than average looking. I grew up in an unstable home with two fighting parents and not many opportunities. I played no… Read more »
Based on Jesus’ admonition, John, that the first shall be last and the last shall be first, I suspect in God’s eyes you are a great deal more privileged than cool feminist J. Ron.
How many men take a 1 to 5 year sabbatical from competitive employment? My bet is for every man that does it there are 20 women doing it to raise children in their early years. If you are an employer would you rather have the consistency of an employee who does not leave the work force for sustained periods or one that does or an employee who has to get into work late occasionally due to family matters or one that is consistently on time and stays late while the other is out the door like the place is on… Read more »
Hi J. Ron.
Thanks for writing your article. I’m with you on the privilege thing. I think our culture is shifting pretty quickly where this issue is concerned. In one more generation or so, it will be gone. But its not gone yet.
The privilege issue is a major hot button issue for some posters here. But rest assured, you are not alone in your point of view. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Where do you see men’s ‘privilege?’
Income disparity.
I would love to see women enjoy all the same privielges as men. and women would hate it and cry that they were being oppressed. Do you think women want our life expectancies and death rates? Do you think women want the burden of initiating dating and relationships? Do you think women want the burden of doing all the dirty and dangerous work that keeps civilzation going, or will they call it oppression to be chased out of the heated offices out onto the shop floors? Do you think women want to be required to register for miltary service and… Read more »
Men are privileged to be guests of the state for longer periods of time than women.
Excuse me, I am beginning to believe this cite is nothing more than a feminist tool. We don’t need to beat up on ourselves, feminists do that plenty and J. Ron shouldn’t presume that because he has benefited from privilege that all men or even most men have. I found this insulting, offensive and an attack on men in general.
It is really surprising that people living in modern democratic countries are thinking in terms of feudal concepts like privilege. Everybody is equal before law, at least in theory, in a democratic country. If anybody is in a better situation that other person, it is due to his hard work or inheriting the fruit of the hard work done by his fore fathers. Since the author is U.S. citizen, I would like to remind him that It is really surprising that people living in modern democratic countries are thinking in terms of feudal concepts like privilege. Everybody is equal before… Read more »