Should Equality be the End Goal?
I’m sorry for the break, I’m back now! I hope the break in postings has given everyone a chance to get rejuvenated so they can bring new energy and thoughts to the blog 
So continuing with our discussion on economics, there was an article written several months ago that gained a lot of attention in the United States. In the article The End of Men, Hanna Rosin asks whether modern, post industrial society is better suited to women and whether equality between the genders should be the goal towards which we are working. She explains that the increased number of women in college and in the work force, compared to men who are unemployed and content with high school diplomas might be showing that our current social order is better suited to women who are more capable and hard working. Additionally, characteristics that are considered more feminine, empathy, lateral thinking, consensus seeking, seem to be the qualities that employers are looking for in future executives.
While this change in American society has seen women become more confident, it has angered men who feel insecure as result of losing their high paying jobs. Rosin has been criticized for being too simplistic in the way she is characterizing the current state of women in economics, yet whether or not she is accurately reflecting the position of women in economic structures, she is bringing up an interesting point. Rosin clearly illustrates that the changing fortune between women and men isn’t moving us towards a more equal state but rather shifts the balance in favor of women after years of being in men’s favor. For Rosin, the power shift isn’t a problem, in her eyes perhaps we shouldn’t be working towards equality at all.
As stated in the document, the way we arrange our economy expresses what we value and that is related to gender equality. Our current economic system champions competition and individualism, as such the best way to advance materially is to have a large segment of the competition out of the running through unemployment and a decreased presence on college campuses. This guarantees women an advantage. However, given the rampant inequality between women and men now and the current state of the world, doesn’t it seem as though inequality only breeds discontent, violence, oppression and conflict? Do we really want more of that?
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[...] this type of thinking. The author of the article The End of Men, which we’ve talked about here and caused a lot of controversy when it was released last year, was featured in Slate Magazine [...]
Welcome back, May!
In The End of Men, Hannah Rosin endeavors to describe reality. The trends she describes conform to a theory about social reality – about a new economy that is more geared toward women. There is much to contemplate in her description. For example, that our entire economic framework might be shifting to value qualities that have traditionally been thought of as ‘feminine’ – qualities like “communication skills and social intelligence,” “creativity and collaboration.” Also, as you clearly stated in the post, that we may be moving away from equality as a goal.
In the introduction of the ISGP document we read, “The ideas conveyed here presume that the equality of men and women is a fundamental truth about human reality and not just a desired condition to be achieved for the good of society.” Based on that fundamental understanding, the inequality described in this post would seem to move us away from making that spiritual reality visible in the material world.
Perhaps our economic structures are actually transforming to value “feminine” qualities. That could be a good thing. But I wonder about the extent to which we are transformed by our economic structures. Maybe there are forces at work that are placing more value on “communication skills and social intelligence,” “creativity and collaboration.” But at root the current economic system still seems to view individual actors as purely self-interested, and seeks to use competition, manipulation, and propaganda to capitalize on that self-interest. So even if Hannah Rosin’s description of reality is very accurate, I’m not sure it describes the world we hope to build.