FEMINIST AGENDAS - ARE WE THERE YET?

Deborah May is “a feminist guru… being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach federal public servants to be fairer to women in the workplace” (Herald Sun 12/5/14).

On her blog page, I found an article titled: “Women and the Glass Ceiling: Are we THERE yet?” Here’s a pertinent quote from that article.

“I’ve been working to advance women’s leadership for the last 15 years and frankly if we don’t start getting creative nothing is going to happen before I die!

Are we there yet? Far from it, but I guess it depends on where ‘there’ is and I would suggest that ‘there’ should be 50% women at all levels across all organisations within all industries and sectors.”

All levels. All organisations. All industries and sectors. Wow!

There are many organisations and sectors where women dominate: think teaching, hospitality, nursing, social work. But, according to May, there should be NO organisations or industries dominated by men, even to the point of 51% domination.

May’s goal, her description of ‘there’, is thus heavily biased against men.

Do women have equal opportunity in Australia? I guess this would be a point of contention. May laments that: “In smaller companies – especially those in industries generally regarded as ‘blokey’ – IT/engineering/manufacturing/construction there are far fewer women and there is no particular imperative to change.”

But then she goes on to quote figures that, in my view, clearly indicate that women in fact have BETTER opportunities than men.

“This is the case despite the fact that:

• Women comprise 50.8% of our population.
• 87% women attain year 12 qualifications or above, compared to 82% men
• Over 50% of university graduates are women.”

Well, what if some women don’t WANT to be the CEO of a mining company or a major engineering enterprise? What if there are some jobs that demand time and energies that women are not willing to commit, given that work is not their whole life? What if some women actually want to stay at home and be hands-on raising a family?

God has given both men and women certain unique characteristics. It makes sense that men are more suited to some jobs and women are more suited to others. We have just celebrated Mothers’ Day and women have been loudly appreciated for the very role that no man can fill.

I’m certainly not saying that women cannot flourish in the workplace, or that they cannot assume important leadership roles, but the calling to motherhood should never be denigrated or trivialised by foolish ideals about female quotas in occupations that are more suited to men.