What if women ruled the world?
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Of course, the questions run deeper than the statistics that quantify women’s achievements — or the lack thereof. In the past couple of decades, there has been a mountain of research and commentary on the relationship between gender and just about everything — from leadership style, to ethics, to sex drive. And as the volume of information has grown, so too has the volume of the debate about what it means. Are the alleged differences real? Which, if any, are innate? Which are the result of socialization? And how do they affect expectations about gender roles?
As I began looking into questions like these, I was struck by the ferocity of the debate that still surrounds the “nature versus nurture” question. On the nature side, an eclectic group of scientists, philosophers, polemicists, parents, and religious traditionalists believe that sex roles are genetically, even divinely, determined. According to this view, women are nurturers, designed to have and raise the babies, while men are programmed to compete in the world and support their families.
The arguments are equally passionate on the other side, where a committed assortment of psychologists, sociologists, feminists, parents, and progressives argue that nurture is the root cause of behavioral differences between men and women. While the stack of studies is getting bigger, they claim that the evidence linking biology and behavior is tenuous; culture, they say, is the culprit. From infancy, boys are expected and encouraged to behave one way, girls another. And to see it any other way is to open the door to the kind of biology-as-destiny limitations that have held women back for thousands of years. If women are more nurturing, if they’re better at relationships, isn’t it also possible that men are better at, say, math or science? And wouldn’t that then justify the dearth of opportunities for women in those fields?
These, too, became questions I wanted to explore.
I’m not a sociologist. I’m not a psychologist, or a biologist, or a political theoretician. But as I began this book, I wanted to try to paint a picture, in laymen’s — or should I say laywomen’s? — terms, of what changes when there are more women in positions of power and authority across public life. And I hoped — and let’s be honest, expected — the results would make it obvious that the influence of women has been an overwhelmingly positive thing. Not because women are the same as men, but because of the many ways they are different.
At the same time, I realized that an honest look at the upsides of empowering women would also require me to look at the obstacles, from the big cultural, historical, and biological forces, to the challenge of balancing work and family and the internal barriers that keep women from being all that they can be.
This book is not an attack on men. It’s not meant to demean or marginalize them. After all, my father is a man. I’m married to a man. I gave birth to a baby man. I think men have done wonderful things, from inventing the wheel (though it may have been a woman’s idea, but somehow a man got credit), to walking on the moon. Truly, the list of man’s (and I don’t mean “mankind’s”) accomplishments is so long and so profound that it seems silly to try to quantify it. But that doesn’t mean the world wouldn’t be better if there were more women in public life. If women had more power, not just in the United States, but around the globe. If women had the same access to education and economic resources and health care. If women had equal rights and equal opportunities. If there were more women in boardrooms, and classrooms, and operating rooms and courtrooms. If women’s ideas and opinions and life experiences were accorded the same weight as men’s. If girls were as valued as boys.
If women ruled the world.
Excerpted from "Why Women Should Rule the World," by Dee Dee Myers. © 2008 Dee Dee Myers. Reprinted with permission from HarperCollins. All rights reserved.
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