.2 Gender Equity

Gender stereotypes get twisted around as well. For example, I long for the first time that a male gets appointed to teach a women's studies class. I get very irritated when strident feminists think that males should not be in their women's studies class. I get very offended when African American studies courses don't welcome white students in their class, or where a white person participates in black history month and doesn't feel welcome. The idea of a black history month or a women's studies class is a very essential component in moving our society towards a higher level of awareness. And it is true that there are probably some moments where it is useful for women to get together among themselves or men to get together among themselves or African Americans to get together among themselves. However, such activities are only helpful if they are a focused on directed activity that promotes awareness and
doesn't have the subtext of separation. As I have said, there are some times that women are going to feel better able to talk about things if men aren't around. But one must be very careful in terms of balancing that with some of the other negative fall out of having exclusive private club type gatherings, though.

It is much more important to talk about gender equity than gender equality. When I say the equality of men and women, I am speaking about that in the sense of equity. I am very sensitive to the sentiment, and indeed absolutely agree with the sentiment, that anything we do in the society that separates us is wrong. Focusing our attention may
ultimately be part of the way that we get over that kind of separatism. Focusing attention toward the problems stereotypes cause is part of their solution, because the default position is to perpetuate some of the stereotypes that are there. If people just behave the way they have always behaved, things will come out very gender discriminatory because that's the way the society has been constructed. There is some ugly stuff out there.

Let me share an extreme example with you. When I was traveling by train in Beijing I shared a compartment with an elderly Chinese women who had her feet bound when she was a little girl. Her feet were just little stubs and they were encased in little silk booties. In the traditional Chinese culture this was considered a mark of beauty, and was sought by women as well as men. In order to get this mark of beauty, you had to have your feet bound from the time that you were an infant to make sure that they never grew. They became gnarled and deformed and useless as feet; you had to kind of hobble around. That was considered desirable because it was evidence that you were a part of the aristocracy that didn't have to work. If you were a man and could afford to have a wife with bound feet, that meant you were a prosperous man. If you were a woman and your feet were bound, it meant that you were very beautiful and very privileged. Foot binding is a perfect example of how tradition can perpetuate horrible practice. Modern China had to pass a law against binding feet because both men and women accepted that practice as being a desirable practice. There had to be a law that brought everyone's attention to that, and you still occasionally find people like this women I met on the train who were victimized by this practice.

	What may be the only way to get over gender separatism?	Answer Here
	Mr. Baker teaches honors biology in a very prominent high school. He attended an all-male military school for college, and as a result holds many unfair stereotypes of women close to heart. There are more girls than boys in his class, but he insists that they don't know enough to participate in his class and never calls on them to answer questions during discussions. How can there be some sort of gender equity incorporated into this classroom that is led by someone who has been taught to think poorly of one sex and hold another superior?	Answer Here