You cannot find a person more committed to equality between men and women than me.
But you also cannot find a person more turned when BS – whether about gender equality or anything else – is presented as facts.
Unfortunately, when it comes to gender inequality, a very large amoung of the latter is used to advocate for the former.
Which brings us to the brilliant, erudite, and unwaveringly honest Christina Hoff Sommers.
Ms. Sommers, her academic accomplishments aside, has written two great books (maybe more, but these are the two I know about):
-One, titled “Who Stole Feminism”, brilliantly and with unsparingly blunt honesty, distinguishes between “equity feminism” (i.e. feminism which seeks equality between the sexes and “gender feminism” (which sees all women as inherently victimized by men and demands all attainable advantages for women regardless of equity – whence most of the above-mentioned BS springs from).
-The other, titled “The War Against Boys”, shows us how equity feminism, instead of correcting what is wrong gender-wise, is turning young males into victims, as surely as women have been victimized in the past.
If those two descriptions cause you to conclude that Christina Hoff Sommers\’ material is not your usual, run-of-the-mill grist, you\’ve got it, oh, about 100% right.
The reason I bring this up is that Ms. Sommers has just written a short essay for (what is left of) Time Magazine, titled “5 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die”, in which she cites, and debunks, a mother load (intentionally spelled that way) of the BS referenced above.
Tell you what: I will post the first myth below along with Ms. Sommers\’ debunking of it – and as an extra little teaseroo, the second myth, without any commentary – in the hope that it will spur you to click on the link I\’ve provided for her entire piece:
MYTH1: Womenare half the world\’s population, working two-thirds of the world\’sworking hours, receiving 10% of the world\’s income, owning lessthan 1% of the world’s property.
FACTS:Thisinjustice confection is routinely quoted by advocacy groups, theWorldBank, Oxfamand the UnitedNations. It is sheer fabrication. More than 15 years ago, SussexUniversity experts on gender and development Sally Baden and AnneMarie Goetz, repudiatedthe claim: “The figure was made up by someone working at the UNbecause it seemed to her to represent the scale of gender-basedinequality at the time.” But there is no evidence that it was everaccurate, and it certainly is not today.
Precisefigures do not exist, but no serious economist believes women earnonly 10% of the world\’s income or own only 1% of property. As onecritic noted in an excellent debunkingin TheAtlantic,”U.S. women aloneearn 5.4 percent of world income today.” Moreover, in Africancountries, where women have made far less progress than their Westernand Asian counterparts, Yale economist Cheryl Doss foundfemale land ownership ranged from 11% in Senegal to 54% in Rwanda andBurundi. Doss warns that “using unsubstantiated statistics foradvocacy is counterproductive.” Bad data not only underminecredibility, they obstruct progress by making it impossible tomeasure change.
MYTH2: Between100,000 and 300,000 girls are pressed into sexual slavery each yearin the United States.
She is so worth reading, isn\’t she?
By all means, let\’s talk about gender equality. And by all means, let\’s advocate gender equality, because there is absolutely no good reason for inequality to exist. But for the sake of all that makes sense, can we please stick to real facts?
In that regard, we all owe Christina Hoff Sommers a debt of gratitude…coupled with a loud, long Bronx cheer to the “gender feminists” who don\’t hesitate to use BS whenever they can – and, by so doing, damage an important cause far more than they advance it.
