Feminism assumes that women must always achieve the same level of reward or success as men in every area of human endeavour, and if that isn’t the case, it must be artificially imposed or achieved.
Affirmative action is the best example of this.
MSF posits that women must to be present in equal numbers in every male-dominated field, otherwise women suffer and society suffers.
So certain government bodies will try to hire women over men, casting a pall of suspicion over the candidate that she was not truly worthy for the job.
And men lose out. Tough luck for them, say feminists.
There are other examples. In the NDP, in some bodies, there are male and female co-chairs. I know that some bodies in the Liberal Party also have male and female vice-presidents. Stephane Dion purposely made sure that 1/3 of Liberal candidates were women. Jean Chretien went so far as to replace a duly nominated Black candidate in my riding in Quebec City (which was overwhelmingly white at the time) with a female candidate. (Of course, there was some racism involved, as Chretien believed that my riding was not ready for a Black guy.)
It is assumed in these political circles that there are too many barriers for women to overcome. Women would really be interested in politics and succeed if they were just given the opportunity to do so.
The fact of the matter is, women are no more interested in politics whether you give them a place at the the table or not. Women are less interested in politics than men because women tend to shun confrontation and conflict, and politics is built on this. Women are also busy with taking care of their families, and electoral politics just seems like a distant concern.
Women who are interested, motivated and knowledgeable can succeed in politics. But in the feminist mindset it’s not fair that women aren’t generally as interested, motivated, or knowledgeable as men. Women have made a choice, and feminists don’t like it.
Affirmative action is not the only example of feminists trying to assure that women obtain the same results as men in society. Some activists are trying to get women into non-traditional (i.e. male-dominated) professions.
There’s nothing wrong with that if the point is to encourage women to do what they really want to do. But behind those efforts is the desire to make men and women numerically equal, with the idea that if men predominate this lucrative and women don’t benefit it’s not fair.
Never mind that women aren’t generally interested in those kinds of professions. Future women must make different choices to achieve the feminists’ ideological goal.
Another example of this is pay equity. I’ve been through this at length.
Pay equity is not about “equal pay for equal work.” Pay equity is “equal pay for work of equal value.”
The value of the work is not determined by the laws of supply and demand, nor on the quality of the employee’s contribution.
Women do not earn this pay. Feminists require that this be the rate of pay in order to achieve a socio-political goal.
If a woman wants to earn a certain rate of pay, then she should enter a profession that gives that rate of pay.
If she cannot enter that profession, that’s too bad.
But men are under the same burden.
It’s not about helping women achieve their true value. It’s about making sure that women get the same results as men, regardless of whether they have earned those results or not.
Another example: the Canadian women’s ski jump team bid to be in the Olympics.
Although I am not aware of the political proclivities of the women on the team, their bid to force the Olympic Committee to make their sport part of the competition is typical of feminist efforts to force people to accept them, instead of earning it.
The Olympic Committee says that a sport must have had at least two world championships.
Women’s ski jumping has not had one yet.
But let’s face it. As it is, male ski jumping is not exactly a widely watched sport. Female ski jumping is marginal in comparison. The reason it was not included is because there aren’t that many people interested in it. If there are only 135 female ski jumpers in the whole world, it’s not that popular a sport. As it is, there are so many competitions.
But feminists do not accept any explanation that might mean they are wrong. If female ski jumpers have not earned the right to be in the Olympics, then their acceptance must be forced.
That is the nature of feminism.
Women suffer when this route is taken. Because women are not given the opportunity to learn the ropes. Paying one’s dues in politics is not only about earning one’s place in it. It’s also gaining the valuable experience that gives one political skills. How can a woman learn to deal with confrontation and conflict if she is spared the confrontation and conflict of a nomination race? How does she know that her Olympic gold medal means something, if she is a big fish in a small pond of amateurs?
Achievement is not something that can be handed to you. Women who are not allowed to compete with men on the same basis are deprived of the opportunity of the sense of pride of having achieved success on an equal footing. This is an authentic form of success.