GENDER AND FAMILY
The next time you see a headline about the glass ceiling that prevents many women from reaching the top, don’t automatically assume that the statistics speak for themselves. The reason for the imbalance may be that fewer highly-talented women want to be at the top.
FLAW IN EARLIER FEMINISM
A flaw in early feminist thinking was the assumption that women wanted to be successful in much the same ways as men had become successful: women would never be equal, it was argued, until they took on male roles and forsook aspects of their femininity. It is understandable how this thinking developed, for women’s biological differences had been used against them for centuries in denying them a vote, education, access to capital and equal opportunities.
This early feminist thinking is now increasingly being questioned as women assert their own distinctive roles. Psychologist, therapist and author Susan Pinker argues from the research that only 25-30% of women are as driven and competitive as men, social connection means more to them than to men, and they prefer meaningful rather than career-driven work. It can be a mature choice and not necessarily a step backwards for these women to turn their backs on overwork and disrupted family time.
This is not to say that women are operating today on a level playing field. They are not. There are improvements in their situation, but |
they continue to lose out: child-care provision for women who want to work, for example, is still inadequate, and women suffer from continued assumptions about them – that they need to follow where their partner’s job takes him, etc., etc.
MALE EXTREMES
Susan Pinker’s book also looks at another reason why males dominate positions of power in the market-place. Many of her clients for therapy were maladjusted boys who might have been expected to fail in adulthood but actually became brilliant when they found their niche. She points to a whole body of research that shows how men exhibit more extreme variability than women, reaching greater heights of brilliance and greater depths of criminality, weakness, etc.
It is a controversial but engaging, well-argued book which certainly highlights some important puzzles and new insights into gender differences.
Susan Pinker, The Sexual Paradox: Men, Women and the real Gender Gap. Amazon £18.95
A column for those promoting the courses as part of ministry in their own faith tradition
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Family Values?
When some faith communities talk about ‘family values’ they can do a serious disservice to families.
Very often they will quote from their scriptures, pointing to the nuclear family of Mum, Dad and children living in disciplined, hardworking bliss as if this (‘Victorian’ and untypical) form of family were ordained by God as the only acceptable form.
The sacred scripture of different faiths has important things to say about loving and faithful relationships, but to quote it in order to reinforce a particular pattern of behaviour is to abuse scripture. In Bible times, for example, a ‘family’ often meant up to sixty or more people. Since then it has gone through many different forms and been judged by widely different theological standards. It would make far more sense, instead of talking about vague family ‘values’ to talk about family ‘virtues’ – based on justice and love. This would mean recognising and respecting the uniqueness and sacredness of one’s sisters and brothers everywhere. In other words, it might mean allowing ourselves to be challenged by the question Jesus asked: “Who are my mother and my brothers?
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