Do you think that equality among men and women is a realistic goal?

Yes. What patriarchal societies and structures miss out on is that men are better off if women are treated equally. When women are segregated from men, the society is less integrated, and therefore has less integrity. By promoting equality, all are open to increased equality.

Yes. Equality makes for better more productive societies as @zenvelo said above. I feel like western society is very close to if not equal regarding the sexes in most ways.

Equality doesn’t mean men and women are the same in every way though.

@JLeslie wish us Easterners would someday change our narrow mind…

@Mimishu1995 My guess is many parts of the eastern world also has equality in many areas of life, especially east Asia.

@JLeslie Yeah, but in some rural areas here (and sometimes even some urban areas), women aren’t treated well. Some husbands force their wives to give birth repeatedly until a boy comes out. And the boys always get better care than the girls.

The usual slogan of those family: boys are our children, girls aren’t. Girls are born to be women then gets married and never returns, so they aren’t valuable.

I think some people are beginning to grasp its ability and performance that are important on the job, not the gender. In other areas I’m not sure we’re as far along as we should be.

Men and women should have the opportunity to be equal (job wise) – there should be no restriction to men wanting to have traditional female jobs and vice versa.

However, the fact is that a woman going to an OBGYN appointment is going to be much more comfortable with a female nurse than with a male nurse. So very few medical practices are going to hire men to be nurses in that sort of office.

Is this discrimination?

@Mimishu1995 I hope that changes in your country.

Yes, at least as far as allowed by human biology.

I think the biggest problem is the insecure nature of the majority of men. There are those who can adapt just finr, but quite a lot feel lost, unsure of what they are expected to do, or be. If we women are going to demand an equal place in society, we should take the responsibility to help men understand that they are being joined, not replaced, and how that can work without leaving them feeling helpless, or unwanted.
For equality to work, communication is crucial. We have to provide answers for the men who don’t understand where they fit.

@Jonesn4burgers Wish many women here had enough courage to do that. Many wives never try to protect their right because they are either afraid of the husbands or ashamed of having bad husbands and don’t want anyone to know (even I myself can’t understand the reason behind latter part).

@Mimishu1995 That happens in the US to some extent also. Women cover for their idiot husbands, because the women are embarrassed themselves. I know when my husband says something in public that I think other people will perceive as him being mean to me I feel embarrassed. It rarely happens, thank goodness.

Well, in a perfectly objective way, no, never, of course not. Male and female bodies are different, gender-wise obviously, but also every man is not “equal to” every other man, and neither is every woman “the same”.

But in the sense that you probably mean, of “equality under the law”, it’s a target, a goal. It may never be fully achieved or realized (in the same way that we can’t treat each other as exact clones of ourselves, which would be the realization of “equality”), but it’s still a goal worth striving for.

It is something we need to work past. @Mimishu1995, you have advance warning available to you from our mistakes. To gain equality, it helps to let men know what we expect for ourselves, and what changes we hope to make, and how it would affect them. Men can be very insecure, and once they believe they have a position in their community, they are afraid to do anything to cause change. They need to be reassured that we haven’t stopped wanting them around. We have to let them know they are still important. We have to help them through the changes, so they don’t feel lost, or left behind. Men hate to be left behind. In they ways that they must do new things, such as being more helpful in the living quarters, they first have to understand that they are not being demoted. They need to understand that what gets done in the living space is important, and that everyone can take pride in doing well the tasks. They need to see that they are not being traded something dumb for something special, but simply more level, more equal. For instance, two people could have fifty dollars, but one has their money all in coin, the other has theirs all in paper. If they do some trading, neither has to be carrying all the heavy coins, but both can still have fifty dollars. Men here in the states were hit with, “I can vote, and I want more in my life than just the walls of my home, and I’m going to take some classes. You start helping out around here.” BAM, they felt demoted and clueless. Women should have been more helpful with men, helping them understand the pitfalls of doing laundry, and which part of the tab to pull on disposable diapers so they don’t pull the adhesive clear off! Men were expected to suddenly make big changes in their lives with little or no help on how to accomplish various tasks. At long last many are now becomming quite admirable with home chores and child rearing, but so many were just left to struggle with the new stuff in their lives on their own. If women had prepared men better, we could have seen a much smoother transition. Things are getting there now, but there are still lots of men unsure of where they fit, and as long as we have that problem, they will resist strongly further changes.

@Jonesn4burgers Great post! You give me some good insights into men’s mind.

Hope the future generation will finally acquire equality.

Aren’t we already equal?

No. Being up to it doesn’t make it so. Women are not paid equally for same work results. Women are excluded from numerous opportunities for which they are perfectly well qualified.

You’d think by the 21st century this would be a fact and not a goal (equality).

Unless all countries change their laws and their cultures to support equality for all people , it is unlikely to happen.

I think it’s possible, because we’ve made HUGE progress with this issue in a very short amount of time, at least in some countries.
Obviously we still have gender roles that are hammered into our brains since birth, but compared to what it was like say when my grandma was a kid, it’s still better now. Needs work, but I do think it’s possible. People do have to want it though. It won’t happen on its own. I’m not saying I do more about it than others, I don’t. I’d like to know what I could do to make some kind of difference though because I repeat, I think it’s possible.

I think @Jonesn4burgers makes a great point though; equality is not about overwhelming, but joining.

How are you defining equal?

Everyone having all the same rights?

^ We have that now.

@Hypocrisy_Central which is a load of crap in need of a severe overhaul and maintenance check unfortunately

@Winter_Pariah which is a load of crap in need of a severe overhaul and maintenance check unfortunately
How so? Can a woman be traded for a Corvette (permanently not for a night’s romp), can she vote, go to any school males go to, and while as said school sit in the same classroom receiving the same lesson, can she work any job save military combat, etc.? It may not be perfect for everyone, but it is far from being master and slave.

Quite honestly women structure society so as soon as they allow it.

@Hypocrisy_Central Sure, the US and many 1st world nations have done phenomenally in women’s right and it does look like it might be a matter of decades before equality before law, in employment and in government becomes a reality. But that alone hardly means that same rights for everyone is real. There are still quite a few groups of human beings for whom equality before law is still a battle. The homosexual community in trying to obtain nation-wide recognition of marriage between homosexual couples. Sure they’ve had some recent victories but there is still much to do. Transgender individuals have it almost the worst. Children are still taken away from transgender parents due to them being transgender – it used to be said that transgender parents caused a family setting that promoted sociopathy in the children, thankfully that has recently been tossed out as a reason but still children are being taken away from these parents, voided marriages due to a parent becoming or found to be transgender, and while the gay panic defense has been all but tossed out for a while, the trans panic defense was semi legitimate and had been used successfully in many cases throughout the world as recently as 2009. And that’s not even touching the employment, insurance and healthcare discrimination.

If even one law-abiding minority group is unable to live a life of a quality shared by the others, then equal rights shared by everyone is a load of horse shit. Doesn’t matter if the law is there, if hardly anyone follows it and hardly anyone enforces it, it has as much value as a lie or the paper I wipe my ass with.

@Winter_Pariah But that alone hardly means that same rights for everyone is real.
As to make it not soley a woman being beat down thing; even men are not even to other men.

The homosexual community in trying to obtain nation-wide recognition of marriage between homosexual couples.
Well, since we are speaking abut women and not gays I will see my way pass that part; if I were to say anything I would have to say it might as well be given to them, hetro people have long disrespected marriage, reduced ot to something, heaven only knows what.

“My feeling is that until the number of whole lives is greater than the number of shattered lives, we remain stuck in some kind of prehistory, unworthy of humanity’s great spirit. History as a story worth telling will only begin when the whole lives outnumber the wasted ones. That means we have many generations to go before history begins.”
― Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt

We’ve made some very encouraging progress, but even in first world countries the realities of everyday life are very different for women than they are for men. In the developing world, women deal with some serious human rights issues, like child brides and rape as a war tactic.

It’s possible that we’ll get there, but humanity will have to better itself in the process. So I think true equality for everyone is possible, but it’s a far away goal, and we probably won’t see it in our lifetime. With lots of constructive action today, maybe our grandchildren will have it.

Personally, I don’t think we have come that long a way, baby.
I am 54 and have a friend that is 45 and in our, relative generations, one thing I really notice is that many men are just not that nurturing. My ex husband saw me being sick as an opportunity to stay in his garage/workshop all day, and my friend has some chronic health issues and is building resentment at the fact her husband is not rallying and showing the concern, caring, she needs during this rough time.
I still think many males sign up to be the cared for, not the caring ones when health issues arise.

Women are still the primary caregivers when loved ones fall sick and it sucks!