GENDER EQUALITY

As I grieve, with much of the world, at the senseless death of Benizir Bhutto, I began to think about how 'more than equal' this woman was to most of the men in the world. She was well-educated, extraordinarily bright (started Harvard/Radcliffe at 16), educated at Oxford, and deeply committed to making this a better world for her country. The ridiculousness that some brainwashed ram in Bin Laden's flock could be the cause of her death; someone so ignorant that he thinks Allah wants him to kill, that he will be in his version of Heaven forever, and who obviously has not even read much about his own religion.

In some places, women risk their lives, as did Bhutto, but not for the good of the world but their own selfish gains. It is sad to think that women believe they must emulate men in order to be equal to them. Yet we all have our need for survival built into us, whatever the reason for our wish to continue living. We observe that the denial gene is in good health and thriving.

Years ago I heard Helen Kazantzakis (wife of the author of Zorba the Greek and other books) speak in Cambridge. She said there would be no more wars if women ran countries because they would never send their sons to be killed. However, if women continue to think they must be and think like men, this will change.

Our Department of Justice demonstrates how equality is handled by them. The information is from 2004, the most recent I could find, and is as follows:

Female inmates largely resemble male inmates in terms of race,
ethnic background, and age.  However, women are substantially
more likely than men to be serving time for a drug offense and
less likely to have been sentenced for a violent crime.
Nearly 6 in 10 female inmates grew up in a household with at
least one parent absent, and about half reported that an
immediate family member had also served time.  More than 4 in
10 reported prior physical or sexual abuse.

The hormonal nature of women does not make them as risk-taking and, normally, as violent as men. However, evolution does call for changes in adaptation and I have often wondered how we are evolving, as men lose their protective-from-the-elements bodily hair and women are forced to compete in this unsafe-for-them world. If men have for centuries been urged to impregnate any woman they meet as some scientists believe, women in our modern society must protect themselves against rape. Modern society dictates one marital union at a time but we all know there is yet a double standard. The USA still does not have the 28th amendment ratified. Does the fact that it was first introduced in 1923 indicate how strongly men have opposed (even in this country, though it is not an integral part of most religions) seeing their female counterparts as anything but a threat. The law no longer makes them their husband's chattel. Well, that's a baby step hurdle!