Alfred Dawes | Why are we still fighting for gender equality?

Each for equal. The theme for International Women’s Day 2020. The drive to promote gender equality in today’s world. With all the progress we have made with political correctness and fights for equality for LGBTQs, refugees, immigrants, minorities and religious devotees, why are women still having to fight for equality in 2020?

Why are there movements and social engineering programmes to get rights for every minority, yet women who have the same qualifications cannot get the same pay for the same work as men? Why do women have to live with the harassment from sexual predators because they are afraid speaking out will destroy their careers? Why do women have to fear leaving a toxic relationship because it may cost them their lives?

Why isn’t more attention being paid to these injustices faced by half of the population who are just as able, speak the same languages and are from the same countries as the men who uphold a system where their rights are looked on as toxic feminism and every other cause is embraced by liberals who foist them upon those ‘Neanderthals’ who dare not embrace even the fringes of human behaviour?

The fact that we even need to still fight for equal rights for women in 2020 is a disgrace on modern society.

EVALUATE PRIORITIES

One of my least favourite dead persons, Milton Freidman, the foremost proponent of neoliberalism, defended unequal pay for women vigorously. His rationale was that if men wanted to discriminate against women by not hiring them, then it would cost them more to hire a man. The prejudice would then come at a price. Women, being paid less for the same work would, therefore, have a competitive advantage over men in seeking employment, and therefore this worked out to be an advantage rather than a handicap to female jobseekers.

It is unfortunate that thought like this has persisted into this century and today. There is still a gap in earnings between men and women even when you take out time for bearing and rearing children and the types of jobs preferred by either gender. Men simply get paid more for being men. And although the gap is closing, it is still wide enough worldwide that we will be talking about it for the next hundred years if current trends continue.

The Gender Gap Index examines economic opportunity, education, health and survival, and political empowerment. The sum of the differences between men and women in these variables generates an index that can be used to compare how progressive countries are with respect to gender equality.

Jamaica, a country that made international headlines by having the most female managers per capita, ranked only 41st. By comparison, our neighbours Trinidad and Barbados ranked 24th and 28th, respectively. In a country where our tertiary institutions are dominated by women, we still have a paucity of females in the boardrooms and legislature. Where women are the head of households vacated by absentee fathers, we still see their sons having better economic opportunities than their daughters. Something is wrong and we need to evaluate our priorities, what we get angry about, and what we take on as a cause.

What will it take to attach national significance to the gender gap? How many more lives must be snuffed out by jealous lovers? Who will be the woman who will break the silence and speak out about men who demand sexual favours for promotions and even overtime hours? How will society react to that modern-day Nanny? Will we defend our version of Harvey Weinstein or will enough victims stand up and make their voices count?

CREATE A STRONG MOVEMENT

The role of women in suppressing the rights of other women cannot be discounted. How many rapists have been allowed to roam free because of the unwillingness of women to believe or support young victims who report their crimes?

I remember in medical school speaking with the mother of a 13-year-old who was impregnated by an area don. She was actually ecstatic that her grandchild would be well taken care of and nobody could dis their yard again.

Women are involved intimately in the trafficking of other women and wash the bloody clothes of their criminal lovers. It is as usual your own who aids in maintaining the status quo, in the inequalities that persist because they find themselves better off in the current system.

The unreasonable standards of beauty that leave young girls depressed and suffering from body dysmorphic syndrome are promoted by social media influencers. Yes, there are strong women on social media who empower women through their own entrepreneurship and they should be lauded for taking advantage of their positions to be role models for their followers. But far too many are just exposing themselves for likes and follows.

For women to shatter the glass ceiling, it will take empowerment of the average Jamaican female to believe they are better than what society, including other women who enjoy the status quo, says they should be.

When enough women are willing to support each other and speak out against gender violence, only then will the critical mass needed to effect laws to mandate equal pay for equal work, create enough institutional support for women who want to leave broken relationships, and bring to justice the rapists and sexual predators stalking the workplace.

The critics will say I am victim blaming. No better than Kanye saying slavery was a choice. But there were enough Indians cursing the British before Gandhi, and plenty of civil rights leaders speaking out about segregation before Martin Luther King Jr. But it was not until these men were able to mobilise the oppressed into a unified voice that demanded that their rights and wishes be respected, that we finally started seeing real change.

Screaming “It’s not fair!” will not close the gender gap any faster than it is at this moment. It is time for women to rid their own of the negative behaviour holding them back and create a strong movement along the lines of other rights movements.

Only then will the men and women who uphold the slackness give in to the reforms needed to make the struggle for equal rights a historical chapter along with the suffragettes.

- Dr Alfred Dawes is a general, laparoscopic and weight loss surgeon; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; former senior medical officer of the Savanna-La-Mar Public General Hospital; former president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association. @dr_aldawes. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and adawes@ilapmedical.com