Think Women Empowerment is Too Good to Be True?

There is no denying that the feminist movement has been taking a toll on the status quo of traditional gender roles. The concept of women being in control and driving society instead of being dominated is a great thing with strong woman classy boss attitude quotes, but it seems so improbable to some people–to them, it seems like there must be something wrong with this whole idea. Well, allow me to offer two reasons why female empowerment is not only possible but necessary for society: the first one is because these changes are beneficial; and the second reason is that even if there are problems with these changes, they should at least be discussed openly so we can try to find solutions.

1. Male dominance has always been a problem and it is not going away soon.

Yes, male domination has diminished somewhat in the past 20 to 30 years, but in fact this decrease was only because there were more and more women who wanted to be independent from the traditional gender roles (such as the ones that were entrenched during the 1960s). The fact is, when women are put into positions of power they will take advantage of it. Women are just like men except they have more power to hurt others. It is not like male-dominated societies do not exist today. The most recent and obvious examples of male domination are in Saudi Arabia, where women basically do not have any rights and they can be punished severely if they dare to step out of line. I know you think Saudi Arabia is an extreme example, but it is just one example of many that show that we need to abolish traditional gender roles once and for all.

2. Gender equality will help us all become happier people.

Yes, gender equality can bring about a greater sense of well-being than what we have now (if only because everyone has equal access to the same things rather than different things). However people are not going to be happier if they are oppressed, or unable to pursue their own goals. In fact, I think the opposite is true; people will be unhappy when they are not given the chance to take control of their lives and their destinies.

3. Gender equality can help us all breathe easier.

All women deserve equal access to things like education and employment, but I do not feel that an obvious increase in feminist popularity would have any detrimental side effects due to its positive effects on society (simply because it is natural) and because everyone gives a chance for change to happen (unless they fear a different culture). However, a more realistic concern is that people may be afraid that having women have the same rights as men will lead to female dominance and men will lose their rights. That is not true; the history of gender equality has already shown us the positive effects of treating women equally to men. In fact, there have been many advances in areas where women now have equal rights with men such as occupations and academia. So it is not like anyone can claim that there will be detrimental effects; we have already seen great results due to the history of gender equality.

4. Gender prejudice will come back and bite society in the butt unless we take action now.

Gender prejudice as a concept has been around for a long time and it will not disappear any time soon. We have to do something about this issue or one day we will face the consequences of allowing gender oppression to flourish. If people do not acknowledge the problem, it will not go away; it is just like ignoring fatal diseases that are still prevalent today such as AIDS. Worse yet, gender oppression could still be around in 40 years or so and we will have to deal with all these consequences that may happen if it is not eradicated now.

5. We need all kinds of people in society, not just some of them.

It is true that not all men are bad, but we cannot deny that women are not equally as capable as men. If we let women be oppressed, then part of the workforce will be blocked by these gender roles. Many people claim that gender inequality will result in a shortage of people needed to fill jobs and therefore we will not have enough people to work in anything and everything. I do not agree with this claim; society has shown us examples such as the increase in female professors and physicians today. In fact, even if we have gender inequality and women are not allowed to take control of their jobs, there is no evidence that the shortage of people from the workforce will result in this problem. This is because even if women were not allowed to be employed in certain areas, the ones who do want those jobs can pursue them without having to worry about being oppressed for fulfilling those roles.