On balance, Western Society is not patriarchal

Thanks Con!Just to clarify, all I need to do in this debate is to refute Con's arguments. This is because Con has the BoP.Inequality of incomeWhilst it is true that, on average, men earn more than women, but there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that this is because of inherent social sexism (patriarchy). A 2009 CONSAD report on the disparity of wages between men and women found that the reasons for the pay gap are:- 'A greater percentage of women than men tend to work part-time'- 'A greater percentage of women than men tend to leave the labor force for child birth, childcare and elder care.'- 'Women, especially working mothers, tend to value "family friendly" workplace policiesmore than men'(1)The report concluded:'As a result, it is not possible now, and doubtless will never be possible, to determine reliably whetherany portion of the observed gender wage gap is not attributable to factors that compensate women andmen differently on socially acceptable bases, and hence can confidently be attributed to overtdiscrimination against women.' (2)Therefore, a pay gap is no evidence whatsoever of a patriarchal aspect of society.Furthermore, in the UK the Equality Act (2010) expressly outlaws paying women less for doing the same work as men. (3) The same applies in the USA, with the Equal Pay Act (1963) (4).Barbara CorcoranThis argument commits the anecdotal fallacy (5). Just because a single business woman has had experiences of sexism, it does not follow that society at large is sexist or patriarchal.Engineering, business and software developmentCon states that:'women are ostracized from the community. Women have to work twice as hard to prove themselves in these industries to be successful.'But he gives no evidence of this. This argument is therefore invalid up until the point that he cites a valid source for his claim. For all I know, he could have made this statement up out of thin air.VotesCon states that women only received the vote in 1919. Yet this does not pertain to the resolution because we are debating the current state of western society, not the state of western society in the early 20th century.I would also argue that racism awareness is taught more in schools than sexism awareness because the former was a much larger problem, especially in the USA. The Suffragists only had to deal with the vote; whereas racism campaigners had to deal with the KKK, segregation and far more other issues. The fact remains that women can enjoy just the same amount of welfare that a man can in our modern society.Furthermore, Con seems to believe that sexism is innately held by men; and that only education can remove it. Yet this is absurd, as it suggests that all men who have not been educated in sexism-awareness are sexist. Moreover, educated people do not seem any more or less sexist than uneducated people, which would suggest that discrimination cannot be removed by throwing facts at people.Media portrayalIt is true that women are often portrayed as dainty and fragile compared to big, strong men. But this is not patriarchal, it is simply stating a simple physiological fact about men and women. It is undisputed that, in general, men are larger and stronger than women.Yet having said this, the media and film industries do not stick to these stereotypes. There are loads of strong and intimidating women such as the Black Widow (Marvel), Danaerys Targaryen (Game of Thrones) and many more.To summarise, the portrayal of women in movies and television is not patriarchal at all, at the very least there is no evidence that such portrayal is based on patriarchal ideals.Leadership PositionsThere is no proof that this disparity of leadership positions is down to a patriarchal society. I would hazard that actually the reasons that there are less women in power is for the following reasons:1. Women are more likely than men to opt out of careers in order to care for children.2. In non-emotive situations, men are generally more assertive than women (6), assertiveness is crucial in achieving positions of leadershipTo prove that the lack of female leadership is proof of a patriarchal society, my opponent must first prove that the above two reasons cannot explain it.Moral AuthorityI extend my aformentioned arguments that the lack of female leadership is no proof of patriarchy.SummaryTo conclude, I have shown all of Con's arguments to be either fallacious, misinformed or invalid. Thus I defend the resolution. Your turn Con! :)_____________________________________________________________________________________________ (1) http://www.consad.com...(2) Ibid.(3) http://www.equalityhumanrights.com...(4) http://www.eeoc.gov...(5) https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com...(6) http://psycnet.apa.org...