From: maxtal@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (John MAX Skaller)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: men's issues vs. women's issues
Date: 24 Jul 1992 15:12:19 GMT
Organization: MAXTAL P/L C/- University Computing Centre, Sydney
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
Originator: muffy@remarque.berkeley.edu

In article <14mrhtINNpso@agate.berkeley.edu> gcf@panix.com (Gordon Fitch) writes:
>I think by "humanist" "liberal" (in the classical sense) is
>meant.  Is a feminist just a humanist or a classical liberal?
>We can approach this question by noting that 495 of the 500
>CEOs of the Fortune 500 are male, as are eight of the nine
>Supreme Court justices, and 98 of 100 U.S. senators.  We
>know that most versions of feminism believe these figures
>are evidence of some kind of problem, but does humanism or
>classical liberalism?  After all, all those males are at
>least allegedly human beings, and most of them probably
>got where they are through legal exercise of their powers
>in a liberal state.  What is the humanist take on the
>situation?  How come we don't know already, as we do when
>we say "feminist"?

	How about "inertia"? That is, if historically,
men controlled these positions and women were not allowed to,
and suddenly they are allowed, is it because

	a) Men are still opposing it
	b) Women are still not interested
	c) Those in power have a vested interest in staying there,
	(inertia).

If 100% of senators are male, and each term 20% are replaced,
and there really is 50% opportunity for women then we would expect

	Term 0          100% men
	Term 1		90% men
	Term 2		81% men

This assumes Senators are selected from the grass roots.
In any heirarchy initially all male and to which grass roots
entry is suddenly made availabl to women on an equal basis,
those women must still permeate the structure, and will be
subject to the "inertia" phenomenon on each level.

I would suggest that inertia accounts for a good slice of
the problem that women are still not represented at the
top of various heirarchies, and that they actually
have MUCH better opportunities than suggested by the figures.
It's just that they must take the time to get to the top,
just like anyone else.

Of course this is NOT to say that (a) and (b) above do not
account for some of the current imbalance, it will take
generations for (a) and (b) to change completely,
and (c) will not change by merely not discriminating
on the basis of gender.

Personally I think it is time that feminism broadened its
scope, as it has been singularly succesful as a social
movement in elevating the status of women and achieving
gender neutrality in public life. These goals, while
still important ("Maintain the Rage!") are no longer
new battles, but mopping up operations. They will
continue into the 21st century.

I want to question the putting of too much energy into
issues like equal pay for women, and equal access to the
workplace. The reason is that we are in the middle
of the third major transition of human life on earth.

Alvin Toffler called it the Third Wave. We, as net users
are just getting a little taste of it. It is very likely
the whole nature of work and human survival will change long
before equal opportunity for women in the work place
is actually achieved.

So it is time to PREPARE for these changes: what point
equal right to be unemployed, to starve, or to be subject
to global totalitarianism equally?

I had thought that feminism, by challanging the very core
of the type of society that was bred by the industrial revolution
could help to prepare for the new millenium.

I am no longer so sure that this is the case.

-- 
;----------------------------------------------------------------------
        JOHN (MAX) SKALLER,         maxtal@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
	Maxtal Pty Ltd, 6 MacKay St ASHFIELD, NSW 2131, AUSTRALIA
;--------------- SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING SOFTWARE ------------------


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