http://mensnewsdaily.com/glennsacks/...-affect-women/

Cathy Young: 'The only gender-specific issues that deserve federal attention
are ones that affect women'?
Posted on Mar 30, 2009
"[O]ne might ask why the only gender-specific issues that seem to deserve
federal attention are ones that affect women. Why not look at the fact that
men account for 80 percent of suicides and 90 percent of workplace
fatalities (as well as 70 percent of nonfatal on-the-job injuries)?

"What about the troubling trend of boys and young men lagging substantially
behind their female peers in education, with women earning nearly 60 percent
of college degrees at a time when a college diploma is increasingly
essential in the job market? Why not talk about the marginalization of
fatherhood and the fact that many men who want to be involved in their
children's lives are denied that chance?"

Cathy Young quickly and effectively cuts to the heart of the matter on
President Obama's March 11 executive order establishing a White House
Council on Women and Girls in her recent column A Lack of Reality About
Women From Obama (www.realclearpolitics.com, 3/26/09). She writes:

In his remarks at the signing, Barack Obama noted that women have made
great strides since the days when his grandmother encountered a glass
ceiling after reaching the level of bank vice president. Yet, despite the
broken barriers, he argued that "inequalities stubbornly persist": "women
still earn just 78 cents for every dollar men make"; and, despite being
close to half the workforce, women make up only 17 percent of members of
Congress and 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.

But are these inequalities rooted in discrimination and fixable by the
government? Numerous studies show that when differences in training, work
hours, and continuity of employment are taken into account, the pay gap all
but disappears. Most economists, including liberal feminists such as
Harvard's Claudia Goldin, agree that while sex discrimination exists,
male-female disparities in earnings and achievement are due primarily to
personal choices and priorities. Women are far more likely than men to avoid
jobs with 60-hour workweeks and to scale down their careers while raising
children. They are also more likely to choose less lucrative but more
fulfilling jobs.

There is an ongoing debate on whether these differences are biological or
cultural. Many scientists argue that men in general are innately more
competitive and aggressive, while women are more risk-averse, more
interested in interpersonal connections and more intensely bonded to small
children. (There are, of course, numerous exceptions to these tendencies.)
Others stress the role of socialization, pointing out that people's choices
and preferences are influenced by gender stereotypes and cultural
expectations from early childhood.

The jury is still out on the nature-vs.-nurture debate; most likely,
differences between the sexes are shaped by a mix of biology and culture.
Certainly, cultural pressures and double standards persist. A woman is far
more likely to encounter societal disapproval if she works long hours and
leaves her children in someone else's care - even if that someone else is
the children's father. A man is far more likely to encounter disapproval if
he is not the family breadwinner.

Read Cathy's full article here.