Vox Clamantis In Deserto

I found myself in a brief conversation today about gender roles. Specifically, the topic was equitable division of labor in the family, that is, where one spouse or partner is the career breadwinner and the other is the homemaker. All available indicators point to the thriving gender bias that men are expected to be breadwinners and women, the homemakers. But this tacit social norm is simultaneously misandrist and misogynist. In the first place, it is misogynist to diminish a woman’s capacity to wield power, influence, success, and wealth in modern society. Second, it is misandrist to cast that burden exclusively upon men. Just as so many women have proven their capacity to realize extraordinary success in business, economics, law, medicine, politics and religion, so too many men have proven themselves very skilled at child-rearing. Though my 2016 skirt discussions noted how society imposes both misandrist and misogynist attitudes upon apparel, until today’s conversation I had never recognized an instance in which a single position is simultaneously misogynist and misandrist regardless of conditions and regardless of the gender targeted. In a society that holds itself out as being equal-opportunist, it is not enough solely to teach girls that they can become the professional woman of their choosing; society must also teach boys that they need not assume the role of career-driven providers to be a respectable man.