JULY 4 — “Lean in.” “Be aggressive.” “Don’t be too aggressive.” “Don’t try to be a man.” “Don’t do these things women are too prone to do.”
Reading all these articles about how best to get ahead as a woman, I can only conclude I’d be better off being born an amoeba.
I ponder this after having seen the new Cabinet line-up and having to listen to men going on about “Oh, why complain about not meeting the 30 per cent quota? It should all be about merit and qualifications, not gender or diversity!”
There was a time when I believed that.
Then I realised in the game of life we’re not dealt the same hands. Unless you were born winning the lottery in wealth and genetic attractiveness, the game is rigged.
Only now have we found out that women are not necessarily the “weaker” sex. All that data claiming so was misleading, created by scientists with a gender bias. That women are not genetically predisposed to being less physically capable.
Quotas are necessary in a system that is unfair. Think of it as everyone running a race but women have to run it 200 metres behind the starting line, with weights on their legs. That’s how it is when the trappings of the world are built around men, when male scientists make misleading studies because, they’re men, and the continual perception that women are somehow lesser.
Then we have people like Mona Charen who write books about how women should go back to how things were, because feminism was a mistake. That women are the true cause of our unhappiness, that all this feminism is making men react badly. By reacting badly, I mean, sexual harassment and assault.
Thus the argument made by men’s rights activists and anti-feminists seem to be, women need to act more like traditional women to not upset the menfolk.
I fail to see how women are the real problem here.
Back to the Cabinet picks. Half the nation’s voters are women. Half the nation’s workforce are women. Unfortunately, in positions of leadership, women are not as well-represented.
Does this imply then, that women are less capable, less deserving, less adept at leadership? If you were to take the numbers at face value it would seem that men are made leaders more often because they’re better at it.
The reality is that women face additional hurdles, measured by standards men don’t have to deal with. Even Angela Merkel, one of the world’s most formidable leaders gets media spreads dedicated to the various colours of pantsuits she wears. You don’t see people remarking on Putin’s sartorial style or Macron’s taste in ties.
Feminism is a recognition and reaction to those unjust standards, and to the inherent injustice in society. As we progress, various injustices are being addressed because that’s how it should be. But to get things right, to have everyone truly say they get the equal rights they deserve, things like quotas need to be implemented and met.
This government needs to be reminded that if you truly value women, and recognise that you need women, then learn to keep your promises and meet your quotas. Malaysia is no country for women, and Pakatan Harapan no real government for women, if it can’t even meet a 20 per cent, much less 30 per cent make-up of women in the Cabinet.
Women aren’t the problem; clueless men who can’t recognise the failings of our system are. And it’s high time the latter speak for the former, instead of against them.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
