Equality?

Being denied anything by custom or tradition or by law because one is a female is intolerable. Not having an equal say in society; not being paid the same for the same work; not being offered or allowed to pursue the same opportunities; not having the same rights that males have to control their life’s choices. All of these are immoral, insufferable restrictions. The feminist movement is perfectly justified, in fact required, to recognize and to work to eliminate them.

Men and women are not really equal, though, are they? Men do not give birth. Men cannot suckle a newborn. A woman has a monthly interruption, a physical reminder of the processes of maternity. Men do not have physical attributes of childbearing nor the conscious possibility of maternity. Ultimately we must see femininity as the source of life. The male has a different role, by genetics, physical nature and tradition. Men and women are not the same.

Gender discrimination may be seen as an unfortunate result of the male instinct to value and protect the female, the mother, the spouse, the daughter, from other men. Discrimination may be the degeneration of a natural impulse to safeguard, to honor mothers and children. Male-dominated societies gradually confused need for protection with inferiority. Women, once protected became enslaved; blessedness became inferiority. Adoration of the feminine was lost. Male domination was simply a perversion of the original protective instinct. Men are naturally fearful, and fear will create monsters where there are none.

There is hope that in these times, the later stages of the so-called Enlightenment, that men will fully understand the equal rights of all beings and will shed any compulsion for domination. That the human race will once again cherish feminine specialness and to celebrate its complementary principles. Women may no longer require protection, but every human being deserves respect.