“The Fine Print”, by Michael Schrader

ARE MEN REALLY BETTER THAN WOMEN?

(Written 08 July 1998. Published in the Neighborhood Journal. Posted 06 July 2009.)

The Millennium is just around the corner. The twentieth century is rapidly coming to a close. While we have made great technological advances in the twentieth century, our sociological progress seems, well, a bit lacking.

We now have a battery of laws that say we are all equal. But do we really believe it is so? I really wonder. Especially where women are concerned.

Of course you are all aware by now of the flap surrounding the recently concluded Salt Lake City convention of the Southern Baptists, and in particular the profession that women should be submissive to men. The chorus of responses to this profession have been pretty much identical--the Southern Baptists want to turn back the clock 50 years. After all, the argument goes, the woman's movement has made significant strides this century. Do the Baptists really want to turn back the clock? Have women really made that much progress? I'm not really so sure.

The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, you know, the one that granted women the right to vote, was ratified in 1920, over seventy-five years ago. In that seventy-five years, how many women have held the highest office in the land? None. How many have been major party candidates for the highest office in the land? None. (Remember, Geraldine Ferraro was a Vice-Presidential candidate.) Yet, in the same period of time, countries which we deem to be much more Paleolithic when it comes to the role of women in society, countries such as India, Pakistan, and Israel, have had women at the helm.

It wasn't until the presidency of Ronald Reagan, some 60 years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, that a woman sat on the Supreme Court. (Yes, that's right. The same Reagan that was painted as some sort of Neanderthal man by NOW and other radical feminist groups.)

A peek inside both houses of Congress reveal a body that is definitely male. While women constitute over one half of the population of these great United States, women are but a small fraction of all lawmakers-- from city council to state legislatures to the Congress itself-- nationwide.

No, I don't think the Baptists were trying to turn back the clock. After all, there really is nothing to turn back. Women, almost 80 years after they were given the right to vote, are still treated as inferior to men. No, the Baptists are merely reaffirming how things exist today.

Since son Xavier has been born, I have been queried on several occasions, "Now that you have a son, this will be your last, right?" "No." "What if your fifth one is a girl?" "Then I will have four daughters!"

Personally, I find the assumption that now that I have a son I will have no more children rather offensive, for several reasons. First, it implies that I am only having children to have a son. Using this logic then, if daughter Jacqueline had been a boy, then I would only have had one child. Unlike a lot of other people, Mrs. Schrader and I have children because we love children, not because we are concerned with our lineage or legacy or other such rot. Period.

Second, it implies that I somehow love my son more than my daughters. I love each of my three daughters as much as I love my son. All four of my children are gifts from the Almighty, and I love each one of them equally. If my son had been another daughter, Mrs. Schrader and I would be just as happy.

Finally, though, there is the implication that we are somehow not normal in having so many children, and thus we had to have an ulterior motive. "They had four kids because they wanted a son, yeah, that's it." No, we have had four children because we wanted four children.

Thinking about it, I am glad that my parents did not stop having children when they finally had a son. Like us, my folks had three girls before they had a son. If they had stopped there, with their first son, I would not be walking the planet. You see, I was the second son, the fifth of five children. I will always respect the fact that they had children because they wanted children, regardless of gender.

Until we break this notion that sons are somehow worth more than daughters, that sons are the reason to procreate, women will always be viewed as inferior, and yes, submissive. Yes, we have come a long way this century. But, we have a long way to go.

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