This study defines equality as a score of one in each of its categories. However, women cannot score higher than one now matter how well they are doing.

So for example in the US university enrollment is about 60/40 female, this only scores as a one rather than the 1.5 it should be.

So basically this study defines "equality" as women being ahead in every category.

Having lived in the UK, my impression is that the UK is a more sexist society. They are way behind the US in dealing with sexual harrassment in the workplace. But according to this study, they're ahead of us.

So, while it states the obvious: you don't want to be a woman in the Muslim fundie boondocks, how much does it tell us about the rest of the world?

Joint custody is still a distant dream for many states in the U.S.

And rigid, sexist ideology in the domestic violence industry still prevents men from getting access to services and resources.

And molestation of boys is something that rarely results in prison time for female pedophiles.

Clearly gender equality has a long way to go in America.

but like most quantified representations of qualitative realities, it's only grossly representative of how things really are. Which is fine, but quantifying things gives people the impression that you can do fine statistical analyses of them and magically spit out scientific answers to unscientific questions. Economists are notorious for this. Trouble is, there's really no known way around trying to quantify happniess. We just have to keep in mind that this is only one kind of indicator and that anecdotes, impressions, and common sense are ALSO valid indicators. If common sense and stats support one another, then we just might have something. And in this case, they might. However, we have such a long and rich feminist tradition here in the U.S. that I'm reluctant to claim status similar to that of "nations that have far shorter histories of democracy or feminism." Political conditions in these countries may be such that they are trying to reform things with top-down laws to increase gender parity. While I don't think this is a bad thing, the U.S. historically resists that kind of measure, waiting for immense public pressure to build from the 'bottom' before making major legal reforms. So comparing the two might not be as easy as the numbers make it look.

We're a real bucket of fail these days. Immense thanks, W.

Another thing in common: petty fascist dictators.

We have the richest, most empowered women on the planet and some of the poorest and unempowered.

So we are disadvantaged compared to Sweden, for instance, which is largely homogenous, consisting mostly of Swedes.

Second, Parson brings it up, when do men and THEIR rights begin to matter to the planet?

Seems people place more value on women squeezing out the last two cents out of a dollar to match men in the workplace, than they do on men getting joint custody for instance, or on women being forced to also apply to selective service or any of the myriad other things we men keep bringing up on this board.

Seems only WOMEN matter on this planet. We men are all supposed to fend for ourselves-- divide and conquer us men--we are isolated from each other, competing against each other, and thus at the mercy of whining, bitchy women who will tell us what we deserve to keep and what we must give to women.

I've had more than enough. Every time I think about stuff like this, it reenergizes me that we men have a MUCH MORE POTENT, VOLATILE, FRESH and RELEVANT message than do you women today (in the affluent countries, at least)

Brightstar has now devolved to Tarzan speak.

Just wanted to second that -- I'm an American in Scotland, and my impression of UK society is that it's a bit silly in the realm of gender roles. Women and men alike here seem to aspire to stereotypes (all too often inspired by Big Brother and its ilk), and the popular media plays up to that.

That said, in terms of more quantitative matters like political and economic participation, then yeah, I think it's way ahead of the States. And since those matters are more measurable -- and also more controllable -- I still think it's a good place to start.

Oh, and Brightstar65 -- chill out, man. It's a women's blog, what do you think we're going to be talking about here?