Letters to the Editor
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Don't blame, don't accept, change things
As per the last para, yes, why blame either sex? Funny thing about the article is that it seems to be about whether or not an argument is fair to one sex or another more than whether or not an outcome is desirable for anybody. If we had done more what some Europeans had done-accept and deal with sex differences—we would probably have had a more equitable and sane outcome for all. But to do this requires that we accept some sex differences in the first place, like childbirth and lactation to be obvious, and like sex differences in styles of competition o be less so. However, this, most of our American feminists have never liked to do. G. Steinem, for instance, still regards any social science work on sex differences to be the gender-equivalence of the Tuskegee race experiments. It’s this, the dogmatic insistence that sex and race are the same, that has done us in. But to insist that race is any empty biological category works, while to insist the same for sex has always felt at least slightly false to most people. With sex, to do what is good for everybody requires the recognition of broad difference-my favorite example being Norway, I believe, where they sensibly recognized that males wouldn’t take parental leave when it was offered and preferred to stay in the office where they could be seen striving: when they forced everybody to take these leaves, it seems to have been a relief to all. So don’t be afraid of difference, and just deal with it, and then we can all have a bit of sanity.