Comment

The Sexual Paradox

Men, Women, and the Real Gender Gap
Mar 10, 2013
Another person has commented that this book is flawed because the author does not include black women in her definition of the word "women", as evidences by this statement: "...American women struggled--but failed--to have the same constitutional rights as had been granted to former slaves." While the wording is unfortunate, and the author admits to a privileged background, this statement further into the text would seem to indicate that she does take black women into account: "When the war ended [WW2], there were gains for some women, especially for black women..." The statement objected to is, however, essentially correct. Women are still not constitutionally recognized as equal citizens, while former slaves have been. In effect, we are still somewhat, under the constitution, working under "All MEN are created equal..." (Emphasis is, of course, mine.), due to the fact that women's rights under the constitution are granted by a 1972 Supreme Court decision (which can be reversed by a vote of the court), but rights to people of color (male people, anyway) was written into the constitution shortly after the Civil War, even if it did take the Supreme Court nearly a hundred years to catch up to that fact. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits denying a (male is implied and understood) citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude". The Fourteenth amendment more widely grants rights to ALL citizens, except that it implies that representation in government is based on the number of male citizens (except some Indians) [while slaves formerly counted for part of a person for the purposes of assigning congressional seats and electoral college votes, apparently women counted not at all] and specifically states that voting is protected for all MALE citizens. I have digressed. The excerpt in question appears to be the preface to a book that sweeps aside the stultifying political correctness currently surrounding this issue, and attempts to take it on. It is necessary that we do so, and I admire this author for her willingness to wade into the fray.