Equality Is Not Enough

While pondering my current job situation, I realize that I have been thrust into a position in which I am required to hit the ground running, and though it is always what I wanted because such positions promise ample benefits, it is tough to keep up and I am left wondering if I am in over my head. Having done a small amount of research into the predicament in which I find myself, I came across an interesting article which for some reason has bolstered my resolve and reduced the pressure I feel to succeed.  This article of course illustrates precisely, one of the issues I see with our current workforce, and I get to blame it all on one of the ideologies I dislike.  The title is a little misleading because it is written by a feminist author who seems to think that more feminism is the answer. I disagree particularly where families are concerned, but also when it comes to the workforce because let’s face it, exaggerated self-aggrandizement and selfishness is not the answer because as this article shows it breeds entitlement.  

  Allow me to explain.

Our author recognizes that women are now dominating higher education because they “foster female empowerment and success” and that they are given opportunity or able to “begin their careers at top law firms” as she so says about her female peers, however that is not enough. Seriously? You are given every opportunity under the sun save society doing it all for you, and it still isn’t enough? Why? Because despite the fact that many of these women “lean in” or “power through”  and keep up, is really the exception not the standard. These women are proving that they can do it all because they are “super-human” and leave the rest of the women in the dust, therefore the standard still needs to change. So basically even though women are successful in a “man’s world” or what I like to call a functioning society, it’s unfair to women still because they have to be super human just to play by men’s rules? At least that’s what she’s referring to when she says male-dominated patriarchy? Or to put it more bluntly, successful women are successful because they don’t try to alter the fabric of society, rather instead attempt to be successful within the current system, and that’s bad because only a few of them are strong enough to keep up with men but not really because, well… patriarchy. So what about all those other sub-par women who either aren’t strong enough to keep up, or are just too damn lazy to bother trying?

The rest of the article explains that something needs to change, or and by something the author means everything needs to change because even though women have been given more opportunity than men with education, with starting out in top companies, and with companies still working to cater to their unique feminine needs (providing child care, maternity leave, pay incentives to meet their affirmative action quotas, etc.), it’s not enough because not every single woman is currently successful in corporate America, and by successful she means being paid more than every man and having authority over every decision and man within the system. She doesn’t outright say it, but the implication is there.

Now the level of solipsism this woman exhibits is astounding. I mean she is literally demanding that the entire world revolve around not her needs, but her desires and all the other whimsical desires of all women out there. She knows the game, and it has rules, and it works because many women who follow those rules are successful. However she can’t be bothered because as she states, those women are “super human” so to better help the less than super women such as herself, the rules need to change, and not only change so that a lowly laid-back gal such as herself she can win, but so that she wins every time. Leave the bottom dwellers of society, you know all the very essential, vitally important but dirty back-breaking jobs to the peons (or men in this case), women belong in all the top spots, where all the prestige and money is made because well, they are women kneel before them. To top it all off she demands it as if it is something they shouldn’t have to earn but rather be handed on a silver platter because it is their birthright as women. These are the changes she proposes, and once society recognizes that then everything will be peachy, for a time. By that I mean until she gets bored and decides to push the agenda further. Until then however, feminism has failed women.

If that is what feminism has failed to provide all women, then one thing becomes clear, feminism was never about equality, it was all about total dominion and absolute power for women and women only.

So how does this relate to millennial’s? Well feminism has failed them because that is what millennial’s want. They want it all. That is why they are called the entitled generation. Never has so many gone to school graduated, continued to college, and finish with a degree. The problem is, that the education doesn’t guarantee a top starting position, or even a management position, or even a job. It is however, what they were promised by the world’s greatest salesman, so maybe it’s not entirely their fault for being so haughty, but rather the prior generation’s failure to properly impart an key aspect of knowledge unto them, namely that life doesn’t owe you diddly. If you are not part of the plutocracy, the rich and privileged elite, you’ll likely have to pave your own way to success, but along the way you still aren’t likely to amount to jack squat.

So please, millenial’s and feminists, stop demanding that we change reality to suite your selfish and indolent whims, and focus all that energy on something productive like virtually anything else. You are (one of) the problem(s) with corporate America, namely mediocrity and laziness in all we do. I weep for the future.