Thoughts of a Doubting Christian ✓

Yes, Feminism!

A quick note, as I have had several people ask to see my sources or make claims about my supposed "lack" of them. Just as professionally published nonfiction works wait until the end of the book to list off their sources in a neatly set-up bibliography, organized by subject and/or chapter, I have set up Thoughts of a Doubting Christian and Christian and an Ally in a similar manner. Curious readers can find all of my sources in the last chapter, aptly named "Sources."

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I'm disappointed by how often I have to explain to people why I'm feminist and why feminism is still needed in today's world, especially when I include that feminism is still needed in the US. As I've explained several times before, feminism is simply "the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes." That's it. No female superiority or man-bashing involved. Here are just a few reasons why feminism is still needed in the US, and why I enthusiastically exclaim, "Yes, Feminism!"

The wage gap.

People get upset when this is brought up, but it's the truth. According to the US Department of Labor, women who worked full-time made only about 79% of men's median earnings in 2014. This is due to several factors, including gender segregation (jobs that women end up in are often paid less than traditionally "masculine" jobs) and unpaid women's work (women take care of children and do more housework than men, even when both parents are full-time workers).

But as much as people try to protest that gender discrimination has nothing to do with the wage gap, it IS a factor, such as when women are paid less than men for the same job. As the DOL says, "even when they work in the same occupations, many women continue to earn less than their male counterparts." For example, women who are physicians and surgeons earn a whopping 19 BILLION dollars less than men in the same occupation every single year!

Other things also intersect with the wage gap to make it worse, including racial discrimination, bias against working mothers, age bias, and access to higher education. You can learn much more about this from the American Association of University Women's comprehensive 2018 report, listed in my sources chapter, as always.

Sexual violence, assault, harassment, and rape.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, yes, men can be sexually assaulted, too. Their voices should not be silenced, and we should take them seriously. But the fact of the matter is that women are sexually assaulted and raped at numbers much higher than men.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), 1 in 5 women will be raped at some point in their life, compared to 1 in 71 men. 1 in 3 women will experience some kind of sexual violence, and 91% of the victims of rape and sexual assault are female. Meanwhile, over half of all sexual assaults are never reported to the authorities. And contrary to popular belief, only about 2-3% of all reports are falsified, meaning that 97-98% of them are truthful. These are truly horrifying statistics!

Sexual harassment, too, is a problem that women face in far larger numbers. A whopping 81% women have experienced sexual harassment, compared to 43% of men. Over 3 in 4 women have experienced verbal harassment, and over half of women have experienced unwanted touching. Nearly 1 in 3 women have experienced unwanted genital flashing, and over 1 in 3 have been physically followed or experienced cybersexual harassment. Most of the perpetrators of the sexual harassment and violence were, as expected, male. Seriously, point people to these statistics if they really don't think feminism is needed!

Claims that men are "more adept," "more naturally inclined," etc. ("superior," in other words) than women to work in male-dominated fields, or to be leaders, etc., supported by supposed "scientific evidence."

The new wave of men claiming male superiority tries to hide under a guise of "science," claiming that biological differences like "brain structures and their inherent psychological traits" make women less inclined to pursue STEM fields or become leaders and CEOs. No matter how many people claim this, it just isn't backed up reliable evidence or reputable sources. Prominent neuroscientists in the journal of Science long ago debunked the idea that male and female brains are different enough to make noticeable differences in learning, stating, "Neuroscientists have found few sex differences in children's brains beyond the larger volume of boys' brains and the earlier completion of girls' brain growth, neither of which is known to relate to learning."

Several books by neuroscientists and university professors have also shed light on the wholly inaccurate idea that biology makes men more capable than women in STEM or leadership. The book Pink Brain, Blue Brain by Lise Eliot analyzes "an exhaustive review of the scientific literature on human brains from birth to adolescence," concluding that there is very little evidence for sex differences in children's brains. Other great books on the topic include Brain Storm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences by Rebecca Jordan-Young and Inferior: The True Power of Women and the Science that Shows It by Angela Saini, both of which I highly recommend.

The bottom-line is that lack of women in STEM is not due to inferiority in intelligence, ability, or interest, but due to gender biases in higher education and hiring practices. Women experience much higher levels of stress and anxiety in male-dominated jobs due to the consistent finding that "competent men are seen as likable, while competent women are seen as bitchy; women get less credit for their accomplishments than men do; men are often promoted on promise while women get elevated only on the basis of performance; and sexual harassment is a constant problem for women in tech."

Add to that the damning findings that US hirers are more likely to hire male candidates and rate them as more competent even when faced with female candidates with exactly the same resume and accomplishments, and it is completely ignorant to claim that a lack of female representation in STEM is due to anything other than the truth: gender discrimination.

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There are plenty more examples, which I may add on later. Feel free to give examples of why we still need in feminism in the comments, too!