Continuing Male Dominance in Relationships :: Feminism Feminist Women Criticism

The issue of the supposed dominance of men over women in society has generated cemented opinions and heated controversy. Proponents of sexual equality point to the leveling of educational and vocational opportunities between the sexes as proof that women have become equals to men, such as the recent fad of working moms and stay-at-home dads. Moreover, they highlight the power and status of women in professional fields and government, such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In addition, fans of female progress celebrate the successful establishment of women's sports leagues, such as the hyped WNBA, or Women's National Basketball Association, and the implementation of women's weightlifting in the Olympic Games on par with men. While advocates of women's power in society assert that the opportunity, status, and athletic parity available to women prove complete sexual equality, these arguments, while valid in some aspects, fail to analyze or take into account the balance of power in cross-sexual relationships. Although women may deserve and share equal roles with men in society, their accomplishments remain insubstantial because they have a right to the opportunities they take advantage of and the roles they occupy. Granted, as human beings women should possess the same rights that men do as a matter of fairness and justice. As a result, in society women deserve sexual equality. Nevertheless, justice or fairness of opportunity cannot govern the balance of power in relationships between men and women because these relationships are private and out of the reach of government, law, and probing society (except for celebrity unions decimated by The Inquirer). Therefore, progressive sexual equality has left these relationships untouched and undisturbed from their natural origins like technology has left the New Zealand aborigines unchanged. Thus, the presence of sexual equality represents a figurehead or inevitable truth given by men to women as part of a larger compromise that allows men to ret ain their superiority in relationships. Although society has reached an equilibrium concerning sexual differences, the scales of relationships between men and women tip themselves increasingly in the favor of men as they age. Starting from the days of childhood and adolescence, males begin to establish the upper hand in relationships with women. When a young group of neighborhood playmates converge, they never vote a girl as "captain" or "commander." In the movie The Little Rascals, for example, the young gang accepts the tough Spanky as their leader, not any of the girls.