Because I’ve lived most of my life in California—one of the world’s most favorable places for women—and have thrived in a male-dominated industry for nearly half a century, I’ve witnessed the evolution of growing female power (illustrated in my memoir The Lady with Balls: A Single Mother’s Triumphant Battle in a Man’s World).
I now find the idea of male superiority unacceptable, and have cast aside the early brainwashing that decreed men not only physically stronger but also more intelligent and of stronger character than women. Now, we women don’t base our success on that of our husbands’ and sons’ careers but on our own. Today’s women pity their female forebears’ male idolatry and subservience; however, in fairness to our male ancestors’ domination and the now antiquated female submission, we must examine the history of humankind.
When we peopled the earth between 2.5 million to approximately 10,000 years ago, the males’ brute strength was beneficial for females. The men fought off other men, and hunted and fished while the women nursed and tended their mutual offspring, gathered edible plants, and cooked. Then, roughly 10,000 years ago, with the advent of agriculture, women did the lighter labor in addition to their duties as caregiver and homemaker. The men often went on hunting expeditions to supplement the family livestock. Debate is ongoing about female or male dominance and sexual equality during this time of groups and villages.
By 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, people became able to accumulate resources, and with reserves of nourishing grains and nuts, cities could form—with male dominance the norm. Wives were expected to please their husbands, but not vice versa. A husband who beat his wife for disappointing him wasn’t condemned.
Men formed alliances, usually with kinsmen, and many of the most successful became polygamous. This still happens in parts of Africa and the East and Near East, and throughout the world, many men have mistresses or discreet affairs in addition to their one wife.
When her man is unfaithful, a truly strong and liberated female either responds in kind or divorces the philanderer or endures the humiliation for some kind of advantage or revenge. I was elated that Lady Diana refused to tolerate her husband’s infidelity. Hillary Clinton did a disservice to womankind when she not only tolerated Bill’s skirt-chasing but initially denied it publicly though she knew better. Hillary wasn’t weak; she chose to keep her husband—and ultimately herself—in power.
Apparently, many men desire variety more than women do. Perhaps this is because men have more testosterone, or perhaps their DNA compels them to mark territory as do male dogs. Other men remain monogamous due to a stronger ethical mindset.
I bristle when I see the (male-written) New Testament’s “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:21-24), and Islam’s equally absurd “So virtuous women are those who are obedient, and guard the secrets of their husbands with Allah’s protection” (Quran, 4:34). Unfortunately, the revered Islamic leaders taught their followers to believe that “Men are guardians of women, because Allah has made one superior to the other.” They see beauty and obedience as women’s primary assets. Under these male chauvinists. a woman smarter than her husband also had to be smart enough to hide her intelligence.
Most of us modern and educated women are infuriated that innocent women have been so bamboozled. We must applaud the late Lady Diana who, when she married Prince Charles in 1981, refused to include the standard “obey” in her vow to him. Before 1981 there were, of course, less-famous women who refused to include that obnoxious word.
It seems that men in positions of power become corrupted in many ways, among them the belief that they can sexually exploit women in less powerful positions. Until the 21st century, they usually got away with it. As of October 2018, the U.S.’s #MeToo movement had taken down 201 of these scoundrels, destroying their fame and freedom. Fifty-four women and seventy men replaced 124 of those los jobs, leaving seventy-seven undetermined vacancies..
Unfortunately, the movement hasn’t succeeded in much of the Third World and non-Western countries, though canine-type behavior is less tolerated in the more civilized and democratic ones.
More important than the #MeToo movement is that women have continually made inroads in nearly every field. Brute strength is no longer a requirement for prosperous survival, but intelligence and education is. Some of our strongest international advances are in former good-old-boy networks, which include political, legal, financial, engineering, construction, and top-tier medical services. It’s now well known that female leaders tend to hire and promote more women, pay them more equally, and make companies more profitable.
The more advanced a civilization, the more it values women. Hence it will have less female-chosen abortions and infanticides, and fewer preferences with advantageous health consequences given only to its infant, juvenile, and adult males. Because China and India comprise nearly 43 percent of the world’s population, and both have had many female-chosen abortions and infanticides, the world now has an unnatural ratio of 49.8% women to 50.2% men. In the U.S., however, where such measures have rarely been taken, the ratio is 50.8% female to 49.2% male. Nowadays, women in both China and India are increasingly respected, thus allowing greater numbers of baby girls to be born and receive care equal to that of their brothers. When women again internationally outnumber and become as educated as men, the world’s most powerful positions should be held by at least 1 percent more women than men.
One of my dreams is to bear witness to the upcoming Woman’s World by my hundredth birthday in 2042. There will still be difficult barriers to surmount, such as with the primary religions, but I have faith those glass ceilings will eventually break when enough women refuse to accept today’s male chauvinism.
Young women, our sex has come a long way. Your time is right around the corner.