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Legal feminists take on the judiciary

Chris K - I couldn't agree more. Its the constant outrage by feminists that the bar needs to be lowered for women which does my head in. We're made to feel like all men are still viciously sexist and that "the system" is out to ruin a woman's chances of getting to the top. It is not the system's fault that women give birth and require time out. A driven woman of equal aptitude to a man, who puts kids on the back burner can absolutely rise to the same heights as the man in question. Discrimination legislation enforces. The law students from my year at Uni that went into the best jobs were all mostly girls, some of whom I could easily see running departments within ten years. If they happen to settle down and have kids, then that's their choice and we can't blame the firm for not making them partner if some guy happens to be a better candidate by virtue of his higher level of commitment. Complaining about lack of diversity in this manner is only ever going to result in artificial tampering with the system to give women an "easier" chance of getting to the top... e.g. setting quatos for boards. If you're a woman who doesn't like the male to female ratio on a board or in the judiciary then do something about it, work hard and apply. By giving women a "leg up" (which these feminists are effectively asking for by saying something needs to be done now), we would essentially be admitting that woman aren't equal by default because they require extra privileges to scale the same heights as men. That surely is the opposite of what these outspoken women wish to achieve. Positive discrimination is not equal treatment. I imagine most women would like to get to where they want to be on their own merits as opposed to being given preferential treatment because of the fact they are women.

27-Feb-2013

11:07 am