Gender Equality Advocacy and Instilling Fairness in Men from a Young Age

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The TED talk by Michael Kimmel on ‘why gender equality is good for everyone-men included’ was, in no doubt, an illuminating experience. First, Kimmel gave a humorous introduction trying to grasp the audience’s attention and reveal his topic of the day. He tells an exciting story about two women, a black and a white one, discussing gender equality. The white woman argued that the very nature of women in society pulls them together under one objective, fighting for gender equality. She points out that all women globally share an equal plight, a situation brought about by their nature as female human beings. However, the black woman argues that in as much as she is a woman, she must also acknowledge that she is a black woman, oppressed by society in more directions. She has to deal with the ubiquitous patriarchy and chauvinism and the fact that she is from a marginalized community.
I felt that though we might consider all women sisters- or equally suffering under the patriarchal system, we also need to establish how other factors such as class, ethnicity, religion, and race come into play. I believe that we often forget the rest of the issues when fighting or discussing issues relating to gender disparity. For instance, I would expect a brown, Muslim, poor woman to have more problems or be more subjected to discrimination in contemporary society than a white middle-class woman. In his words, “privilege is invisible to those who have it.” I think that each of these attributes contributes to the plight and discrimination of people on a personal level, and it would be unwise to generalize the social dis...