Woe is Woman

One of the reasons I started this blog was to express my concerns about the status and treatment of women. My frustration and outrage have grown as I read the papers and absorb stories about women being abducted for marriage in Kyrgyzstan (April 30, 2005 NYT), a Nigerian ban on women being passengers on motorbikes because the men might harass them, and the rape of young school girls in China. I can't comprehend why so many women continue to be subjugated and abused when women have made so many advances: 2 Secretaries of State, prime ministers (what's with the braid on the former Ukrainian PM?), a candidate for German Chancellor (Angela, why the hard "g?" It sounds so...so... German.), business moguls, etc. Why? Why? Why? Worldwide, women do must of the child rearing. They have an opportunity to shape and influence boys and young men for years. So why do so few of these boys and young men grow up to appreciate women as equals and partners and not treat them as objects? Is it nature? Is there something so deeply ingrained in our DNA from ancient history when brute strength was key to survival that we can't escape? Below the surface, is society so sexist that there will never be any real change? Or are women to blame for alienating those who have made it in a "man's world" and at the same time belittling women who choose to stay home and lead a more "traditional" life? I asked myself these questions while watching an Oprah episode about 7 cheating husbands. I'm not trying to create a link between infidelity and inequality, but I wondered why the wives chose to stay with the duplicitious men after multiple episodes of extramarital affairs. I'd like to think that love really is blind and forgiving, and that their husbands have truly repented. But I suspect the reasons they endure are economic, social (the whole status thing), and the need to preserve the family for the sake of the children. I wanted to yell at them, "Move on, you don't need a man -- especially the one you're married to." But then I remembered that yesterday I wrote about my deliberations on what to put first: my career or a still undefined relationship. I'm a hypocrite.