James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Why did Gloria Steinem say that?

This morning on CBS, Gloria Steinem was on, uh, CBS This Morning.

She said the #1 feminist issue in the world, along with equal pay, is violence against women: sexual violence, domestic violence, violence in wartime.

One piece of evidence of this, she says, is that for the first time ever there are fewer women in the world than men.

My initial thought: "China's one-child policy, where parents favor having boys." This is unfortunate in itself, but not violence.

My Dad said, "Fewer major wars." Which is a good thing. In America alone, more men would be killed in a day of combat in the Civil War, WWI, and WWII than we've lost in combat in the past forty years. The difference in Europe and Asia between combat dead, then and now, is even more stark.

I don't want to diminish Steinem's overall point about violence against women, which should be eliminated. And war itself should be eliminated. The time constraints of the interview prevented Steinem from elaborating. 

Which is too bad. Yes, women lost in wartime is terrible, and violence against women overall is terrible. But I don't see how it remotely explains that there are fewer women than men. Intuitively, my Dad and I seem to have better explanations. 

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