Battle of the Sexes

...

This seems to be the reason the “battle of the sexes” continues today: even though many are trying to find solutions to the issues between men and women, many still have different beliefs about whether women are inherently made to play a certain role in a family.

Does it even have to be a battle? Is somebody trying to win? The battle itself is a battle for equality, not between men and women. Why is it even called a “battle of the sexes” then? Penny Jane Burke of The Guardian says it all in the title of her article regarding gender equality “Reducing gender equity to a battle of the sexes is simplistic, crude and dangerous”. Rather than looking at information at the surface regarding whether or not gender equality is being reached (like the number of educated men versus women and whether or not a woman earned a certain role), Burke calls for a change in education regarding institutional misogyny. While pointing out that the idea that men are now at a disadvantage ignores the accomplishments and steps that women have made, she calls for the acceptance of both masculine and feminine traits rather than one or the other (Burke).

Burke provided a very thoughtful and balanced approach regarding the issue of gender equality, dismissing the idea of the “battle” and concluding that people are very capable of working towards a common goal as long as leaders are willing to implement it. She is right. As long as more and more people begin to view both men and women equally as valuable but in their own ways, then we will move closer to the equality that we seek. But as long as equality is viewed as a fight or a war, then it will simply continue to be called what it is right now: a “battle of the sexes.”