Building equity at home
Linda Purrington (lpurring@earthlink.net)
Tue, 19 May 1998 09:06:01 -0700
Robert, you asked if anyone cared to add to this list of strategies.
Yes, in the home, men need to take an equal part of child care.
Socializing women to do unpaid child care is a hidden skew in the
cultural expectations that keep men out of elementary school teaching.
And it is not all discrimination; it is also reality: men who are not
socialized to be nurturing are in fact less suitable for paid care of
children. That doesn't have to stay that way--boys can learn to be
babysitters, do domestic chores, etc.
Another unspoken element in this discussion is the fear that men will
act as sexual predators among children. Here we need to look at stats
again, and consider the fact that sexual assaults are primarily by
males, and are not figured into most child abuse stats, but separated
out. I'm assuming, of course, that men can and will learn to control
the stereotypes that lead them to sexually assault women and children;
but until they do, it will be difficult to dismantle the current
stereotypes in childhood education. On the other hand, a world I would
want my grandchildren to enter would definitely have equity in all
professions and pleasant men as teachers, as well as women. Salut!
Linda Purrington
Title IX Advocates
lpurring@earthlink.net