Well I have a suspicion that if I wrote one you still wouldn’t be happy and I’d still be wrong, as far as you and all the other guys who agree with him go anyway. I’ve had a few discussions in response to articles that have discussed it, with various points of view on it — no real need for me to rehash it. Some discussion has been civilized (and FTR my discussion with you has been too even though we don’t agree) and some less so. I am not quite sure that your idea of equality and mine really match up, to be honest. Who’s right? I don’t know. Both of us are clearly emotionally attached to our viewpoints. Perhaps it’s somewhere between the two and one day there will be a compromise point, but only if real dialogue can happen. Yes, feminists need to engage in that too. Both sides need to be honest and vulnerable about their experiences and listen. I just haven’t experienced much of that — pretty much just derision. So I’m skeptical as to whether men want to listen and I daresay the same applies the other way around.
I can actually empathize somewhat with the engineer’s point of view — there clearly is a problem with change in the workplace making men feel threatened and left behind, but that doesn’t mean I agree that the answer is for a whole profession to close ranks or to backlash against women who are either in or trying to enter that profession. What that guy wants is simply not going to happen. But maybe it’s a good thing it’s opened up a debate. We will see I suppose.
