Why do feminists not fight for equal prison sentences?

The clear gender gap in the criminal justice system and why it is so clearly ignored.

I came across this question a few weeks ago and it hasn’t left my mind since. As a movement, feminism supports equality between the sexes and yet there are some things feminists fail to acknowledge. The simple answer would be that it would go against the movement, a particular subgroup of feminists shy away from any evidence that men are victims of unequal rights too. They do so merely because it goes against everything they believe in.

Almost every feminist that will see this will think “Well I don’t think men should get harsher sentences for the same crime. Of course, that’s sexist”. I don’t doubt that individually, these feminists are being sincere. What the question is really asking, I think, is why don’t feminists as a collective, as a movement, condemn this? And the answer to that is simple: Third-wave feminists systematically minimize and ignore evidence of institutional sexism against men because it counters their narrative of women as an oppressed class. Clearly, women are oppressed in many parts of the world; I don’t think anyone would disagree with that. The problem, of course, is that third-wave feminists insist that women in the Western world are routinely discriminated against despite all the evidence to the contrary.

It seems that sexism is only noteworthy when men are getting paid more than women or when there is a shortage of female scientists, CEOs and politicians. We rarely hear about the unequal treatment of men. It may be true that, on average, men are more aggressive and take more risks, however, that does not justify men in the US receiving 63% longer sentences than women for the same crime.

Considering many feminists claim to hate sexism, why aren’t they all over the prison sentencing gap? After all, isn’t the advantage female defendants have in criminal courts really a result of a sort of condescending paternalism? The idea that women are simply accessories rather than perpetrators of crime is patronizing. Shockingly, the existing tendency among progressives has been to push for changes that only exacerbate the problem, such as the concerted effort among British feminists to abolish female prisons altogether.

In my opinion, a perfect world would prove the criminal justice system to be gender-blind. A crime would be a crime. The worse the crime is, the longer the sentence will be. Psychological testing would be in place to assess those who may need it so they can reform in the correct environment, ultimately discouraging a second crime.

This is all easier said than done. Let me know what you think. Ask your friends and family and share this post to keep the conversation going.