Lawrence,

I think you are missing much of the historical context in gender norms. To pick a point in time just take look at World War II U.S. gender norms. When the U.S. entered the war, males from all industries and sciences were taken out of our regularly operating society and deployed in the war effort over seas or away from their home towns. That created a vacuum in industry, medicine, science and government that women gladly filled even though those jobs were counter to societies gender norms.

Post WWII when the men returned and wanted their jobs back women were displaced and expected to meekly stop being Rosy the Riveter, WASP Pilots, Scientists, code breakers, computer scientists & programmers, etc. They were expected, by both men and other women, to take up knitting and raising the kids, or at best go back to being secretaries and waitresses.

This era was the most progressive in terms of quality of living because the government was making affordable home ownership possible to returning white male veterans through a direct VA home loan, which is unlike today where they offer a loan guarantee instead of a direct loan.

Labor saving devices as well as entertainment and luxury items like electric washing machines became household norms. Some people held that the only reason a women should go to college was to get an MRS. Degree. Blacks and other racial minorities were expected to go back to chopping cotton a sweeping streets.

This laid a foundation for the 60’s — 80’s where society was split on a woman’s role and schools and industries actively pushed back against women who tried to enter STEM fields and politics etc. Minorities faced this same issue, often much more violently. The result of course is that their numbers in those fields remained small and no tradition was built encouraging females and minorities to attain goals in men’s work areas.

Today things are changing, and there is encouragement and growth in these fields. However, it is not easy or quick to change tradition and generational mindsets. As a nation we should continue on this path of increasing participation and changing those traditions.

That does not mean we mandate that 500 of the Fortune 1000 companies must have CEO’s that are minorities or women; or that 200 out of 400 TV shows get awards just because a minority is a lead character. What it means is that we lift the foundational barriers of sexism and racism and find ways for everyone to compete on an equal footing.

If a student is smart enough and well rounded enough to be recruited by an Ivy League School, their race or gendered should not, in the best of all worlds, be a factor.

Men, to some degree, are responsible for sexism and racism continuing in our country, but it is not clear cut that white men alone are completely responsible.

Let us face facts like the reality the black people of all ages only make up 12% of the U.S. population. Black adults with advanced degrees (masters or higher), make up only about 3% of the working population. So how many upper level positions “must” they hold in our country?

Women, as a total of all races, do better than just blacks alone, holding some 20% of advanced degrees, but the same question arises. How many of the top positions and board memberships “must” they hold for things to be considered equal?

I am not suggesting things should stay the same, but until the numbers are equalized as much as possible, who can actually say that some number of ceo’s, leaders, and stem scientists have to be promoted from an underrepresented group just to satisfy some high minded claim of equality?