I find it an interesting psychological and historical examination. Male and Female roles evolve by social constructs. For much of Mankind’s history on the planet, physical strength mattered. It was celebrated (warriors, athletes, explorers) and became a prerequisite for power. A few celebrated women in history managed to extract power for themselves without getting clobbered in the noggin for their attempt.
Male centric structure was solidified even in religious precepts. The annointment of a male god figure justified the rule of kings and emperors. Even in pantheonic religions, a single male ruled them all.
Use of the power differential kept female based religions (druids, witches, gaiaists) supressed and dominated. (Witch Hunt anyone?)
However, men’s innovation in methods to kill other men ultimately leveled the playing field against them. If you are on the right end of a gun or smart bomb, the opponent’s strength and aggressiveness doesn’t matter!
Not that social change is driven at the point of a spear, but it presumably lessens or equalizes the strength factor which predominated for much of history.
Following mass murder of men in WWI, women pivoted on the sheer numbers and power gained by being the survivors.
That equalization and the slow realization that power has equalized started to be demonstrated in the 1920’s with women’s right to vote. 1938, Fair Wage laws established minimum wage regardless of sex. 1963, the Equal Pay Act normalized pay. 1964, EEO foundations are laid. Roe v. Wade in 1973 protected women’s right to chose. The ERA in the 1980’s pushed for legislated equality. 1981, women get the right to be drafted to the military. Athletics are normalized by gender in 1997. https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/detailed-timeline/
And the pace of women’s accomplishments just continues to grow.
But even as late as 2000, studies showed that mothers still believed their male children crawled earlier and further than female children despite their being no measurable difference in actual accomplishment. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11063631
So it isn’t even Wokesplaining to men which needs to be accomplished, but continuing the social shift toward equality by all members of the society. It doesn’t do any good telling us men to get on-board when the women are not.
As long as organizations such as PromiseKeepers and other role defining organizations have sway, there isn’t one point of failure in the progress toward equality, there are many.
