Family: New Arena of Gender Equality Battle

Who's the daddy?

Women have fought a long and hard battle for gender equality. Western democracies, founded hundreds of years ago on the premise of "equality", were "equal" for white males only.

Thanks to the brave struggle of the feminist movements, industrialization, and general social change driven by advances in technology and the mass media, most democracies today enjoy ever better levels of gender equality. While it is undeniable that "glass ceilings" still exists (usually perpetuated by an older, self-serving, generation), these are the exceptions, rather than the rule.

However, the struggle for gender equality has usually been focused on matters within the public arena. Education and the workplace are where the battle has been fought, and won.

On the home front efforts have focused on the need to free women from the duties of housework, allowing them equal access to the rewards of a professional career. However, while immense strides have been taken in this area, it is leaving behind a vacuum, the final piece of an unfinished puzzle.

Human rights, women's rights, children's rights. As society progresses towards true equality, we need to address the fact that fathers increasingly share the burdens, and pleasures, of raising children.