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On balance modern Feminism is beneficial to the modern United States.

Well thanks for getting some rest I guess, haha. Economic Justice I understand the mathematics, don't worry. My point is that women do earn less than men in general, but that's in general. There are multiple reasons as to why they do, including experience, education levels, hours of work (which I will get back to later), time off, and much more. Your stats show women earn less than men in general for these jobs. They don't show why. Because one gender earns less than the other does not mean that gender is discriminated against, or is a result of sexism, meaning feminism has no case, and no real reason for tackling this issue. Here's something to consider - The general wage gap between men and women completely disappears when certain factors are taken into consideration [1]. Surveys administered to students in the late 70's and then again to the same students 30 years later show women chose less demanding jobs, generally had less experience (about two years) than men, worked more part-time work than men by nearly 10%, cared for children (more than men) leading to less work time & experience, and several other smaller factors. Taken from the site I'm quoting - "84.3 percent of the total wage gap can be explained by largely innocuous, non-discriminatory factors that have more to do with career and life choices than employers’ prejudices." So yes, women earn less money than men in general. However this has nothing to do with discrimination, and after taking into consideration where women work, how often they work, their experience, work ethics, performance, and time off, the wage gap disappears. Sports I played tennis for several years also, and I agree to an extent regarding time worked. However, professional sports has very little to do with hours worked (I brought up the hours worked regarding tennis players because you can actually watch men play 5 rounds, while women play 3, yet they are paid the same), and more to do with how popular they, their team, or their sport is. More (much more) people watch men's basketball, where not nearly as much watch women's basketball. This means there are much more ads viewed, and more revenue generated from men's basketball than women's, leading to the men being paid more. This is supply and demand - not sexism, not discrimination, it's the general public generating ad revenue more for the men than the women. Unfortunate for the women, sure, but how are they supposed to be getting paid the same as the men when their sponsors and networks hardly get anywhere close to as much as the men's networks and sponsors do? No. Just no. This is not "pfft, silly women," this is regarding how exciting one game is to watch over the other. What do you want to do? Force everyone to change their personal opinions on what is exciting for them or not? Once again, this is not discrimination, it's an entertainment value, something feminism can not, will not, and should not "change," as this would be... well, going around and telling people to literally think differently. Men's basketball is more fast-paced than women's, it makes sense that people would prefer to watch that. You're saying that we should not have any preference as to what we consider to be more exciting to watch...? That is completely unreasonable, unrealistic, and it's just pretty much denying human emotion. This is why I don't like feminism and consider it completely unnecessary. Men being paid more in the same field of work is nothing but a statistic. Like I said earlier, when you take into consideration of why they are paid more, the gap disappears. It would actually be unequal to pay men and women the same if the employer finds the man to be doing better work than the woman. Affirmative action falls into this category, but I'll leave that for another time. "Equal treatment" would imply "equal work." Please, provide a reliable source showing how women with the same education, experience and performance levels, to list a few variables, are paid less than men doing the exact same job. You have shown how women in general earn less than men... emphasis on earn... but this is unrelated to any type of discrimination or unjust/unfair treatment toward one sex or the other. The reason Breast Cancer research is funded so much is because of advertisement. Everywhere is plastered with "raise awareness and fund breast cancer research!" - This is not people viewing women as inferior and in need of more treatment. Much like professional sports, this is "unequal" because there are more ads associated with this money-making program. I could say men earn more than women because people feel men need more money to sustain a happier lifestyle, therefore this is an unjust treatment toward men and people feel men are inferior which is why they are paid more. You could really say anything negative about something good... Pizza tastes horrible because Pizza Hut doesn't care about my taste buds! That's discrimination! ...You're calling literally getting more money for a cause dedicated to helping women practically 'discrimination.' The pay gap exists, men earn more than women... this is a result of more hours put in, harder jobs worked, less time taken off, and much more. This has nothing to do with discrimination, and therefore, nothing to do with feminism. Because one group of people does better than another does not mean that group has it easier, is offered more, is given more, is treated better, or has more rights than the other group. Therefore, feminism is not needed at all, as it is evident that women and men make different choices, leading to different career paths and pay rates, showing perfectly well that neither is unjustly treated or discriminated or "favoured" over the other. Domestic Violence You'd need to provide example as how women are not taken as seriously. And say you're right, they aren't - is this unfair discrimination? Nope. Women are generally weaker, not as strong, not as physically fit or capable as men, so when Average Joe sees a woman beating a man, he can "safely" assume he can defend himself perfectly well. Although I disagree with this mindset, it isn't because "hurr wumen sux," it's most likely because of our different body types and general activities of men and women. Men and women having equal rights and opportunities has nothing to do with how society views either. Men tend to be stronger than women, more reason for men to protect women. It's biology, and feminism is trying to deny what is hardwired into our systems. But hey, women are "catered to," (so you say), and men are pressured to provide support for women... each are equally treated "poorly," so we are in fact treated equally. Women are given the same opportunities and rights as men, it's the fact that they chose not to actually take anyone up on these opportunities that makes feminism think it has a just cause (great game by the way, check it out for ps3). Other stuff I agree, it's unfortunate that the extremists are much more vocal, however I don't see why feminists can't call themselves egalitarians, so they aren't associated with "feminazis" nearly as much. That would make a lot of sense. Unequal treatment =/= different choices between the sexes. A 2009 study shows that women do, in fact, make "different" choices than men, leading to different career paths, less earning, etc [2]. Consider it "poor" choices if you wish, but men and women sure don't make the same choices. And to be clear, men aren't treated "fairly" when it comes to men doing "female" activities" just like women aren't when it comes to doing "male" activities. America and Canada isn't hellbent on telling women what they can and can't do, and if anything, they're hellbent on telling society as a whole what they can and can't do, even if it doesn't affect anyone at all. Closers Well thank you too, Kasmic, it's been a pleasure debating feminism with someone who doesn't insult me and actually has reliable sources and statistics we can work with! So thanks. When I saw this video the day it came out I couldn't help but wonder why Emma Watson forgot about men. She mentions men in the first minute and says feminism isn't just a women's movement... but she hardly reference men anywhere else in her speech. The one thing that irritated me is the fact that she says "women everywhere, in every country are still not treated equally..." she fails to mention men, and yet again, feminism is shown (even by the "feminism isn't ONLY for women girl") to be only for women. Now I'm not saying this is true, but feminists fail (a lot of the time) to mention any men's problems. Thanks for sharing that video though, Emma is really trying to make it an equality movement instead of a "women's rights" movement - as it should be... however I still believe we are treated equally. For women to be treated as unequal to men, they have to be receiving different treatment than men, while acting equal to them. You have failed to provide reasonable examples of women being paid less due purely to discrimination. Yes, your sources are reliable, and yes, your sources do say women earn less than men, however I have provided the reasoning to this, and it is more than reasonable. Domestic violence is not unequal treatment of women. More women extort men out of child care than guys do - this doesn't mean men are unequal to women or vise versa. It's a bad thing that happens to some people. Feminism was needed at a time. Thanks to feminism, we now have equal rights. However we no longer need to fight for something we already have in America. The wage gap has been shown to not be due to discrimination, women choosing different careers than men is not a lack of opportunity, and women gaining more support than men is not implied inferiority. Feminism is an outdated, unnecessary cause in America. Thanks again for a good debate! [1] http://www.ncpa.org... [2] http://www.consad.com...