Elephantspoo, you don't seem capable of thinking outside your own ingrained form of learned gendered behaviour.
Thank-you for being honest.
Why don't you start by unpicking your attitude to 'emasculation'? Why would a SAHF be less 'masculine' than a working father, or indeed an unemployed man without children? Do a man's testicles shrink dangerously every time he changes a nappy or does a load of laundry?
Are all of societies roles (jobs) capable of being done equally well by both genders? Yes. Is society amenable to having all roles available to both genders? Currently not. We are (most of us), or have been raised to be, prejudice towards one gender or other in some jobs. I am prejudice, but I would have a problem leaving DCs in the care of male nursery staff. I know they are CBR checked. But it makes me feel anxious and I cannot work, so I use a nursery that only employs women (presumably by chance, and not by diktat). But would a nursery run solely by men ever succeed in business?
Obviously, you're entitled to your own preferences in terms of what forms of masculinity you find attractive, but please don't assume the rest of us suffer from your Ayn Rand caveman fantasies.
Yes I see that other people find other characteristics attractive, and I tend towards the 'caveman provider' if you want to characterise me that way. And I have to confess to reading a little Ayn Rand, so you have a point. That is why I came to read this thread, because I wanted to expand my thinking.
And do you think things like the pay gap and the under-representation of women in positions of power are imaginary?
As regards the pay gap, I can honestly say it's not something I have ever experiences, but that is pure happenstance and I accept not typical. I have worked in call centres where the staff was fairly mixed, but most of the supervisors were female. We were all paid the same, male and female, at least from what I could see of the pay grades immediately above mine.
But could I compare my job to a guy installing satellites? Or the security staff who were subcontracted? Or the cleaning crews that came in at night? No. I work for myself now, so I don't have a frame of reference outside of low level jobs (bar work, waiting tables, sitting on a checkout, stacking shelves, etc.), but on the whole. I don't quite see, at that level, where the pay gap was between me and a male in a similar role. So I assume this is a management level issue within corporations?
And yes, I do see the lack of women in positions of power, although I would point to the Federal Reserve and ask, "Is there a more powerful organisation on the planet?"