To wonder why male things are always better?

[Bumpitybumper]

Has anyone else noticed things typically associated with men are considered to be better? Examples I've noticed:

Trivial
Names - baby girls being given male names is considered cool and trendy (James, Noah etc) but this seems to seldom work in reverse.
Colours - pink is often rejected even for girls because it's too 'girly' but blue is acceptable for both sexes.

Non-trivial
Professions - women are encouraged to enter typically make dominated STEM industries but little is done to address the appalling pay, conditions and underappreciation of female denominated sectors such as teaching, caring etc
Childcare - the onus seems to be on getting more women into FT work rather than spending time at home to raise their children. Tax system and free childcare entitlements designed to encourage this rather than to incentivise men AND women to be SAHPs.

There are loads of other things I've noticed too.

AIBU to be deeply cynical about why the traditionally male approach is always seen to be superior and to worry that this isn't the best way to achieve equality?

Women do get treated as amazing when they do traditionally male things, well I have been. My car broke down one day and I was tinkering under the bonnet and got the car going. A couple came over to tell me how amazing I was and how proud they were to see young women doing things like that. I can't imagine a man getting that response.

I agree that women often get treated as doing something great when they do 'male' things - again, like they've 'upgraded' - the amount of fuss I used to get when I was younger just for drinking pints was (that one does seem to have diminished in the last ten years!). There's a reason that an awful lot of men think 'you're not like other girls' is a compliment.

What I don't see, though, is women who do these things being treated like they're automatically better at them than men. Those people who praised you may well have been impressed by you doing it, but odds are quite high that if they'd had a choice between you and a man to work on their car they'd have picked the man. In that respect parenting maybe isn't the best example, as although men get disproportionate praise for it, there is still a 'mum knows best' attitude, but the 'glass escalator' (which I incorrectly called the golden escalator above, sorry!) is a much better one - and that just doesn't seem to happen when women enter male-dominated professions.

So are they any Womens things that are better than a Mans?

Why are not encouraging both genders to work part time op? That would be something to actually counter sexism. Your op is about as mysogynist as it comes

Women have always worked

Wage labour has always been make-dominated. And arguably, a SAHM is also 'working', if you're including other forms of work in the definition.

Damn - the OP is not ‘as misogynist as t comes’

And all the random shit that goes with being female.

I was walking down a quiet road with DD in the pram, residential area, middle of the day, no traffic, very long straight road I. E no blind bends. Barely anyone around at all. Guy drives past me, stops, winds the window down and tells me I'm on the wrong side of the street. I should be on the opposite side.

Can you imagine him telling a bloke this? It wouldn't even occur to him, but it occurred to him to stop and tell a woman what he thought. It's control. He thinks he can tell me what to do.

I think I made a similar point on the threads about the gender pay gap - Phase 8 was getting a kicking because it looked v bad split, they do have a good proportion of woman on their board and in senior roles, so weren't expecting it to look all that bad, execept most/nearly all of their lower paid shop staff are woman.

In order to close the gender pay gap, men need to be taking on lower paid roles, as well as pushing woman into higher paid ones.

I can see what the OP is trying to say about SAHP/WOHP debate - the focus has been on making things 'fairer' by getting woman to do the same as traditionally men did - continue to work full time after becoming a parent - for true equality, men need to see traditional woman's roles to be equally for them.

It's not enough to say "Woman can be on the board", we need "men can work behind the till/clean office loos/be a care worker/be a stay at home parent." if we want that gap to close.

Question is, why is the low paid but flexible around childcare jobs seen as desirable for woman, but not acceptable for men?

Your op is about as mysogynist as it comes

Interesting... You find it offensive that OP suggests that mothers would rather look after children than work outside the home?

@RoboticSealpup
Or because she wants to? Sheesh, a choice is a choice, why the person makes a particular choice is secondary surely??

Hadn't thought so much about women's clothese being poorer quality because they have a shorter "life span" in style, interesting point that one.

@manwhohasitall
BRILLIANT
It's really shocking to see it in reverse.

Why are not encouraging both genders to work part time op?

She is. Didn't you read the OP?

rather than to incentivise men AND women to be SAHPs.

Robotic i find it mysogynist that she implies i dont raise my own children since i have a job and that it would be better if i didnt. Men presumably dont have to come under such scrutiny

Question is, why is the low paid but flexible around childcare jobs seen as desirable for woman, but not acceptable for men?

It's worth noting that this does also screw men over. As fathers, but also more broadly. A friend of mine who used to work for the Jobcentre once mentioned that he had a lot more long-term male than female unemployed on his client list, because most of the unqualified work they got sent was care or cleaning, which the women would apply for and get, and the men flatly refused to consider (and would self-sabotage if forced to apply). In an increasingly service-based economy - with a greatly diminished manufacturing sector - men with no qualifications aren't doing particularly well out of the idea that these kinds of jobs are beneath them, either.

I did read the op, and disagree a sahp is necessarily superior to both working part time which op didnt mention.

Damnthatonestaken

I am not goady or a misogynist, thank you very much!

Women have traditionally taken on responsibility for looking after the children. Yes, women have always worked, but the children weren't looked after men were they? My point wasn't that everyone should give up work and be a SAHP, but more that women are being pushed into male working patterns which may not be best. You may well be right that both parties working PT is best for some or it may be that a SAHP is better for others. It doesn't really matter, my point is doing what men traditionally do isn't automatically best.

Robotic can you really not see that women can both work and look after children. In fact, they always have

Isnt it weird how nearly every thread leads back to the whole SAHM or dads v Working mums and dads?

Ok op fair enough. It did come across as goady. Surely you can see why?

Robotic i find it mysogynist that she implies i dont raise my own children since i have a job

It must be exhausting to be so easily offended.

And even more so to deliberately offend eh?

Robotic can you really not see that women can both work and look after children

As a pp had pointed out, it's difficult to find good quality and well paid part-time work, the way the labour market looks today.

another thing is odd too, my dh works away a lot with his job and has done for years.
I have often had to do things that ( some ) women regard as the 'man's jobs' ie cut the lawn and gardening, cleaning the windows, bins, changing the printer ink, unblocking toilets, taking tiles off the wall ( that caused a stir!) getting the car cleaned ( easy one that) taking the car for a service/ parts / MOT ( the men in the garage always look a bit shocked which surprises me really ) I just had to do these things, otherwise they would not have gotten done. but i do get ' oh, once he knows you can do this, you'll be doing it all the time' ! some women dont really help matters when they have their ' this is a man's job, this is a woman's job' thing going on! All these things were perfectly within anyone's capability.