Bear with me.
I think most people would answer "of course, how ridiculous" when faced with the question. However, on mumsnet recently I'm increasingly reading justifications for not just covert discrimination, but support for the LAW restricting the human rights of women compared to men. I've been hanging out on the FWR boards recently and it always comes as a shock when someone offers support to an infringement of women's rights.
Lots of people rarely seem to get het up about the milder inequalities - such as a man can walk topless down a street without fear of prosecution, but a woman may be considered legally indecent, or the injustice of VAT on sanitary products etc.
But the more frightening inequalities in law that exist, such as a man can possess absolute bodily autonomy but a woman may be prosecuted by virtue of the fact that she is capable of being pregnant and thus has less rights to do what she chooses with her own body. Less rights than a man.
I can understand people struggling with an ethical dilemma on complicated issues, but I can not comprehend how anyone can actually extrapolate that to defend the law upholding different rights for men and women. For me, it's like a litmus test - whatever my personal opinions on any subject, I ultimately believe that women and men should have equal rights under the law.
Not "equal, except if a woman is/does/says ..."
I'm interested to hear people defend why women should have less legal rights than men in any circumstance.