2030- SDG 5- Gender Equality- Ted talks
Summary
TLDRThe script discusses gender disparities and the historical dominance of men in power, despite women's biological differences and capabilities. It highlights the need for a shift from physical strength to creativity and intelligence as leadership qualities. The speaker addresses the invisibility of men in gender discussions, using linguistic examples to show how language can perpetuate victim blaming. The talk advocates for gender equality, emphasizing its benefits for men, society, and businesses, and calls for a redefinition of masculinity to end violence against women.
Takeaways
- 🚹 Men and women have different biological attributes, but these differences should not dictate power dynamics.
- 🌍 Despite being slightly outnumbered, men hold most positions of power and prestige.
- 💪 Historically, physical strength was key for leadership, but in modern times, creativity and intelligence are more valued.
- 🧠 There is no gender bias in creativity, intelligence, or innovation; both men and women are equally capable.
- 🏆 The concept of gender often focuses on women, but it should encompass men's roles and behaviors as well.
- 🗣️ Language and sentence structure can unconsciously shift focus away from male perpetrators in discussions of domestic violence.
- 👥 Victim blaming is prevalent, often due to societal structures that focus on the actions and choices of victims rather than perpetrators.
- 🔍 To prevent violence, we must ask why men perpetrate it, rather than focusing solely on the experiences of women.
- 🌐 Gender equality is not just ethically right; it's beneficial for individuals, companies, and countries.
- 👨👦👦 Raising boys with a different understanding of manhood can lead to a more equitable society.
- ❤️ Men's liberation is intertwined with women's liberation, and both genders should work together towards equality.
Q & A
What is the main point the speaker is making about the differences between men and women?
-The speaker is highlighting that while there are biological differences between men and women, such as hormones and physical strength, these differences do not justify the historical dominance of men in positions of power and prestige. They argue that in today's world, leadership should be based on creativity, intelligence, and innovation, where men and women have equal potential.
Why does the speaker mention Wangari Maathai's quote about women in leadership?
-The speaker uses Wangari Maathai's quote to illustrate the disparity between the number of women in the world and their underrepresentation in leadership roles. This quote serves to emphasize the gender inequality that persists despite the fact that women make up a slight majority of the world's population.
What is the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act mentioned in the script, and why is it significant?
-The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is a United States law that amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964, clarifying that each paycheck that discriminates on the basis of sex is a new violation, allowing victims of pay discrimination to file a lawsuit within 180 days of receiving a discriminatory paycheck. It is significant because it addresses the gender pay gap and helps to ensure equal pay for equal work.
How does the speaker describe the evolution of gender roles?
-The speaker suggests that while society has evolved, our ideas of gender have not kept pace. They point out that many people equate gender issues with women's issues, neglecting the fact that men also have a gender that shapes their experiences and behaviors.
What analogy does the speaker use to explain the invisibility of the dominant group in discussions about race, sexual orientation, and gender?
-The speaker uses the analogy of race to illustrate how the dominant group (white people) is often overlooked in discussions about race, just as heterosexual people are in discussions about sexual orientation and men are in discussions about gender. This analogy highlights how the dominant group's experiences are rarely questioned or examined due to their privileged status.
What is the 'man box' referred to in the script, and why is it problematic?
-The 'man box' is a term used to describe the collective socialization of men, which includes stereotypes and expectations about masculinity such as being tough, strong, courageous, dominating, and not showing emotions except anger. It is problematic because it limits men's emotional expression and reinforces harmful gender norms that contribute to issues like domestic violence and gender inequality.
Why does the speaker argue that focusing on men is crucial for preventing domestic and sexual violence?
-The speaker argues that focusing on men is crucial because the current cognitive structure and language often blame victims (often women) for violence instead of examining the actions and motivations of the perpetrators (often men). By shifting the focus to men, we can better understand the root causes of violence and work towards preventing it.
What is the significance of the sentence structure exercise involving 'John beat Mary'?
-The sentence structure exercise demonstrates how language can subtly shift focus away from the perpetrator (John) to the victim (Mary). This linguistic shift mirrors societal tendencies to focus on the experiences and choices of victims rather than addressing the actions and motivations of the perpetrators, which is crucial for preventing violence.
Why does the speaker say that gender equality is not only ethical but also in the interest of men?
-The speaker asserts that gender equality is in the interest of men because it aligns with what men say they want in their lives, such as happiness, fulfillment, and healthy relationships. Additionally, studies show that gender equality is correlated with higher levels of happiness in countries and better performance in companies, making it a win-win situation.
What role does the speaker believe boys and men should play in achieving gender equality?
-The speaker believes that boys and men should be actively engaged in achieving gender equality. They emphasize that it is necessary to change the socialization of boys and redefine manhood to break the cycle of violence and inequality. Men's participation is seen as essential for the empowerment of women and girls.
How does the speaker envision a world with gender equality for their daughter Jade?
-The speaker envisions a world where men behave without dominating, are comfortable with having feelings and emotions, promote equality, and value women as friends and partners. This world would be one where the liberation of men is tied to the liberation of women, creating a more equitable and harmonious society.
Outlines
🚹 Gender Dynamics and Historical Power Imbalance
The paragraph discusses the biological and hormonal differences between men and women, and how these differences historically influenced societal structures, granting men more positions of power. It highlights the irony that despite women being slightly more numerous, they are underrepresented in leadership roles. The script references Wangari Maathai's observation about the scarcity of women in higher positions and the gender pay gap issue, exemplified by the 'Lilly Led Better Act'. It argues that the physical strength advantage, which was crucial in the past, is no longer the key to leadership in a modern, more intellectually and creatively driven world. The paragraph also addresses the misconception that gender issues are only about women, using analogies with race and sexual orientation to illustrate how the dominant group's perspective is often overlooked or rendered invisible in discussions.
👥 Challenging Victim Blaming and Engaging Men in Gender Equality
This section of the script addresses the problem of victim blaming, particularly in the context of domestic and sexual violence. It points out how societal structures and unconscious biases often lead to questioning the victim's actions rather than focusing on the perpetrator's behavior. The speaker suggests that to prevent violence, we need to shift our focus from the victim to the perpetrator and question the societal norms and institutions that contribute to such behaviors. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of making gender issues visible to men and engaging them in promoting gender equality. It argues that gender equality is not just ethically right but also beneficial for everyone, including men, as it leads to happier societies and more successful companies. The 'man box' concept is introduced to describe the narrow definition of masculinity that perpetuates harmful stereotypes and behaviors.
🌟 Men as Agents of Change for Gender Equality
The final paragraph is a call to action for men to become part of the solution to gender inequality and violence against women. It emphasizes that men's violence against women is a serious health concern and that men must take responsibility for changing the narrative. The speaker shares a personal perspective, envisioning a world where his daughter can grow up without fear of domination or objectification. He calls for a collective effort to raise sons who understand that it's acceptable to express emotions, promote equality, and value women as equals. The paragraph concludes with a powerful message that men's liberation is intertwined with women's liberation, highlighting the importance of collaboration and mutual support in achieving gender equality.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Gender Equality
💡Physical Strength
💡Hormones
💡Dominant Group
💡Victim Blaming
💡The Man Box
💡Objectification
💡Socialization
💡Gender Roles
💡Intersectionality
💡Ethical Imperative
Highlights
Men and women have different biological abilities, but gender roles have evolved less.
Men physically stronger historically led societies, but today leadership requires creativity and intelligence.
Despite being a minority, men hold most positions of power and prestige.
The Lily lead better law highlights the gender pay gap where equally qualified men and women are paid differently.
Language and sentence structure can unconsciously shift focus away from men in discussions about gender.
The dominant group's gender is often overlooked in discussions about gender issues.
Domestic violence conversations often exclude men, even though it's centrally about them.
Victim blaming is common and our cognitive structure often focuses on the victim rather than the perpetrator.
To prevent violence, we must ask questions about the perpetrators' actions and motivations.
Gender equality is not just ethically right, but also beneficial for men.
Gender equality is correlated with higher happiness levels in countries.
Gender equal companies have happier workforces and better performance.
The 'man box' is a social construct defining masculinity that needs to be challenged.
Men's violence against women is an epidemic and the number one health concern for women.
Men must be part of the solution to gender inequality and violence.
Redefining manhood involves promoting emotional openness and equality.
Men's liberation is tied to women's liberation.
Transcripts
[Music]
now men and women are different we have
different hormones we have different
sexual organs we have different
biological abilities women can have
babies men
can't at least not
yet men have testosterone and are in
general physically stronger than women
there's slightly more women than men in
the world about 52% of the world's
population is female but most of the
positions of power and Prestige are
occupied by
men the late Kenyan Nobel Peace laurate
wangari maai put it simply and well when
she said the higher you go the fewer
women they
are in the recent us elections we kept
hearing of the Lily lead better law and
if we go beyond the nicely alliterative
name of that law it was really about a
man and a woman doing the same job being
equally qualified and the man being paid
more because he's a man
so in a literal way men rule the world
and this made sense a thousand years ago
because human beings lived then in a
world in which physical strength was the
most important attribute for survival
the physically stronger person was more
likely to
lead and men in general are physically
stronger of course there are many
exceptions but today we live in a vastly
different world the person more likely
to lead is not the physically stronger
person it is the more creative person
the more intelligent person the more
Innovative person and there are no
hormones for those attributes a man is
as likely as a woman to be intelligent
to be creative to be
Innovative we have evolved but it seems
to me that our ideas of gender have not
evolved because a lot of people hear the
word gender and they think it means
women so they think that gender issues
is synonymous with women's ISS isues
there's some confusion about the term
gender and actually let me illustrate
that confusion by way of analogy so
let's talk for a moment about race in
the us when we hear the word race a lot
of people think that means
African-American Latino Asian-American
Native American South a South Asian
Pacific island are on and on a lot of
people when they hear the word sexual
orientation think it means gay lesbian
bisexual and a lot of people when they
hear the word gender think it means
women in each case the dominant group
doesn't get paid attention to right as
if White people don't have some sort of
racial Identity or belong to some racial
category or construct as if heterosexual
people don't have a sexual
orientation as if men don't have a
gender this is one of the ways that
dominant systems maintain and reproduce
themselves which is to say the dominant
group is rarely challenged to even think
about its dominance because that's one
of the key characteristics of power and
privilege the ability to go unexamined
lacking introspection and in fact being
rendered invisible in large measure in
the discourse course about issues that
are primarily about us and this is
amazing how this works in Domestic and
Sexual Violence how men have been
largely erased from so much of the
conversation about a subject that is
centrally about men and I want to share
with you this um exercise that
illustrates on the sentence structure
level how the way that we think
literally the way that we use
language conspires to keep our attention
off of men this is about domestic
violence in particular but you can plug
in other uh analogues this comes from
the work of the feminist linguist Julia
Penelope it starts with a very basic
English sentence John
beat Mary that's a good English sentence
John is the subject beat is the verb
Mary is the object good sentence now
we're going to move to the second
sentence which says the same thing in
the passive voice
Mary was
beaten by
John and now a whole lot has happened in
one sentence we've gone from John beat
Mary to Mary was beaten by John we've
shifted our focus in one sentence from
John to Mary and you can see John is
very close to the end of the sentence
well close to dropping off the map of
our psychic plane the third sentence
John is dropped and we have Mary was
beaten and now it's all about Mary we're
not even thinking about John it's
totally focused on Mary over the past
generation the term we've used
synonymous with beaten is battered so we
have Mary was
battered and the final sentence in in
this sequence flowing from the others is
Mary is a battered woman so now Mary's
very identity Mary is a
battered
woman is what was done to her by John in
the first instance but we've
demonstrated that John has long ago left
the conversation now those of us who
work in Domestic and Sexual Violence
field know that victim blaming is
pervasive in this realm which is to say
blaming the person to whom something was
done rather than the person who did it
and we say things like why do these
women go out with these men why are they
attracted to these men why do they keep
going back what was she wearing at that
party what what a stupid thing to do why
was she drinking with that group of guys
in that hotel
room this is victim blaming and there
are numerous reasons for it but one of
them is that our whole cognitive
structure is set up to blame victims
this is all unconscious our whole
cognitive structure is set up to ask
questions about women and women's
choices and what they're doing thinking
and wearing and I'm not going to shout
down people who ask questions about
women okay it's a legitimate thing to
ask but let's be clear asking questions
about Mary is not going to get us
anywhere in terms of preventing violence
we have to ask a different set of
questions you can see where I'm going
with this right the questions are not
about Mary they're about John the
questions include things like why does
John beat Mary why is domestic violence
still a big problem in the United States
and all over the world what what's going
on why do so many men abuse physically
emotionally and other verbally in other
ways the women and girls and the men and
boys that they claim to love what's
going on with men what are the what what
are we doing here in our society and in
the world what what are the roles of
various institu tions in helping to
produce abuse of men what's the role of
religious belief systems the the sports
culture the pornography culture the the
family structure economics and how that
intersects and race and ethnicity and
how that intersects how how does all
this work and then once we start making
those kind of connections and asking
those important and big questions then
we can talk about how can we can how can
we be transformative in other words how
can we do something differently how can
we change the practices how can we
change the socialization of boys and the
definitions of manhood that lead to
these current outcomes these are the
kind of questions that we need to be
asking and the kind of work that we need
to be doing but if we're endlessly focus
on what women are doing and thinking in
relationships or elsewhere we're not
going to get to that piece so making
gender visible to men is the first step
to engaging men to support gender
equality now when men first hear about
gender equality when they first start
thinking about it they often think many
many men think well that's right right
that's fair that's just that's the
ethical
imperative but not all men why should we
support gender equality of course it's
fair it's right and it's just but more
than that gender equality is also in our
interest as men if you listen to what
men say about what they want in their
lives gender equality is actually a way
for us to get the lives we want to live
gender equality is good for countries it
turns out according to most studies it
turns out that those countries that are
the most gender equal are also the
countries that score highest on the
happiness scale and that's not just
because they're all in
Europe even within Europe those
countries that are more gendere equal
also have the highest levels of
happiness it is also good for companies
research by Catalyst and others has has
shown conclusively that the more gendere
equal companies are the the better the
uh the the better it is for workers the
happier their labor force is they have
lower job turnover they have lower
levels of attrition they have an easier
time recruiting they have higher rates
of retention higher job satisfaction
higher rates of productivity gender
equality is not a zero sum game it's not
a win lose it is a win-win for everyone
and what we also know is we cannot fully
Empower women and girls unless we engage
boys and men we know this growing up as
a boy we was taught that men had to be
tough had to be strong had to be
courageous dominating no pain no
emotions with the exception of anger and
definitely no fear that men are in
charge which means women are not that
men lead and you should just follow and
just do what we say
that men are superior women are inferior
that men are strong women are
weak that women of less
value property of men and objects
particularly sexual
objects I've later come to know that to
be the collective socialization of
men better known as the man boox see
this man box has in it all the ingred
ingredients of how we Define what it
means to be a man and I also want to say
without a doubt there are some wonderful
wonderful absolutely wonderful things
about being a man well at the same time
there's some stuff that's just straight
up
twisted and we really need to begin to
challenge look at it and and really get
in the process of deconstructing
redefining what we come to know as
manhood you see we have to come to
understand that less value property and
objectification is the foundation and
the violence can't happen without it so
we're very much a part of the solution
as well as the problem the Center for
Disease Control says that men's violence
against women is that epidemic
proportions is the number one Health
concern for women in this country and
abroad so quickly I like to just say you
know this is my love of my life my
daughter Jade the world I Envision for
her how do I want men to be be acting
and behaving I need you on board I need
you with me I need you working with me
and me working with you on how we raise
our sons and teach them to be men that
is okay to not be dominating that is
okay to have feelings and emotions that
is okay to promote equality that it's
okay to have women who are just friends
and that's it that it's okay to be whole
that my Liberation as a man is tied to
your Liberation as a woman
[Music]
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