In post-industrial societies, there is no survival-oriented reason for women not to be afforded as large and varied a range of career and lifestyle choices as those previously open exclusively to men. There is no survival-driven reason for any person not receiving pay commensurate with the value of his or her contribution to the nation’s ongoing life and development.

                                       

   

                           Computer programmer    (credit: Joonspoon, via Wikimedia Commons)

In fact, what appears to be true is that any limitations placed unduly or unequally on the opportunities of any citizens in the community on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, or race are only reducing the community’s capacity to grow and flourish. Computer technology and the oral contraceptive have made a higher degree of gender-neutral justice possible. If we wish to maximize our human resources, become as dynamic a society as possible, and compete ever more successfully in the environments of our planet and perhaps beyond, we must make education and careers of the highest quality open to all citizens. If we are to maximize our human resources, then access to education and careers should be based on merit alone. At least, such is the conclusion we must draw from the reasoning and evidence we have before us today.

Furthermore, the authorities of society, if only for efficiency’s sake, will probably have to find ways of ensuring that quality nurturing of children receives pay and benefits matching the pay and benefits given to all other kinds of jobs in a society traditionally driven by these incentives. Having kids will have to be a reasonable option if we are to maintain a stable base population for our society in this new century.

Driving women back into a domestic zone would be counterproductive, like locking our bulldozers in sheds and digging ditches by hand in order to create jobs. For women and men who choose it, nurturing children must be given real respect and pay if we are to continue on the path of knowledge-driven evolution that we have chosen.

Whether this expanding of gender roles and child-rearing practices will endure is still unclear. Will women be, finally, equal partners with men? Moves toward gender equity, in work and citizenship, and real change in the everyday life experiences of women and men, have been suggested and tried (to varying degrees) before …and have faded away before. But the trends in the West, especially at the start of the twenty-first century, look widespread and strong. The question will be whether societies that contain a high degree of gender equity will outperform those that do not. The answer will only emerge gradually over the next generation or so.